Mac Mini: Disconnected External drive disk image reloads in Finder

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Mac Mini: Disconnected External drive disk image reloads in Finder

Following the update to Mac OS 26.4.1 last night on my Mac Mini M2 with 8 MB Memory a disk image loads in finder for an external Seagate 1 TB USB drive I reformatted to EXFAT from APFS to use as backup for my churches Windows 10 PC. So far I tried right clicking and ejecting: on restart or deactivating screensaver the erased drive disk image reloads. I also opened disk utility and tried ejecting. Next I tried force unmounting in disk utility. I read an article in communities from super user+1 to removed through terminal but the prompts for terminal "command not found"....I then ejected IT and all external USB drive and restarted the mac mini. The "Erased Drive" disk images still loads. I no logged out of i-cloud restarted; disk image loads. Any other ideas....

Mac mini, macOS 26.4

Posted on Apr 16, 2026 1:24 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

77,122 points

Apr 17, 2026 6:33 PM in response to woodyfromdewitt

woodyfromdewitt wrote:

The screenshot of the get info on the finder disk image I attached above show APFS volume.

FYI, that screenshot shows a volume located on an external drive, not a volume from a disk image (aka DMG or sparsebundle). If it was from a disk image, then "Get Info" would mention that fact. Plus the icon shows a cable connector indicating an external drive of some sort.

Try this.....

Eject & disconnect all external drives
Use the Finder to look at the "/Volumes" folder to see if you see that "Erased Drive" item is there. Perhaps it is some odd remnant. If it shows there, check to make sure the "Erased Drive" folder is empty. If so, then delete the "Erased Drive" folder (you will need to provide your admin password to delete the folder).
Reboot to see if the "Erased Drive" item shows up again.

Another option would be to go into the Finder Settings (General tab) and uncheck "External disks", then check it again to re-enable. See if this makes any difference.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

97,904 points

Apr 16, 2026 7:54 PM in response to woodyfromdewitt

Now I'm starting to wonder if that's a screenshot, set as Wallpaper or mixed in with your Screensaver images.

1) Go to Apple > Settings > Wallpaper and try selecting a different Wallpaper.

see > Customize the wallpaper on your Mac - Apple Support

2) Review your Screensaver setup and make sure that image is not in with those images.

see > Use a screen saver on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 10

97,904 points

Apr 16, 2026 2:53 PM in response to woodyfromdewitt

Close the Info panel, control (right) click on the Seagate icon, select eject and unplug it from the Mac mini.

If the Seagate fails to eject, shut down the Mac mini and then unplug the Seagate from the Mac mini.

The next step, is to connect the Seagate to the church PC, then erase and reformat it ExFAT.

I sending you down that path, to ensure that the Seagate gets properly formatted for Windows PC.

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Answer 4

Apr 16, 2026 7:13 PM in response to den.thed

Thank you for the input. The issue I'm dealing with since OS update last night to 26.4.1 is a disk image for "Erased Drive" no longer here appears on the desktop in find each time I restart, or the screen comes back on after stopping the screen saver. [The seagate is the last disk I formatted and I left it connected to the PC at church as an E Drive so I will double check the format on the PC next time I'm at church. (I Left it for the Pastor and His wife to back up their documents and haven't heard anything about issues) The screenshot of the get info on the finder disk image I attached above show APFS volume. I had forgotten that with my iMac I had prior to the Mac Mini I had the seagate partitioned at two volumes. I will look in Disk Management on the PC to see the size of the ExFAT volume in the E Drive.

Again Thank you.

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