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Looking for a program to mount external disks

countermoon

countermoon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 6, 2021
119
47
I'm looking for a program that will mount external drives onto the desktop or at least make them accessible in Mojave, regardless of type of disk or OS. I want to be able to plug in a drive, any drive, and have it mount reliably.

I have a Star Tech dock into which I put SSDs from an old Windows laptop, and I would like to access the drives.

I have accumulated drives over the years, including Windows and Linux formatted SSDs, thumb drives, DVDs, CDs, hubs. All kinds of disks and drives. Mounting disks has been a problem on the MacOS for many years. You know the dance. Unplug it, replug it, log out, restart, try Disk First Aid.

I haven't found a reliable solution. Thank you for any help you can offer.
 
exFAT and FAT32 formatted drives work well for me with Mojave - maybe you could format an empty drive to one of these formats? - then transfer the files? to the newly formatted drive? exFAT is the more updated version - FAT32 works well as a common drive betweem windows and macOS although the file size is limited to 4g with FAT32

Here is some info - FAT32 vs. exFAT: What's the Difference? Which One's Better?
 
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BrianBaughn said:
Doesn't exist!

If you narrow down the list of disk formats from "regardless of type of disk or OS" to something more reasonable maybe someone can help.
Click to expand...
Like this?

"I have a Star Tech dock into which I put SSDs from an old Windows laptop, and I would like to access the drives."
 
"maybe you could format an empty drive to one of these formats?"

I need to access the drive first.
 
OP:
"I have a Star Tech dock into which I put SSDs from an old Windows laptop, and I would like to access the drives."

Is this a USB dock?
As in "USB/SATA docking station"?
USB2 or USB3, perhaps?
(show us a pic of what you have)

If so...
Why don't you just plug it into the Mac, and try that?

I've been using USB docks with Macs for MANY years.
 
The Paragon works sometimes. A good deal at $20, nice UI, but it only works sometimes. I haven't found a solution to my original post. The kind of program where you hit "scan for drives" and it mounts all available drives. It existed in the past.

There aren't many disk utilities for the Mac. On the one hand it's good—we don't need them because the OS is so solid. But sometimes they are useful. And needed.
 
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Fishrrman said:
OP:
"I have a Star Tech dock into which I put SSDs from an old Windows laptop, and I would like to access the drives."

Is this a USB dock?
As in "USB/SATA docking station"?
USB2 or USB3, perhaps?
(show us a pic of what you have)

If so...
Why don't you just plug it into the Mac, and try that?

I've been using USB docks with Macs for MANY years.
Click to expand...

www.amazon.com

StarTech.com Dual-Bay USB 3.0 To SATA Hard Drive Docking Station, USB Hard Drive Dock, External 2.5/3.5" SATA I/II/III, SSD/HDD Docking Station, Hot-Swap Hard Drive Bay, Top-Loading (SDOCK2U33),Black

The Dual 2.5/3.5" SATA hard drive docking station lets you dock and swap drives from your desktop or laptop computer simultaneously, using a single USB port. Enhanced with UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol), this hard drive docking station lets you get the most out of the fastest drive technologie...
www.amazon.com

I have two bare drives in the dock. I wanted to transfer the data from one drive to the other. My Macbook Pro has two USB ports. One is being used by a wireless mouse. The other will contain either an old hub or the Startech dock.

With lots of tinkering I've been able to access the drives. But that's not the point. Or it is the point: tinkering. Always doing a little dance to get something to work is something I associate with GatesOS, not MacOS. My original post raised a legitimate question on the need for a reliable program that reliably reads anything you plug into your Mac. It's not a grandiose desire. I base that judgment on decades of using computers and the basic common-sense assumption that products ought work without voodoo.
 
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"I have two bare drives in the dock. I wanted to transfer the data from one drive to the other. My Macbook Pro has two USB ports. One is being used by a wireless mouse. The other will contain either an old hub or the Startech dock.
With lots of tinkering I've been able to access the drives. But that's not the point. Or it is the point: tinkering. Always doing a little dance to get something to work is something I associate with GatesOS, not MacOS. My original post raised a legitimate question on the need for a reliable program that reliably reads anything you plug into your Mac. It's not a grandiose desire. I base that judgment on decades of using computers and the basic common-sense assumption that products ought work without voodoo."

Nice rant, but...

... I'll guess that the problems you're having are due to the fact that this is a DUAL dock, with two drive ports, rather than a single dock.

As nice as the "dual dock" idea seems (again I'll guess that these were designed with PC's in mind), they sometimes have problems when connected to the Mac OS. It's as if the Mac OS has trouble "discerning" that there are TWO separate drives coming through the USB connection instead of only one. May be related to the drive's controller board, etc.

So.. some tweaking, dancing, fiddlin' and foolin' may be required to get BOTH drives recognized properly. I'm thinking that this can also hold true for ejecting one drive from the dock, while keeping the other one mounted.

IF you took one of the drives out (and used the dual dock with only a single drive inserted, and IF you connected ANOTHER (single-drive) dock to the other USB port, I predict your problems will be resolved, "just like that".

I have several USB/SATA docks, all of the "single slot" variety, and have always avoided dual docks, to avoid such annoyances.

Even single docks can be quirky now and then, but far less so than dual docks.
 
"As nice as the "dual dock" idea seems (again I'll guess that these were designed with PC's in mind), they sometimes have problems when connected to the Mac OS"

Interesting. That didn't occur to me when I bought it. Does the brand matter? Or is it a problem with all dual docks? OWC sells one by NewerTech. I have been looking at hubs and docks.
 
countermoon said:
The Paragon works sometimes. A good deal at $20, nice UI, but it only works sometimes.
Click to expand...
In my experience with NTFS years ago, when Paragon can't mount it, it's time to Check your hard disk for errors from Windows https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...indows-7-ddeb9e4b-6777-b2bd-4507-9259dba1a495
Regarding the dock, it shouldn't have any problems connecting to macOS: "OS Compatibility - OS independent; No software or drivers required" https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/sdock2u33
 
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bogdanw said:
In my experience with NTFS years ago, when Paragon can't mount it, it's time to Check your hard disk for errors from Windows https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...indows-7-ddeb9e4b-6777-b2bd-4507-9259dba1a495
Regarding the dock, it shouldn't have any problems connecting to macOS: "OS Compatibility - OS independent; No software or drivers required" https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/sdock2u33
Click to expand...
There was an error on that Windows drive. Something like "f parameter not specified". Disk Utility couldn't fix it, and I could only read the drive, not write to it.
 
No, the problem is with the drive. If there is a dock with two drives inserted, and one drive mounts but the other doesn't, that's a problem with one of the drives.
 
"No, the problem is with the drive. If there is a dock with two drives inserted, and one drive mounts but the other doesn't, that's a problem with one of the drives."

I don't think it's "the drives".
Rather, it's the "dual dock", the controller that governs the dock, and the way the Mac OS is trying to "see" the dock with [suddenly] TWO drives in it, instead of one.

As I mentioned above...
If you want to copy files from one "bare" drive to another, then:
- Put only ONE drive into the dual dock
- Get ANOTHER dock and put the other drive into it
- Now both docked drives will behave properly

Do it this way, and I will CONFIDENTLY predict that your current problems will simply DISAPPEAR.
 
Fishrrman said:
I don't think it's "the drives".
Rather, it's the "dual dock", the controller that governs the dock, and the way the Mac OS is trying to "see" the dock with [suddenly] TWO drives in it, instead of one.
Click to expand...
You are underestimating macOS and its capacity of recognizing USB hubs.
Specifications for the dock
Chipset ID:
VIA/VLI - VL812 https://www.via-labs.com/product_show.php?id=41
ASMedia – ASM1153E https://www.asmedia.com.tw/product/7B6yQ54sX7YiFhGD/d1Eyq85QN8GhBwRC
UASP “Apple added native support for UAS to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Attached_SCSI
countermoon said:
There was an error on that Windows drive. Something like "f parameter not specified". Disk Utility couldn't fix it, and I could only read the drive, not write to it.
Click to expand...
My advice remains to fix the drive from Windows. Disk Utility & Paragon might make matters worse.
 
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Nope. The opposite. Paragon fixed it. It turned out to be a good program. I didn't buy it because I have no use for Windows anymore, but if anyone does, this is a nice cheap program to have. I'm not sure what happened, but for a long time the drive was read-only. It looks like Paragon fixed it, and I was able to mount the drive and write to it without any problems.
 
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