Using Disk Utility on clean installed M1 2021 16" MBP with Monterey. Manually installed apps to avoid bringing over old system files from previous computer. Disk Utility crashes every time I erase an external Samsung EVO drive. Attached is the crash log. Anyone who can interpret this info have an idea why DU is crashing?
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.6
Try erasing the whole physical SSD instead of just the volume. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. Select the physical SSD and erase it as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). You can use whatever file system you want, but thought to keep it simple with one which has been around a while. You can try changing the partition & file systems used, but make sure to go back to a GUID partition before actually using the drive.
Has this drive ever worked on this particular Mac? The reason I'm asking is that some external devices just are not compatible with an M1 Mac (especially older devices utilizing older USB chipsets). Since you mentioned a Samsung EVO, this implies you are using a custom enclosure, adapter, or drive dock with this SSD. Possibly this is not compatible or has a problem in addition to the cable possibility already mentioned by @a brody.
Disconnect all other external devices in case one of them is causing a problem with this SSD and Make sure to connect the drive directly to the Mac. Try using a different port especially on the other side of the laptop if possible.
Also, try booting into Safe Mode which prevents third party software from launching automatically during boot & login.
You can try checking the health of the SSD by running DriveDx and posting the complete text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. You will need to install a special USB driver so that DriveDX can attempt to access the health information from the SSD, but even with this special driver, the USB chipset used by an adapter/hub/dock/enclosure may not allow the necessary communication to access the SSD's health information.
If all else fails, try erasing the SSD using another computer. An older Mac would be best just to eliminate any possible M1 compatibility issue, but using a Windows or Linux system may be necessary since I have seen macOS balk at some odd issues. I find writing zeroes to the beginning of a drive to destroy the partition table can sometimes allow macOS to properly erase a drive.
It may also be possible to reset the SSD to factory defaults by utilizing the SSD's built-in hardware secure erase feature....this requires using the Samsung Magician software (I know this software exists for Windows, but may also exist for a Mac). Or a Linux system can be used to access this feature using open source tools and the command line. I've "fixed" a lot of SSD issues with this reset to factory defaults...even SSDs which appeared to be having hardware issues.
Try erasing the whole physical SSD instead of just the volume. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. Select the physical SSD and erase it as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). You can use whatever file system you want, but thought to keep it simple with one which has been around a while. You can try changing the partition & file systems used, but make sure to go back to a GUID partition before actually using the drive.
Has this drive ever worked on this particular Mac? The reason I'm asking is that some external devices just are not compatible with an M1 Mac (especially older devices utilizing older USB chipsets). Since you mentioned a Samsung EVO, this implies you are using a custom enclosure, adapter, or drive dock with this SSD. Possibly this is not compatible or has a problem in addition to the cable possibility already mentioned by @a brody.
Disconnect all other external devices in case one of them is causing a problem with this SSD and Make sure to connect the drive directly to the Mac. Try using a different port especially on the other side of the laptop if possible.
Also, try booting into Safe Mode which prevents third party software from launching automatically during boot & login.
You can try checking the health of the SSD by running DriveDx and posting the complete text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. You will need to install a special USB driver so that DriveDX can attempt to access the health information from the SSD, but even with this special driver, the USB chipset used by an adapter/hub/dock/enclosure may not allow the necessary communication to access the SSD's health information.
If all else fails, try erasing the SSD using another computer. An older Mac would be best just to eliminate any possible M1 compatibility issue, but using a Windows or Linux system may be necessary since I have seen macOS balk at some odd issues. I find writing zeroes to the beginning of a drive to destroy the partition table can sometimes allow macOS to properly erase a drive.
It may also be possible to reset the SSD to factory defaults by utilizing the SSD's built-in hardware secure erase feature....this requires using the Samsung Magician software (I know this software exists for Windows, but may also exist for a Mac). Or a Linux system can be used to access this feature using open source tools and the command line. I've "fixed" a lot of SSD issues with this reset to factory defaults...even SSDs which appeared to be having hardware issues.
Try a different cable.
Determine if you are running and background apps that are unnecessary with Etrecheck and ask here if you are:
Etrecheck - the handy reporting tool for … - Apple Community
Use command-R boot's Disk Uitlity to attempt formatting as this is not affected by any background programs. if it fails there, you know it is some component of hardware that is failing during the erase.
Perhaps the Disk Utility app got corrupted during the OS download. I suggest that you try Running Disk Utility and click on the Repair link. See if it does any repairs to the OS. If it ends saying there is still a problem, rerun D.U. multiple times until you get an OK on the completion. Maybe that will fix something.
Why is Disk Utility crashing every time I erase an external SSD?
