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FriMei Author

Level 1

4 points

USB Stick undiscoverable / unmountable

Since today my Sandisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe USB Type-C Flash Drive (a dual plug with a USB-C & a USB-3.2) is not mounting anymore.

Yesterday while copying data, the "error about a corrupted" occured and it stopped copying.
I tried to isolate the problematic file, but it started to ccur with other files as well and I decided to give it another go today.
When I plugged it in today, the USB-stick it only showing "initialize/eject/ignore". I ejected and thought this is impossible.
Tried it on another USB-C plug, nothing, as well on two other Mac Laptops
It's undiscoverable, doesn't mount etc.

I tried already:

To mount
Doesn't show up in Disk Utility or via Terminal "diskutil list"
Doesn't show up with the application "Disk Drill"
Doesn't show up with the application "Stellar Phoenix"
NVRAM reset
SMC Reset

The only thing I found:

On a MacAir (10.12 Sierra), it only shows up in the "System information", section "USB"

Specs:

MBP 2021
Ventura

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 14, 2023 5:03 AM

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,380 points

Posted on Jan 14, 2023 5:29 PM

Within Disk Utility click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drives and hidden Containers appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. You can try running First Aid on the hidden Container to see if it will fix the problem. I'm guessing that you will most likely need to erase the whole physical USB stick which will destroy all data on the USB stick.

I think this USB stick may be failing. At the very least it may be having bit flip errors which is causing problems with the file system. Erasing it may get it working again, but the issue will likely happen again.

You can try disconnecting all other external devices in case one of them is causing a problem. Also, make sure to connect the USB stick directly to the Mac and try other USB ports as well.

Try booting into Safe Mode to see whether you can access the USB stick.

Try connecting the USB stick to another Mac.

You should always have frequent and regular backups of your computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contains important & unique data. USB sticks should never be used to store the only copy of an important file because the quality of USB sticks is usually extremely poor, although the Sandisk ones are one of the better quality brands.

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USB Stick undiscoverable / unmountable

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