External drives · Setting up your drive
How does Storage Studio know which drive is mine?
Short answer: Storage Studio tags the drive when it sets it up and checks that tag every time, so it only manages your prepared drive — never a different disk with the same name. An unprepared drive is offered setup instead.
When you set a drive up, Storage Studio tags it as yours. It checks that tag every time, so it only ever manages the drive you prepared — never another disk that happens to share its name.
If the tag is missing (for example, a drive that was never prepared, or one that was erased), Storage Studio won't manage it; it offers to set the drive up first. Your data isn't affected either way. The Inspect fast drive window shows whether a connected drive is your prepared Storage Studio drive and when it was set up.