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JSBRG

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 8, 2020
59
57
Denmark
Can you boot into recovery mode and see it in Disk Utility there? Maybe just to rule out any other potential software loading up or preventing it from showing up?
I'm trying it ?

EDIT:
I tried. It made no difference.
 
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Reactions: gank41

OldMike

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2009
537
219
Dallas, TX
I’ve got three different types of WD drives, too :(

I have a few Western Digital external drives, mostly My Passport 4TB drives and also a MyBook Duo 8TB in RAID 0 mode. I have tested them, and they all work correctly on my M1 Mac Mini.
 

jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,859
4,599
There might be a USB driver bug for some external storage devices. I have an old 8 GB thumb drive that has worked for years on 2013 Mac Pro, 2018 MacBook Pro, 2013 MacBook Air etc. It simply does not show up on my M1 MacBook Air. Now obviously a non-working 8 GB USB stick is no great loss but it is weird. I've reformatted it using my 2013 Mac Pro for all the obvious formats with all the partition maps and it just doesn't show up in Disk Util or any place other than the System Information app. I've plugged it in to the MBA's USB-C port with a USB-C to USB-A adapter, with a USB-C dock, with a USB-C ethernet adapter with 4 USB-A ports. None work.

I have no idea if this is related to OP but it sure sounds the same to me.
 

OldMike

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2009
537
219
Dallas, TX
There might be a USB driver bug for some external storage devices. I have an old 8 GB thumb drive that has worked for years on 2013 Mac Pro, 2018 MacBook Pro, 2013 MacBook Air etc. It simply does not show up on my M1 MacBook Air. Now obviously a non-working 8 GB USB stick is no great loss but it is weird. I've reformatted it using my 2013 Mac Pro for all the obvious formats with all the partition maps and it just doesn't show up in Disk Util or any place other than the System Information app. I've plugged it in to the MBA's USB-C port with a USB-C to USB-A adapter, with a USB-C dock, with a USB-C ethernet adapter with 4 USB-A ports. None work.

I have no idea if this is related to OP but it sure sounds the same to me.

Ok, now that you mention it, I had one weird issue on my M1. I had a problem getting my USB Big Sur installer flash drive recognized when I wanted to erase and reinstall the OS on my M1. I could not figure it out, as my other Macs would mount it and boot from it.

On a whim, I disconnected my Thunderbolt connection that was connected to an enclosure with a DisplayPort on it for my second monitor. After disconnecting the TB3 connection, the USB installer was all of a sudden recognized as bootable and allowed me to proceed. When the TB3 enclosure was connected, the USB installer would mount while I was logged in, but would not be recognized as a startup disk in System Preferences or during startup.
 

4sallypat

macrumors 601
Sep 16, 2016
4,034
3,782
So Calif
Try connecting the Passport thru an USB externally powered hub.

It may be a lack of native bus power as seen on other USB accessories here on this forum.
 

paulnevi

macrumors newbie
Nov 29, 2012
2
0
I started having the problems after updating the m1 MBP last week.

I have 2 ruined 5TB WD easystore drives, and one that I was able to mount and repartition and save. I saved one drive. and one drive is able to be mounted on an old iMac and I am recovering the data VERY slowly to the saved drive (its a 2008 imac) Apple care just wants to blame WD for the problem, but these drives were all working before the update this week. All three had different file systems on them. I am wondering if there is not enough power for these drives? This MBP m1 seems to run really slow using any files of the external drive also.

I was backing up zoom recordings when the update rolled out. And they were copying to the external drive very fast. Then I stopped and rebooted and after that I started getting the pinwheel when trying to copy the files to the external. I went to bed and in the morning there were only empty folders on the external drive, but the data still showed up as being used.

I was able to find them with diskdrill but it is taking about 40hours so far and they are still recovering.
 
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