iMac Can't See External SanDisk HDD Drive

Question

Level 1

10 points

iMac Can't See External SanDisk HDD Drive

I have a 2019 iMac running Sonoma. 2.4GB of photos on a two-month-old SanDisk G-Drive. All has been working well for a few weeks. I started a backup yesterday, went out for a few hours, came back and it had stopped. The light is on the disk and I can feel a fan and/or the disk working.

Changed the cable, did all the usual NVRAM reset, etc. Tried it on two different MacBooks, no change.

If I look on Disk Utility, the disk is not listed on the left side. If I use About This Mac I can find the disk listed with its correct title.

Any clues on what's next? It's my last 13 years of work on the disk. I have two backups, but would like to understand can I retrieve the data and disk, given it's so new.

Posted on Oct 1, 2023 2:37 AM

Reply

Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Oct 1, 2023 7:51 AM in response to snm2205

You can use Drive DX to possibly get a better view of Drive health…

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

Thanks to Jack-19…

It may be wise to run SMART Utility to check the drives' health.

Reply

Answer 2

Bigwaff

Level 1

11 points

Oct 1, 2023 3:03 AM in response to snm2205

Some more details about your setup would be helpful. First, it’s not clear whether your G-Drive is the backup drive or whether you were attempting to backup the G-Drive to another drive. What backup software are you using? Is your G-Drive a hard disk or SSD model? Be product specific. Did you reformat the G-Drive before initial use? Is the G-Drive attached directly to your iMac or to a hub? Our goal is to determine whether the disk in the G-Drive has failed.

Reply

Answer 3

snm2205 Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 1, 2023 3:49 AM in response to Bigwaff

Apologies.

The G-Drive is my permanent repository for my photographs, as my files are too big for the internal Fusion disk.

It’s a SanDisk G-Drive Professional 6TB hard disk model. It arrived ready formatted for Mac and I was able to transfer my files from the iMac to it easily. It is connected directly to the iMac by cable.

My Lightroom points to the Library file on the G-Drive. Time Machine is on another 5TB SSD and it backs up both the internal Fusion Drive and external G-Drive. A second backup using Carbon Copy Cloner on iMac backs up the G-Drive to a NAS.

All worked well until yesterday. The iMac just updated to Sonoma yesterday, and I thought that might be a clue, but I tried it on a MacBook with previous OS and still no go.

Reply

Answer 4

ku4hx

Level 7

23,688 points

Oct 1, 2023 5:26 AM in response to snm2205

If the disk is as old as your work, it needs to be replaced. Actually about eight years ago if it's 13yo.

You seem to be implying you've got the backup and data on the same disk, if that's the case, that too is a bad practice. Lose one disk and you lose everything. But, I may be misinterpreting your statement.

Backups need to be a dedicated disk and replaced at about a five year schedule, if not sooner, to maintain assutity of data security.

Try 1st Aid on the disk. But, honestly, if the disk is 13 years old, I don't see a bright data future.

Reply

Answer 5

snm2205 Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 1, 2023 5:41 AM in response to ku4hx

It’s an eight week old disk. My backup is on a separate disk.

Reply

Answer 6

snm2205 Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 1, 2023 8:11 AM in response to BDAqua

The problem I have is that nothing in Apple Utilities or a couple of third party data recovery software utilities can see the drive. So it's tough to analyse what the problem is.

Reply

Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Oct 1, 2023 8:47 AM in response to snm2205

Ah, I see.:(

Reply