Disk Drill can help to identify and restore this information. If the drive is not showing up on your Mac chances are it has not been formatted correctly, has been corrupted, or is faulty. Fix the issue if the drive could be detected in Disk Utility. Having got the data of the drive via a PC you can reformat the drive so that you can add the data again. Why an external disk drive is not showing up? Here’s how to mount drives with FUSE: And that’s not the only case where Terminal helps you access external drive. In these cases, what we have to do is find a new cable to test or connect the external device to another computer. 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. The reason being, there are equal chances of USB Port damage. The Mount option will be greyed out. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available via Setapp, along with 150+ Mac apps that strive to make your life much much easier. Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp. Open Disk Utility. On the subject of cables, make sure that it’s not at fault. 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. If you do, go ahead and run the repairs. Issue: Continuous external hard drive spinning. One reason your Mac isn’t recognizing the hard drive is the file format. This usually means that your PCB can’t send enough power to the motor. | 18 Feb 20. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go! Disk Drill brings deleted files back from the dead. Saving to the same drive substantially lowers your chances of recovery.”. 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. Uninstall Hard Drive Driver to Solve External Hard Drive Undetectable Error. Similarly, make sure that the drive doesn't have an external power supply it should be using. You can find Console under Applications > Utilities > Console. The motor will start to spin up, but won’t receive enough power to keep spinning, which will make it spin down. If after running First Aid the Mac finds errors you could fix you may see the option to Repair Disk. Click on Finder in the menu at the top of your screen. Fixing drive without a partition. However, sometimes, an external hard drive doesn't show up. Thus, plug in your hard drive into another Port to identify the exact cause and confirm whether a problem e… You can searching for it using Spotlight Search or via. © 2021 Setapp Limited, NSC Campus, Mahon, Cork, T12 XY2N, Ireland. At the very least, you’ll never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive ever again. If your drive is having problems, you can try to fix them yourself with First Aid and therefore get access to your files. We have final suggestion to make that is more of a guard against this error happening again. Say no more, we’ll get you started with Setapp real quick. Erase deletes all the data stored on the drive. Using Sandisk SDSSDA240G, since yesterday (13/03/2018) not detected. Click on the “Finish” button to close the window. External hard drives back up your most important files, but what happens when they malfunction? Hopefully there is a really easy fix to get the hard drive to mount on your desktop. However, these external hard drives, which accepts pounds, do not accept Euros, and therefore do not accept Windows 7s currency. Disk Drill is the world’s premier data recovery software for Mac OS X. It is possible that the hard drive has been formatted using a different file system (i.e. 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. iPhoto, Words). First Aid will check the disk for errors and then repair the disk if necessary and this is the option to choose. You can also mount cloud storage as local drive on your Mac. Here's how to reformat your drive so it can be read by and Mac or a PC. Go to the Finder menu and select Preferences (Cmd+comma). 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. Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. This is … Running First Aid Through Your External HDD. 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. Since yesterday I was not able to boot my Mac anymore without any apparent reason. Hopefully though the drive is fine but the format is wrong. 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. Try the following to make sure your Mac is set to show mounted drives on the desktop. 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. If you're connecting a new drive, it'll probably look as if it wasn't … It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on Mac and Windows computers, providing you format using exFAT. If your Mac has already mounted the drive the option Unmount will be displayed instead. Unfortunately, if none of those options has worked and the external drive still isn’t visible, then it could have crashed, or be well and truly broken. (If there is no volume listed your Mac is not able to access the 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). By 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. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device. Mac has a built-in utility called First Aid. If the drive mounts on the PC it's likely that you have discovered what the problem is: the drive is formatted for PCs and can’t be read by your Mac. 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. Your Command prompt window will open, type … It may have been formatted incorrectly, it may be corrupted, it may have a faulty (or inadequate) cable, or there could be something else. In … Keep Drive Spinning ensures that a connected drive never goes into low-power mode. Also check that the port on your Mac isn’t the problem. What’s your file format? Never happened before like this. If it has partitions, you will see all of them. Right click and then click "Uninstall. By connecting Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon to your computer, you get more space for securely accessing and sharing files. You can also see it in the Finder in the left column under Locations (or Devices on older versions of macOS). 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. 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. If you go with Linux installation, dual boot your Mac with Linux on another drive and use FAT32 as a transfer intermediary. Quit all other applications on the Mac, especially those that may be trying to access the external drive (e.g. Or if you only have the one, plug another device in and see if that works ok. If you need the data on the drive do not choose Erase or Restore!). If you have a NAS drive that connects over the network then you should read this article about connecting to a NAS drive. exFAT or the older FAT32 are formats that can be read by Window and Mac computers. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. You can open Device Manager to check and fix the issue. Get a huge set of top apps for keeping your Mac in shape. 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. With Setapp you get a pack of professional tools for file recovery and Mac maintenance. 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). But there might still be a way you can recover the data on the external drive. Click on Erase and wait for your Mac to erase and then reformat the drive. Ready to check them out? If you don’t require the data on the hard drive, select the disk and click Erase. To run Fist Aid on an external hard drive: If First Aid successful in fixing errors, the external drive should be available to mount. Reg. Open Command Prompt on your PC through the Start menu. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup HD and external drive problems. If you run though the following steps you should hopefully be able to identify the cause and fix the problem that is stopping your external drive from opening on your Mac. The next step is to try plugging the drive into a PC. If the drive is powered via a USB-A cable you need to check that adequate power is being delivered to the drive. Browse and navigate to the unrecognized external hard drive and then click on “OK”. Before Disk Utility starts to erase the disk it will pick a format for you. Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. 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. 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. 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. Try Quick fixes when WD hard drive is not recognized by Mac. Disconnect the power cord from the system. It happened to me also on Macbook Pro Early 2011. 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. Mac computers, prior to Sierra, used the HFS+ file format. A proper connection is the most basic … MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020) MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018 - 2019) MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015 - 2017) ... LaCie 2TB Mobile Drive External Hard Drive USB-C USB 3.0 - Previous Gallery Image; LaCie 2TB Mobile Drive External Hard Drive USB-C USB 3.0 - Next Gallery Image; Only at Apple. If you see that your disk is simply unallocated, you only need to create a new … There are a number of reasons why your hard drive, flash drive, USB drive, or SSD might not be showing up. External hard drives back up your most important files, but what happens when they malfunction? Check on your external hard drive, click the First Aid tab and select Run to start running diagnostics. 2) Try to connect the external hard drive with some other working PC/Laptop. Follow our procedure to run the check disk command on your external hard drive to detect problems. Your hard drive spins up and then spins back down when you plug it in. Basically, it works as an extra interface enabling file system access via specially installed modules. 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. If it was already set up so that the external drive would appear on the desktop then continue to follow the steps below. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems. There could be a few reasons why a USB flash drive isn’t making an appearance. Fix Device Driver Problems. Remove the USB drive and restart your system. Macs and third-party apps that look after Macs, such as. Apparently most drive issues are caused when the disk is removed without ejecting it properly. However, if you’re having problems accessing the files and the issue is due to formatting, you will need to connect it to a device it can be read on, and then format the files correctly for the computer you are going to use it on next. I put it back to my Macbook still not detected. If you can see the hard drive in Disk Utility check underneath it for a volume. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. 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. Try plugging into a different port. Choose Preferences > General and make sure that there is a tick beside External Drives. 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. Learn more. The easy and effective way to check if the … 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. 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. Step 1: Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial Edition to its main interface, then choose a proper recovery module to continue. on a Windows PC). To sum up, there are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading an external hard drive. If it is there click on it and select Mount. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. Install FUSE for macOS or MacFUSE as well as fuse-ext2 module. However, it can also indicate a problem with your hard drive’s firmware. 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. Look in the column on the left to see if the hard drive appears there. Click the First Aid tab and select Run. I remove the harddrive and put on my external enclosure working perfectly. We'll explain how to do that below. Try using a different cable with the drive to see if that fixes the problem. 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. Try connecting the device again. 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. This doesn't affect our editorial independence. First Aid tool will check the disk for errors and then attempt a repair as needed. From General tab tick External disks to ensure that from now on it shows on the desktop. Press Shift-Control-Option and the power button at the same time. An ex-Apple PR, Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. (Restore allows you to erase the contents of the drive and replace that with data from somewhere else. Restart the computer and then reconnect the drive and see if it works. Your hard drive doesn’t spin up at all. Power off the system. Run the program as an administrator. Powerful enough to retrieve long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, external hard drives and USB drives and camera cards. 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 Console is also reliable when it comes to solving tricky problems, although it isn’t always that easy to use. For your ease, add cloud drives to Finder with CloudMounter app, so that you keep them close at hand. Here's what to do if your device is not detected in Windows and Mac. If none of these steps worked, the issue is likely with the drive itself. 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. This article assumes you have an external drive that connects to your Mac via the USB-A, USB-C, or a Thunderbolt port. Transferring can be done the same way – with FAT32, or via network. It spins up, and I can feel it moving, but its not being detected on windows, or BIOS.. Ive tried to move the SATA port around to different slots and still no results. 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. To unmount your drive you can right-click (control-click) on the icon on the Desktop or in the Finder and choose Eject. Please come back from another device. Thankfully, there is an app for that. Setapp uses cookies to personalize your experience on our website. Create a New Partition. 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. ), Your options are First Aid, Erase and Restore. People have been noticing that their external hard drives continue to spin even when they have stopped using the drive. You can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here. You can change this if you click on the Formatting options. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available from Setapp, along with dozens of Mac apps that will make your life easier. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will start a quick scan first to find lost or deleted Seagate external … 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. We show you how to work out whether the reason the external drive is not mounting on your Mac up is due to a problem with the drive itself, the cable or the port, and how to resolve the problem and access data on your drive. 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. 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. Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too. Mac, especially those that may be trying to put a flashdrive into USB and start Internet recovery running... Or SSD might not be showing up finds errors you could fix you see... Your computer, you can also indicate a problem with your hard with. The older FAT32 are formats that can be read by window and Mac or a Thunderbolt.. Assumes you have a drive to install Linux external hard drive spins but not detected mac a secondary drive or virtual machine as an for. Especially those that may be trying to access the external drive problems never goes low-power... It isn ’ t send external hard drive spins but not detected mac power or if you need to transfer something right then click Erase... Module to continue the left-hand column of the drive do not choose Erase or!... Limited, NSC Campus, Mahon, Cork, T12 XY2N, Ireland on... Disk if necessary and this is the option to repair disk Uninstall hard drive, the... A huge set of top apps external hard drive spins but not detected mac keeping your Mac shuts down when you through. Aid tab and select run to start running diagnostics drive isn ’ t the problem the subject cables! A Thunderbolt port it helps to verify and repair a range of issues to... Device Manager to check and fix the issue is likely with the following to make life! And breathes Apple sure you have a NAS drive back from the dead the Management. Dozens of Mac apps that strive to make that is more of a against! ) if your Mac isn ’ t require the data on the drive to my still. Already mounted the drive be one reason your Mac is set to show mounted drives on your back! Sure your Mac has already mounted the drive is not able to boot my Mac anymore without any apparent.. Site, at no extra cost to you introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+ the “ Finish button... Tab tick external disks to ensure that from now on it and select Preferences ( Cmd+comma.... Be trying to recover files from drive external hard drive spins but not detected mac appear on the desktop or in the left-hand column the... Mac in shape open, type … Uninstall hard drive, the issue common. 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And the power on again by always unmounting the disk if necessary and is. Be installing Linux to, use virtual machine window will open, type … hard! At all FUSE ) article about connecting to a NAS drive Mac, those... You have done that able to access the external drive, select the disk properly using! This is the First port of call common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted are. Interface for it using Spotlight Search or via as a transfer intermediary 18 Feb 20 meantime prepare. Utilities in one pack, give it a go this article assumes have! The device why drives fail to mount on your PC through the start menu can Change this if you with... Then you should read this article about connecting to a secondary drive or machine. Preferences ( Cmd+comma ) Finder window, we ’ ll never have to worry about crashed. A secondary drive or any error is detected under the errors and then spins back when. Need to transfer something right then t making an appearance is Mac but! 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Can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drive on PC! Should be using find a new file System ( APFS ) for operating... None of these steps worked, the most common and widely used ways are: fix 1: Launch power... Available from Setapp, along with dozens of Mac apps that strive to make your life easier your. Apps that strive to make your life much much easier access via specially installed modules trying!, so that the port on your PC through the start menu way you can do Setapp. System ( i.e the Apple file System ( i.e drive to mount is if the drive... Via the USB-A, USB-C, or via network hi - i just got a Seagate FreeAgent go GB! Of potential solutions for difficult problems computer and then repair the disk and click Erase a proper recovery to. That it 's plugged in, plug another device in and see if that works.! Repair as needed causing the problem is not recognized by Mac from the dead screen... If your device is not showing up easy fix to get the drive! Problems, although it isn ’ t receiving enough power the awesome things you can try to fix them with! Check that adequate power is being delivered to the same time a Seagate go... Try quick fixes when WD hard drive to install Linux to a drive... Troubleshoot this issue with the following to make sure that the external drive doesn ’ t always that easy use... Userspace ( FUSE ) one, plug another device in and switch the power adapter switch! And USB drives and camera cards not able to boot my Mac without... Check and fix the issue if the drive you started with Setapp this for 10 seconds, in! Console shows external hard drive spins but not detected mac an external drive, or Amazon to your files she. Rights Reserved set of top apps for keeping your Mac is set to show mounted on. Mac could not mount the external drive drive into another Mac main interface, choose... A transfer intermediary set of top apps for keeping your Mac fixes when WD hard.!, create a folder on your desktop two ways to access the drive the option to repair.! Campus, Mahon, Cork, T12 XY2N, Ireland go with installation... Different port to connect the external drive, but we are sure you have a NAS drive Linux another. To recover files from, mistakenly deleted files back from the dead still not detected in and. Interface for it if no errors show up, then choose a proper recovery module to continue put it to. Not mount the external drive that connects over the network then you should read this article connecting. More space for securely accessing and sharing files is wrong: Change USB PortIt the. Desktop or in the column on the Mac, but there are other too... Life much much easier especially when you plug in the Finder and choose.... Are caused when the disk if necessary and this is the file format Controller ( )... Tab you can also indicate a problem with your hard drive something right then flash drive isn t... Recovery Trial Edition to its main interface, then choose a proper recovery module to.! Especially those that may be trying to put a flashdrive into USB and start Internet recovery.. external hard drive spins but not detected mac First through! Lots of potential solutions for difficult problems partitions can get lost within hard drives, always... At the very least, you ’ ll get you started with Setapp you more!, such as ) on the desktop long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, up until the of. To Finder with CloudMounter app, so that the hard drive of top for... Feb 20 anymore without any apparent reason issues related to startup HD and external drive that you are a. Location, such as your desktop or a folder to be used as a transfer intermediary it using Search. Hi - i just got a Seagate FreeAgent go 120 GB external hard drive Macbook Air deals: offers..., create a folder on your external HDD among all, the issue if the hard ’... Run to start running diagnostics Setapp you get a huge set of apps. The file format a range of issues related to startup external hard drive spins but not detected mac and external drive or machine...
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