Other potential fixes include resetting the NVRAM and PRAM, repairing the OS drive via the Recovery menu, power-cycling your machine and even reinstalling the macOS in exceptional situations where nothing else fixes the issue. In case the issue is still occurring, try moving the preference file ( ) away from the Library menu in order to force the OS to create a new healthy file. Unless the problem is occurring due to a 3rd party conflict – in this case, run the Disk Utility in Safe mode and see if the problem is fixed. In this scenario, using the terminal to identify and kill the task managing the process will fix the issue entirely. However, this issue can also be triggered by a stuck Disk Utility process. This will resolve the common glitch where the Disk Utility will hand with the “Loading disks” message after a new HDD or SDD drive is connected.

In some cases, this issue is facilitated by a fairly common inconsistency that can be resolved easily via a simple Mac restart. Whenever they try to open it, the Disk Utility ends up displaying the ‘ Loading disks‘ message endlessly without actually displaying any of the disks.

Some macOS users are reporting that they are suddenly unable to verify the status of their HDD or SSD drives via the Disk Utility.

Mac disk utility secure erase freezes