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Big Sur and external drives

I see there was a thread on this last November. I have the same issue with a new iStorage Disk Ashur Pro 2. Formatted exFAT, the disc reads fine on my PC desktop but will not read on my Mac or my MacBook Pro running the latest version of Big Sur (11.5.2). The drive shows up in disk utility but will not mount. I can still read my old Disk Ashur Pro which was formatted NTFS. Any suggestions welcome.

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Sep 9, 2021 8:32 AM

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Posted on Sep 10, 2021 7:46 AM

thanks, i have iCloud. i also have drop box. I have a WD My Cloud 4100 device on my network which is my main back up, because i have confidential material which i cannot store on iCloud or drop box. I put all my photos on that.

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8 replies

Sep 9, 2021 9:08 AM in response to janetinlondon

Does the drive have to be formatted ExFAT? If so, copy the files to another drive temporarily, erase and reformat the drive on the Mac to ExFAT, with GUID partition map. Then see if your Mac can see it.


If you don't need it accessible by your PC then format it APFS. It'll be much more reliable for the Mac. Also don't put a Photos library on an ExFAT drive. It's not compatible with the format and will not run and can be damaged.


Sep 14, 2021 8:47 AM in response to janetinlondon

Just remember, if you don't have to share the drive with a PC it's best to reformat it for the Mac. Also you won't be able to store and run a Photos library from the ExFAT drive - incompatible.


In the future if you buy your external HDs from OWC (MacSales.com) they all come formatted for Macs. They are probably the most respected 3rd party hardware provider for Macs out there.

Big Sur and external drives

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