External Drive cannot be read by my computer!

Portable SSD Portable | Extreme | Extreme Pro SSD
1

I bought a SanDisk 2tb ssd to unload my current 500 gig drive that was getting full. I moved a bunch of files over to the new drive after formatting it to Apple apfs. It worked fine for two or three days. Now, when I start up, I get a warning that the drive cannot be read by my computer. I can ignore the warning eject the drive or initialize it. The latter would erase all the files I have on it. It won’t mount and I don’t know what’s wrong. Can you advise?

1 Like
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Hi @Donnasummer
Have you opened a Support Case? If not opened, for more information, please contact the SD Technical Support team for best assistance and troubleshooting:

3

try getting on to another thing that can read USB drives such as a ps3/4/5 another PC Xbox 360/1/1s/x/s, or use an adapter for a phone hope that helps

5

I’m experiencing the same problem: I can hear the connection sound, but the drive doesn’t show up and is not accessible. Has anyone found a solution? I have a friend with the same SSD; he left it unused for a month, and then it worked. I’m trying to do the same. For your information, I use my SSD once every three months to store photos and videos, and I’ve had it for two years. I really don’t recommend SanDisk. They need to tell us what the problem is with this drive.

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The sudden inability to read the drive could be due to software conflicts, connection issues, or hardware failures. You should start with safer troubleshooting steps like checking connections, booting in safe mode, and using disk utility. If these don’t work then go to more advanced methods like Terminal commands or third-party recovery tools like Stellar, Recuva, and other such recovery tools. Don’t initialize your drive throughout the process to avoid any data erasure.

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Many potential reasons can cause this connection issue, you can:

  1. Check whether the drive file system is supported by this Mac or not
  2. Reconnect the drive to your Mac with another port or cable
  3. Repair the drive with First Aid in Disk Utility
  4. Initialize the disk in Disk Utility

You can check this guide to get a detailed tutorial.