Mac Not Detecting External Hard Drive

  1. Sometimes, you think WD hard drive is not recognized by Mac because the WD external hard drive isn't showing up on Mac, neither in Finder nor on the desktop. However, the fact is that the WD hard drive is detected by macOS but it is not set to show up on Mac. In this case, you can show the WD hard drive by changing the preferences.
  2. Like Windows, Mac also detects an external drive automatically. If it doesn't, follow these steps: Step 1 First of all, look for the external hard drive in the finder window. For this, click on File and then click New Finder Window.

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HomeYodot Mac Data RecoveryMac Cannot Recognize ExFAT Drive

External Hard Drive Not Showing Up

May 04, 2020 Open the Start menu, type 'Device Manager,' and press Enter when the option appears. Expand the Disk Drives menu and the Universal Serial Bus menu to see if your external drive appears in either. Nov 19, 2020 Sometimes, you think WD hard drive is not recognized by Mac because the WD external hard drive isn't showing up on Mac, neither in Finder nor on the desktop. However, the fact is that the WD hard drive is detected by macOS but it is not set to show up on Mac. In this case, you can show the WD hard drive by changing the preferences.

“I have formatted my external hard drive with exFAT file system on my Mac machine running with OS X 10.7. Later I upgraded to OS X 10.8. Whenever I plugged the ExFAT drive to my Mac system, an error pops-up saying that “iMac doesn't recognize this drive”. I tried to fix this issue through permissions in Disk Utility, but no use. Few of my vital files are present on the ExFAT drive along with music, movies and photos. I am at loss; I have no clue, what else should I do to access my drive. I am looking for help. Please guide me.”

It’s damn difficult to bear the brunt of losing your irreplaceable data all of a sudden. But you should never lose hope at any point of time. According to the great saying, you can find solution for every problem in the world! Then why not for unrecognized ExFAT drive? Have a look here.

Why Mac cannot recognize the ExFAT drive?

There might be two causes here.

1) Mac might be missing some necessary driver software to read the ExFAT drive, after you upgraded from previous OS X

2) There might be some issue with your ExFAT drive

How to go with further troubleshooting? https://cooldup132.weebly.com/microsoft-word-free-download-for-macbook-air.html.

1. Check Apple website for availability of any update/driver software for current version of your OS X. If you find any, install them on your machine and try to access the ExFAT drive. If you are unable to open the ExFAT drive even after installing adequate update and driver program, then jump to next method.

2. Plug-in the ExFAT drive into another working Mac Machine and see it is detected. If the drive is recognized, copy your entire data from it. Detach the drive and format it on your host Macintosh (on which your drive was not detected).

In case, your drive fails to show up on any other Mac machines then it seems like the problem lies within the ExFAT drive. It might be corrupted or became unreadable. Still don’t worry. You can bring back the corrupted ExFAT drive to normal state (working mode) by formatting/re-formatting it. Also you need to be concerned about data saved on the unrecognized ExFAT drive. As you can safeguard entire data present on your undetected ExFAT drive, with the help of Yodot Mac Data Recovery application.

Iphone_unlocker zip free. Tool to recover undetected ExFAT drive on Mac system:

Yodot Mac Data Recovery can easily backup whole data from your undetected ExFAT drive, without causing any intact either to drive’s internal structure or to files stored on it. The program is well fitted to restore unrecognized Samsung hard drive, Toshiba external disk, Seagate portable drive, ScanDisk media card, HP Pen drive, Kingston USB etc i.e. it supports variety of storage devices as well as various brands; so you can undoubtedly trust the software to achieve guaranteed data restoration on any storage media. The retrieving ability of this utility is unbounded, thus you can recover any files like Office document, Portable Document Format (PDF), Outlook data files, archives, audio, video, images, RAW pictures etc of more than 300 types. Not just from corrupted storage, even inaccessible, dead, crashed, non-booting and un-mountable Mac machines data can also be retrieved by this software, with no difficulty. The smart interface of the program offers you a great data retrieval experience, effortless recovery process and preview of recovered data, so that you can review its recovering capability before you save regained data. The companionable toolkit is well-suited for all latest editions of OS X from Leopard to Sierra.

Steps to restore undetected ExFAT drive on Mac:

  • Get Mac Data Recovery on your Macintosh system
  • Attach undetected ExFAT drive
  • Go for Volumes Recovery selection on main screen
  • Select ExFAT drive and its all shown volumes from list
  • Choose Normal Scan and click on Mark All key
  • All files present on your ExFAT drive will be listed in two views
  • Mark files that you need
  • Save those files on Macintosh hard drive

Note:

  • It’s suggested to keep an untouched backup of entire data prior to start OS upgrade
  • Don’t forget to install necessary updates as well driver software after upgrading your OS

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. The methods we’ll cover are:
1. Check USB connectivity
2. 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
Download the free-to-try Mac data recovery software to recover your lost data from external hard drive on Mac.

“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.

Mac Not Detecting External Hard Drive

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

Steam skyrim vs special edition. 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.

  1. Go to Apple menu > System Preferences.
  2. In the System Preferences window, click Software Update.
  3. In the Software Update window, let macOS to check for updates.
  4. When updates are available, click Update Now.
  5. Click Download and Restart. Wait till the update is over.

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:

  1. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities. Double-click Disk Utility to launch it.
  2. If Disk Utility lists the external hard drive in gray, then select your external hard drive from the sidebar.
  3. From the top pane, click the Mount tab to mount your unmounted external hard drive.
  4. 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.
  5. 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:

  1. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities. Double-click Terminal to launch it.
  2. At the command line, type diskutil list, then hit Return. Note disk# of the external hard drive.
  3. Type diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk#, then hit Return.
  4. Type diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk#. then hit Return.
  5. When the repair process is completed, go to Terminal > Quit Terminal.

Mac Not Mounting External Hard Drive

External drive not recognized mac

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.

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 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. https://comicstorrent.mystrikingly.com/blog/best-format-for-external-hard-drive-mac.