Connect the External Hard drive Properly. The first and foremost thing to do after your external hard.
Posted by Bella Brown to DVD Rip, Apple Resources, Last Updated on Mar.17, 2020- I had the drive attached to my mac, then the mac interface froze. Now I cannot find the drive anymore. What doesn't work: does not show in Finder confirmed that external drives are visible in Finder does not show in Disk Utility I tried rebooting I tried detaching while powered off, reattaching all cables before power back on I tried detaching while powered off, booting up.
- Disk Utility or Mountain or Terminal 'diskutil list' command or 'Apple – About This Mac – System Report – Hardware – Storage' do not show it. But shows on 'Apple – About This Mac – System Report – Hardware – USB'. Yet, the external USB disk shows if unplugged and plugged back again.
- Ensure the Drive comes on. You would be surprised how easy it is to miss this obvious step.
- I had the drive attached to my mac, then the mac interface froze. Now I cannot find the drive anymore. What doesn't work: does not show in Finder confirmed that external drives are visible in Finder does not show in Disk Utility I tried rebooting I tried detaching while powered off, reattaching all cables before power back on I tried detaching while powered off, booting up.
- Hello. I have a problem my portable storage, it's not appearing at all in my mac. Not even in the disk utility. Other USBs and External Hard drives work, but this one does not and it happened just recently. someone here can help me get this to work? - CNET Forum
- I'm having problems with my external hard disk. It was working great all until I accidentally disconnected it without ejecting it. Now it won't show up anywhere on my Mac. It's not on Finder or Disk Utilities or even my System Finder. Any help I can get here will be great! - Apple Support
Os10 10 download. External hard drive counts for a lot for Mac users in daily. It helps to clean up Mac startup disk, speed up Mac computers, get rid of any further errors owing to insufficient space etc. Usually, no matter you choose USB, SD card, NAS or superdrive for Mac, when you plug in a portable hard drive to your Mac's USB port you will see it mount on the desktop. You can also see it in the Finder in the left-hand column under Devices. However, there are also times that your external hard drive won't show up on Finder or Disk Utilities. What do you do? Here gives you some solutions for reference and we'll feel glad if they are helpful for you.
Summary : In this blog, we'll share different methods to address the ‘external hard drive not showing up on Mac' issue on macOS Big Sur, Catalina and other lower versions. Download the free-to-try Mac data recovery software to recover your lost data from external hard drive on Mac.
Table of Content
The methods we'll cover are:
1. Check USB connectivity2. Enable visibility of external hard drive
3. Update macOS
4. Repair external hard drive by using Disk Utility
5. Repair external hard drive by using Terminal
6. Erase the external hard drive
7. Replace the external hard drive
'Hi friends, when I connected my 2 TB Seagate external hard drive after a long time on my MacBook Air (running on macOS Big Sur or Catalina), the drive did not show up in Desktop or Finder sidebar. This drive has all my important digital memories. Could anyone please help me out to recover my data from the drive? Thanks.'
When you connect an external hard drive to your Mac running on macOS Big Sur or Catalina, the storage drive may not show up on Desktop, Finder, or even on the Disk Utility app due to several reasons.
Common Reasons for External Hard Drive Not Showing Up on Mac
- USB connectivity problem
- Not setting preferences in macOS
- Partition map damage
- Device incompatibility
- Physical damage on a hard drive
The next sections describe multiple troubleshooting methods to fix the ‘external drive not showing up on Mac' issue on macOS.
1. Check the USB Connectivity
Your external hard drive may not be connected properly to the USB port present on your MacBook Air, iMac, or Mac mini. Try the following steps:
- Try reconnecting the drive to the same or another compatible USB port.
- If that doesn't fix the issue, try changing the USB cable and reconnect.
- If you have another Mac, then even try connecting the external drive to it.
2. Enable visibility of external hard drive
In macOS Big Sur or Catalina, you need to enable the visibility of external disks. For setting your preferences, do the following:
- Go to Finder > Preferences > General. Under ‘Show these items on the desktop', check the ‘Hard disks' and ‘External disks' checkboxes.
- Similarly, go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar. Under ‘Show these items on the sidebar', check the ‘Hard disks' and ‘External disks' checkboxes.
- Also, go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. In Disk Utility, to view all mountable and non-mountable drives, go to View > Show All Devices.
3. Update macOS
Try updating your macOS Big Sur or Catalina to fix subtle issues of external hard drive connectivity. But before that, back up your Macintosh HD by using Time Machine to avoid any data loss. Ensure your Time Machine drive is connected to your Mac. Go to Time Machine > Back Up Now. Once the backup is taken, perform the following steps to update your macOS.
- Go to Apple menu > System Preferences.
- In the System Preferences window, click Software Update.
- In the Software Update window, let macOS to check for updates.
- When updates are available, click Update Now.
- Click Download and Restart. Wait till the update is over.
Hard Disk Not Showing In Disk Management
4. Repair external hard drive by using Disk Utility
When your Mac is not recognizing the external hard drive, use Disk Utility to mount and repair the unrecognized external drive. Steps are as follows:
- Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities. Double-click Disk Utility to launch it.
- If Disk Utility lists the external hard drive in gray, then select your external hard drive from the sidebar.
- From the top pane, click the Mount tab to mount your unmounted external hard drive.
- If the drive is yet inaccessible, click the First Aid tab from the top pane, then click Run to initiate the external hard drive repair process.
- Wait till Disk Utility repairs your external hard drive. If Disk Utility fails, it will show a message that the drive can't be repaired and you need to back up and replace the drive.
5. Repair external hard drive by using Terminal
When Disk Utility can't repair your external hard drive, use your Terminal application available in macOS to mount and repair the affected drive. Steps are as follows:
- Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities. Double-click Terminal to launch it.
- At the command line, type diskutil list, then hit Return. Note disk# of the external hard drive.
- Type diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk#, then hit Return.
- Type diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk#. then hit Return.
- When the repair process is completed, go to Terminal > Quit Terminal.
6. Erase the external hard drive
In case the external drive's data is not accessible due to file system corruption, you can still recover the data by using a data recovery software for Mac.
Watch the video—Implementing Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac to Recover Unmounted External Drive on Mac.
Drive Not Showing Up In Disk Management
After recovering the inaccessible data, erase the drive by using Disk Utility to fix any logical issues. Finally, restore the recovered data to the external hard drive.
7. Replace the external hard drive
If your external hard drive is not visible in Disk Utility even if you have chosen the Show All Devices option in the View Premiere pro 13 1 2 crack. tab, then the drive may have undergone physical damage. You need to replace the inoperative drive with a new one.
Note: To recover data from a dead hard drive, get in touch with a data recovery service provider.
Tips to Prevent Permanent Data Loss on External Hard Drive
- Implement a 3-2-1 backup strategy (3 copies of data on 2 different storage media with 1 copy offsite) to safeguard against any data loss incident.
- Do not erase the external hard drive straight away if it is not recognized by your Mac unless you recover that data by using a Mac data recovery software.
Conclusion
The blog highlighted common reasons with troubleshooting strategies to resolve ‘external hard drive not showing up on Mac' issue. To perform any critical troubleshooting process, back up your drive. In case of data loss, do not lose hope. Recover your lost data by using a Stellar Data Recovery Professional for macOS Big Sur, Catalina or earlier. The Mac data recovery software supports a variety of storage devices including external hard drives formatted with APFS, HFS+, HFS, NTFS, FAT, and ex-FAT file systems. The software is available for a free trial.