A thorough summary of your situation. Thanks, joemikeb. smile

In light of your third "Conclusions" and your #2 conclusion being contrary to other reports, do you suspect a problem with your Samsung SSD?


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.