Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

High Sierra / External HD Problems

I upgraded my iMac to High Sierra a couple days ago. Everything seemed to be good.


Today I plugged in a 6 TB WD My Book and it crapped out. I was able to see the drive in Disk Utilities but wasn't able to repair it or run a test on it. I then took the drive over to my MacBook running El Capitan and it won't even show up in Disk Utilities. Looks like I'll have to spend $100 on Disk Warrior and pray that it will fix it.


I then plugged in my Drobo to my iMac and one of the drives failed. So I went to Best Buy to buy a new external drive (so I could back up my Drobo, as my previous backup is on the 6 TB drive that borked), plugged in the new drive and it immediately crapped out too. I was able to see it in Disk Utilities but I wasn't able to format it or repartition it. I then took it to my MacBook and was able to partition it there.


THREE DRIVES FAILED IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES.


Is there something going on with High Sierra and external drives, and if so, what can I do? I'm terrified of plugging in another drive for fear of losing all of my data!

Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Sep 29, 2017 6:06 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Nov 19, 2017 5:38 PM

After hours and hours of research and testing I solved this for me.


When I plugged in my external hard drive it showed up in my drive in Disk Utility but it was grayed out.

I could not mount my hard drives and it would not let me repair, erase, nor partition them, an old and a new one.


I decided to click on the view button at the top right corner of my disk utility app and I had "Show Only Volumes" selected. So I clicked on "Show All Devices" and this showed me each device the volumes were on. I could now select my external hard drive and I was able to easily repair, erase, and partition my hard drives when I clicked on the device instead of just the volume.


I hope this helps anyone.


User uploaded file

136 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Nov 19, 2017 5:38 PM in response to Tim Gavin

After hours and hours of research and testing I solved this for me.


When I plugged in my external hard drive it showed up in my drive in Disk Utility but it was grayed out.

I could not mount my hard drives and it would not let me repair, erase, nor partition them, an old and a new one.


I decided to click on the view button at the top right corner of my disk utility app and I had "Show Only Volumes" selected. So I clicked on "Show All Devices" and this showed me each device the volumes were on. I could now select my external hard drive and I was able to easily repair, erase, and partition my hard drives when I clicked on the device instead of just the volume.


I hope this helps anyone.


User uploaded file

Oct 2, 2017 7:19 AM in response to Tim Gavin

I too am experiencing strange problems with WD drives since upgrading to High Sierra. I have a WD Passport USB 3 drive used for backup on a MacBook air 2014 model. No problems before on Sierra but now have slow connect of the drive when plugged in, slow access to drive content and very slow dismounting of the drive. Same results on my iMac 21" 2011 model since upgrading to High Sierra.

I also have a WD My Book Live NAS drive. This has been behaving really strange since the upgrade. Sometimes my Macs will see the drive, other times, not. File access is very slow to non existent. Copying files from the NAS drive just gets me the spinning ball. Unable to log into the WD NAS drive even after resetting it. All this seems to be down to High Sierra. Any ideas on a fix?

Oct 2, 2017 7:35 AM in response to Olicanian

I found the slowness and inability to disconnect was because of Spotlight indexing (mdworker, mds etc in Activity Monitor). The answer seemed to be to exclude the disk in Preferences>Spotlight>Privacy. Once you enter this, it seems to get remembered the next time you connect the disk too.


I am now getting my Samsung T5 SSD external disks not mounting. Some say this is only a problem with bootable external clones. I am not sure.

Oct 9, 2017 9:20 AM in response to Tim Gavin

I found a partial solution to my external drives not mounting or showing up in the drive utility program. By starting up in Safe mode (hold down shift key while doing startup or restart), the drives show up on desktop and in drive utility. I was able to use drive utility and it indicated nothing was wrong with either drive. I was able to use the drives and move data I wanted access to onto some non-RAID 4TB drives. Those drives show on desktop with a regular start-up and seem to work fine in High Sierra. I tried turning off all log-in items to eliminate possible conflicts there at startup. It made no difference in getting the large RAID drives to mount with a normal startup.


Any ideas on what else to try would be appreciated.

Nov 7, 2017 9:33 PM in response to Tim Gavin

Similar issues since the "upgrade" to High Sierra with my external Seagate 4TB drives. Have tried isolating in Spotlight but that has not remedied the issue yet. Incidentally, it really hangs on any files or folders larger than 2GB. When I called Mac support they told me they weren't aware of this problem as no one else had reported it ;-)) I suggested they read their own support blogs.

Nov 7, 2017 10:07 PM in response to photogkeiran

I can confirm that I have this problem when Spotlight attempts to access my external Thunderbolt connected RAID drive (16TB)

I have another drive (2TB) that I have no issue with

Both drives work fine on Sierra

So my workaround is to prevent Spotlight from accessing the drive location, like so:User uploaded file


As soon as I remove the drive from the Privacy Window in Spotlight Preferences everything hangs

and I am unable to access the files on the drive!

Nov 11, 2017 1:12 PM in response to Tim Gavin

Also having issues with my 2nd Gen Drobo. Problem started after the High Sierra upgrade. My drobo now does not mount nor can I locate it using disk utility or any other desperate means sourced from the web. So I guess I'll have to wait till apple reluctantly admit there is an issue and put out a fix.


I've always sipped from the cup of the cult of mac, but I am seriously getting fed up with Apple these days. They are slowly descending into mediocrity. I fondly remember upgrades as pain free improvements. Now it seems we need to check the net before upgrading anything to make sure no one is reporting major issue. Just fed up. I can understand one brand of hard drive having issues. But looking at this thread, Drobo, WD, Samsung, LaCie, Seagate....all issues. Is this a joke? Do they even bother testing anymore?


rantEnd/

Jan 22, 2018 7:54 AM in response to Matthew T R

Many thanks Matthew TR! Your advice was spot on.


Key point: My MacBook Pro OS X is High Sierra 10.13.2 which apparently just introduced APFS (Apple File System). When I first attempted to format the external drive (WD Elements 1 TB) using the MBP Disk Utility, an error message "Erase process has Failed" after erasing was almost complete (about an hour).

User uploaded file

Doing research on this problem, I found your advice, as well as some articles that clearly stated how to avoid this error. In my initial erase/reformat effort, the default Disk Utility view (upper left corner of MBP Disk Utility) was set to "Show only volumes", and when proceeding to erase, it returned the error message. One article that was very helpful advised in the upper left corner "View" to "Show all devices", NOT just the partition. I selected the entire drive (not indented on Disk Utility) and then selected "Erase". This worked.

User uploaded file

Since my MBP is my personal, home computer and my new HDDs will be for my storage only, I choose the APFS for the new external HDDs to run faster. I have another home computer but it also was upgraded to High Sierra 10.13.2, so compatibility with non-High Sierra OS X is avoided.


Many thanks for your advice!

Dec 7, 2017 4:38 AM in response to shnyhd

This helped me

Les K

Matthew T R Nov 19, 2017 5:38 PM in response to Tim Gavin

User uploaded file Level 1 (4 points)


Nov 19, 2017 5:38 PM Re: High Sierra / External HD Problems in response to Tim Gavin

After hours and hours of research and testing I solved this for me.


When I plugged in my external hard drive it showed up in my drive in Disk Utility but it was grayed out.

I could not mount my hard drives and it would not let me repair, erase, nor partition them, an old and a new one.


I decided to click on the view button at the top right corner of my disk utility app and I had "Show Only Volumes" selected. So I clicked on "Show All Devices" and this showed me each device the volumes were on. I could now select my external hard drive and I was able to easily repair, erase, and partition my hard drives when I clicked on the device instead of just the volume.


I hope this helps anyone.


User uploaded file

Dec 25, 2017 9:10 AM in response to Peterzil

+1 Re: High Sierra / External HD Problems


Please call Apple Support, and make a ticket, specifying the issue as being non-exclusive to a single external drive, and exclusive to High Sierra. I have a ticket open with Apple and they continue to give me updates, but no resolution. I've noted this open thread and hope that they soon prioritize the issue. My hard drive still remains inaccessible.


I'm not ready to regret upgrading to High Sierra, or using an external hard drive, but if this takes long enough I will have some hard feelings in general for Apple.

Jan 3, 2018 11:20 AM in response to Tim Gavin

What is this madness? Is it that 'upgraded' High Sierra macs can't see existing external drives because they don't recognise previous Mac OS Journaled format? I WAS just about to upgrade to High Sierra. I purchased a WD 2TB My Passport for Mac to make a safe copy all my data beforehand. Then I remembered reading something about a new Apple File system (APFS) being introduced in High Sierra. And I suddenly thought 'will I be able to read my backup files if they are not in new APFS format?' and 'will I even be able to see my new drive if it's in the old Sierra format?' Would I be able to restore my iMac if my backup is using previous Mac OS Journaled format?


Is the Answer No? I've read so many conflicting views that I now have no idea.


Concerned users might want to read this article: https://www.pocket-lint.com/laptops/news/apple/142357-upgrading-to-macos-high-si erra-don-t-forget-to-convert-your-external-drives-to-apfs-too


And If I reformat my External HD to APFS and start saving files in the new format will I be able to exchange them with others still using Sierra and earlier?


This statement suggests not.


Important: Volumes formatted as APFS can be read by a Mac running High Sierra, but not by a Mac running Sierra or earlier. Please see HT208018 - Prepare for APFS in macOS High Sierra for more information. https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=20502

So I've chucked out the High Sierra update and switched off auto app store updates. I'm sticking with "Sierra' which works well for me.

I've run studios full of macs and now after 20 years I thought I'd seen it all. I really don't have time for this - time for a PC?

High Sierra / External HD Problems

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.