Terribly Federated Mia on Nostr: I have a big archive of files on an external hard drive, which I only ever reference ...

I have a big archive of files on an external hard drive, which I only ever reference every several years. At this point it's a relatively old drive, but it's always worked, and has important stuff.

My newish (2021?) mac says it can't access the drive. my only options are 'eject' or 'ignore'.

any advice on how to get those files back? and follow-up: is there a better way to handle a long-term archive?