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Post: Answer to "error code -50 on added second HDD"
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zshad @zshad

Rep: 37

Question

error code -50 on added second HDD

Posted:

So I just received my upgrade kit today and installed a second 500 gig 5400 rpm HDD I was using in an external USB case. I formatted the drive yesterday and installed it today. If I try and write to the drive I get "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)." Under the disc "Get info" permissions are Read & Write for the admin, Read & Write for staff and Read only for everyone. In Disc Utility I can verify and repair the disc but I cannot erase or partition it. It says that it cannot unmount the disc. Any one else have this problem or have a suggestion? Any help is appreciated in advance.

Gary @gary78375

Rep: 8.6k

Answer

Posted:

To work around this error you'll want to go into System Preferences->Energy Saver and for both Battery and Power Adapter tick the box next to "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" on your computer. Yes that means the OS will put all of your drives to sleep when it can but that's the only way I've found to fix the problem.

What seems to happen is that some external drives have firmware which detects inactivity and spins the drives down. If OSX is not configured with the energy saver setting mentioned above then OSX is not expecting the drives to go to sleep. When accessing the drive after it puts itself to sleep obviously something gets messed up and the error -50 is thrown among other problems.

By configuring the OS to put disks to sleep the OS will issue spin-up commands.

This should give you a way to work around the error code, let me know the results and if I can help any further :)