External HDD not mounting after Ventura update

Hi, I do a lot of audio editing on my Mac mini and store all my files on an external HDD (Toshiba 1TB an a USB-A). It was working fine up until I upgraded to Ventura13.2 from Monterey, after which it's not appearing in either the Finder or Disk Utility apps. However, I can see it's there as a USB device in System Information, and the power light on the HDD is illuminated. It also appears fine on a MacBook Air running Monterey.

Ive searched this forum and see a lot of people reporting similar problems but couldn't find a solution - shall I just downgrade back to Monterey and wait to see if Ventura 13.next presents a fix?

(Side note - Ventura also hides my USB-C main monitor (LG) and I have to repeat this ritual of powering down the monitor, removing the USB cable, then powering down the Mac, then starting up again in reverse order for the monitor to work. Can live with that but cannot live without my HDD).

Mac mini, macOS 13.2

Posted on Jan 30, 2023 12:14 AM

Best reply

DJYiffy

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Apr 7, 2023 11:16 AM

Just updated to Ventura 13.3 and none of my external drives that were formatted as NTFS will mount, only Mac OS formatted drives mount. I have a licensed version of Paragon NTFS, it doesn’t matter. These NTFS drives mount fine on my old Mac running High Sierra, so I know it’s not the drives or cables. Apple needs to fix mounting NTFS drives on Ventura 13.3, I need my drives working on this machine.

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28 replies

Jul 20, 2023 10:06 AM in response to Goatzilla

After install a new mac mini M2 PRO 16Gb 512Gb, the S352BU33RER 2-Bay RAID 1 Enclosure Mirrored just kill the data in the 2 drives and i have to run Disk Drill to recover something, not all. Something happens with the treatment of the external drives and need to be explained by Apple.

drako197

Level 1

8 points

Sep 8, 2023 12:09 AM in response to chaimfetter

I wish I had the same luck; I tried the same process on 3 different systems with a reasonably new SSD T5 Mac extended journal I've been using for the last 3 weeks, and it was fine. 09/08/2023 I updated to 13.5 Ventura, and the chaos began. 1. Plugged the T5 into the 23 M2 Mac mini, instant pink screen crash, then restart log in same nonsense. Unplugged all peripherals other than monitor, mouse, and Keyboard, then used direct USB 3.0 for the T5, yet another crash. Following step 2. 22, the M2 Macbook Air using your method and direct USB C and instant crash, reboot running 13.5 V. Step 3. Ol trusty 16 Macbook Pro, like the previous steps, running an earlier version of Ventura. I am unsure of the version, but I didn't update it. It was reading my drive fine prior being used on other updated systems. Unfortunately same issue crash then reboot, so I'm not sure if the update just fried my T5 but no such luck here. My older passport mounts just fine to all systems however my T5 is housing a decade of my lifes work from an older MacBook I didn't back up to any other external drive is in purgatory. It is what it is, but this is wild that your kinda forced to update from one evil to another. My programs will not function properly without the updates and with the updates come new issues like this, its insane how much wizardry has to be put fourth due to a bad update. I'm at a loss with this one and out a bit of money on a product that was known for being fairly reliable as far software goes. 😒😔

Oct 16, 2023 9:41 AM in response to Goatzilla

I'll just chime in here to say this issue is ongoing... I have my 2020 iMac's primary SSD dual partitioned with Ventura and Windows 10, then I have 2 SSD RAID sets that come in over Thunderbolt... I just upgraded from Big Sur to Ventura 13.6 and how many disks show up on startup is anybody's guess. When I try to mount missing drives thru Disk Utility I get "Invalid Disk" in response. The only fix seems to be rebooting until Ventura wants to play ball and list all 4 disks as it should. I am, of course, open to more enlightened solutions...