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Why does one mbp see this SSD and another not?

donawalt

donawalt

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 10, 2015
1,293
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I am using a new HP P800 1TB Portable External Thunderbolt 3 PCIe NVMe SSD on a MBP '17 and MBP '18. I moved a lot of data to the external SSD on the MBP '17, but no matter what I do the '18 MBP does not see it - even in Disk Utility. I have tried restarting the '18, running first aid on the drive form the '17 (fine), tried all 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports on the '18. On the '17 it is recognized within about 2 seconds as soon as I plug it in. On the '18, nothing shows up.

Why would one laptop see it and use it, the other not?
 
Hmm. It just caused a kernel panic on the MBP '17 when I plugged it in. Maybe there is a MacOS software issue or a hardware problem with this SSD.
 
donawalt said:
I am using a new HP P800 1TB Portable External Thunderbolt 3 PCIe NVMe SSD on a MBP '17 and MBP '18. I moved a lot of data to the external SSD on the MBP '17, but no matter what I do the '18 MBP does not see it - even in Disk Utility. I have tried restarting the '18, running first aid on the drive form the '17 (fine), tried all 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports on the '18. On the '17 it is recognized within about 2 seconds as soon as I plug it in. On the '18, nothing shows up.

Why would one laptop see it and use it, the other not?
Click to expand...

Is there a software utility that came with the disk for encryption/security?

I was having an issue with mine not seeing my Samsung T5 properly (though it did show up in disk utility) until I added the SamsungPortableSSD utility under Security and Privacy->Privacy Tab->Accessibility in order to allow the app to control my computer.

Then after a reboot the app functioned as it should and I could unlock the disk.

Not sure if this helps. Different drive and perhaps different problem.
 
Thanks for the tip, but nothing came with it, and I didn't see anything on the site for software nor did the mbp open up any security dialog boxes. I just tried reformatting in FAT only to give it a different look, the '17 sees it but the '18 doesn't. Actually, the left hand ports of the '17 see it, but not its right hand ports! Wow. I thought all the ports were the same on the 15" '17 mbp (not the 13" I know) This is very screwy.
 
donawalt said:
Thanks for the tip, but nothing came with it, and I didn't see anything on the site for software nor did the mbp open up any security dialog boxes. I just tried reformatting in FAT only to give it a different look, the '17 sees it but the '18 doesn't. Actually, the left hand ports of the '17 see it, but not its right hand ports! Wow. I thought all the ports were the same on the 15" '17 mbp (not the 13" I know) This is very screwy.
Click to expand...


Yeah it is. All of those USB-C ports on the ‘16 and later 15” should be the same, left and right.

My Samsung came formatted exFAT. I kept it that way since I move it back and forth between Mac and PC.

But yeah, having my MBP actually see the drive was never a problem with my Samsung, just unlocking it so that I could see the full capacity.

Until I did that the Samsung utility kept telling me that there was no Samsung drive attached, despite my Mac finding it
 
This is the new HP P800. It's a nice compact external SSD but it may have issues I guess. Never had something work on the left side but not the right side ports...
 
Thanks 6zayn, I have restarted the laptop and Disk Utility as well as diskutil list does not see it, alas. I think I am going to take it back. I just formatted a little 64GB thumb drive and the '18 sees it fine, it's not supposed to be this hard lol.
 
donawalt said:
Thanks 6zayn, I have restarted the laptop and Disk Utility as well as diskutil list does not see it, alas. I think I am going to take it back. I just formatted a little 64GB thumb drive and the '18 sees it fine, it's not supposed to be this hard lol.
Click to expand...

You can’t go wrong with a Samsung T5. I have a T3 as well. Small, light, durable and good speed for the money
 
SDColorado said:
You can’t go wrong with a Samsung T5. I have a T3 as well. Small, light, durable and good speed for the money
Click to expand...

Thanks, I might get that when I return the HP. Does I need to supply a cable or adapter to plug into the Thunderbolt 3 ports of the MBP 2018, or is the correct cable in the box?
 
donawalt said:
Thanks, I might get that when I return the HP. Does I need to supply a cable or adapter to plug into the Thunderbolt 3 ports of the MBP 2018, or is the correct cable in the box?
Click to expand...

Correct cable is in the box. The drive itself has a USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port and it comes with both a USB-C to USB-C and a USB-C to USB-A cable, so works with both my MacBook Pro and PC just fine.

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-portable-ssd/
 
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