Trouble Connecting to External Drive (OWC Gemini)

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Level 1

29 points

Trouble Connecting to External Drive (OWC Gemini)

I have a Mac Mini (late 2014, Fusion Drive) (OSX 12.7.6, APFS) and an external TB3 drive (OWC Gemini) that is not being recognized/mounted.

The Mac Mini lacks a USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 connector of course, but it has regular USB and Thunderbolt 2 connectivity. Attempts to connect to the external drive which is a Thunderbolt 3 drive (https://www.owc.com/solutions/gemini) have been unsuccessful. I have tried an external dock, as well as a direct Apple TB2/TB3 connector. The external drive doesn't mount (and is not viewable using Disk Utility from the Mac Mini).

The OWC Gemini drive does connect OK to a Thunderbolt 3 capable Mac Book Pro 2021 (OSX 14.5). Just not to the Mac Mini (late 2014). The OWC Gemini is RAID1 formatted (MacOS Extended (Journaled)).

Is there something about the setup described which is an issue?

Disk First Aid on the Gemini Drive using the Mac Book Pro 2021 did not identify any issues.

I did a reset PRAM and SMC on the Mac Mini which didn't help. The Mac Mini will connect OK with another external drive (USB, Mac OS Extended Journaled).

As an aside the Mac Mini (late 2014) OS was erased and re-installed, after an attempted Apple OS update from Monterey to OSX 13 caused it to be non bootable. The reinstalled system seems to work ok though, except for the lack of connectivity to the OWC Gemini drive. I don't want to update the OSX on the Mac Mini beyond Monterey, because of what happened previously.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Rob

Mac mini, macOS 12.7

Posted on Aug 17, 2024 2:18 PM

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Answer 1

MartinR

Level 7

21,448 points

Aug 17, 2024 6:16 PM in response to Robert Batey

The Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter is supposed to be bi-directional. You also need a Thunderbolt 2 cable to connect the adapter to your 2014 Mac mini. Can you verify that both items are ok; it's possible one of them may be bad.

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Answer 2

Robert Batey Author

Level 1

29 points

Aug 17, 2024 10:22 PM in response to MartinR

I can confirm that the cables are good, at least in the "opposite" direction. By that I mean that connecting a 2022 Mac Mini (TB3 connector) to an older TB2 External Hard Drive (OWC) using the same cable and TB3/TB2 Apple adapter used previously allows for data transfer OK.

Thanks

Rob

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Answer 3

MartinR

Level 7

21,448 points

Aug 18, 2024 7:38 AM in response to Robert Batey

I noticed that you said you tried to upgrade the 2014 mini from Monterey to Ventura and it didn't work and you reinstalled ... I assume ... Monterey. Is that correct? (Monterey is the final version of macOS that is compatible with the 2014 mini.)

I wonder if the problem lies in the failed Ventura upgrade and the subsequent reinstallation of Monterey. When you reinstalled, did you wipe the drive & reinstall from a bootable Monterey installer (USB drive)?

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Answer 4

Robert Batey Author

Level 1

29 points

Aug 18, 2024 8:09 PM in response to MartinR

It's been a couple of years since the Mac Mini system was reinstalled. My recollection, is that I had to use target disk mode from another computer to first transfer any wanted files from the Mac Mini Hard Drive to an external drive, then I erased the Mac Mini Hard Drive (in target disk mode, using Disk Utility), and then I reinstalled the OS ... it's possible that for this I started with a fresh install of the original OS system (Yosemite) and then upgraded up, or perhaps I installed Monterey directly (unfortunately, I don't recall exactly how this was done).

(Also, a correction the upgrade that originally caused the system issue was from OS11 to OS12)

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