Help - macOS 14 Sonoma - frequent external disk disconnections

rscheffler
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · Help - macOS 14 Sonoma - frequent external disk disconnections

lsquare wrote:
Is Sabrent a reputable brand? Why didn't you buy a NAS, but instead using what appears to be a Sabrent 5-bay DAS.

Sabrent seem to be pretty reputable and I guess have been around long enough. The little I've had to contact them for support they were responsive and honored their warranty. I bought three Sabrent USB-C NVMe enclosures more for the features and price point than the brand. They worked perfectly with my system until the macOS 14 upgrade. The major reason I bought the Sabrent 5-bay enclosure was because of its tray-less design that allows me to easily swap my many HDDs (I have a lot of HDDs).

Let's clarify terminology because NAS in particular has caused confusion in past threads. DAS = Direct Attached Storage. NAS = Network Attached Storage. Many equate NAS to be RAID, which can be a configuration option, whether hardware or software RAID. But NAS can also be individual drives.

Prior to getting the MBP M1 Pro system in 2022 I had cobbled together a collection of 2009-2011 vintage Macs with the 27" 2009 iMac being my primary editing system. Due to the age of all these devices, they all only had USB-2 ports, or FW800 on the iMac. The 2011 MBP did have TB, so I got a TB hub and a USB-3 5-bay enclosure to connect to it. But because I used the iMac for editing, the MBP became a network file server and the 5-bay enclosure became a NAS (non-RAID). This all worked fine. File transfer speeds over the network were fast enough and Lightroom was perfectly happy to link to the networked volumes (though I did use Smart Previews to speed up general LR editing). So I actually was using NAS until 2022...

The MBP M1 Pro is now my main editing system and I no longer have need to access files over a network, therefore the Sabrent USB-C 5-bay enclosure works perfectly fine as a DAS.

Regarding RAID, or lack thereof: I have zero interest in adding another layer of complexity and potential point of failure. If I was to do RAID, it would be RAID 6 for two-drive redundancy. Given that the potential size of an array now could easily be 30+TB, I'd be very uncomfortable for the long period of time it would take to rebuild a RAID 5 array without redundancy. Of course no one should use a RAID as their archive without other forms of backup...

IMO the primary benefit of a RAID is to create a single giant volume on which one can keep everything for easy access. I don't have a need for this, therefore I don't have a need for a RAID solution. Nor do I have a need for RAID 0 speed, especially now with a single relatively inexpensive NVMe in a TB3/4 enclosure pushing about 3GB/s, which was impossible to achieve with a typical home-brew HDD-based RAID 0 array.

Jul 05, 2024 at 06:32 PM

lsquare
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · Help - macOS 14 Sonoma - frequent external disk disconnections

rscheffler wrote:
Sabrent seem to be pretty reputable and I guess have been around long enough. The little I've had to contact them for support they were responsive and honored their warranty. I bought three Sabrent USB-C NVMe enclosures more for the features and price point than the brand. They worked perfectly with my system until the macOS 14 upgrade. The major reason I bought the Sabrent 5-bay enclosure was because of its tray-less design that allows me to easily swap my many HDDs (I have a lot of HDDs).

Let's clarify terminology because NAS in particular has caused confusion in past threads....Show more →

Why do you have so many HDDs?

Jul 05, 2024 at 06:46 PM

rscheffler
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · Help - macOS 14 Sonoma - frequent external disk disconnections

lsquare wrote:
Why do you have so many HDDs?

I transitioned to digital in 2001, I am a prolific shooter, photography is both a hobby and an occupation. I also don't delete my outtakes, "just in case."

I fill 'working drives' chronologically as I add projects and each of these drives is cloned at least once for back up. Additionally, each project is added to other HDDs dedicated to specific subject types (i.e. sports, client work, family & friends, travel) which also serve as additional back up.

As HDD capacity increases, I migrate smaller drives to larger ones and the smaller drives continue to serve as additional back up of older content that is typically accessed less frequently (I also upload jpeg exports of completed projects to cloud storage).

Over the years I have amassed a sizable collection of HDDs.

While I did not produce as much quantity before digital, even for what I did, my analog collection of processed film and prints consumes far more physical space than my HDD collection. I couldn't imagine how much space I would need for the analog equivalent of what I have shot digitally...

Jul 05, 2024 at 07:23 PM

lsquare
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · Help - macOS 14 Sonoma - frequent external disk disconnections

rscheffler wrote:
I transitioned to digital in 2001, I am a prolific shooter, photography is both a hobby and an occupation. I also don't delete my outtakes, "just in case."

I fill 'working drives' chronologically as I add projects and each of these drives is cloned at least once for back up. Additionally, each project is added to other HDDs dedicated to specific subject types (i.e. sports, client work, family & friends, travel) which also serve as additional back up.

As HDD capacity increases, I migrate smaller drives to larger ones and the smaller drives continue to serve as additional back up of...Show more →

Just want to confirm that you insert the SSD I to the enclosure, plug it into your Mac, format it as APFS, and then it's usable?

I'm really interested in Carbon Copy Cloner, but I have no experience using it. Is it easy to use?

Jul 07, 2024 at 02:41 PM

rscheffler
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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · Help - macOS 14 Sonoma - frequent external disk disconnections

lsquare wrote:
Just want to confirm that you insert the SSD I to the enclosure, plug it into your Mac, format it as APFS, and then it's usable?

I'm really interested in Carbon Copy Cloner, but I have no experience using it. Is it easy to use?

Yes, if it's a new SSD. Otherwise, if it's one you previously used and are just changing the enclosure, there is no need to reformat it again (apologies if this is obvious; I don't want to assume anything).

CCC is pretty easy to use. It will help to read the instructions, but I find it straightforward. You can use it like Time Machine and run back ups on a scheduled basis, or you can use it whenever you need to. In addition to backing up my system's user files, I primarily use it to copy folders from one volume to another to ensure complete and faithful copies. This is primarily to update older versions of project folders on back up drives with current versions from working drives. When you do this, CCC has a feature called 'Safety Net' which will move all of the older versions of files being replaced by newer ones to a 'back ups' folder where you can access them in case you need an older version, for whatever reason. The price of the app is reasonable and the developer constantly rolls out updates to keep it current with MacOS, and to fix the inevitable bugs (not that I've experienced any bugs that specifically affected my use of the app). There are probably other apps that do the same thing but I've used CCC for a very long time and have found no reason to look elsewhere.

Jul 07, 2024 at 03:23 PM

rscheffler
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p.2 #6 · p.2 #6 · Help - macOS 14 Sonoma - frequent external disk disconnections

With some trepidation I resumed backups of projects to HDDs in a Sabrent 5-bay USB-3 external enclosure. I was uncertain if the problem with the NVMes in USB-3 enclosures would also happen with the 5-bay unit. So far over 1TB cloned and no drive disconnects in the 5-bay. I've also continued to back up current projects to one of the 2TB WD SN850X SSDs in the same model Sabrent NVMe USB-3 enclosure I used for the 4TB drive. Transfers can go hundreds of GBs but will eventually disconnect. CCC reports that when the system mounts the drive again, usually within a few seconds, it's recognized as a USB-2 device and indeed will only transfer at ~40MB/s. To clear this and restore the drive/enclosure to USB-3 performance, I reboot the computer.

Barring anything new, it would appear the problem discussed here might be specific to NVMes, or WDSN850X NVMes (and whether it's FW version relevant), or the specific Sabrent USB-3 NVMe enclosure. Or a combination of these.

I received a second Acasis TBU405 that I ordered from them directly. It took about 5-6 days for delivery to the Toronto area. I recalled seeing something on their site that it was taxes inclusive but didn't really give it much credibility, expecting to pay at least GST/HST (sales tax), as is typical on such an import. But it indeed did arrive without anything due. Glad I gave the direct purchase a try because it saved about CA $40 over buying from Amazon or similar.

Jul 08, 2024 at 11:46 AM

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