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User profile for user: thvardhan
thvardhan Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

MacOS external drive issue

Hi,


I've been using my 2017 MacBook Pro for some time now but there is an issue I am facing with my external hard drive. I have a seagate external 2TB backup disk plugged into my laptop now lets say I pull it out without pressing the eject button. I get this notification saying that the device was not ejected properly and that's okay I did it on purpose. Now whenever I connect the HDD back, it shows up in the disk utility but not in finder and I am unable to mount it so I just wait... it takes around 20mins and somehow the HDD randomly pops into the finder. What is wrong here? I've tried similar thing with a Samsung SSD 1TB and everything was same just the loading time was around 10mins that's all.

I am not really sure what's going on but I think Mac tries to rebuild some partition table or something if the device was not ejected properly.


The issue is not with the drives or MacBook Pro as both seems to work without any problems in bootcamp as well as other windows pc. which leads me to believe that it's more of an OS problem.


Why can't I just press the eject button? because a lot of time I move the angle of the laptop or maybe pull the laptop here and there which makes the disk randomly disconnect and then it takes forever to load.

Anyone's facing any similar issues? I've tried APFS, ExFat and both of them have the same issue.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on May 5, 2020 2:03 PM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
60,380 points

Posted on May 5, 2020 6:43 PM

Whenever a drive is not properly ejected you risk corrupting the file system which can prevent the volume from mounting next time. This is very dangerous since this damage is not always repairable. I would advise you to only connect the external drives when the computer is sitting on a flat stable surface such as a table or desk to prevent accidental disconnects.


Besides corrupting the file system and losing any unwritten data you may also be physically damaging the drive as well. This is especially true for a hard drive which needs to properly park its heads before being powered off or moved. Even an SSD can potentially be damaged as SSDs are very susceptible to power disruptions.


Make sure you have backups of all the important data on your external drives like you do for your internal drive (I hope you have backups of the internal drive). If not start doing regular backups. It is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD. Plus SSDs can fail at any time without any warning signs.


I don't recommend using the APFS file system on external drives since APFS is so new and it seems to still have a lot of bugs in it. Currently there are no third party utilities available capable of repairing a corrupted or damaged APFS volume since Apple hasn't released the necessary documentation yet AFAIK. Use MacOS Extended (Journaled) if the drive will only be used with a Mac or use exFAT if the drive will be shared with a Windows system. It is best to erase the drive using Disk Utility on a Mac since Windows 10 may use a block size with exFAT that macOS is unable to recognize.


If you only use this drive at home, then instead of a directly connected external drive you should consider using a NAS to store you data which can be accessed across the network from any computer in the house. This would prevent your accidental drive disconnects. Synology makes some very nice NAS systems. Just remember if the NAS contains critical data then you need to also back up the NAS.

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
60,380 points

May 5, 2020 6:43 PM in response to thvardhan

Whenever a drive is not properly ejected you risk corrupting the file system which can prevent the volume from mounting next time. This is very dangerous since this damage is not always repairable. I would advise you to only connect the external drives when the computer is sitting on a flat stable surface such as a table or desk to prevent accidental disconnects.


Besides corrupting the file system and losing any unwritten data you may also be physically damaging the drive as well. This is especially true for a hard drive which needs to properly park its heads before being powered off or moved. Even an SSD can potentially be damaged as SSDs are very susceptible to power disruptions.


Make sure you have backups of all the important data on your external drives like you do for your internal drive (I hope you have backups of the internal drive). If not start doing regular backups. It is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD. Plus SSDs can fail at any time without any warning signs.


I don't recommend using the APFS file system on external drives since APFS is so new and it seems to still have a lot of bugs in it. Currently there are no third party utilities available capable of repairing a corrupted or damaged APFS volume since Apple hasn't released the necessary documentation yet AFAIK. Use MacOS Extended (Journaled) if the drive will only be used with a Mac or use exFAT if the drive will be shared with a Windows system. It is best to erase the drive using Disk Utility on a Mac since Windows 10 may use a block size with exFAT that macOS is unable to recognize.


If you only use this drive at home, then instead of a directly connected external drive you should consider using a NAS to store you data which can be accessed across the network from any computer in the house. This would prevent your accidental drive disconnects. Synology makes some very nice NAS systems. Just remember if the NAS contains critical data then you need to also back up the NAS.

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MacOS external drive issue

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