Mac OS: Alert Appears When FireWire Hard Drive Is Disconnected

Symptom

An alert appears when you disconnect a FireWire hard drive without choosing Put Awaw or Eject.

Mac OS X 10.0 Message

"The storage device that you just removed was not properly put away before being removed from this computer. Data on the device may have been damaged or lost. In the future, please put away the device (Choose its icon and Eject it or Drag it to trash) before removing the device."

Mac OS 9 message

"A FireWire disk has stopped responding. The problem must be corrected to prevent damaging the disk's contents. Please check all FireWire connections. If you added, removed, or turned a FireWire device on or off, try undoing what you did."

Solution

You should always put away a FireWire hard drive's disk icon(s) before disconnecting its cable or power.

Additional information

Mac OS 9
The computer is unusable until you dismiss the alert. Reconnect the FireWire cable to the computer and put away the drive's disk icon(s) by dragging it to the Trash. Or click its icon and choose Put Away from the file menu or Eject from the Special menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts by pressing the Command-Y keys or Command-E keys.

Mac OS X 10.0
Simply click OK, and continue working. However, you should reconnect the FireWire cable and put away the drive's hard disk icon(s) by dragging it to the Trash, Or click its icon and choose Eject from the File menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts by pressing the Command-E keys.