Home > Questions

How to Fix Problems with External Hard Drive Disconnects & Trackpad

I connected my SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB SSD external hard drive to my new MacBook Air Apple M1 Chip computer (macOS 11.5), and the SSD drive disconnected randomly. The reasons are not clear to me. And my MacBook's Trackpad also behaves erratically at times. It works sluggishly. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Best Answered by

Connie Yang

Answered on Monday, April 29, 2024

For the external SSD disconnecting randomly from the Mac issue, you should consider the connection issues first.

To fix the external hard drive that keeps disconnecting from your Mac, you can try these quick fixes:

1. Check the connections

Check if the USB cable is damaged, try another USB port, and connect the SSD to another Mac computer.

2. Restart Mac

3. Disable the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" option

  1. Click on the Apple menu > System Preferences > Battery.
  2. Click on Battery from the left sidebar.
  3. Uncheck 'Put hard disks to sleep when possible'.

4. Boot your Mac to Safe Mode

5. Check the SSD

Run Disk Utility First Aid to check and fix the tiny errors on the SSD.

6. Update Mac

To fix the lagging MacBook Trackpad, you can:

  • Reset the Trackpad tracking speed. Open System Preferences > Trackpad, in the Point & Click section, change the tracking speed to fast.
  • Adjust double-clicking settings of the Trackpad. Open System Preferences > Accessibility> Pointer Control. Set the double-click speed to fast.
  • Restart your MacBook
  • Uninstall problematic or suspicious apps
  • Reset SMC & NVRAM
  • Update your Mac