External HDD drive causing slow startup

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Level 1

4 points

External HDD drive causing slow startup

I have a Mac mini M1 (2020) and for months it was slow to boot up. Every time I booted it up, the computer would show the Apple symbol and the loading bar would slowly fill and once it had done it would show a black screen with just the cursor at a slow tracking speed. The whole ordeal would take a minute and a half to finally come to the login window.

I was unsure what was causing the issue and took it to the Apple Store with a video. They did a whole reset of the OS and it still persisted. I changed the power board, HDMI and all my cables and the issue still persisted. Finally, I just accepted the situation for what it is.

This week, I finally realised what was causing the issue. It is the external backup HDD that was causing the delay to boot up. Every time I boot up without the HDD plugged in; it boots up like normal. Just wondering if anyone has experienced this issue.

My backup HDD is a 1TB Seagate One Touch HDD Media formatted as ExFAT. I am considering changing my backup drive or reformatting it to a more macOS friendly format but I am not sure if that will help. Or if it is ok to just let this keep happening that is also fine.

Would love some opinion.

Mac mini, macOS 15.0

Posted on Sep 22, 2024 4:12 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 22, 2024 4:51 AM in response to iamardumas

I have seen this happen in the past with external drives. I have also seen where the external drive would even prevent the computer from finishing the boot process. In most cases it was a case of a slowly failing drive.

However, some cases, leaving the drive unplugged until the computer booted and then plugging the drive in would seem that the drive was okay.

It would seem that for a non-failing drive that created this issue, there may have been some hardware quirk in the drive that didn't play well with the boot process whether it was in the drives firmware or hardware but this would be a "single case" thing as other drives from the same manufacturer worked fine.

With that said, the backup drive needs to be the most reliable part of your system (unless you take a safety in numbers approach). It's possible the drive may be beginning to fail so I would not trust it as a backup.

BTW, did you install any "drivers" or software from the manufacturer? If so, get the manufacturers instructions for moving them completely. They are never needed and can cause odd issues (which may be your case).

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Answer 2

lanstrad1

Level 2

480 points

Sep 22, 2024 7:51 AM in response to iamardumas

This seems indeed to have became a classic (including heating the mini).

Do you use a usb hub and more than one or just one external hdd?

I have this issue on a mini 2018 - startup will stuck at middle, then if i disconnect the hub, it will jump to finalize startup - sometimes without keyboard and mouse.

can’t tell it always happen, but randomly yes.

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