2009 Mac Pro can't reliability use *ANY* USB External Drives

[Dochartaigh]

I have a 2009 Mac Pro. It's been running MacOS Mojave for about 6 months now (which I had to install a metal-compatible video card for that).

Recently I'm having an issue where MULTIPLE external USB hard drives will sporadically work – these previously working drives give me a "The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer" error.

I can then usually take that SAME HDD and put it into another enclosure and it'll work! Then I might reboot, or plug it in a day later and the SAME hardware combo will NOT work again... wait another period of time and the same HDD will work in another enclosure... Etc. etc. – it's completely random (and even made a topic about it here since I thought it was a problem only with a specific HDD, which I now know is NOT the case as other HDD's are doing the same thing...). I want to stress that these HDD's themselves really seem to be fine. When they work, they work. I can keep it connected for several days and copy over 8TB+ and it'll run like a champ... Then unplug, use another drive or do something else and it will NOT work mysteriously! The SMART status on these drives is also always 100% good. HDD hours vary from a mere 239 to over 43,000!

This issue also isn't with just one particular enclosure (or one particular HDD) - which is why I believe it's an issue with the computer itself. I've tried MULTIPLE known-working hard drives (WD, Seagate, HSGT). On MULTIPLE external hard drive enclosures (Sabrent, Inateck, LaCie); tried multiple cables and power supplies for the enclosures too of course. Heck, even gives me issues with my USB 3 M.2 enclosure! I'm also using MULTIPLE USB interfaces on the Mac Pro itself (front USB 2.0 ports + 3x different USB 3.X add-on cards from the recommended topic here)... so this really has to be a problem with the 2009 Mac Pro itself, right? And/or Mojave? And/or how it is now handling ANY USB connection...

 

[MacsolverUK]

Hi,

Check that your Mac Pro firmware as at "144". Use System Profiler or "SilentKnight":

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[Dochartaigh]

Check that your Mac Pro firmware as at "144".

Another post here says that the "firmware" is the "Boot ROM Version" listed in System Information, which says it's 144.0.0.0.0.

Just in case this matters I will add that I DID prep this 2009 Mac Pro to use OpenCore Legacy Patcher to get onto an even newer OS than the Mojave it's already on (think I was going to Big Sur). But I did NOT go through with it (I honestly forget why I didn't, I think because it was WAY to involved for me, and/or I got stuck at some early point of it not working as the tutorial video said it should - and besides, I ONLY use this as a remote headless server - not to work on every day or whatnot) –– but I wanted to mention that just in case that could mess something up here. In my eyes it's simply a 2009 Mac Pro which I updated the firmware to think it was a 2010, added a metal-compatible video card, which is how I am able to currently run Mojave for the last ~6 months.

Also to note that since I wrote this post, for the first time I put the original problematic WD 10TB drive INTERNALLY inside the mac (i.e. not via external USB enclosure). This is what started this issue, and I talked about in my other post I linked to above, here. Again, just like when I removed it from its original WD enclosure, and put it into my Sabrent external USB enclosure it again asked me to "initialize" it (i.e. format), which I again did. I don't know if that's indicative of anything, but with is still being an EXTREMELY low hour -427 hours on it- drive, I'm still expecting it to work properly (as even externally in the Sabrent I was able to use it for nearly a ~week AND copy 8+TB to it).

Anyway, maybe the above means nothing but just wanted to mention it. The problem still persists that OTHER drives sporadically work on one enclosure, then might stop working days later (perhaps after a reboot) in that SAME enclosure, them might (or might not) work in another enclosure... then back into the originally working enclosure and it'll work again - multiple drives, multiple enclosures, multiple USB's on the Mac Pro (as I've already posted in even more detail). TLDR: still some weird sporadic non-sensical/logical things going on here with external drives on this Mac Pro...

 

[Fishrrman]

At 14 years old, it might be time to start thinking "new Mac".

I'll reckon that even a Mini with an m2pro CPU would outperform an old Mac Pro...

 

[Dochartaigh]

At 14 years old, it might be time to start thinking "new Mac".

I'll reckon that even a Mini with an m2pro CPU would outperform an old Mac Pro...

The thing is I don't use this computer for anything but serving files (to my mini M2 Pro in fact - and a couple other household computers and TV via Plex), and as my torrent box. It's literally sits in the corner of my garage - no room even for a proper keyboard (ran headless 99.9% of the time).

The only other option to hold this many drives is an external (usually USB) multi-drive enclosure – and people in my other topic were talking about (paraphrasing) how there are "known bugs with macOS since BigSur with many external HDD enclosures..... there's no solution but waiting on Apple to debug the port software in macOS" ...so in fact my ancient pre-BigSur 2009 Mac Pro running Mojave might STILL (all these years later!) have a leg-up for a setup like mine.

Apple-wise, the only newer computer that could house these drives internally is a new Mac Pro... and that is literally the stupidest thing Mac has EVER came out with IMO (literally costs more than BOTH my cars I own right now lol)... ok, it's actually tied with the Pro Display XDR at $5,000.00 if I'm to be honest lol.

 

[MacsolverUK]

Hi
I think I would try a clean install of Catalina using the DOSDUDE USB patcher installer onto a spare SSD with no other drives or PCIe cards other than a Metal GPU installed to see if the issue persists. If it does, it is likeley to be a hardware issue.

 

[MrScratchHook]

The thing is I don't use this computer for anything but serving files (to my mini M2 Pro in fact - and a couple other household computers and TV via Plex), and as my torrent box. It's literally sits in the corner of my garage - no room even for a proper keyboard (ran headless 99.9% of the time).

The only other option to hold this many drives is an external (usually USB) multi-drive enclosure – and people in my other topic were talking about (paraphrasing) how there are "known bugs with macOS since BigSur with many external HDD enclosures..... there's no solution but waiting on Apple to debug the port software in macOS" ...so in fact my ancient pre-BigSur 2009 Mac Pro running Mojave might STILL (all these years later!) have a leg-up for a setup like mine.

Apple-wise, the only newer computer that could house these drives internally is a new Mac Pro... and that is literally the stupidest thing Mac has EVER came out with IMO (literally costs more than BOTH my cars I own right now lol)... ok, it's actually tied with the Pro Display XDR at $5,000.00 if I'm to be honest lol.

ive read your thread, and i have 3 mac pro's. it would seem that its probably the backplane aka motherboard, luckily now a days those things are cheap, under $100, even less, so i suggest just purchasing another one and replace it.