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It seems that in my macOS 13.4.1 (22F82), Disk Utility 22.6 (DU) cannot find an external drive until an OS reboot.  Maybe I'm missing something.

A: 30GB Hitachi, 2.5", IDE

B: 30GB Toshiba, 2.5", SATA

C: 500GB Seagate, 2.5", SATA

A was NTFS.  I reformatted it APFS, unmounted it. (View set to "Show all devices.")  Unplugged drive.  Still shows in Disk Utility.  Exited and relaunched DU. A still in display.  Look through menus for a "refresh" or "rescan" and don't find it.  Exit DU, plug in B, relaunch DU. A still showing (part numbers easily distinguishable).

Reboot OS, launch DU. Now B shows, uninitialized.  Formatted APFS.  Details view suggests format succeeded, but then it tried to "erase data" although secure erase was NOT turned on.  Again, could not get it out of DU display without reboot.

Rebooted with C plugged in.  Five minutes, nothing appears (except internal SSD). Turn off power to C, exited DU, turned C on again, launched DU. Doesn't show. Turned off power to C, unplugged, plugged in "D"–2000GB Seagate SSHD, 3.5".  It doesn't show.

!! Several minutes after I started typing this, DU finally showed something—but it was showing the ID of disk B!

What the heck is going on here? This laptop is still under warranty and has zero problems with my three Time Machine drives and two other externals.  It’s a 15-inch, 2019, Intel.

UPDATE: After further testing, there are five of six drives that do not work with this adapter.  The adapter goes from USB on the laptop directly to the drive (no enclosure).  The ones that don't work are SATA and 3.5" IDE.  But the one that does is 2.5" IDE.  Possible but unlikely that two of three connectors on the adapter are bad, but there is still the peculiarity of Disk Utility "remembering" a not-connected drive after a reboot.  To rule out the drives or the adapter connectors, I would have to disassemble an enclosure with a known working drive, which I am not willing to do.

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WGroleau
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  • What model Mac do you have. I was unaware there existed a Mac that had external ports where IDE and SATA drives could be plugged in. If by chance you used an USB adaptor, was all three drives using the same adaptor? You never mention ejecting any external drives. Did you omit this from your question or did you actually just unmount volumes? – David Anderson Jul 13 '23 at 02:15
  • I said external in the first line.  Yes, the adapter is suspect. BUT, DU successfully detected and formatted the IDE through the adapter and detected one SATA through it.  And maybe the adapter failed during the formatting of the second drive. And maybe three of the drives themselves are actually defective.  But how can DU show the part number of a drive that is not connected AFTER a reboot? – WGroleau Jul 13 '23 at 02:24
  • And maybe B, C, & D are all bad.  I just plugged in A, and it already has the Spotlight DB on it.  The fact that I can know that shows the adapter is still working. – WGroleau Jul 13 '23 at 02:32
  • But DU is still remembering drive A, showing it as connected when it is not, even after exit and relaunch. – WGroleau Jul 13 '23 at 02:52
  • So, to summarize, you have three externally connected, assuming USB drives that have difficulty, but five other external drive, also assuming USB, working correctly. How are these drives connected? Via a Hub? You mention that the “adapter is suspect.” Why not eliminate this question mark initially? What do the thee troublesome drives have in common that the five working drives don’t? – Allan Jul 13 '23 at 13:30
  • @Allan, see update – WGroleau Jul 13 '23 at 16:21
  • Disk Utility doesn’t “remember” anything. You don’t need to disassemble anything either. Get a simple USB to SATA adapter not an all-in-one with IDE/SATA, 2.5” to 3.5” converters, etc. - simpler is better. Start there and if the drives start working immediately, you’ve found your issue. – Allan Jul 13 '23 at 16:47
  • I am also not willing to buy another adapter to see whether this one has a problem. And if you read my details, you'll see that several minutes after unplugging the one drive that worked and rebooting, Disk Utility suddenly added the details of THAT drive to its display. – WGroleau Jul 13 '23 at 17:06
  • So, by this logic, the problem must be Disk Utility and that’s where we need to focus our efforts? It couldn’t possibly be a faulty USB to SATA controller that’s reporting incorrect info to macOS? – Allan Jul 13 '23 at 19:47
  • If I knew, there wouldn't be a question asking.  I sent the thing back, not only on suspicion of a problem but because it isn't the item I was trying to order.  I highly doubt that a sixteen-dollar adapter would store the part number that a drive reports and feed it to the laptop half an hour later when a different drive is connected.  But it's certainly possible. – WGroleau Jul 13 '23 at 23:25

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