- External Hard Drive Not Compatible With Mac Computers
- External Hard Drive Not Compatible With Mac
- External Hard Drive Not Compatible With Mac Pro
The LaCie 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3 is much more than just a hard drive. To start, it contains two drives, not just one. We are using the top-end config, which has two 10TB IronWolf Pro disks. May 09, 2019 Buying an external hard drive for your Mac is not all that different from buying one for your Windows PC, except for one very important complication: The latest Mac laptops only come with. Windows cannot natively access a Mac formatted drive. Click the link below to download the 5 day free trial of a great utility MacDrive Install that, then restart your PC, Start the utility and connect the drive, you will then have access to that Mac drive like any other PC hard drive.
The unveiling of M1chip probably indicates the end of the Intel-based MacBooks in some depth. Therefore, many users ordered the new M1 Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. But some are experiencing a server Samsung external SSD issue - the Samsung portable SSD seems to be not working on an M1 Mac.
Specifically, users are reporting those issues:
- 1. Samsung T5 Portable SSD doesn't work on new M1 MacBook
- 2. MacBook Pro M1with Big Sur doesn't recognize the T7 SSD
- 3. Samsung T5 external SSD won't mount on MacBook Air M1
- 4. Samsung Portable SSD T7 not connecting with MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)
This post explains why you encounter these disk issues and how to make your Samsung external SSD work again.
Let's start with a better understanding of the M1 chip on your Mac, which does more with less fixing the external hard drive not mounting on the M1 Mac issue.
Knowing the new M1 chip on your Mac
The application of multiple chips to deliver different features like processor, I/O, security, and memory has been changed in M1 Macs. Everything is highly integrated into a single system on a chip (SoC) packed with multiple transistors.
Meanwhile, all M1 Macs come with the new macOS 11 Big Sur out-of-the-box. It's a joined force when it comes to running macOS Big Sur software on the advanced M1 chip. Such a combination brings more simplicity, high efficiency, faster performance, better battery life, and advanced security to your M1 Mac.
With Rosetta 2, Apple will take the next two years to shift from Intel-based Macs to Apple silicon Macs universally, but during this time, incompatibility in software and hardware indeed happens.
This makes sense why some Samsung external hard drives run perfectly while some don't even get recognized on M1 Macs.
While the point is, how to fix it if Samsung or other external SSD won't mount on M1 Mac?
Guide to make Samsung external SSD work on M1 Macs
Many components are involved in mounting an external hard drive on Mac computers, especially if there is no USB 3.0 but USB C ports on the Machine. So, it's strongly advised that you follow the following part one by one to isolate the problematic part.
1. Check the Samsung external SSD in System Information
If you see the LED on it randomly toggles between blue and red but the drive doesn't seem to mount, check it in the System Report for power acquisition.
Click on the Apple logo >About this Mac >System Report, and then choose USB or Thunderbolt based on if you have used a USB hub.
Two circumstances you might see in System Information:
How to compress a photo on mac. ① The Samsung portable SSD is detected with the required power.
This barely means that your external drive has no hardware issue, then the unmountable SSD is a result of software or file system issues. To fix it, you need to start from solution 4
② The Samsung portable SSD is not showing up here, or it lists but is severely underpowered.
If the M1 Mac doesn't detect your drive in System Report, you may move on to check problems from scratch, including USB ports and cables in the next part.
2. Check USB ports on your M1 Mac
MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models with Apple Silicon M1 chip have two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports. But they are not enough for multiple hard drives and not convenient for USB 3.0 hard drives, which forces many users to seek a USB hub or USB adapter.
However, you may get into trouble in mounting external hard drives due to such a hub. If your Samsung external SSD is not working on M1 Mac, try the following workarounds.
- Use the Thunderbolt/USB 4 port on your Mac directly without a hub
- Try a different Thunderbolt/USB 4 port on your M1 Mac
- Plug only one external device on the USB hub for dedicated power supply
- Try a different USB port if you use a USB hub
- Make sure the USB port is not damaged, dusty, deformed for a used USB hub
3. Try a different cable to connect the Samsung external SSD
For better compatibility with the host device, manufacturers like Samsung and Seagate will include USB Type-C to C cable and USB Type-C to A cables in the box. But you possibly also bought a white Apple adapter cable.
If your external device doesn't mount with one of these cables, first figure out what type your external hard drive uses, and then try another cable with or without the USB hub.
Note: Thunderbolt/USB 4 is backward compatible with Thunderbolt/USB 3 and Type-C ports, with a throughput of up to 40Gbps, power delivery of up to 100W, and support for 4K/5K displays.
4. Check if your Samsung hard drive is encrypted
Samsung portable T5 and T7 SSD have optical password protection with AES 256-bit hardware encryption. So, if the Samsung SSD is password locked out of the box using Samsung Portable SSD Software, you can first unlock it using that specific software. Also, you can wipe the disk if you have no data on the SSD.
Another case is that you know your Samsung external SSD is password protected.
However, the Samsung Portable SSD Software doesn't work on the M1 Mac computer. As a result, you have no way to access your SSD but receive the 'No Samsung Portable SSD is connected.' message.
Then, the solutions in the rest of the article will help.
5. Update to the latest Samsung Portable SSD Software and Firmware
Though the Samsung SSD is recognized by macOS Big Sur on M1 Mac, you could also have an issue in opening this disk. You are unable to put in your password to unlock the SSD if the software is outdated, or worse, the software won't even launch for the incompatibility with M1 Mac.
Here is how to fix it:
- Step 1: Safely eject this external SSD from your Mac.
- Step 2: Download and install the latest software for portable SSD from the page for Samsung SSD Tools & Software.
- Step 3: Restart the computer
- Step 4: Go to System Preferences > Safety and Privacy > General to allow the Samsung extension to load.
- Step 5: Restart the M1 Mac and then re-plug the Samsung portable SSD.
- Step 6: Click Update from the Samsung software for firmware and software update.
6. Run First Aid to repair Samsung external drive on M1 Mac
If the software is good, well, you should keep an eye on the SSD itself. Occasionally, the SSD won't mount in Disk Utility, or it shows a raw device without any partitions.
Then, the external SSD is suffering from file system corruption or partition table damage issues. You can try First Aid to check and repair the drive on your M1 Mac.
- Step 1: Click on the Finder app and click Go > Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Step 2: Select your Samsung portable SSD from the sidebar and click First Aid tab.
- Step 3: Click Run to repair the unmounted SSD.
7. Update macOS Big Sur to the latest version on your M1 Mac
You probably bought the M1 Mac at a time that macOS Big Sur is not revised for a new version, macOS 11.0.1 that have fix some macOS Big Sur problems.
Therefore, you can go to system preference to check if any software update available. It may help fix the external not working issue.
How to Reset your M1 Mac to Factory Settings
Ways to factory reset your M1 Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro and reinstall macOS Big Sur when you need to replace it or the Mac is bricked. Read more >>
8. Recover data and reformat the Samsung Portable SSD
You don't really have to erase your drive unless all solutions don't make a difference. Reformatting will wipe the drive (including your data on this SSD) and give it a fresh start.
Therefore, you can first get your files off （if you have) the corrupted SSD and then reformat it as the following guide.
First: Recover data from external hard drive on M1 Mac
Not only Samsung Portable SSD, hard drives from Seagate, WD, Toshiba, or other manufacturers could also have data loss problems on M1 Mac.
Note: Make sure you have upgraded your system to macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 on your M1 Mac before you perform an external hard drive data recovery.
To recover deleted or lost data from the external SSD, a recommended plan is to use a hard drive recovery tool compatible with M1 Mac, for example, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your M1 Mac.
- Step 2: Follow this guide to allow System extension loading.
- Step 3: Restart your Mac and launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- Step 4: Plug your Samsung portable SSD into the Mac.
- Step 5: Select it from the data software interface and follow the onscreen instructions to scan, preview, and recover lost files.
Second: Reformat the external SSD on your M1 Mac
- Step 1: Connect the unmountable Samsung portable SSD to your M1 Mac.
- Step 2: Press Command + Space and search for Disk Utility.
- Step 3: Select the external drive from the sidebar and click on the Erase tab.
- Step 3: Select APFS/HFS+ Format and GUID Partition Scheme for this drive.
- Step 3: Click Erase to confirm this reformatting.
External hard drive not working on the M1 Mac may not be the real panic, but the data loss is. The workarounds in this post should be able to make your Samsung portable SSD work on M1 Mac again without data loss.
If you have a hard drive from other brands, the troubleshooting process is basically the same, except for the Samsung proprietary software.
By Adela D. Louie, Last updated: July 28, 2020
If what you are aiming for is to make sure that you have complete compatibility of the external hard drive to your Mac, then you what you need to do is to have it formatted to Mac OS Extended filesystem. This process is very common for those generic hard drives which are commonly preformatted compatible with a Windows computer and not for a Mac OS X.
And reformatting your external hard drive for Mac OS X is not a very difficult thing to do. This process is actually very simple and will only require you to do a few steps. And after that, you will then be able to save any backup files that you want on your external hard drive. And at the same time, you will be able to keep all of the information that you have stored in your external hard drive safe.
The fact is that you can actually use any hard drive with your Mac, however, if you want to make sure that you get the most out of it, then you can have it reformatted for your Mac OS X. That is why in this article, we are going to show you a quick way on how to reformat the external hard drive, Mac. And as a bonus, we are going to show you a special way on how you can recover data deleted from your external hard drive as well.
How to Reformat External Hard Drive Mac
For you to be able to reformat your external hard drive Mac, here are the steps you need to follow.
- Step 1. Plugin Hard Drive- The first thing that you need to do is to have your external hard drive be plugged into your computer.
- Step 2. Go to Disk Utilities- And then, launch the Disk Utility folder which is located from going to your Applications folder and Utility folder.
- Step 3. Look for the Hard Drive's Name- And from the Disk utility folder, just go ahead and locate for the name of your external hard drive from the left side of your screen. And once that you have found it, go ahead and click it and then hit on the Erase button.
- Step 4. Do Instructions Needed- And then, there will be an on-screen instruction shown to you. This will lead you in selecting the option Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Also, this will then let you format your external hard drive.
And that is how to reformat external hard drive Mac easily. Once that you are done with the process, then you will be able to use your drive and have your backup file saved using it.
BONUS TIP: How to Recover Deleted Data from Reformat External Hard Drive Mac
Now you have already known how to reformat external hard drive Mac easily and in a fast way. So which means that you can now use your drive for you to store important documents and other files that you have.
Now, since we know how important it is to keep your data safe in your external hard drive, we have made special software for you that you can use just in case that something happens to your external hard drive causing you to delete all of the saved data in it. In short, with this software, you will be able to recover them back to your external hard drive. The software that we are talking about is no other than the FoneDog Data Recovery.
Data RecoveryRecover deleted image, document, audio and more files.Get deleted data back from computer (including Recycle Bin) and hard drives.Recover loss data caused by disk accident, operation system crushes and other reasons.
The FoneDog Data Recovery can recover any deleted data the quickest and the easiest way possible. This software is considered to be a professional data recovery software and that it can restore any type of files that you have from any sort of situation such as deleted file recovery, hard drive recovery, partition recovery, crashed windows or Mac, memory card recovery, and a flash drive recovery.
Also, the FoneDog Data Recovery can recover any data from any external device such as a hard drive, memory card, USB, a digital camera, and removable drives. It can also recover data from your computer. So, to give you a quick guide on how this program works, here is a quick step by step process you can follow.
Step 1. Install Program and Launch it on Computer
You can get the FoneDog Data Recovery tool by downloading it from our website. And then install it on your Mac computer.
Step 2. Choose the Type of Data and Device Storage
After the complete installation of the program, go ahead and run it on your computer. And from the main page of it, you will be able to choose on which device you would like to recover your deleted data or backup file. So here, you have to choose the external hard drive that you are working on. Then, simply choose the data that you would like to recover as well.
NOTE: You have to make sure that the connection of your external hard drive and your Mac is stable while you are on the process of recovering your data.
Step 3. Scanning Process
After choosing your external hard drive and the data that you want to recover, then you can go now and click on the Scan button. The FoneDog Data Recovery will then start scanning your device giving you the result basing on the option that you have chosen earlier.
NOTE: There are two ways to scan in this part. The Quick Scan can only take a few minutes to finish. And the Deep Scan which can take a longer period of time since it will scan thoroughly on your external hard drive.
Step 4. Preview and Select Data to Retrieve Then Recover
External Hard Drive Not Compatible With Mac Computers
And once that the scanning process is all done, all of the data will then be listed on your screen. From here, you can now go ahead and choose all of the data that you want to recover. And once that you are done choosing them, simply click on the Recover button below your screen.
Then, the recovery process will start so all you have to do from here is wait until such time that the process is complete.
Conclusion
As you can see, it is very easy to reformat your external hard drive for your Mac. All you need to do is to go through all of the steps that we have provided you and you will surely be done in no time. Also, just in case you happen to have deleted data from your hard drive, then you can easily have them back by using the FoneDog Data Recovery tool.
External Hard Drive Not Compatible With Mac
External Hard Drive Not Compatible With Mac Pro
