MacBook Air no longer sees external SSD

Question

MacBook Air no longer sees external SSD

Recently upgraded my MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013) to OS 11.6.7 Big Sur and all seemed just fine.

Plugged in my faithful Samsung 250Gb SSD but it refuses to show up.

Checked Disk Utility - nothing

Tried other ports - nothing

The SSD appears fine on my Mac Mini and Mac Pro and my MacBook M1 but refuses to appear on the older Macbook.

It has previously behaved faultlessly .

Have reset the NVRM (option/Command/P/R) no help

reformatted the SSD to a clean (empty APFS and GUID)

nothing.

As far as my old MacBook Air is concerned this external drive does not exist.

Any thoughts ??

MacBook Air 13″, 11.6

Posted on Jun 24, 2022 4:11 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

David Graeme-Baker Author

Level 1

134 points

Jun 27, 2022 11:30 AM in response to PRP_53

Well I have "solved" the problem.

At least I have got the SSD to be recognised by my 2013 MacBook Air.

I tried Safe reboot. - No luck

I re-installed the operating system

Still no luck.

Reformatted the SSD as a Mac Journaled GUID .

Still nothing.

Took the external Samsung 2Gb SSD from my Mac Mini (and it's connecting cable) and plugged that into the MacBook Air.

It showed up immediately -

Took the cable from the 2Gb SSD and used it on my 250 Gb SSD and ..... whoopee it appears on my desktop.

So of course I then used the 'faulty' USB C to USB 3 cable (previously on my 250Gb SSD) and connected the 2Gb SSD back to my Mac Mini and that works fine too.

So it seems to point to a cable problem, but a problem that is tolerated by the Mac Mini but not by the MacBook Air.

Some people will shrug their shoulder and say "well, the Macbook Air is 9 years old, what d'you expect".

Perhaps that is the case but I'm looking forward to getting a few more years out of my old studio workhorse.

I don't ask it to do anything too intensive and let it live out its retirement in the peace of the studio - !!

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

85,171 points

Jun 27, 2022 5:03 AM in response to David Graeme-Baker

The " Hale Mary " is to have the machine evaluated by an Apple Authorized Service Centre or Apple Genius Bar

Only they have the Special Hardware, software and Expertise to truly identify if there is or is not a Hardware Issue

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Answer 3

PRP_53

Level 10

85,171 points

Jun 24, 2022 6:32 AM in response to David Graeme-Baker

What happens when the problematic Samsung drive is moved back to the other computers ? Does it show up ?

Are ALL Computers including the 2013 mid MBA using the exact same method of connecting.

Seems to me the Mid 2013 MBA does not have USB-C connectors.

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Answer 4

Jun 24, 2022 9:53 AM in response to PRP_53

The drive shows up without any problems on my other computers and they are all running different Mac OSs.

They are all connected via the USB ports, the Mac Mini and the newer M1 Macbook Air have the slimmed down USB 3 ports and they have no trouble with the SSD. My Older Mac Pro has the older classic USB and that too reads the drive without problems

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