[SOLVED] Please help me to understand something...

[Dom46]

Why is it that every time I plug in an external USB drive into my MacBook, it is initially recognized. I will properly eject it when finished using it, but, it is never recognized again when I plug it back in to use.

What gives?

Thank you.

 

[Aeacus]

Here's a thought:

When you "Eject" the drive, so it is safe to be disconnected, the eject command also disables any further drive recognition. That is, until next boot-up, when drive recognition is enabled again.

 

[Dom46]

Here's a thought:

When you "Eject" the drive, so it is safe to be disconnected, the eject command also disables any further drive recognition. That is, until next boot-up, when drive recognition is enabled again.

I thought the same. So I rebooted. It just doesn't see the drive and disk utilities jut churns and churns until I unplug it. Then the boot drive becomes visible.

 

[Aeacus]

So I rebooted.

There is a difference between soft/warm reboot and hard/cold restart. On soft boot, OS, for the most part, stays running and for example, RAM isn't cleared. On cold restart, there is power-off from the whole system, clearing RAM and OS starts again.

I've had same issue with my Win PC and cold restart fixes it, while soft reboot usually doesn't.

As of why that happens, especially on this current plug-and-play era - that i don't know. I guess the plug-and-play USB devices isn't that robust of a feature as it claims to be.