WD Elements 2GB Drive keeps disconnecting

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
1

I have 2 identical 2TB WD Elements drives for Work and iTunes, however the iTunes one keeps disconnecting from my Mac at random intervals. I have the usual message saying it has disconnected without ejecting, yet the drive remains in the “Devices” list in finder. Media on the drive is temporarily inaccessible (i.e. a film being watched will freeze, but will be fine to watch by closing and reselecting it in iTunes).

My Work hard drive doesn’t have any of these problems, and after swapping the cables of them both around, the problem isn’t fixed either. Also, swapping the USB ports used doesn’t fix the issue.

I am using a 2013 Macbook Pro Retina model with 2 USB 3.0 ports either side, and the WD Elements Drives are the USB 3.0 models. I am not using an external bus, the hard drives are being plugged straight into my Mac’s ports.

2

I’d recommend running a health test. You have already tried a different cable and a sister unit is performing as expected. As such, I’d consider a physical issue.

The test should be carried using your Mac’s Disk Utility. If the test fails then the unit should be replaced.