External NVMe drive spontaneously dismounts

[James Steele]

I've been doing a series of restarts and cold boots after swapping to the shorter TB3 cable. Seems like the WD Blue is hanging in there and mounting consistently on startup, but too early to tell if this will hold. Weird.

What IS strange is every so often, after a normal Restart I initiated myself, I get the "Your computer shut down because of a problem" or whatever that dialog says... even though there was no problem.

[HCMarkus]

I'll note the only long (3m) TB cable I've got in my system connects my 828ES. My Envoy Express is on the approx 6" TB cable that enclosure ships with.

My 2 USBC SSDs are connected with short USB3 cables via an unpowered USB C hub with a short cable. Only long USB cable is USB3 port on Mac Studio to USB2 powered hub to my keyboards and other peripherals.

[James Steele]

I'll note the only long (3m) TB cable I've got in my system connects my 828ES. My Envoy Express is on the approx 6" TB cable that enclosure ships with.

My 2 USBC SSDs are connected with short USB3 cables via an unpowered USB C hub with a short cable. Only long USB cable is USB3 port on Mac Studio to USB2 powered hub to my keyboards and other peripherals.

Copy that. Yeah... the "long" cable I was using wasn't that long... 2.6 feet? It has a "4" on the connector for TB4 compatible I presume. I swapped for a 1 foot cable that has a "3" printed on the connect... again TB3 I assume. So far, the BLUE is hanging in there and has always mounted since, but going to watch it as by no means am I sure this is the end of it. FYI, the shorter cable made no difference with the Black drive. I had problems mounting it regardless. So hard to say at this point.

[James Steele]

Ugh... can't begin to describe how annoying this is. So I decide I'm going to package up the WD Black and return it... I decide to give the Mac Studio one more reboot. This time the WD Blue isn't seen. Reboot again... WD Blue isn't on the desktop... Shut Down. Do a cold boot. No WD Blue. Go behind my desk, unplug and replug the enclosure... and it appears. #$%^&*!!!

I imagine if I was going to be cool with this and occasionally doing this dance it would work okay. I have to think this one over. Don't know what OWC's return policy is on stuff, but I think I'm going to order the Envoy and try it out. I have till 9/5 to do a return on the other enclosure. Sort of pushing it... I think OWC is in California so hopefully I can get the Envoy a day or so before my deadline to return the other enclosure. Yeesh. Temperamental computers. I can't remember my MacPro being so picky about what was connected to it.

[James Steele]

Ordered the Envoy Express. Going to experiment with it and see how it is in the "real world." Mainly I just want VI's to load fast within Komplete Kontrol as I'm browsing for different sounds. Obviously, I'm spoiled. This is still much faster than I could have had using an SSD on the SATA bus of my old MacPro.

[James Steele]

Just thinking aloud. I'm going to put the MacPro5,1 out to pasture as my new office Mac. I'll probably reformat and install High Sierra. Before I return the Black drive was wondering if I could get something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/M-2-Adapter-Alum ... B07JJTVGZM

And then use it as the drive in my MacPro5,1?

[James Steele]

Ahhh well... went into studio, booted the Mac and the WD Blue in the current enclosure was right there. Going to do tests in terms of real word loading of libraries with the Envoy Express versus this one to see if there's any appreciable difference. Depending on that, I'll go with the Express or put up with the occasional unplug/plug routine which isn't that big a deal so long as the drive stays mounted, which so far seems to be the case. Ahhh, the growing pains and learning curve of getting with the modern age.

I'm psyched about the arrival of the UAD-2 TB3 Satellite OCTO on Thursday. Hopefully that will all work smoothly and my only problem then will be wanting to buy more UAD plugs which cost a fortune comparatively.

[mikehalloran]

Real world:

The issue you are having with this USB 4 external is the exact one I have been seeing for 20 years. It affects USB and FW external storage, CD/DVD drives and hubs. Once mounted, they're good but when they misbehave, it's only Wake from sleep, Reboot or Shut down and reboot. Unplugging and replugging lets it mount. Because I have only one working arm, reaching behind an iMac to find the right cable, unplug and replug with two fingers is a royal PIA.

Interfaces, input devices, keyboards etc. connected directly do not do this but, when connected through some hubs, they do.

I've bought and returned scores of USB hubs. This one doesn't give me grief re: the connection to my iMac
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VD ... asin_title
but some devices plugged into it need to be unplugged and replugged including flash drives, BIAB HHD, USB charging cables and my CD/DVD drive. Fortunately, those ports are in easy reach and being live on reboot is neither critical nor important—hell, I don't even consider that annoying anymore since I don't have to reach behind. But… it's not USB-C so I will have to go through this again when I get my Studio.

I've never had it happen with Ethernet or Thunderbolt storage — except after a few OS updates and then shutting down and rebooting restores the connection.

As for those WD blades, the Blue is rated faster than the Black but I don't expect you to notice except in an A/B comparison with both in the same 4-Lane enclosures. Since the Black runs cooler, if the cooling is less than stellar (nearly all of those enclosures), it might be faster on sustained writes.

This empty enclosure can handle up to four and you don't need 3rd party utilities to configure RAID 0. The 2800 rating is for one blade only and gets a little slower with two blades and a bit slower still with four as each uses two Lanes or one Lane depending on the number of SSDs. As your storage needs grow, you can add more. If mismatched or using 3 slots, JBOD is always an option.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2

For awhile both of these were available empty but I'm not seeing that anymore.

The OWC Envoy Pro SX does not actually claim to be a TB3 drive (read carefully; it doesn't) but it does include TRIM support and somehow meets other requirements. Hmmmm... I wonder what the certification and licensing fee to Intel is?
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-envoy-pro-sx

The SX is only a few $ less than the Certified OWC Envoy Pro FX.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-envoy-pro-fx

[James Steele]

It looks like the SX is almost $500 for the 2TB drive... they don't sell an empty enclosure.

Also, do you mean the Black is faster than the Blue? I think that's the case.

I'm getting so #$%^&*ing tired of #$%^&ing around with it, that I'm just going to go with the Envoy express. HC Markus says its TB3 but 2 lane... I don't know. If I get decent real world performance with it, and it doesn't dismount spontaneously (he says it hasn't on his Mac Studio) then I may keep it. If it feels slower than what I'm currently doing, then I'll put up with the occasional unplug/plug dance.

[HCMarkus]

It looks like the SX is almost $500 for the 2TB drive... they don't sell an empty enclosure.

Also, do you mean the Black is faster than the Blue? I think that's the case.

I'm getting so #$%^&*ing tired of #$%^&ing around with it, that I'm just going to go with the Envoy express. HC Markus says its TB3 but 2 lane... I don't know. If I get decent real world performance with it, and it doesn't dismount spontaneously (he says it hasn't on his Mac Studio) then I may keep it. If it feels slower than what I'm currently doing, then I'll put up with the occasional unplug/plug dance.

I'll be surprised if you notice a speed difference unless you are writing or copying large video files. Hope it works well for you James!

[James Steele]

It looks like the SX is almost $500 for the 2TB drive... they don't sell an empty enclosure.

Also, do you mean the Black is faster than the Blue? I think that's the case.

I'm getting so #$%^&*ing tired of #$%^&ing around with it, that I'm just going to go with the Envoy express. HC Markus says its TB3 but 2 lane... I don't know. If I get decent real world performance with it, and it doesn't dismount spontaneously (he says it hasn't on his Mac Studio) then I may keep it. If it feels slower than what I'm currently doing, then I'll put up with the occasional unplug/plug dance.

I'll be surprised if you notice a speed difference unless you are writing or copying large video files. Hope it works well for you James!

Hey, if I don't all be happy. I should have just got the one you got all along, as I was trying to just max out based on specs, but even 1550 MB/s is many times faster than what I was used to on the SATA bus of my old MacPro. The big issue really is all things (practically) equal, I don't like the occasional failure to mount on boot or restart, and am inclined to get rid of that problem.

I'm debating whether to return the WD Black or get a $12 adapter for it and stick it in a PCIe slot of my MacPro5,1 that will become my office computer.

[mikehalloran]

they don't sell an empty enclosure.

Yea… They used to but I'm betting that users were loading them up with certain Sabrent and other blades known to run extremely hot. It's possible that even the 970 EV0 wouldn't last. By loading theirs up with the house brand (may or may not still be Intel & Micron), OWC can control warranty.

[HCMarkus]

I have a 970 EVO+, so put little heat sinks on top and bottom of my Envoy Express. Probably didn’t need to, but I noticed the case was warm even when not being addressed by the Mac.

Stick on heat sinks I used are under $10/pair on Amazon.

[James Steele]

I have a 970 EVO+, so put little heat sinks on top and bottom of my Envoy Express. Probably didn’t need to, but I noticed the case was warm even when not being addressed by the Mac.

Stick on heat sinks I used are under $10/pair on Amazon.

Might I trouble you for a link? I may want to do that, although if I decide to use the WD Blue instead of the WD Black, I may not need it.

[HCMarkus]

I have a 970 EVO+, so put little heat sinks on top and bottom of my Envoy Express. Probably didn’t need to, but I noticed the case was warm even when not being addressed by the Mac.

Stick on heat sinks I used are under $10/pair on Amazon.

Might I trouble you for a link? I may want to do that, although if I decide to use the WD Blue instead of the WD Black, I may not need it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0948 ... UTF8&psc=1

I even wrote a review ("Barona")

Was on my phone earlier. Li'l heat sinks can't hurt!