Thanks JOe, well actually I bought the APC UPS battery backup, power surge protector, which I did not have and did not help.

I then put a different USB cable and it did not help.. so who knows..

Your last few ideas may be the culprit, who knows.

I was not even thinking or worrying about damage at all.. as this is TM , not a main data drive. And it seems to still back up ok. Just a jarring nuisance to see 5 messages that the drive was ejected in the morning (luckily only see it ounce a week); hence I guess I let it go, not worry about it. thanks again.