Get Rid of Those Pesky Drives Automatically on Mac OS X Startup with Automator

Hey there! Have you ever been annoyed by the hassle of manually ejecting external drives every time you start up your Mac? Well, fret no more! I’ve got a nifty solution for you that’ll make your life a whole lot easier.

You know what’s great about Mac OS X? It’s got this awesome tool called Automator, which lets you automate all sorts of tasks on your computer. And one of those tasks happens to be ejecting drives. How cool is that?

So, here’s how it works. When you start up your Mac, it will run a little program called an Automator workflow that we’re going to create. This workflow will take care of ejecting any external drives that are connected to your computer. No more manual work for you!

Now, you might be wondering how to set this up. Don’t worry, I’ve got your back. Just follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Open Automator. You can find it in your Applications folder.

Step 2: Once you’re in Automator, create a new workflow.

Step 3: In the search bar at the top of the Automator window, type “eject disk”.

Step 4: From the actions list on the left, drag the “Eject Disk” action into the main workflow area on the right.

Step 5: In the “Eject Disk” action, you’ll see a dropdown menu. Choose the option that says “All Disks” to eject all external drives.

Step 6: Save your workflow. You can name it whatever you like, as long as you remember where you saved it.

Step 7: Now, head over to your System Preferences and open the “Users & Groups” section.

Step 8: In the “Login Items” tab, click the “+” button to add a new item.

Step 9: Navigate to the location where you saved your Automator workflow, select it, and click “Add”.

And voila! You’re all set. From now on, whenever you start up your Mac, those pesky drives will be automatically ejected, so you can focus on more important things.

Isn’t technology amazing? With just a few clicks, you can simplify your daily routine and make your Mac work for you. So go ahead, give it a try, and enjoy the convenience of automated drive ejection. You deserve it!

I have at least one external hard drive connected to my Mac, like most Mac owners. However, I don’t always want all of my drives to be mounted. In my case, I have a backup drive that I only use once a week, so I don’t want it to be connected all the time. Instead of physically disconnecting or manually ejecting the drive, I can use Automator to automatically eject it when it’s not needed.

To get started, I need to make sure the target drive is powered on and mounted. Then I open Automator from my Mac’s Applications folder. Automator is a tool that allows me to automate tasks in OS X. It has a list of actions and variables that I can use to create custom workflows. I don’t need any prior experience with Automator to follow these steps.

Now that I’ve opened Automator, I need to choose “Application” as the document type. This will allow me to create a workflow that will work like an application.

Once I’ve selected the document type, I can start creating my workflow. I only need two steps for this. First, I drag and drop the target external drive into the workflow. This tells Automator that I want to start with this drive. If I want to unmount multiple drives at once, I can simply add more drives to the workflow.

After telling Automator which drive I’m working with, I need to tell it what to do. I choose “Files & Folders” from the actions list, and then “Eject Disk.” I drag the “Eject Disk” action into the workflow below the “Get Specified Finder Items” action.

Now, when I run the workflow, it will eject the disk(s) I chose in the first step. If I apply the “Eject” command to an external hard drive, it will unmount all volumes on the drive. If I apply it to an optical disc, it will physically eject the disc from the drive.

Next, I need to save the workflow as an application so that it can be launched automatically at boot. I go to “File” and choose “Save” to give the workflow app a name, like “Boot Eject.” I save it to my system’s Applications folder.

Now, whenever I log in or reboot my Mac, the selected disks will automatically eject. If I need to access the data or perform backup operations, I can use Disk Utility to manually mount each disk. And if I want to undo the process, I can remove the Automator action from my user account’s login items in System Preferences.

That’s it! With this simple workflow, I can automatically eject my external drives when they’re not needed.