External Hard Drive

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patrickstarr

388 posts

Ultimate Geek

#298547 26-Jun-2022 11:38

Hello everyone, I have a problem, I am trying to access my External Hard Drive, but it's lagging, it will only show the loading screen, nothing else.
This has only started happening the past 3-4 days and I have no idea why!

Is there any way that I can try gain access to my files?

I will attach a couple of screenshots

When I have plugged my External Hard Drive in
Loading screen

Thank you!

(also I'm using a MacBook M1 Chip)

AxisOfBeagles

45 posts

Geek

#2934576 26-Jun-2022 11:55

I recently upgraded to a Mac Studio w/ M1 Max. 2 external HDD's - and have noticed a lag when first accessing them. Usually (not always) they wake up and work fine. Once or twice I've had to restart the system and everything is fine again.

In your case, the drive never 'wakes up'? Assume you've tried restarting the system - does the problem persist?

As best I've been able to tell by scouring other forums this is an issue unique to the M1. The fix I can only assume will be in an upcoming OS release - hopefully sooner than later.

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richms

28032 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2934577 26-Jun-2022 11:58

I dont know what tools are available from drive manufacturers for macs to check the health of it, but if its formatted with something that windows can read then I would try the drive there and download the appropriate manufacturers tools to check the drive health. Its probably failed and needs replacing.

Richard rich.ms

FineWine

2976 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Nurse (R)

Lifetime subscriber

#2934597 26-Jun-2022 12:59

To check the basic health of your Ext HD try Disk Utility > First Aid.

Also remember that the drive should be formatted as an APFS Volume which is the now macOS standard.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.