Weird USB stick problem

[_localhost]

So I have a really odd one I can't get a handle on. I've been doing some IT work on the side while my main business is shutdown so have been getting a wide variety of machines, including a bunch of Macs.

I had to replace a HDD in one Macbook Pro so created a boot USB stick to install the OS which worked fine. I used a 32GB Sandisk Ultra Flair. However since then no machine other than a Mac can see the drive, at all. Nothing in any partition software I have, it doesn't even appear in device manager. I would say the drive is dead, but plugging it back into a Mac works absolutely fine.

Has anyone else experienced this?

P.S This has been my first proper experience of macOS in 10 years. Man its been left in the dust by Linux...

[Master Disaster]

That's weird for sure.

 

Could you plug it into a Windows PC then open command prompt as admin, type "diskpart" and hit enter then type "list disk" and hit enter. Take a screenshot of the output and post it here please.

[Enderman]

Maybe use the mac to reformat it to a different type? Like EXfat or whatever works cross platform.

[akio123008]

Just now, Enderman said:

Maybe use the mac to reformat it to a different type? Like EXfat or whatever works cross platform.

That was my first thought too, but that doesn't explain why the thing also doesn't show up in device manager.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

Maybe use the mac to reformat it to a different type? Like EXfat or whatever works cross platform.

The device should still be detected by Windows even if Windows doesn't understand the format. The only explanation I can come up with is some weird MBR/GPT thing but even that shouldn't matter since Windows understands both fine.

[akio123008]

Really not sure about this theory, but have you clicked something like "remove drive" or something like that before removing the drive from the mac? (like the "remove hardware safely" thing on windows). AFAIK it's unnecessary on windows but there's a point to using it on macos.

[_localhost]

Thanks for both your replies:

 

Disk part only shows my two 1TB disks.
I don't currently have any Macs in to try that however before I gave the last one back I tried reformatting it to ExFAT and FAT on the Mac with no change

[_localhost]

Just now, akio123008 said:

Really not sure about this theory, but have you clicked something like "remove drive" or something like that before removing the drive from the mac? (like the "remove hardware safely" thing on windows). AFAIK it's unnecessary on windows but there's a point to using it on macos.

Yes I unmounted the drive, thanks

[Master Disaster]

7 minutes ago, _localhost said:

Thanks for both your replies:

 

Disk part only shows my two 1TB disks.
I don't currently have any Macs in to try that however before I gave the last one back I tried reformatting it to ExFAT and FAT on the Mac with no change

With the drive still plugged in to the Windows machine reboot to BIOS and see if you can find any trace of it in there. Check the boot override section and see if it shows as bootable, if not then run QFLASH and see if it shows as an option to install a BIOS file from.

 

8 minutes ago, akio123008 said:

Really not sure about this theory, but have you clicked something like "remove drive" or something like that before removing the drive from the mac? (like the "remove hardware safely" thing on windows). AFAIK it's unnecessary on windows but there's a point to using it on macos.

This isn't really necessary on any OS these days. Its a relic from the days when flash storage USB speed was so much slower than the HDD that the OS had to use write caching to prevent data loss from occurring. These days USB 2 & 3 are more than fast enough to handle copying a file from a HDD with overrunning the buffer.

[akio123008]

4 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

This isn't really necessary on any OS these days. Its a relic from the days when flash USB speed was so much slower than the HDD that the OS had to use write caching to prevent data loss from occurring. These days USB 2 & 3 are more than fast enough to handle copying a file from a HDD with overrunning the buffer.

I thought I'd read somewhere though that on macos chaching is on by default, whereas on windows it's off by default. That may not (anymore) be the case on macos. Actually, even if this was happening I don't see how it would make the drive stop working. However I thought I'd mention it anyway because there's really nothing else I could think of.

[_localhost]

14 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

With the drive still plugged in to the Windows machine reboot to BIOS and see if you can find any trace of it in there. Check the boot override section and see if it shows as bootable, if not then run QFLASH and see if it shows as an option to install a BIOS file from.

 

This isn't really necessary on any OS these days. Its a relic from the days when flash storage USB speed was so much slower than the HDD that the OS had to use write caching to prevent data loss from occurring. These days USB 2 & 3 are more than fast enough to handle copying a file from a HDD with overrunning the buffer.

I have tried to view it in the BIOS of two machines and it just doesn't appear.

 

I'd like to add another reminder here, it worked fine in a mac between these tests. What the....

 

Edit: Not just looking at boot devices either but viewing devices on the USB bus

[_localhost]

I'll add one more puzzle piece before I have to pop out. In a PC it heats up like its reading/writing. Not crazy hot like theres a short or something but about the same as my other identical USBs when they are under load.

[Master Disaster]

24 minutes ago, akio123008 said:

I thought I'd read somewhere though that on macos chaching is on by default, whereas on windows it's off by default. That may not (anymore) be the case on macos. Actually, even if this was happening I don't see how it would make the drive stop working. However I thought I'd mention it anyway because there's really nothing else I could think of.

You might be correct, I use macOS very infrequently. I can say that I have pulled USB drives out of macOS without removing them and its never caused me an issue but I fully concede, that doesn't mean it cannot happen.