What does this mean? I have an external hard drive I am trying to plug into my computer, and it says:
"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"
and when I initialize it and try to erase it and set it up a different way, it fails. But I also can't mount it. I don't understand how to fix it.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 10.1.1, High Sierra (Early 2015)
GOOD NEWS: There is a new solution that enables S.M.A.R.T. checking for external USB and FireWire disks, a third party project that implements the missing support that Apple left out of stock Mac OS X.
Installing the software provided by this project should enable S.M.A.R.T. checking for your USB/FireWire disks, provided that this is even possible for your disk. Please note that this is an external project not supported by CoreCode in any way and installing 3rd party kernel extensions is a generally unsafe procedure.
https://www.corecode.io/smartreporter/faq.html#EXTERNAL
Which exact external drive & how does it connect & is it Bus powered or have it;s own AC power?
External drives don't support SMART as a rule without a 3rd party extension.
@marmarpill
You want to format it using GUID partitioning and either Mac Extended or APFS.
@BDAqua
FireWire and USB2.0 and USB3.0 drives would not typically support SMART.
eSATA and Thunderbolt might.
SMART Status: Not Supported
