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Problems with external HD after Big Sur upgrade

Hi all,

I have an external 1TB sandisk Ssd hard drive. I use it on may MacBook Pro 13" year 2016 because my hard disk is too full.

After the Big Sur upgrade I have a lot of problem to read it. I try many time before Mac can see the it and also when is seen it is very slow or crash.

I have tried to initialize it but the procedure fail because Mac can not deactivate it probably because is in use some where.


I don't think is a device problem because on windows PC is working with no problem.


Thanks for your reply

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Dec 26, 2020 10:39 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 26, 2020 11:04 AM

If you are using the drive manufacturer's third party proprietary software to manage the external drive because it uses the NTFS file system, then make sure to upgrade the external drive's third party software. Also, confirm that their software is compatible and actually works with Big Sur.


FYI, it is best to let macOS natively manage your external drives by using Disk Utility to erase them since third party proprietary drivers can break when updating or upgrading macOS plus they are not always the most reliable. If you need to share a drive with Windows, then use Disk Utility to erase the drive as GUID partition and exFAT. If you only need to use the external drive with macOS, then erase the drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). Don't erase your current drive without first temporarily transferring all the files to another location or you will lose those files when erasing the drive.

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1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 26, 2020 11:04 AM in response to iCipo

If you are using the drive manufacturer's third party proprietary software to manage the external drive because it uses the NTFS file system, then make sure to upgrade the external drive's third party software. Also, confirm that their software is compatible and actually works with Big Sur.


FYI, it is best to let macOS natively manage your external drives by using Disk Utility to erase them since third party proprietary drivers can break when updating or upgrading macOS plus they are not always the most reliable. If you need to share a drive with Windows, then use Disk Utility to erase the drive as GUID partition and exFAT. If you only need to use the external drive with macOS, then erase the drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). Don't erase your current drive without first temporarily transferring all the files to another location or you will lose those files when erasing the drive.

Problems with external HD after Big Sur upgrade

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