Macbook External Drive Help Needed - Solved

[HFultzjr]

Hello all.
I do not work or know much about macs and need assistance for a friend who needs help.
Friend has a late (2019). Macbook Pro and is having issues of her LaCie 2TB external drive not showing a desktop icon when plugged in.
External drive appears to be working correctly, except when she can't properly unplug it, resulting in error about not being removed properly.
I told her I would have a look at it, but didn't know much about macs, but I can sometimes "muddle" my way through things.
Went to her place and tried all the "searches" about preferences, settings, and anything else I could "Google"
Everything appears to be correct.
I have run a disk repair on disk and it was fine.......same issue.
Tried different ports
Updated OS and software
I didn't not try the obvious another drive/device, as I didn't have any devices to fit, as it has a newer USB port. All her thumb drives were of the standard variety.
I ended up leaving her a desktop shortcut to Disk Utility and showed her how to unmount the drive to avoid the error.
Everything checks out ok in disk utility. Mounts ok, unmounts ok.
I plan on going back over with another device to check.
Any other other ideas to try when I go back are appreciated, as we all know how much money we make when working for friends........................lol.
Remember, I don't know much about macs, so be gentle..................lol
Thanks.

 

[overburnz]

Until you try with another external drive and usb-c cable you can’t know for sure, what format is the external drive? What error do you get when you try to remove the device?

 

[Markverhyden]

Also try the LaCie on another computer.

 

[NviGate Systems]

I don't know if LaCie has diagnostic routine or software.

Keep in mind LaCie used to be a very expensive mac product but they often had failures which the client had a hard time believing because of the high external craftsmanship and price tag.

HDD Sentinel has a trial mode that is portable, so if you could plug that drive in a PC, you should see what's up.

Keep in mind that Disk Utility only really reports on the logical structure of the drive, not physical. So while errors in Disk Utility can be Logical, Hardware or both, it won't tell you if there is firmware corruption or if the motor is failing.

I assume other drives that are connected show up fine? My professional advice is to backup that LaCie drive ASAP to a new drive before disaster strike.

 

[HFultzjr]

Thanks to all for the help.
LaCie has been disconnected until further notice.
I plan on going back with the correct USB devices and explore further.
Need to determine if it's the LaCie or something in the settings.
I was just checking to see if I missed something simple, since I don't work on Macs.
Thanks everybody.

 

[labtech]

Lacie is Seagate's line of products targeting Mac folks. Inside, we still have the same crappy Seagate hard drives we find in their cheap Seagate external counterparts. On older models, there was a run where they used Samsung drives, but that ended a couple of years ago.

In regards to your specific drive, Lacie has a multitude of problems. Most common is the USB-to-SATA bridge inside the external enclosure. We have posted about them on our social media a bit.

I believe in your case though, the problems is file system related. It is has gotten corrupt somehow. It is either as result of logical corruption, or there is actually something wrong with the drive (bad sectors, firmware issues, etc).

Simplest test would be to remove the internal drive and test SMART on it on another computer.

 

[HFultzjr]

Lacie is Seagate's line of products targeting Mac folks. Inside, we still have the same crappy Seagate hard drives we find in their cheap Seagate external counterparts. On older models, there was a run where they used Samsung drives, but that ended a couple of years ago.

In regards to your specific drive, Lacie has a multitude of problems. Most common is the USB-to-SATA bridge inside the external enclosure. We have posted about them on our social media a bit.

I believe in your case though, the problems is file system related. It is has gotten corrupt somehow. It is either as result of logical corruption, or there is actually something wrong with the drive (bad secures, firmware issues, etc).

Simplest test would be to remove the internal drive and test SMART on it on another computer.

Thank you.

 

[HFultzjr]

Went back with a WD formatted for Mac and worked fine.
Thanks all.