Summary :
Storage devices (such as external hard drives) can also be available on your network. Additionally, you can insert flash memory cards from your camera or other device in the SDXC card slot in your Mac. If your Mac doesn't have a card slot, you can access the data on the flash memory card using a connected card reader. All it requires is to unbox the new external hard drive and connect it to Mac's USB port for instant usage. Most of the times, accessing the external hard disk on Mac will be as easy as eating a pie. However, at few occasions, you might not feel such luck.
Many people are complaining about the same problem: external hard drive not showing up on Mac. Actually, the external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, and even internal hard drive maybe not detected by Mac sometimes due to different reasons. 11 useful solutions are provided here to help users fix hard drive not working on Mac.
Reason 1, your Mac can use a Seagate external hard drive formatted as HFS+ for a Time Machine backup. So if anything happens to your Mac you can restore your entire Mac from a Time Machine backup. Reason 2, when you accidentally delete a file you want, then you can bring that file back as well. The Best Mac External Hard Drive and SSD Deals This Week. WD Elements 8TB Desktop External USB 3.0 Hard Drive — $144.99 (List Price $179.99) WD Elements 4TB Portable USB 3.0 Hard Drive — $89. Does not mount: External USB Hard Disk, USB iPod, USB Thumb Drive in browsing Network Sharing. I wanted to use this mount drive feature to plug in USB TV Media Player Hard Disk to my MacBook in 'Living Room' so my iMac in the 'Office' can direct transfer files to the USB Media Player Hard Disk using AirPort Network user sharing.
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In general, a hard drive or flash drive will be recognized and showing up on the desktop automatically after it's connected to Mac. However, it's true that there are chances for Mac not reading external hard drive after users connected the drive to Mac. External hard drive not showing up Mac is a hot topic among users. A lot of reasons should be blamed when you can't see external hard drive: the cable or port issue, corrupted system settings, improper file system, virus attack, etc. It's important to figure out the causes of Mac not recognizing external hard drive (internal hard drive, USB flash drive, or SD card) and try the corresponding methods to fix the problem.
How to fix hard drive not showing up on Mac? I'll demonstrate the Solutions from 3 aspects.
External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Mac
In this section, I'll summarize some popular causes for Mac not recognizing external hard drive and the corresponding tips on how to find external hard drive on Mac.
First of all, I'd like to advise Mac users to solve external drive not showing up by: removing the external drive completely -> restarting Mac (repeat this action for several times to see whether it works) -> re-connecting the external drive to Mac properly. If this didn't work, please try the following methods.
How to fix external hard drive not showing up or recognized on Windows?
The problem – external hard drive not showing up/recognized/detected – can be fixed easily by following ways.
#1. Take a Look at the System Information
Seagate external hard drive not showing up Mac:
Hi. I have a 1TB Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive, and it won't show up in my Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is the 2006 Intel Xeon model running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. The System requirements for the external HDD are snow leopard or higher, so I don't know why it isn't working.
P.S. When I plug in the USB cable into the computer, the HDD starts to spin, but it never shows up in the finder or on the desktop. Also, this HDD works in my MacBook Pro, but not the Mac Pro. If anyone has any useful information, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. - posted by DisneyWorld in Apple Community
Many people are trying to help by providing possible solutions to Mac won't recognize external hard drive after DisneyWorld published this post to ask for help. Finally, DisneyWorld got his drive showing up and working after inspected it in System Report.
How to Check Using System Report
- Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner.
- Select About This Mac from the drop-down menu.
- Click on the System Report… button in the pop-up window (below the information about your Mac & its operating system).
- Check the external hard drive there.
#2. Check Hardware for Problems
How do I get my Mac to recognize a hard drive connected through USB? Here are some quick tips.
- Please try a different port on your Mac.
- Check whether the USB connector/USB adapter works well.
- If you're using a hub, please try to plug your external hard drive directly into the Mac.
- If you're plugging into a wall outlet, please try a different outlet.
- Please check the cable to see whether it's physically damaged (whether there are snug fits, frayed cables, or missing pins). You can also try to use a different USB cable.
- Connect the external hard drive to another Mac or a PC. You can also test the disk on PC manually.
- Please try to connect the external device to its own power source, if applicable.
How to fix when USB flash drive not recognized on Windows?
Various solutions are provided for you to fix USB flash drive not recognized error and recover data from the inaccessible flash drive.
#3. Change Finder Preferences
Why is my external hard drive not showing up Mac? Another common reason is that the Finder preferences settings are not proper. How to change the settings?
- Open Finder on your Mac.
- Select Finder from the menu bar at the top.
- Choose Preferences from the submenu you see.
- Go to the General tab and look for the Show these items on the desktop section.
- Check External disks option under it.
- Then, go to the Sidebar tab at the top.
- Check External disks under Show these items on the sidebar.
#4. Check in Disk Utility
- Open Finder.
- Select Applications from the left sidebar (under Favorites).
- Choose Utilities from the right-hand panel.
- Click on Disk Utility to open a new window.
- Browse the drives list here.
External Hard Drive Not Mounting Mac
Sometimes, your external hard drive won't mount. If you find the external hard disk in Disk Utility but it doesn't shows up, it may be not mounted. Not mounting and improper disk format (how to check disk format will be talked later) are two of the common reasons causing new hard drive not showing up.
How to mount external hard drive Mac?
- Select the target external hard drive from the left sidebar.
- Click on the Mount option from the menu bar at the top.
If your Mac is set to show only mountable drives, you should try to fix Mac not recognizing external hard drive by allowing Show All Devices.
- Open Finder -> select Applications -> select Utilities -> choose Disk Utility.
- Select View from the menu bar at the top of the window.
- Click Show All Devices from the drop-down menu to view all mountable and non-mountable drives.
#5. Repair the Disk with First Aid
First Aid is a tool built in Mac to check disk for errors (startup problems, corrupted files, corrupted file system, etc.) and then repair them. If your external hard drive appears but not shows up on desktop, please run First Aid.
- Repeat step1 ~ 4 mentioned in method 4.
- Select the problematic external hard drive from the left panel.
- Click on the First Aid option in the top menu bar.
- Click Run in the pop-up confirmation dialog window.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to continue.
How to Recover Data from Mac Hard Drive
You may find some important files not showing in the external hard drive (internal hard drive, flash drive, SD card, etc.). How to get them back on Mac? You should get a professional recovery tool that supports Mac to help you (Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, jointly designed by MiniTool and Stellar, is a good choice).
- Download the software to a location which doesn't contain any lost files (to avoid data overwriting).
- Double click on the setup program and follow the on-screen instructions to finish the installation process.
- Run the software to start the recovery process (please make sure the external disk is always connected properly to Mac).
- In the Select What To Recover page, please toggle the switch under Recover Everything to ON or choose the file types you need from Documents, Emails, Videos, Audio, and Photos.
- Click on the Next button to continue.
- Choose the target hard disk which can't show up on Mac in the next Select Location page.
- Click on the Scan button in the lower right corner to start scanning the drive (you can turn on the Deep Scan feature in the lower left corner to show more scan results).
- Browse the found files and folders carefully and select all the ones you want to recover.
- Click on the Recover button in the lower right corner.
- Please select a destination to store the recovered files by clicking Browse.
- Click on the Save button to confirm your selection.
- Wait for the recovery process to finish.
Some people may want to recover crucial data from their Mac when it can't boot successfully. What should they do? This post tells you all about how to recover from a crashed/dead MacBook (MacBook Pro).
#6. Repair External Drive by Using Terminal
- Open Finder.
- Select Applications and then Utilities.
- Double click on Terminal to open it.
- Type diskutil list into the command line and press Return.
- The basic information of volumes and drives available will be displayed.
- Look for the disk# section of the target external disk.
- Type diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk# and press Return.
- Type diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk# and press Return.
- Wait for the process to finish.
- Go to the Terminal and then Quit Terminal.
#7. Check Disk Format
If you can find your external hard drive under Disk Utility, but you can't mount and use it, it's possible that the disk format is the issue. Your Mac can't recognize a drive that's been formatted with a file system that it cannot read.
In this case, you need to reformat the drive (please backup at least the important files on target drive since the erase action will ruin them):
- Open Disk Utility.
- Select the target external disk from the left panel.
- Click Erase at the top.
- You can give a name to the disk.
- Choose a proper file system from the drop-down menu of Format.
- Choose a Scheme and then click on the Erase button to confirm.
- Wait for the operation to finish.
APFS and Mac OS Extended are used frequently on Mac; you should figure out the differences between them (read APFS vs Mac OS Extended) before you decide which one to use.
Can you read a Mac-formatted hard drive on a Windows PC?
Usually, you can't read Mac drive on a Windows PC; this post shows you how to view content on Mac-formatted drive easily.
External Hard Drive Mac Review
#8. Reset NVRAM
If there's problem with the Mac's RAM, it may cause external hard drive not showing up. You can troubleshoot the problem by resetting NVRAM properly.
- Restart your Mac (shut down and turn it on again).
- Press these 4 keys simultaneously: Command+Option+P+R; hold them for at least 20 seconds.
- Release these keys when you hear the second startup chime
#9. Check the /Volumes/ Folder
When you can't find an external hard disk on Mac, you can also try your luck by checking the /Volumes/ folder.
- Open Finder.
- Select Go from the top menu bar.
- Choose Go to Folder from the drop-down menu.
- Type /Volume/ into the textbox.
- Click on the Go button below or press Enter.
- Look for your external hard drive under Volumes folder.
How to place items in minecraft mac. How to recover a Mac file deleted from a folder or the desktop?
Believe it or not, we can make it easy to recover deleted data on Mac even if you are totally a novice.
#10. Uninstall Conflicting Apps
The applications you have installed on you Mac may have conflict with the external hard drive so that it can't be detected. How to troubleshoot Mac not detecting external hard drive?
- If you have installed new apps on Mac recently, please go to uninstall them completely.
- If you haven't installed any new app, please go to browse your installed apps and delete the ones with potential conflict.
External Drive Won T Mount
#11. Update macOS
Updating OS is another useful fix for hard drive not showing up Mac.
- Select Apple menu.
- Choose SystemPreferences.
- Click Software Update.
- Wait for the checking process.
- Click Update Now when available updates are found.
- Wait for the update to complete.
If your external disk runs very slow after you updated the macOS, please try to troubleshoot the issue by resetting the SMC (System Management Controller).
Bonus Tip: Internal Hard Drive Not Showing Up
If your internal hard drive doesn't show up on Mac suddenly, please try to fix it by the following solutions:
- Change Finder Preferences settings.
- Mount/repair the hard drive in Disk Utility.
- Repair disk in macOS recovery mode.
- Check the internal hard drive in Terminal.
For more information about USB not showing up on Mac or flash drive/SD card not showing up Mac, please read this page.
Verdict
There are many actions and issues that could lead to the problem – external hard drive not showing up Mac. You should read this page carefully to find out the possible reasons and master the corresponding solutions that may help you fix the problem yourself.
Can't Mount External Hard Drive Mac Mini
Dec 21, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
There is no doubt that getting quick access to the Mac HD directory can be quite helpful in many situations. You can easily access several folders, such as System, Users, Applications, and Library. All these folders contain data that any Mac user access on a regular basis. Sadly, macOS High Sierra may not display you the Macintosh HD folder on your desktop or Finder by default. It makes access to files difficult.
The good news is that there are some ways to show the hard drive on Mac. Here, in this post, you will get to learn that, and also, you get to know how to find the external hard drive on Mac.
Part 1. Why You Can't See Hard Drive on Mac?
Well, there are a number of reasons why you can't see the hard drive on your Mac. Here, we are going to mention the most common ones:
- Preference Issue: You may have not set preferences that make the hard drive visible on your Mac Finder or desktop.
- Connector Issue: It might be the case that you fail to connect the hard drive to your Mac USB port correctly. And maybe the cable you're using for connection is damaged or non-functional.
- Corruption of File system: It might also case that the file system of the hard drive is corrupt due to bad sectors, logical errors, etc. Sometimes, your hard drive file system damage leads to non-mounting HD in Finder.
- Hard drive failure: It might be the case that your drive is physically damaged due to component failure, head crash, or etc.
Part 2. How to Show Hard Drive Icon on Mac Desktop?
It is the Finder's job for displaying the desktop and its icons, which include storage devices icon too. You can show or hide Mac's main hard drive from the desktop of your Mac with ease and all you need to do is to adjust some of the Finder options. If you want to keep your hard drives icon on the desktop so that you can access the data easily, then here's what you have to do to show HD on Mac.
To begin with, you need to first have the Finder option in the foreground. For this, check if there is the word 'Finder' in your Mac menu bar. If no, then all you have to do is to tap on the 'Finder' icon from the Dock of your Mac to appear it in the foreground.
Once you are able to do it, follow the below steps to show the hard drive on a Mac desktop:
- Go to the Menu bar, and then, move to 'Finder'. Next, click on the 'Preferences' option.
- Next, select the 'General' tab when the Finder preferences window appears on your Mac screen.
- After that, check the box 'Hard disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop'.
- Finally, the Mac hard drive icon should now appear on your desktop as shown in the below figure.
As you can see how much it is easy to show and hide Mac hard disks or drives on your desktop. Whenever you want quick access to the data on your Mac, all you have to do is double-click on your Mac HD drive from the desktop and you'll be navigated to the place where all of your Mac data is stored.
Part 3. How to Find External Hard Drive on Mac?
Is your Mac not detecting the external hard drive? In many cases, an external hard drive doesn't show up on your Mac. There is no doubt that it is quite frustrating, especially when you want to transfer something very important right then. Besides this, there can be a change that data present on an external hard drive is corrupt, which is one of the reasons why your Mac can't detect an external drive.
The good news is that there are some solutions that can help you to come out of this problem with ease. Let's look at them:
1. Mount the External Hard Drive on Mac
It could be the case that your Mac already detects an external hard drive, but it just not showing its icon on your desktop screen. If it is the case, then you can easily mount and access your drive again and all you have to do is to follow the below steps:
- To start with, move to the Finder menu and here, choose Preferences.
- In the Finder preferences window, choose the General tab.
- Here, you need to make sure that the 'External disks' option under 'Show these items on the desktop' is ticked.
Also, you can set your Mac to display an external hard drive in Finder. For this, go to 'Finder'>' Preferences'>' Sidebar'. Here, you need to tick the option 'External disks' under the 'Locations' menu.
This method will probably help you to show the connected external hard drive on your Mac. If it doesn't, then you can go for the next solution. And if you need to make a USB flash drive detected, the solutions might be more feasible: Fix USB not showing up on Mac.
2. Launch Disk Utility to Run First Aid
There might be a case that your external hard drive is going through some problems you are unaware of it. In this case, you can try to resolve them yourself using Disk Utility to run the First Aid tool. Afterward, you can even access your files. The tool will inspect the disk for issues and errors and then, try to repair it as required. It is quite helpful when it comes to verifying and repairing a wide range of problems related to external and HD drive.
Here is the step-by-step guide on how you can run First Aid on your external hard drive:
- To start with, launch Disk Utility. You can search for it using Spotlight Search or go to 'Finder'>' Application'>' Utility'
- After that, you need to check on an external hard drive. Next, click on the 'First Aid' tab and choose 'Run' to begin running diagnostics.
If First Aid tools become successful in fixing problems, then your external hard drive should now be available for you to mount. What if the tool fails to repair issues? Then, your drive is badly broken or maybe formatted through a file system that your Mac can't read. In this way, we recommended that you should recover data from the damaged hard drive. Check out the next section to learn how to get back and how hard disk data on Mac.
Part 4. How to Recover and Show Hard Drive Data on Mac?
Have you ever wondered what if you found that you can't access the data stored on your Mac hard drive due to sudden power failure, or virus attack? Or if the above methods fail to fix 'external hard drive not mounting Mac'. In such cases, data recovery software can help you to easily get back hard drive data on your Mac.
1. Recoverit - The Best Software to Recover Mac Files:
Whenever you experience a data loss situation, Recoverit Data Recovery Mac will help you to retrieve it. This data recovery software will come in handy even when you've never made a backup of your device. You now know how to partition Mac hard drive and un-partition it. But knowing how you can recover the lost or deleted files from the drive is also necessary.
2. How to Recover Lost Word Files on Mac:
Step 1: Select a Location
Launch the software and select the drive from where the data files are lost. If you don't know which drive to search, tap on the 'I can't find my partition' option, and hit the Start button.
Step 2: Scan the Location
Typically, the software will run an All-Around Recovery scan and search for the lost and deleted files on the entire drive.
Step 3: Preview and Recover
When the scan completes, the files will be listed on the screen. The software will sort out the files according to format to make the search easier. You can select multiple files at a time and have a preview of them.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that creating and removing a Mac drive partition is not that tough. You just have to careful during the process. And in case of a mishap, Recoverit is always here for your help so that you don't have to suffer from data loss situation.
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