High Sierra problem with USB drives

[Calperon]

My USB drives that worked well on a MacBookPro under El Capitan will no longer show up in High Sierra on my new iMac. The drives show only as :50ex700_series" and the other as "hpa45d363ac48f". When I try GET INFO they show only as KINDC and WHERE: network. WD drives work but not Seagate or Iomega
I have changed the USB cables and pushed every button without success. When I try to open them on my 2009 laptop I was shown an opportunity to mount them and I was then able to read their contents.
I see on the 'net that I am not alone with what appears to be a long standing problem in accessing saved data, so apart from waiting until Apple wake up to their well-reported problems can any bright spark suggest a remedy suitable for an ancient 2 finger user?

 

[honestone]

I assume High Sierra was already installed on your new iMac, correct? And is the version of High Sierra on it V10.13.3?

When you plug any of the USB drives into a USB port on the iMac, do they show up in Disk Utility?

Now, you said that you can read ANY of those drives on your 2009 laptop. which is a 2009 MacBook Pro with El Capitan (I assume OS 10.11.6). If you can spare any of those external drives, maybe Erase and Format them on the laptop (Format them as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then plug it into the iMac and see if it mounts OK.

(By the way, are all your external drives HDDs and not SSDs?).

 

[Calperon]

My USB drives that worked well on a MacBookPro under El Capitan will no longer show up in High Sierra on my new iMac. The drives show only as :50ex700_series" and the other as "hpa45d363ac48f". When I try GET INFO they show only as KINDC and WHERE: network. WD drives work but not Seagate or Iomega
I have changed the USB cables and pushed every button without success. When I try to open them on my 2009 laptop I was shown an opportunity to mount them and I was then able to read their contents.
I see on the 'net that I am not alone with what appears to be a long standing problem in accessing saved data, so apart from waiting until Apple wake up to their well-reported problems can any bright spark suggest a remedy suitable for an ancient 2 finger user?

I must apologise for not replying to your offer of help - frankly I could not find the page again!
Your reply made me realise what the problems were. The strange network drives were not drives at all but my wi-fi enabled printers which had never showed up before and two of my drives had simply disappeared. I have now managed to copy my data over using a combination of my old McBookPro and the new iMac causing no end of problems en route since the two used different operating systems. One of my drive's manufacturers write that this is caused by one of Apple's system changes which prevents it being mounted.
Apparently one must accept Apple making unheralded changes at the whim of an American committee of computer nerds.
Now my new problem is realising that they have also changed photo formats to one that no other programme appears to be able to read - including their own Preview programme. Perhaps those Microsoft days were not so bad after all.
Thank you again.

 

[honestone]

I have been through numerous versions of the Mac OS, with numerous Mac models, and numerous external drives/devices, and I rarely, if ever have had an issue with drives mounting and/or being useful. And the brands of drives I have had are Seagate (always worked well, even when I had my old Apple IIGS!), Hitachi, and Samsung (currently have 2 Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSDs enclosed in nice, small Orico enclosures. The only time I had a significant issue was when one of the Seagate drives I previously had was failing. Considering how long I had the drive (close to 8 years), that is no surprise.

Currently I have OS 10.13.4, the latest version of High Sierra (released on Thursday), installed on both of my Macs. The two external Samsung SSDs have 3 partitions each, with two of the partitions (formatted as APFS) for the SuperDuper! backups of each of each of my Macs, and the third partition, containing miscellaneous "stuff" (old tax returns, Movies, TV series, etc.), is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled, GUID Partition Map). Each of the internal SSDs on each machine is formatted as APFS. I am having no issues at all with any of those drives/partitions being recognized.

From what I have seen posted about such issues (except for the drives being old), most folks do not bother to do much (if any) disk cleanup. maintenance, and repairs, from a software perspective. And such neglect causes considerable havoc with internal drives/SSDs. For those tasks, there is some excellent software available (both free and commercial). In fact, Apple's Disk Utility program is "decent" also (although a couple of commercial ones do a better job, especially when needed).

I've always said (and believed) that owning and maintaining a Mac is just like owning and maintaining an automobile. In the computer world, Apple stands out as being the most reliable, and easy to use (although some of Apple's recent "policies" are somewhat anal). In the automobile world, it is cars made by Honda or Toyota. But no matter how reliable and/or trouble free such cars/computers are, it is still required to perform maintenance on such "hardware". Neglecting to do that will definitely lead to issues, no matter how well made and/or reliable such "devices" are. I always keep my Macs "lean, mean, and clean". The same is true for the automobiles we have always owned. The result has been few, if any, problems/issues.

 

[Calperon]

I have been through numerous versions of the Mac OS, with numerous Mac models, and numerous external drives/devices, and I rarely, if ever have had an issue with drives mounting and/or being useful. And the brands of drives I have had are Seagate (always worked well, even when I had my old Apple IIGS!), Hitachi, and Samsung (currently have 2 Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSDs enclosed in nice, small Orico enclosures. The only time I had a significant issue was when one of the Seagate drives I previously had was failing. Considering how long I had the drive (close to 8 years), that is no surprise.

Currently I have OS 10.13.4, the latest version of High Sierra (released on Thursday), installed on both of my Macs. The two external Samsung SSDs have 3 partitions each, with two of the partitions (formatted as APFS) for the SuperDuper! backups of each of each of my Macs, and the third partition, containing miscellaneous "stuff" (old tax returns, Movies, TV series, etc.), is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled, GUID Partition Map). Each of the internal SSDs on each machine is formatted as APFS. I am having no issues at all with any of those drives/partitions being recognized.

From what I have seen posted about such issues (except for the drives being old), most folks do not bother to do much (if any) disk cleanup. maintenance, and repairs, from a software perspective. And such neglect causes considerable havoc with internal drives/SSDs. For those tasks, there is some excellent software available (both free and commercial). In fact, Apple's Disk Utility program is "decent" also (although a couple of commercial ones do a better job, especially when needed).

I've always said (and believed) that owning and maintaining a Mac is just like owning and maintaining an automobile. In the computer world, Apple stands out as being the most reliable, and easy to use (although some of Apple's recent "policies" are somewhat anal). In the automobile world, it is cars made by Honda or Toyota. But no matter how reliable and/or trouble free such cars/computers are, it is still required to perform maintenance on such "hardware". Neglecting to do that will definitely lead to issues, no matter how well made and/or reliable such "devices" are. I always keep my Macs "lean, mean, and clean". The same is true for the automobiles we have always owned. The result has been few, if any, problems/issues.

I am afraid this response is typical of the MAC user's views I have encountered since moving from Windows some 8 years ago. I have indeed experienced fewer problems with both Apple's hardware and software but that does not mean they are gold plated - they have problems and one of the worst is to be God-like and make sweeping changes without warning. Nerds may read about changes to OS before they download but I do not spend my life playing with the technicalities of a computer, I buy one to use and that mainly photographic work.
To say that the problems with the drives are my fault due to lack of maintenance is frankly silly. One of the drives that will not function under High Sierra is a Time Machine Drive and how am I supposed to"maintain" that?
Why also have Apple changed the format of photographs to HEIC? In the opinion of a committee in Seattle I am supposed to be forced to change the way I handle my photo collection to one that no other company appears to use. The new system may have advantages but from my point of view it is useless - pictures in that format cannot even be viewed in Apple's own Preview programme and Photoshop has never heard of it. Far better to have incorporated RAW that is actually useful even if their committee does not approve. The Default option for my iPhone 8plus would be to remain with jpeg unless I chose to turn the new system on. I am a customer of Apple, not a servant.

 

[honestone]

That response is typical of someone who does not go through the necessary preparations for moving to a new Mac OS. Yes, Macs are not "gold plated" (I never said they were), but with proper research and preparation, one can have a smooth migration. And such preparation is simple enough for even non-nerds to comprehend.

Also, it seems that a number of users think there is a "one button" solution to issues. In some rare cases, that is true, but in most instances, it is necessary to go through a few steps to try and resolve the problem. And again, with some advanced non-nerdy research (especially when migrating to a new Mac OS), a number of problems can be avoided.

As for HEIC (I must admit I did not know about such a switch, as I don't take many photos), Windows users also have issues with that format:

https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/iphone/what-is-heic-3660408/

Again, the analogy with automobiles is appropriate. We still have our 2005 Mercedes Benz CLK 320 (purchased brand new back in March 2005), and we also have a 2013 Toyota Camry XLE (purchased brand new back in May 2013), and there are some significant differences in the technology. But because I had done my non-nerd research, I was able to adapt to the new stuff the Camry has.

I don't use Time Machine for my backups, preferring to use SuperDuper!. That program has been rock solid for my backups through various iterations of the Mac OS, and with various external drives, so I cannot comment on issues with Time Machine and High Sierra. But I'm willing to bet a solution is possible. Maybe someone else who has more experience with Time Machine can "chime in".

Yes, High Sierra has some short comings, but I (and others) have been able to either adapt to them or find ways around some of them. Again, such research is non-nerdy, and really not that difficult to pursue. One just needs to willing to take the initiative.