Storage Solutions 1TB Toshiba external drive suddenly crashed

[guest_999]

In my case, my drive will be out of sight most of the time.
Ordered the Samsung T7

Activity led is helpful in troubleshooting so if it lights up then you know that at least device is getting power. Sometimes the faulty usb port/loose connection may cause no power or insufficient power to be supplied resulting in activity led either not lighting at all or turning on off rapidly. Samsung T7 is also good & it has activity led too.

Samsung T7 Portable SSD Review: Colorful and Secure Storage

Samsung’s T7 brings colorful and speedy storage to the masses.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Emil]

Is there anything special I have to do when I first connect the drive to my Mac mini? Like is there a particular format I need to do? Any permissions to set? My first task will be to copy the data from my Toshiba to the new drive. Is there anything I need to keep in mind if I ever want to open the files on a Windows machine?

 

[guest_999]

Is there anything special I have to do when I first connect the drive to my Mac mini? Like is there a particular format I need to do? Any permissions to set? My first task will be to copy the data from my Toshiba to the new drive. Is there anything I need to keep in mind if I ever want to open the files on a Windows machine?

From what I know macos does not support NTFS write without some free/paid addon to the macOS. Ex-fat is universally supported on both windows & mac but on windows using ex-fat means no file system integrity checks like ntfs has so better use checksums for your important data(checksum is a kind of value which is unique to every digital file kind of like fingerprint) so you create a checksum of imp data & save it in some notepad like file(or even put the checksum in filename) & then whenever you move data between drives you can again calculate the checksum of copied data & match it with original checksum value to confirm data was correctly copied/not corrupted during transfer.

 

[Emil]

From what I know macos does not support NTFS write without some free/paid addon to the macOS. Ex-fat is universally supported on both windows & mac but on windows using ex-fat means no file system integrity checks like ntfs has so better use checksums for your important data(checksum is a kind of value which is unique to every digital file kind of like fingerprint) so you create a checksum of imp data & save it in some notepad like file(or even put the checksum in filename) & then whenever you move data between drives you can again calculate the checksum of copied data & match it with original checksum value to confirm data was correctly copied/not corrupted during transfer.

Manually tracking checksum is not really practical.

 

[guest_999]

Manually tracking checksum is not really practical.

Yes, for more than a few dozen files it is not practical. You can use a copy software like total commander or freefilesync with the option to verify copy process by matching checksums of source & destination data but keep in mind this will increase the whole process timing to almost double as entire data needs to be read 2 times(first time for copy, second time for checksum match).

 

[Emil]

Yes, for more than a few dozen files it is not practical. You can use a copy software like total commander or freefilesync with the option to verify copy process by matching checksums of source & destination data but keep in mind this will increase the whole process timing to almost double as entire data needs to be read 2 times(first time for copy, second time for checksum match).

That does not matter much. When there is bulk data to transfer, I will not be sitting and watching it happen. When it is smaller amount of data, double of a few mSec is immaterial. More importantly, are these kind of utility software available for MacOS?

 

[guest_999]

That does not matter much. When there is bulk data to transfer, I will not be sitting and watching it happen. When it is smaller amount of data, double of a few mSec is immaterial. More importantly, are these kind of utility software available for MacOS?

Freefilesync is available for macos. I suggest to first experiment with test folders & dummy data to understand how such software works as choosing wrong setting/option may result in accidental deletion of data. Once you are familiarized with software interface & options then use it for your actual folders data tasks.

FreeFileSync

Download FreeFileSync 13.5. FreeFileSync is a free open source data backup software that helps you synchronize files and folders on Windows, Linux and macOS.

freefilesync.org

 

[Emil]

OK here's my plan of action. Open to advice/suggestions.
1. Format my new SSD as APFS. Copy data from my old HDD to the new SSD.
2. Back on the Windows desktop, reformat the Toshiba (still NTFS) and copy over the data from the second HDD in the desktop and put it also on the new SSD on the Mac.
3. Once all the data of the old desktop drives is on the new SSD, I can upload the data to the cloud.
4. Reformat the Toshiba to exFAT and use it as a backup drive for the SSD.

My Mac mini M1 only has 256 GB ssd inside. I am considering directly using the data on the external drive to work on. Is that safe enough since I am using APFS? Or should I copy files on the Mac internal storage to work on and put them back on the ext SSD after I'm done? The second option will require a strict discipline on my part.

Freefilesync is available for macos. I suggest to first experiment with test folders & dummy data to understand how such software works as choosing wrong setting/option may result in accidental deletion of data. Once you are familiarized with software interface & options then use it for your actual folders data tasks.

FreeFileSync

Download FreeFileSync 13.5. FreeFileSync is a free open source data backup software that helps you synchronize files and folders on Windows, Linux and macOS.

freefilesync.org

Thanks. You are a big help.

 

[guest_999]

OK here's my plan of action. Open to advice/suggestions.
1. Format my new SSD as APFS. Copy data from my old HDD to the new SSD.
2. Back on the Windows desktop, reformat the Toshiba (still NTFS) and copy over the data from the second HDD in the desktop and put it also on the new SSD on the Mac.
3. Once all the data of the old desktop drives is on the new SSD, I can upload the data to the cloud.
4. Reformat the Toshiba to exFAT and use it as a backup drive for the SSD.

My Mac mini M1 only has 256 GB ssd inside. I am considering directly using the data on the external drive to work on. Is that safe enough since I am using APFS? Or should I copy files on the Mac internal storage to work on and put them back on the ext SSD after I'm done? The second option will require a strict discipline on my part.

APFS formatted drive won't be readable on windows pc without installing software on windows pc. Do not delete anything until you confirm that original data was copied correctly(this is where freefilesync will come into picture & at this point you should be familiar with this software after experimenting with it on test data & dummy folders). Ideally, you should not delete anything for which you don't have at least 2 copies of that data in 2 different locations(2 drives or 1 drive & 1 cloud storage).

P.S. use the "preserve time stamps" option in freefilesync to keep same file & folder creation & modification dates as original data because many times these dates will change for the copied data across drives/filesystems.

 

[Emil]

My son-in-law, who works a lot on Apple devices and occasionally on Windows, has just informed me that there is a free NTFS plugin on App Store that works very well for him. So I guess I'll stick with NTFS all the way. My drive is coming on Monday.

APFS formatted drive won't be readable on windows pc without installing software on windows pc. Do not delete anything until you confirm that original data was copied correctly(this is where freefilesync will come into picture & at this point you should be familiar with this software after experimenting with it on test data & dummy folders). Ideally, you should not delete anything for which you don't have at least 2 copies of that data in 2 different locations(2 drives or 1 drive & 1 cloud storage).

P.S. use the "preserve time stamps" option in freefilesync to keep same file & folder creation & modification dates as original data because many times these dates will change for the copied data across drives/filesystems.

I was not intending to be able to read the APFS drive on Windows.

 

[guest_999]

My son-in-law, who works a lot on Apple devices and occasionally on Windows, has just informed me that there is a free NTFS plugin on App Store that works very well for him.

That's good to know. Can you post the link of that plugin on app store for future reference?

 

[Emil]

That's good to know. Can you post the link of that plugin on app store for future reference?

Not sure which one he used. He is sleeping now because he is in another timezone but I just checked with another friend who uses iBoysoft NTFS for Mac.
Edit on June 2: He is using Mounty for NFS.