Do not use a hub–plug your drive directly into your Mac’s port.Plug in the USB cable into the Mac and to the device.The best (or least problematic) method for connecting external drives So it’s better to follow the recommended path to connect your external device(s) to your Mac. That’s why most USB devices are called plug-and-play. It’s easy to plug things in at random times, and usually, our Macs and MacBooks get it right and recognize everything. Encrypt BackUps for iPhones and iDevices.
Download Photos from iCloud to USB Drive.Backup iPhone to an External Drive with iTunes.
Update Finder Preferences to show external drives.Connect the USB device to its own power source, if possible.Check your USB connections for a snug fit or frayed cables, missing pins.If using a hub, try using a different port on your Mac for the hub or plugging your external drives directly into the Mac.Quick Tips Follow these quick tips and get your Mac to recognize and mount your external drives External Drives Very Slow after macOS Update?.Does Your MacBook Shut Down When You Plug In Your External Hard Drive?.Terminal commands not working or seeing “operation not permitted” in macOS Mojave and above?.External hard drive won’t mount in macOS High Sierra or above?.1,6 GHz Intel Core i5 (I5-8210Y) double core.Besides, what kind of guarantee do I have if I format the new EHD again using exFAT, as it has proven terribly unreliable in the past? Loading a single EHD seems like an excruciatingly hard labour for my MacBook, so I cannot imagine the stress when it has to deal with two external hard drives. Note: I admit that the idea of connecting my two EHDs to my MacBook and transferring all the content from one EHD to another actually crossed my mind, but I don't think my computer has enough force to do that task. I did some reading and consulted several online tutorials in order to do it properly, but I cannot declare with complete conviction that I knew how to properly manage the Scheme menu (I guess GUID should be the one to choose) or, again, how to choose the right unit allocation size (apparently, the amount of kilobytes one chooses can have a huge influence on the functioning and the reading speed of the EHD). Whenever I think about the causes of this malfunction, I guess it might have something to do with how the disk was formatted. I did buy another Toshiba Canvio Basics external hard drive, but I haven't even touched it, out of fear of choosing again an exFAT (which is thought of as compatible and able to be used both on Mac and PC) format again and risking to spoil a piece of hardware.
But my problem is that I have no space whatsoever on my MacBook Air (my flash storage is limited to 128 GB of space) to create a backup copy. I read the forums and see that everybody is recommending making a backup copy and giving a new format to the external hard drive. When you click on it, you are again subjected to extreme torture in the form of another insane amount of loading time until the folders and icons finally show up, if they do at all. After the hour has passed, a golden-coloured external hard drive icon shows up. Of course, I checked the format and it is still exFAT indeed. However, every time I try to connect that same external hard drive to my sleek, modern MacBook Air, the transmission seems to stall from the very beginning and can take almost 60 minutes to load. Several seconds pass (no more than 10) and I am ready to browse the contents of the drive at leisure.
Whenever I connect the external hard drive to my tiny, cyan-colored HP Stream, the PC manages to read the device instantly, even if the computer resembles a child's toy and has a mere 2 GB of RAM memory. I currently have more than 700 GB of important data saved in that device. I formatted it and chose the exFAT system. I bought a Toshiba Canvio Basics external hard drive with 2 TB of storage some weeks ago.