External Hard Drive Missing After Big Sur Download

Nope. I downloaded WD Drive Utilities app and was able to access the drive from there. The problem started immediately after upgrading to Big Sur - not a coincidence. Now that it's working, however I am able to access it, I can use Time Machine again.

ok, my problem solved. Apple does not like Microsoft, so they do not support proper NTFS file type management. In order to do that user needs to buy external software like, thanks god! Paragon Software NTFS For Mac: https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Things that are free on Windows "must" cost on MacOS. ;(

(SOLVED - At least for me)

I have an external SSD that stopped mounting. I could see it in Disk Utility but I couldn't get the actual volume to mount so I started searching around to find a fix.

• Disk Utility would not repair it. Any first aid or repair would keep failing.

• I then tried booting the OS in single-user mode as some suggestions but this wouldn't work for me. Apparently, you're supposed to hold Command+S at boot but this never worked for me. Did Apple change something with Big Sur that prevents this?

• I then tried booting in safe mode, but that also didn't work on my machine. Thinking the issue is the OS, I tried mounting the drive on an older laptop.

• On the older laptop I had the same problem. I could see the disk in Disk Utility but I couldn't mount the volume. Also first and repair kept failing.

• So finally I try one more thing:

SOLUTION:

> Plug the drive into my mac (Big Sur M1 Mac Mini)

> Open Disk Utility

> Run "First Aid"

> First Aid Fails

> Open Activity Monitor

> Search "fsck"

> Force Quit "fsck_hfs"

> Switch back to Disk Utility

> Run First Aid again

> First aid works this time and disk mounts

The repair is still running and the disk is really sluggish but hopefully, this allows me to get the files offloaded to another drive.

Have you tried the solution that worked for me? Go into Finder, click on Networks under Location, and your external drive "might" be there. It was for me. I clicked on it, and now it works fine.

https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29822

this fixed my issue

Did you format the Seagate for Mac? Try downloading the latest WD driver. Once I did that, my Seagate showed up. The NTFS did nothing. My WD drives had been showing up but I updated the driver to tge latest for Big Sur. Everything is working fine now.

I have seven Seagate EHD's and I'm finding that the more "modern" drives (2014+) are showing up but my old 2012 "platter" 5T Expansion Desktop drive is not. Based on my read of the thread the solve would be for Seagate to make driver updates available or for Apple to do a patch in an upcoming version of Big Sur. Hopefully Big Sur 11.2;-)

Download the WD utilities Drive for Mac, it worked for me and only took as few minutes

go to support.wdc.com

Apple is getting like Microsoft, I started using Apple in 2003 after buying new computers with Microsoft and as soon as you turned it on there would be numerous updates

I am keeping my automatic update off!

Update: I was able to get the drive to property detect again. I had to fully reset my SMC (followed steps here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295) then it was properly detected at next boot.

Have you tried unplugging your Mac from the power outlet for at least 10 seconds? Then turn it on again, it should show up. That worked for me!

Download WD Utilities app and access the drive from there. Worked for me on my WD My Book.

Hi there,

yes, i had this issue too and after fiddling around with diskutil in the terminal and what not, this was the solution for me: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/222950/402233

Just go to Folder /Volumes and there you should find the drive. Then you can drag it to the sidebar in Finder. It doesn't disappear though when unmounted but hey.. at least it's there when mounted :D

Hope that helps.

Yeah after you install Big Sur or a new OS you have to unplug the Mac for ten seconds so that it can activate the part of it that reads external devices and is in charge of some other things. This is what the lady in customer service told me.

The other suggestions I found in these forums haven’t worked at all. Like going on Disk Utility or deleting the ‘fsck’ task process.

Unplugging is what did it for me. But his problem may be different, who knows.

From the power source. Turn it off, unplug it. Let ten seconds pass. Plug it in, and turn it on again.

Is yours an iMac or a laptop? I was mainly referring to an iMac, but I would still try the same thing with a laptop.

RESOLUTION: I had this issue. I brought up Finder, Clicked on Networks under Locations, and my external drive name came up. I clicked on it, it showed my files, and has kept it on my Finder screen.