If the external hard drive was formatted on another computer platform, such as Mac or Linux, it may not be recognized by Windows. If all else fails, you can reformat the drive for Windows. If you plan on using the external hard drive only on Windows, select NTFS as the file system. 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. Click and drag the disc drive icon from the desktop into the trash bin. Eject from Context Menu. Hold down the Control button on your keyboard and click the disc drive icon on the desktop. Select Eject from the context menu. Eject from Finder. Locate the disc drive under Devices in the left pane and click the Eject symbol next to.
- Hard Drive Not Detected Mac
- External Hard Disk Not Detected Mac
- Mac Won't Recognize External Drive
- Mac Doesn't Recognize External Drive
Jan 06, 2021 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
Have you ever met the above-described scenario before? While your Seagate, Western Digital, PS4, or Buffalo external hard drive connected to the Windows or Mac computer, the device did not show up. The situation will erode your calmness especially when you have extremely important files in the unrecognized external hard drive. How to fix external hard drive not recognized? Don't worry, this article will provide you step-by-step instructions on how to get the problem settled.
Why Does Your PC Not Recognize External Hard Drive?
You might wonders why your Windows or Mac computer does not recognize the external hard drive. And this problem can be caused by some partition issues:
- The external hard drive partition gets damaged.
- The file system is crashed.
- the drive errors occur in Windows or Mac computers.
- The USB port is dead.
You can try to connect the hard drive to another computer or connect it with other USB ports. If all the methods do not work, you can follow the article tutorial to fix the external hard drive not recognized on Windows or Mac computer, and you can recover lost data from an external hard drive with Recoverit Data Recovery.
How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Recognized on Windows?
If you want to solve your external hard drive not recognized on Windows 7, Windows 10 efficiently, it is advised that you conduct a problem diagnosis. Free zip expander mac. Only when you know the specific reason why your external hard drive not showing up, can you settle it case by case. If you are not sure of the cause, just follow the guide to eliminate the causes one by one and get the issue done.
Step 1 Make Sure Your USB Port Is Dead or Not
You might be plugging in the USB cable in a dead USB port. Unplug your external hard drive and plugin it into another USB port. Now, see if it is present there in the My Computer window. If not, follow step 2.
Step 2 Find Your External Hard Drive Partition in Disk Management Windows
Now, look for the external drive in the Disk Management window. To begin with, press Windows+R to arouse the Run interface. Type diskmgmt. msc to open the Disk Management window, where you can find your drive even if it is not recognized because of no partition. If you cannot find the drive in the Disk Management window then you can go for step 3.
Step 3 Check It Is Computer or Hard Drive Default
By plugging in another USB port or finding the hard drive in the Disk Management interface, still, you cannot get the issue settled. Then there might be any problem with your Windows computer. Connect it to another computer, and follow step 1 to step 3 to check the external drive is recognized or not. Browser settings on mac. If the drive still not shows up on another Windows computer, there must be something wrong with the drive, otherwise follow step 4.
Step 4 Find out The Problematic Hard Drive
To further diagnose a driver problem, press Windows+R and type 'devmgmt.msc' to expand Disk Drives. Look for a device having a yellow exclamation mark, which indicates a problematic hard driver. Now, right-click on the problematic device and read the error message after selecting properties. This issue can resolve in the following two ways:
- Click on the update driver button for installing updated drivers.
- Uninstall the driver and restart your computer. After restarting, the Windows will automatically reinstall and reconfigure the driver.
Now, plug in the external hard drive again or follow step 5 if the drive is still not recognized.
Step 5 Does Partition or Format Cause Hard Drive not Show Up?
Partitioning and formatting can also lead to the external not recognized issue. Partitioning can be fixed through Windows Disk Management tools. To create a new partition, just click the Unallocated Space and select New Simple Volume. You can create a new partition by following onscreen instructions.
Sometimes, your hard drive is formatted by the ext4 file system of Linux, NTFS file system, HFS Plus file system, or FAT32 file system, which is not recognized by your Windows. You can reformat the external hard drive through Windows to solve the issue. For this purpose, right-click on the partition, select Format, and then select the file system. Please kindly get noted! it is important and necessary you backup all your files on other systems before proceeding with 'format instruction', otherwise all your files will be wiped.
Hard Drive Not Detected Mac
How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Recognized on Mac
Mac computer also detects an external drive automatically. If it doesn't, follow these steps:
Step 1 Look for Your External Hard Drive in 'Finder' Interface
First of all, click on File, and then press the New Finder window. Now, look for the hard drive below the Remote Disk.
Step 2 Make Sure the External Hard Drive Is Properly Connected to Mac
If the external drive is not there, make sure that the USB cable is properly plugged in. It is advised you can change another USB port to have a try.
Step 3 Open 'Disk Utility' to Mount The External Hard Drive on Mac
Sometimes, the drive is connected but not mounted. To mount a drive, open Disk Utility and look for the external hard drive in the list. If it is there, click on the Mounting button. Then open a Finder window to see if the drive is mounted or not.
Step 4 Ensure Enough Power for The Drive
If you still cannot find it in the Finder, it is supposed that the drive does not enough power. A single USB port can only provide 5V. In that case, use a USB cable with two USB connections. One is for the external hard drive and the other is for Mac. Therefore, It can supply the power required by the external hard drive.
These steps for fixing an external hard drive not recognized on Windows and Mac are suitable for external hard drives of all capacities and manufacturers. And for your convenience, here also attaches the Wondershare Recoverit tutorial on how to fix the external hard drive not showing up. However, if still the issue is not resolved, you can avail of professional help.
Video Tutorial on How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up
A Professional External Hard Drive Data Recovery Software
After fixing the hard drive that is not recognized on Windows and Mac, you might want to get your data back. Here We introduce a professional external hard drive data recovery software - Wondershare Recoverit to you. Also, its operation steps are clearly listed to help you recover your hard drive data effectively and efficiently.
Wondershare Recoverit
It is trusted by over 5 million global users
It can save your files, photos, videos, audios, etc
It is able to recover data from any Mac or Windows system
Steps on How to Recover Data from External Hard Drive
Download and install Recoverit Data Recovery on your computer. Launch Recoverit to your Windows or Mac computers. Then follow the next step to perform external hard drive data recovery on a Windows or Mac computer.
Step 1. Select The External Hard Drive
Connect your external hard drive to the computer, select it while the disk is detected on the program.
Step 2. Scan The Hard Drive
The external hard drive recovery software will start scanning the device to search the lost files.
Step 3. How to tab on a mac. Preview And Recover The Files
In minutes, all recovered files will display. You can preview photos, videos, music, word, excel, ppt, pdf, etc. Select your files and click the Recover button to restore them.
When the external hard drive gets damaged, you can try to fix it with the solution mentioned above. Also, get your data back with Wondershare Recoverit in three simple steps. Download and try it for now.
What's Wrong with Drive
- Recover Your Drive
- Fix Your Drive
- Format/Wipe Drive
- Know Your Drive
Mac or MacBook Doesn't recognize External Drives. Troubleshooting tips
Macs like most other computers are well working hardware which includes all the newest technologies, unfortunately sometimes hardware and software miscommunicate and causes issues in proper work. There is a lot of cases when you can fix their communication by your own just following some easy tips. For example external drives are widely used invention which nowadays helps a lot of people save money while trying to expand their drives or data storage without a high-priced upgrades. Also it helps to share large size files in a much easier way. Unfortunately in some cases Macs encounter problems while trying to detect some recently plugged in devices. You may face this issue any time you try to connect your external device, even if it worked well several times before.
There are plenty of reasons why this may happen. Probably the most frequent is that we disconnect them straight from the port without ejecting in our operating system first, this results in our drives being still in the run mode while they are out of use. Also the connector or wires might be broken, frayed or worn. Sometimes it's a power or connection problems, sometimes errors in the system preferences. There are cases, when you had well working plugged in device, but once your computer went to sleep with connected external drive, after waking up drive is no longer available. Here we describe the most popular issues and tips how to solve them. Before we start the troubleshooting work, first try to reconnect you external device several times, quite often it helps to solve this problem.
Table of Contents:
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Connections rules
Its really quick and convenient just to plug in and out your devices, usually this task for your mac is to easy, but there are cases when it couldn't recognize your device or drive. Even manufacturers declare it is an plug-and-play. However this work most cases but not all. The best way is to follow recommendations how to connect devices to Mac.
The most reliable path to connect external drives is following these steps.
- Turn on your mac device
- Connect usb cable into computer then to device
- Turn on your external drive.
The super slow plug in
A lot of people declares that their usb flash drives works only when they connect them to computer very slow. If they try plug it in a usual way devices can't detect the drives. Only a slow connections allows to detect them and this case appears in any manufacturer computer, doesn't matter its an apple or windows operating system.
External Hard Disk Not Detected Mac
Eject in a safe way
As it was mentioned wrong unplugging could be a reason for your issue with external drive. Your friend might tell that he never ejects his drive, but there always are a chance that this time will be lucky one and after unplugging your drive will be no more detectable. Always perform a safe remove, which you can do in a very easy way. Just right click on your external drive and select Eject device or if u prefer you can just drag your device to Trash which is going to replace to eject symbol while you drag on. This will turn down your device from any tasks and will ensure that it will be available next time you connect it.
If you can put it on it doesn't matter it fits
Just like in most cases, this rule is valid there. If your connection is dirty or loose it may cause a problems to detect and mount your drive. For that reason you should ensure is your hub clean and connection is tight. Check your cable's condition, if it's damaged, frayed or worn may also be a problem while your mac trying to detect or mount your device. Also these reason may cause an disconnection issues. What is more additional hubs can help you to connect but also there is a possibility it cause an connection issue, so you should try connect directly without any additional hubs.
Power issues
Some cases when you face and issue with your external drive, is caused by lacking of power. Some devices often have their own power source, and while receiving enough power they mounts on its own. If your external drive doesn't have own power supply try plug it in a different usb port if it still not working try use and self-powered USB hub. Quite often case when macs doesn't provide enough power into built-in USB hubs, so additional self-powered hubs helps to solve this issue. Alternatively you can try plug in your power cable into computer and reconnect your drive.
Check your settings
If none of those check works mentioned above could help, begin a bit more complicated solutions. Before starting a troubleshooting steps, check the base mac system preferences. Open your Finder then locate for Preferences. Under both General and Sidebar tabs search for the section Show these item on the desktop (or sidebar). Ensure that External Disks and Hard Drives have a check mark in the box. If you found them disabled, click on the white box to enable icons on desktop.
Run Disk Utility
Launch Disk Utility and look up if your external drive is visible here. To open up your Disk Utility go to Applications then open Utilities and there look for Disk Utility. If your drive appears here but shows its not mounted, select the mount option in top-middle, which should mount that drive. To ensure click on the Apple logo in your screen's top left corner and select About This Mac. Inside select the Storage tab and search for your drive. If you can't find it there, come back to Disk Utility and select your external drive from sidebar. Then click on First Aid or verify(repair) disk. This option should find and solve your drives issues.
Check your external drive format
If disk utility tools couldn't solve your problems you should check format of your drive. Ensure that it isn't listed as NTFS format, otherwise perform a reformat using the erase function in Disk Utility, the new format you should choose is exFAT, Fat or Mac OS Extended.
Use terminal to solve your issue
Mac Won't Recognize External Drive
First you should check if you mac detects your drive is plugged in. To do this open About this Mac and storage tab. For more detailed information choose System Report in Overview tab. In sidebar select USB from hardware section. There you will find all devices connected via usb which your mac detects. If you found your external drive connected in system report but you can't reach it, try disconnect it and remount using Terminal. To open terminal in applications window select Utilities then Terminal. Write down command diskutil list in the terminal. Terminal should display you basic information about all available drives and volumes connected to your mac. In the list search for section labeled /dev/disk_ (external/physical). The disk_ part is the physical disk identifier in a operating system, and the underscore is a number or digit assigned to this drive. Write down whole line including the number or digits which goes after word disk. If your drive has several partitions an letter s follows the disk identifier. The number after letter s is a count of the partition.
Once you got your external drive name in terminal you can use another command diskutil info disk_, ensure you entered your drive symbol instead of underscore. This command opens up detailed information about the drive, including its manufacturer name, its size and is it removable, and more facts.
Furthermore you're sure your disk is viable in system, use Terminal to eject it by using command diskutil eject disk_. Don't forget to replace underscore with your disk identifier symbol. After executing ejection command, check is it really removed by typing diskutil list command again. When you're sure your drive is ejected, disconnect it physically from your computer. This should fix your issues.
Reset NVRAM
NVRAM (non-volatile random-access memory) is small part of your Macs memory that stores certain settings in a location where macOS can access. In this memory is stored information like your computer's speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and any recent kernel panic reports. To reset the NVRAM shutdown your Mac. Turn it on and after loading chime hold down together Option, Command, P and R buttons. Keep holding this combination at least 20 seconds. This should make a view like your computer is restarting and if you hear start up chime again release the buttons.
Does your MacBook shuts down when you plug in your external drive?
You might face this issue when your drive draws too much power from an usb port. Your Mac's SMC shuts down the computer to protect itself. If it happens frequently, try connect your external drive to its own power source if its supplied. In case it's impossible for drives like thumb drives, connect it to another usb port or change the cable you're using. If none of those options available, try reset your Macs SMC.
Resetting SMC
If the battery is integrated:
Mac Doesn't Recognize External Drive
Shut down your mac and unplug the power adapter. Hold down Shift, Control and Option buttons together with power button for 10 seconds. Then release all buttons and reconnect your power adapter. Turn on your mac in usual way.
If the battery is removable:
Shut down your mac, unplug power adapter and remove battery. Press and hold power button for 5 seconds. Replace the battery and and reconnect your power adapter. Turn on your mac in usual way.
Inspect your external drive via Console
In times of trouble, Console might be really useful app which displays list of log and error information that helps you or the service provider to troubleshoot problems of your Mac. However Console can't fix your issues, but information displayed in it might help find a solution. Let's check your what's going when you plug in your device via Console. First open up a Console, which can be done by accessing Applications then selecting Utilities and finally a Console. In opened window select Error and Faults tab. Then connect your external device and look for a changes in console. If it detects your device or if displays an error about it. In case no changes in console appear the problem is not your usb device.
Video Showing how to troubleshoot external HDD detection problems:
Ok, Now I'm thinking my external HDD could need a new cable to connect XD.
