External Storage Advice

[jparker402]

I have a MacBook Pro with 382GB available on a 494GB HD. I have a WD HHD "My Passport" attached for Time Machine. It reads that it has 1.12TB available. And it is probably coming up on 8 or 9 years old, Perhaps 4 or 5 years ago I got the Carbon Copy Clone app and purchased a Samsung T7 SSD to use with it. It looks like the Samsung says that it currently has 33.16GB available. And I use iCloud Drive,

Several times my MacBook has been telling me that I did not disconnect my WD correctly; when I did not disconnect it at all. Called Apple and the advisor suggested that maybe replacing my WD for Time Machine might not be a bad idea given its age. Started looking for another Samsung SSD when I was hit by sticker shock! Would appreciate thoughts/suggestions. I am not a power user. My storage needs seem to be low. I do use iCloud for whatever value that may be in the equation. I was thinking about an SSD because it is newer, but wonder if another HD would be okay. I do not move the computer often, but when I do I disconnect the external drives and leave them at home. Thanks!

 

[MacGizmo]

Buying an SSD right now is just insane. Buy yourself a regular HDD - preferably a 7200 RPM, but even a 5600 RPM drive will do for backups (since you're not in an immediate rush to get things copied as quickly).

That being said, there has been a bug that many people are experiencing for the last two or three OS upgrades (that I can see without going back further in posts here) that pops up a notification like you've had every time the computer wakes from sleep.

It could also be a bad cable connection (those funky USB-Micro B cable connectors that many desktop HDs use are notorious for being finicky):

 

[jparker402]

Yes, MacGizmo! This has been happening when I first sit down to the computer in the morning! When I hadn't been on it since the night before! Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Grumpus]

It could also be a bad cable connection (those funky USB-Micro B cable connectors that many desktop HDs use are notorious for being finicky):

Yes, and in my experience, flaky connections can often be cured by unplugging and re-plugging the drive connector a few times.

 

[Fishrrman]

What you might do with the WD HDD is ... reformat and test it, and then restart time machine all over again.
I would run the disk utility "first aid" feature on it.
Do you get "a good report"?
If so, I'd REPEAT THE TEST about 5 times in succession.
Do you get a good report every time?
If so, "begin again" with tm.

Re the SSD with the CCC backup:
I'd just keep using it.
Try running disk utility's "first aid" on it.
What results do you get?

TIP:
I've noticed that, frequently when you run "first aid" on an external drive using disk utility, the operation will fail with a "could not unmount target volume" alert.

JUST IGNORE THAT and click the first aid option AGAIN.
On the second try, the volume dismounts and first aid WILL run...

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I’ve noticed a couple of HDDs that I bought recently use the “USB Micro B” connector that @MacGizmo pointed out, but only included USB-A cables. I don’t like using adapters (not JUST due to reliability issues; they also can make it difficult to plug in alongside another cable) so I ordered new cables like these.

 

[Ifti]

That being said, there has been a bug that many people are experiencing for the last two or three OS upgrades (that I can see without going back further in posts here) that pops up a notification like you've had every time the computer wakes from sleep.

Im hoping it's this. And I think it's something to do with Time Machine as well.

Ive have an external SSD enclosure connected to my Mac Studio for months - no issues at all.
It has 2 SSDs - one for Data, one for Time Machine.

Today is the first time I got the 'disk not ejected properly' message - but it ONLY happened for the Time Machine drive - not the data drive......

Hopefully it's an OS bug that will be fixed!

 

[davidg4781]

I would definitely plan to get a new HDD sooner than later. Mine was about that old and finally crapped out. After formatting, everything seems fine, but something may have failed that messed up the data on it and Apple wasn't able to read it without a reformat.

I went with a WD My Passport for Mac. It has a USB-C connection and came with what seems like a Thunderbolt or USB 3.1 or whatever cable. Either way, it seems a lot faster than the USB 2.0 speed charging cables that I was using.

It might also be your cable. That'll be a cheaper way to check but with your HDD being so old, it might be a good time, especially if you don't want to risk not having a backup. And for Time Machine, I'd go with HDD over SSD. Less expensive and I believe SSDs will wear out faster because of the way the data is written to it. Might be wrong on that last part.