External Hard Drive Missing After Big Sur Download

I don't know if your above comment is going to help hilarypost out at all since we don't know what brand and model of external hard drive she/he is currently using right now. We all need more information from you to be able to help you out more.

My particular problem with a external CD/DVD drive resolved after they sent me 11.2. I have not yet tried to work with my backup HD.

the fact that there is so much conversation on the topic leads me to believe that it is universal. Anybody going to uninstall? Pros and cons? I am thinking about it. There are other "bugs" too numerous and fussy to go into here. My machine is "just not itself" sob!

Why won't the "helpful" button work for me? Anyhow, this is just totally unacceptable. Who needs it? Are they trying to force us all onto the cloud where companies can get paid for storing our stuff?

I bought a new iMac with Big Sur already installed (which updated last night) and it is disconcerting that my external 5TB Seagate drive is being constantly accessed even tho I am simply working in my browser and not calling files. It has some VERY valuable data (to me) on it and I do not want it damaged with all this apparent reading/writing going on for seemingly no reason. I use Carbonite but it only has access to the desktop and not external drives. Time Machine is not turned on. Nothing seems too suspicious in Activity Monitor (but I am no expert). Any advice would be great before my drive burns out.

I would copy that drive immediately even pay to have it done. So sorry you are going through this. I really think they are trying to force us onto the cloud. Why else is this being ignored? Sorry to not answer your question, it sounds redolent of what others have written in this thread.

I also have noticed that my external HDD is always "spinning" even though I only use it as a back-up. Never did this prior to Big Sur. I have been an Apple fan and have an Apple environment at home and work BUT I have to say that in the last 5 or so years, Apple is not what it used to be. Remember when Apple just worked when you plugged something in.

Hello Big Sur 11.2 users with questions I just looked at this:https://discussions.apple.com/search?page=1&q=Uninstall%20Big%20Sur%20OS%2011.2&content=filterDiscussions

And the variety of issues is too large to fathom. Inexcusable. I will be posting for help in how to uninstall this OS and go back to Catalina, as is mentioned by one person on the threads.

Warning to all! Apple never got back to me with any solutions or even an apology and my external drives are officially ruined. A Data Retrieving company is asking me 7000 HK$ to retrieve my data. I will make sure to tell all my colleagues at the University to think twice before going with Apple.

So sorry, very disturbing and sad. I started a new thread on how to uninstall. No time until later in the week, will report. Problem: need to backup. Will the drive be recognized when I attempt this? Will see.

Can you delineate for the non-techies?

1) "Install Mac OS onto one external disk" Excuse my ignorance but WHICH MacOS? I hope I can intuite the rest and thanks for posting.

:How extraordinarily disappointing. It is obviously intentional. The lack of transparency re: what we were signing on for in doing this "update" (which is actually a downgrade) coupled with the unstated goals and motives by Apple is making me feel a little sick. Hoodwinked by an entity I actually trusted to "make things work". I fear for the music, art and graphics and more that ware entrusted to Time Machine and other back up ease products of the past. I dread hooking up my new HD to try and revert to Catalina - it probably will fail to mount and not be recognized. Certainly Seagate and others might be looking into this?

Same problem here. Big Sur 11.2.2, external drive is mounted, disc usage can be seen. No files can be access or visible under finder. Changing ports does not help. Highest Priority MacOS BUG. :( Please fix it.

I cannot believe this thread is not thousands strong! The number of quirks that I experience is legion. I do not need NTFS management? I only need Office to perform correctly, and it does not - all kinds of weird things happen, eg my spellcheck no longer works with one click. Seemingly minor, but for a writer a major annoyance. Little stuff like this adds up over time. Then all the time spent trying to correct it. Also it seems that the "helpful" button is disabled here? Why is that? Am I being paranoid. Seems Apple has no intention of fixing this and might be making it difficult to bump it up the chain?

The other thing is that this problem seems to vary in its effects from person to person, model to model. Then they had to send out a patch because Big Sur caused battery drains on some models! Battery drains??? Some people solve the external drive problem by switching a port - for others no such luck. Different fixes for different users? Need to use a PC to save your disk? It's outrageous.

after updating to Big Sur my external storage drives like my passport, WD and some flash drives are not recognized.

I erased Big Sur and then tried downloading Catalina and it would not load, so I had to reload Big Sur. There seems to be no solution, I just orders a device that will let me hook the external drives to my iPad hoping to recover videos and pictures of my recently deceased son. Apple really dropped the ball on this update!

Dropped the ball is putting it mildly. this situation deserves a good cursing out. It's awful to allow people to lose their work, let alone sentimental possessions. And they do not care. That's the worst part - no attempt to address the issue.