 Let's go to James shall we now let's do it. We shall we shall. Yeah, this is a bit of a head scratcher at least for me But maybe not for you. Um, I have an N1 Mac mini with several external USB disks attached to an OWC dock Several times a week. I will get a disk Disconnected message so far the disks have automatically reconnected. I frequently run Disfirst aid and so far no problems have been detected if I have everything connected to a UPS and There have been no errors logged by it. Can you give me some guidance? I'll try or we'll try First off the first question I would have is the drive that disconnects consistent or random so that that would be step one It could still be a power issue I Don't think so with a UPS, but maybe it still is But try a different power cord or adapter. I'm not sure what type of drive that you have But that's another thing it could it could be a power issue, but I think not Another thing is look at system preferences battery oddly enough Power adapter and make sure put hard disks to sleep when possible is off And on his on his Mac mini that would that would be system preferences energy saver Right power adapter because that you you were I'm assuming you were on your laptop when you yes Looked at this. Yeah, because it's with the with a desktop Mac. It's called energy saver energy saver Yeah, yeah, okay. So yeah power so put hard is the sleep and on all my machines. It's off um Depending on the drive, maybe it's Maybe the drive is designed to do this. So check with the vendor and see if they have a firmware update. Oh, yeah Also, some drives offer an auxiliary utility that can allow you to set things like when the drive sleeps. So See if that's it Yeah Oh, lastly, it could be a flaky cable. So I don't know where you got your USB cable, but try a different USB cable Sometimes they break Where they get worn out? Yep, or they're just not that great Ooh see see Yeah, I have that was good John that's I think I think you're spot on with that last one there I have this little adapter. I'm holding up now for the for the YouTube audience and it's a USB see plugs in and it gives me my USB and my USB-C my SD card even HDMI on the end that sort of thing. This is a brand name of the adapter there be Vava VA VA. Okay. Well, sure. Yeah, it's a little dongle. Yeah. Yeah, it's a little dongle USB see plugs in and I Had another one that was similar Except instead of a cord off of it. It had two USB prongs that plugged into the side of my MacBook Pro. Oh, yeah. Yeah, those scare me those That one was terrible and I was constantly having drives disconnect that were connected through that and it just you just a little jiggle on that thing and And it was a bad connection So I think it's a bad connection or a flaky cable or something. This thing has been rock-solid. So I've gone to that John I also think your instinct about it being power is is I wouldn't I wouldn't dismiss that as Quickly yes, he's on a UPS But like you said if his power supply for the for the drive is bad Then it doesn't matter if that power supply has consistent power, right? If the if the supply is not providing consistent power from there to the drive doesn't matter that it's on a UPS, right? Like so, right and I much prefer Devices that use I'm trying to remember the name, but it's a direct connection So it plugs into the wall and then the other end. Is it a type a power cord? I I don't remember the proper designations but it's basically a Power cord that plug one in plugs in the wall and the other plugs into the thing and it's not as We fondly call them a wall wart those are prone to failure as well I mean, it's the same though a drive is a drive And so whether the power supply is internal to the case that also contains the drive or external to the case that contains the drive It's I mean you're still gonna have a It's gonna have some sort of Something that that transforms 120 volt they see down to you know the five volts that are that a drive requires so I mean Honestly, I kind of like the external power supply because if something goes wrong with the power supply you can replace it And right as if it's a direct connect Yeah, no, I say if it's a direct connect the power supply is still there It's just baked inside and maybe more difficult to replace so Yeah, I but yes cable or I mean just the drive I I also my first instinct and it's because I deal with these problems So, you know, we all see things through our own lenses But my first instinct was is this a sleep issue like it because there's so many issues with Monterey and drives and just devices not coming back the right way when a Mack wakes from sleep that I have turned off sleep on my desktop Macs I let the display sleep But but I don't I don't let the the Macs sleep anymore and kind of a bummer because I pay for electricity and a Electricity prices are going up here in New Hampshire and B because they're in my office I have to pay commercial rates because we don't have a bathroom in this building That's that's what we deal with here in New Hampshire folks. He's weird. Yep. If it was if there was a bathroom here I could call it residential. So that's fun. Yep Yep But anyway, that's where we're at