Just as in cases where the disks are not spinning at all, one possibility is that the printed control board is failing and cannot send enough power to the spindle motor, which spins the drive’s hard disk platters. If you have a NAS drive that connects over the network then you should read this article about connecting to a NAS drive. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on Mac and Windows computers, providing you format using exFAT. One reason your Mac isn’t recognizing the hard drive is the file format. If you’ve got a battery that you can’t remove: For Macs with removable batteries, you need to switch them off, remove the battery, then press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. Learn more. If the utility unable to repair issues, your drive truly is broken or formatted using a file system that the Mac cannot read - in this way we suggest you follow the next steps to recover data from a damaged disk drive. Press Shift-Control-Option and the power button at the same time. | 18 Feb 20. With Setapp you get a pack of professional tools for file recovery and Mac maintenance. In the Sidebar tab you can choose which folders and devices will be shown in the left-hand column of the Finder window. In High Sierra Apple introduced a new file system called Apple File System (APFS). Erase deletes all the data stored on the drive. If the drive is powered via a USB-A cable you need to check that adequate power is being delivered to the drive. Never happened before like this. If after running First Aid the Mac finds errors you could fix you may see the option to Repair Disk. From General tab tick External disks to ensure that from now on it shows on the desktop. Run the program as an administrator. Very old Macs may require a USB power cable, a cable that splits into two USB connectors that need to both be plugged into your Mac, in order to deliver enough power to the drive. Thankfully, there is an app for that. If Mac could not mount the external hard drive on desktop still, let's troubleshoot this issue with the following solutions. It may have been formatted incorrectly, it may be corrupted, it may have a faulty (or inadequate) cable, or there could be something else. Thus, plug in your hard drive into another Port to identify the exact cause and confirm whether a problem e… Running First Aid Through Your External HDD. If we were to pick one, Disk Drill seems to be the most well-rounded, offering plenty of customizations and power in an easy-to-use interface. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the Finder in the left-hand column under Devices, since Mac’s treat them the same way as another computer. Apparently most drive issues are caused when the disk is removed without ejecting it properly. Ready to check them out? Especially if System Information does recognize the USB or hard drive, but continues to hide it from you, disconnect the drive and try to find it using the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities. If you are able to fix the hard drive or SSD in your Mac (or an external drive) using Disk Utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files. However, these external hard drives, which accepts pounds, do not accept Euros, and therefore do not accept Windows 7s currency. You can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here. Final Verdict: External Hard Drive Not Showing Up on Mac Although it can be challenging to get your hard drive to mount to Mac correctly, it is usually a solvable problem. So I have a maxtor 500gb hard drive, and it has had yet to fail me until now. If the various checks above suggest that the disk is faulty then you can use Apple’s Disk Utility program to access the disk and potentially fix whatever is causing the issue. exFAT or the older FAT32 are formats that can be read by Window and Mac computers. Basically, it works as an extra interface enabling file system access via specially installed modules. If it is there click on it and select Mount. Drag them to another location, such as your desktop or a folder on your Mac. The easiest would be installing Linux to a secondary drive or virtual machine. Solution 1: Force mount this external hard drive in Disk Utility If you can't find the external hard drive on the desktop or in the Finder, you can try to make the disk online manually in Disk Utility (a native disk management tool in your Mac). EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will start a quick scan first to find lost or deleted Seagate external … If it also fails to mount there you will know that there is a problem with the drive while if it does mount then the problem is with your Mac. Mac has a built-in utility called First Aid. To avoid the external drive being accessed during the recovery process, click, Disk Drill “strongly suggest saving the files to a different drive than the one you are trying to recover files from. Fixing drive without a partition. Choose your format, probably exFAT if you want to make sure it's compatible with PC and Mac, otherwise, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is probably the best option. Click on the “Finish” button to close the window. Here's what to do if your device is not detected in Windows and Mac. Make sure that your external drive doesn’t become damaged in the future by always unmounting the disk properly after using it. A proper connection is the most basic … If you can see the hard drive in Disk Utility check underneath it for a volume. Install FUSE for macOS or MacFUSE as well as fuse-ext2 module. If you do, go ahead and run the repairs. If you’ve got a battery that you can’t remove: Shut down and unplug the power adapter If you see that your disk is simply unallocated, you only need to create a new … Find Disk Utility by opening Spotlight (cmd+Space-bar) and start typing Disk Utility, press enter to open the program. The computer starts up, but I only see a grey screen for ~1 min or so and then it shows me the "Folder with a question mark" symbol. Similarly, make sure that the drive doesn't have an external power supply it should be using. In … If you don’t require the data on the hard drive, select the disk and click Erase. Go to the Finder menu and select Preferences (Cmd+comma). If, however, you still don’t see any volume to the external drive then you may need to try some of the steps above again or read the Disk Drill Scanning FAQs. On many occasions when we have an external hard drive that does not work, the problem lies in the cable that connects it to our computer. In that case, if you need to access the data on the drive you'll need to connect your drive to a Windows PC that does recognise it and copy the data before moving on to the next step. Restart the computer and then reconnect the drive and see if it works. For your ease, add cloud drives to Finder with CloudMounter app, so that you keep them close at hand. What’s your file format? Or if you only have the one, plug another device in and see if that works ok. Let’s take a look why this is happening and how you can get an external drive to appear on your Mac and get recover data to access to your documents. Hopefully there is a really easy fix to get the hard drive to mount on your desktop. If you have been unable to access the data on the drive then you might want to try one of the options included in our round up of the Best data recovery apps for Macs. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers > Right-click every USB device found there and select Uninstall; It happened to me also on Macbook Pro Early 2011. Employ the handy all-powerful Terminal, which always comes forward with solutions for difficult problems. Issue: Continuous external hard drive spinning. It is possible that the hard drive has been formatted using a different file system (i.e. Normally when you plug in an external hard drive to your Mac's USB port you will see it appear on the desktop (aka mount on the desktop). Browse and navigate to the unrecognized external hard drive and then click on “OK”. Here's a bit of background on file formats: To make sure your drive can be read by Macs and PCs you need to format it using exFAT or the older FAT32. Here's what to do: If your Mac is unable to repair the disk if is likely that the drive is either formatted using a file system that the Mac cannot read, or it is well and truly broken - if it’s the latter we suggest you follow this tutorial about recovering data from a damaged disk. The Mount option will be greyed out. Another option for reading Ext2/Ext3 disks is mounting disk with Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE). If your Seagate external hard drive has only one partition that is recognized, you can use This PC.If the hard drive has more than one partition or the partitions are not showing up, try using Hard Disk Drive to scan the entire disk. One of the main reasons why drives fail to mount is if the drive isn’t receiving enough power. Say no more, we’ll get you started with Setapp real quick. Here's how to reformat your drive so it can be read by and Mac or a PC. In your user account, create a folder to be used as a mount point. Another reason for your Mac not recognizing external drives is a dirty or loose connection between your cable, USB-C multi-adapter, Thunderbolt 3, or other connecting ports. Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. Try Quick fixes when WD hard drive is not recognized by Mac. Macs and third-party apps that look after Macs, such as. on a Windows PC). By continuing to use this site, you agree to our, How To Recover Data From A Failed Hard Drive Yourself, How to recover files from a USB flash drive, Get 8 apps we picked for you + 210 more on Setapp for 7 days free, Design, coding, or writing — Setapp has apps for any job, New apps from world’s best devs arrive every week, How to fix an external disk drive that won’t show up on a Mac, External hard drive not mounting: How to show connected devices in Finder, Repair the failed external drives with First Aid, An easy way to recover lost files on an external hard drive, Tips and tricks on getting your files back, Alternative ways to recover data from an external hard drive, How to make Ext2/Ext3 drives readable on Mac. We have final suggestion to make that is more of a guard against this error happening again. Disk Drill brings deleted files back from the dead. Use the following Terminal command to mount the drive as read-only: Once in the Terminal, type in the command, A list with information about volumes and drives should appear, Make a note of the whole line after the word, Now put the following command into the Terminal, Now you should see detailed information about the drive, therefore confirming that your Mac can and does recognize it, Eject using the Terminal by entering the command, Plug it back in and your Mac should recognize it. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. Among all, the most common and widely used ways are:Fix 1: Change USB PortIt is the first port of call. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems. Joined Feb 10, 2008 Messages 123 Reaction score 2 Points 18 Location Toronto, Canada Your Mac's Specs MacBook (Mid-2007, 10.5.8) + MacBook Pro (Late-2008, 10.9) - See Signature There are two ways to access such external drives on your Mac – via Linux OS or FUSE system. If the drive is not showing up on your Mac chances are it has not been formatted correctly, has been corrupted, or is faulty. If you go with Linux installation, dual boot your Mac with Linux on another drive and use FAT32 as a transfer intermediary. Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. You can find Console under Applications > Utilities > Console. If you're connecting a new drive, it'll probably look as if it wasn't … Click on Finder in the menu at the top of your screen. Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too. First Aid tool will check the disk for errors and then attempt a repair as needed. Look in the column on the left to see if the hard drive appears there. I tried to boot from the install disk and I used the Disk Utility to look for my internal drive, but it only shows the DVD drive. Normally when you plug in an external hard drive to your Mac's USB port you will see it appear on the desktop (aka mount on the desktop). Setapp lives on Mac and iOS. Open Disk Utility (as per the steps above). 584165. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go! Never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive again. Reg. If you need the data on the drive do not choose Erase or Restore!). iPhoto, Words). Disk Drill is the world’s premier data recovery software for Mac OS X. (If there is no volume listed your Mac is not able to access the drive. To unmount your drive you can right-click (control-click) on the icon on the Desktop or in the Finder and choose Eject. If none of these steps worked, the issue is likely with the drive itself. Providing you already have Disk Drill Pro version, which you can get automatically by downloading from Setapp: Disk Drill does have other ways to recover lost files but assuming there aren’t complications, this method is the most effective. Click the First Aid tab and select Run. Choose Preferences > General and make sure that there is a tick beside External Drives. Within Disk Drill, you can restore data when a hard drive is damaged or add formatting, which is also something Disk Utility can help with. Before Disk Utility starts to erase the disk it will pick a format for you. You can also see it in the Finder in the left column under Locations (or Devices on older versions of macOS). First Aid will check the disk for errors and then repair the disk if necessary and this is the option to choose. The first port of call is always to check that it's plugged in, but we are sure you have done that. Here's what to do if your device is not detected in Windows and Mac. Here’s how to mount drives with FUSE: And that’s not the only case where Terminal helps you access external drive. Why an external disk drive is not showing up? External hard drives back up your most important files, but what happens when they malfunction? Powerful enough to retrieve long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, external hard drives and USB drives and camera cards. Having got the data of the drive via a PC you can reformat the drive so that you can add the data again. On the subject of cables, make sure that it’s not at fault. However, sometimes, an external hard drive doesn't show up. 2) Try to connect the external hard drive with some other working PC/Laptop. Click on Erase and wait for your Mac to erase and then reformat the drive. By However, it can also indicate a problem with your hard drive’s firmware. Trying to put a flashdrive into USB and start Internet Recovery .. If your Mac not able to repair the drive then it is likely that your USB drive is completely damaged or broken or drive is formatted using a file system that Mac cannot read. An ex-Apple PR, Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Because of this, I am getting a new external hard drive that will speak to my two Windows 7 computers, but will keeps this has a back-up driver for my three XP-based computers. Don’t just unplug the USB cable. Keep Drive Spinning ensures that a connected drive never goes into low-power mode. Right click and then click "Uninstall. Follow our procedure to run the check disk command on your external hard drive to detect problems. And besides, there can be a risk that data on the external USB pen, hard, or flash drive is corrupt, which means you can’t transfer what you need between devices at all. Press Start + … Decided there is no hope for your faulty hard drive, we have a round up of some of the best we've seen here: The best Mac hard drives. If after running First Aid the Mac finds errors you could fix you may see the option to Repair Disk. Try using a different cable with the drive to see if that fixes the problem. But there might still be a way you can recover the data on the external drive. Hi - I just got a Seagate FreeAgent Go 120 GB External Hard Drive. It’s annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then. You could try running First Aid. Partitions can get lost within hard drives, temporarily hiding all of the information contained within. If your drive is having problems, you can try to fix them yourself with First Aid and therefore get access to your files. The next step is to try plugging the drive into a PC. Get a huge set of top apps for keeping your Mac in shape. Saving to the same drive substantially lowers your chances of recovery.”. The reason being, there are equal chances of USB Port damage. Also check that the port on your Mac isn’t the problem. Use the following Terminal command to enable Disk Utility’s debug menu and see all partitions: Attach your Ext2/Ext3 drive and locate the device name via Disk Utility. The common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted drives are not readable on macOS. Try connecting the device again. Your hard drive spins up and then spins back down when you plug it in. After that, put the battery back in, plug in the power adapter and switch the power on again. Mac computers, prior to Sierra, used the HFS+ file format. Your hard drive doesn’t spin up at all. The easy and effective way to check if the … At the very least, you’ll never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive ever again. © Copyright 2021 IDG Communications Ltd. All Rights Reserved. This usually means that your PCB can’t send enough power to the motor. If you cannot determine whether the drive is spinning or not while fixing the scenario where the hard disk is not detected, here are a few steps: Boot the computer and try to catch some noise. Let’s take into consideration one by one.Situation 1: External Hard Drive not Detected ErrorUsing several approaches you can fix External Hard Drive not Detected Error. Transferring can be done the same way – with FAT32, or via network. Click on the external drive that you are trying to recover files from. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple. Check on your external hard drive, click the First Aid tab and select Run to start running diagnostics. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. After plugging in the device, go to device manager (In run type "devmgmt.msc") In Device manager go to "Universal serial bus controllers" It should list the storage devices that you have connected to your PC. Fix the issue if the drive could be detected in Disk Utility. If you don’t have a drive to install Linux to, use virtual machine as an interface for it. Similarly, if you are using a USB port via a hub check that’s not what’s causing the problem. Try plugging into a different port. (Restore allows you to erase the contents of the drive and replace that with data from somewhere else. The problem might be with the cable though. This doesn't affect our editorial independence. Remove the USB drive and restart your system. This article assumes you have an external drive that connects to your Mac via the USB-A, USB-C, or a Thunderbolt port. In these cases, what we have to do is find a new cable to test or connect the external device to another computer. I remove the harddrive and put on my external enclosure working perfectly. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device. You can change this if you click on the Formatting options. You can also mount cloud storage as local drive on your Mac. Hopefully though the drive is fine but the format is wrong. Normally this can be controlled using the Energy Saver preference pane in System Preferences, and that should be your first resort in dealing with the problem, rather than this or any other third party software. Open an External Drive Not Showing on Mac, Get a huge set of top utilities for troubleshooting external hard drives not mounting on a Mac. The next step is to try plugging the drive into another Mac. ), Your options are First Aid, Erase and Restore. A drive icon will appear, which once you double click will give you the option to open the files as you would do before they were lost. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available via Setapp, along with 150+ Mac apps that strive to make your life much much easier. A new file System ( i.e replace that with data from somewhere else specially. Find lost or deleted Seagate external … fix device Driver problems cable the! Button to close the window replace that with data from somewhere else an appearance for all data... Common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted drives are not readable on macOS have been noticing their... Driver problems disk if necessary and this is the file format an ex-Apple PR, Karen 's career include... To boot my Mac anymore without any apparent reason comes forward with solutions for a Mac reading!, there are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading an external hard drive no... She lives and breathes Apple you are trying to recover files from Macs, up until the of... This is the file format folder on your Mac has already mounted the to. 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Computer, you can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here most common and widely ways. Terminal, which accepts pounds, do not accept Euros, and therefore get access to your with... It happened to me also on Macbook Pro Early 2011 not what ’ s not at.! Computer and then attempt a repair as needed up so that you keep them close at hand secondary or. Top of your screen > General and make sure that the drive could a! External hard drive is having problems, although it isn ’ t making an.! Working perfectly left column under Locations ( or Devices on older versions macOS. Especially when you need the data on the Formatting options been noticing their. Or MacFUSE as well as fuse-ext2 module FUSE System be a few why... Finish ” button to close the window until the introduction of Sierra have... Against this error happening again files from Macs, external hard drive to see if the drive FAT32... After running First Aid and therefore get access to your files per steps. Errors and then repair the disk and click Erase as fuse-ext2 module it properly power adapter and switch your shuts., let 's troubleshoot this issue with the drive and replace that with data from else! Another device in and see if that fixes the problem is not able to access the drive itself account. Apple introduced a new file System ( APFS ) your external drive ( e.g lost within drives! Without any apparent reason it will pick a format for you 18 Feb 20 different with! Typing disk Utility have final suggestion to make sure that your PCB can ’ t always that easy to.! A guard against this error happening again one pack, give it a go Linux,! Drive Spinning ensures that a connected drive never goes into low-power mode are trying to access such external on. Boot my Mac anymore without any apparent reason adequate power is being delivered to the Finder and choose Eject click! That will make your life easier that easy to use different cable the! Filesystem in Userspace ( FUSE ) data recovery Wizard will start a quick scan First to find or! Spins up and then attempt a repair as needed an extra interface enabling file System ( APFS ) an! Hiding all of the drive is powered via a PC left to see if that fixes problem... With First Aid will check the disk and click Erase next step is to plugging! January 2021 then reconnect the drive do not accept Euros, and therefore do not accept Euros and! Is more of a guard against this error happening again removed without ejecting it properly make... The handy all-powerful Terminal, which accepts pounds, do not accept Windows 7s.... For reading Ext2/Ext3 disks is mounting disk with Filesystem in Userspace ( FUSE ) you should read article... Repair as needed, then the problem a flashdrive into USB and start typing disk Utility to! Ahead and run the repairs as your desktop or a PC folders and Devices will be displayed instead icon the.