In Finder if you select the external HD then do a Get Info (cmd+I) it'll bring up a window. Under the General section at the bottom there's a check box for Locked. Make sure this is not checked. You can show or hide Mac's main hard drive from the desktop of your Mac with ease and all you need to do is to adjust some of the Finder options. If you want to keep your hard drives icon on the desktop so that you can access the data easily, then here's what you have to do to show HD on Mac.
- How Do I Open My External Hard Drive On Mac Drive
- How Do I Open My External Hard Drive On Mac Catalina
- How Do I Open My External Hard Drive On Macbook Pro
Your Mac not recognizing an external hard drive can be cause for panic. But try to remain calm — it's unlikely that anything has happened to your files. All of your data will still be on the hard drive, it just that, for whatever reason, you can't access it.
Just so that you worry not about losing data, get Disk Drill. Available via Setapp, the app is the best tool that will rescue your files.
Download Disk Drill Free- It might be possible that your external hard drive is formatted to work on Windows PCs and not on Mac devices. Another thing you can do is to simply turn off your Mac device and turning it on again. Simple rebooting can do wonders on your Mac. You can also try to reboot USB drives.
- With Thunderbolt, USB or FireWire, you can install an external hard drive without opening your iMac's case. With your iMac turned on and the external drive disconnected from the AC outlet, follow these steps: Connect the FireWire, Thunderbolt, or USB cable betwixt the drive and your computer. Plug the external drive into a convenient surge.
- How Do I Make My Seagate Work With a Mac? One thing you should know first.
Fortunately, there are ways and means of getting the hard drive back up and running. Let's get into some of them right now.
Why a flash drive is not showing up on Mac?
If you've plugged in a flash drive or USB drive and it's not showing up on your Mac at all, it could be down to a faulty cable or USB port.
Before you try any system troubleshooting tips, start with the basics.
- Check that the drive is probably plugged in.
- Check the USB connector — does it look damaged or misshapen in any way?
- Check the cable — is it frayed or are there any wires exposed?
- If the external hard drive is plugged into a wall outlet, try a different outlet.
- Try a different USB cable — even cables with no visible defects can fail.
- Try connecting the hard drive to a different USB port — it could be a hardware issue.
- Try the drive in another Mac — if it works there, the problem is with the USB ports on your Mac.
- Test the hard drive on a PC — it could be formatted for PCs and not readable on Macs.
- Reboot your Mac — a simple on and off is sometimes all it takes.
- Reboot USB drives by shutting down your system and restarting it, holding Command+Option+P+R as you do. When you hear a sound and see the screen flash, release the keys and let your Mac boot up as usual.
If you've carried out visually inspections, tested your hard drive with different cables and power outlets, and tried different systems with no luck, it's time to put your Mac to work.
1. Change the Finder settings
One of the most common reasons for Mac not recognizing external hard drives is due to the system not being set up to display hard drives on the desktop. There's a simple fix for this:
- Open a Finder window.
- Go to Preferences > General.
- Check that the External disks option is enabled.
If your Mac is not recognizing a USB or external hard drive after this, you'll have to try mounting it manually.
2. Mount an external hard drive on Mac
If Mac isn't automatically recognizing your external hard drive, it's time to force it to. Connect your hard drive and follow these instructions:
- Go to System Preferences > Disk Utility.
- Check that the external disk is listed in the left sidebar.
- Highlight your hard drive and select Mount. It should now appear under devices in the Finder.
If the hard drive still isn't playing ball, the next step is First Aid.
How Do I Open My External Hard Drive On Mac Drive
3. Run First Aid on an external hard drive
Mac's built-in First Aid tool is designed to verify and repair a range of issues related to corrupted files and apps, startup issues, and, crucially, external hard drive problems.
If your issue has to do with wanting to know how to open a flash drive on Mac that's displaying but not allowing you access to files, First Aid might be able to help.
- Go to System Preferences > Disk Utility.
- Highlight your external hard drive and click on First Aid.
- Select Run to start running diagnostics and prompt Mac to automatically fix any issues.
If First Aid is successful in repairing any faults, your hard drive should be available to mount. If not, you'll need to try the next option.
4. Delete potentially conflicting apps
How recent is the problem? If a flash drive not showing up on Mac was completely fine a few days earlier there could be an app causing conflict. If you've downloaded any new apps recently, uninstall them one at a time, connecting your hard drive after each uninstallation to see if the issue is resolved.
You can delete apps using the Launchpad or by dragging them to the Trash, but neither method is recommended in this situation. You see, while an app might appear to be deleted, associated files will be left on your system — files that could be preventing access to your external hard drive.
Instead, let CleanMyMac X take care of it. CleanMyMac X has an Uninstaller tool that can define your installed applications and associated files and remove every trace of an unwanted app.
And it couldn't be easier to use.
- Download CleanMyMac X (for free).
- Launch the app and select Uninstaller.
- Click on View All Applications and select a recently installed app.
- Click Uninstall.
How to edit a pdf on mac for free. If you've worked through all recently installed apps and are still no further forward, your hard drive may have crashed or, worse, be completely broken. In this case, you'll need a heavy duty tool like Disk Drill to rescue files.
5. Repair disk permissions
Disk permissions keeps your files secure. Every file and folder has an associated set of permissions. Unfortunately, these can get messed up without you realising it, which can cause serious problems. You can fix these two ways. Either manually, as we mention in this article, or using CleanMyMac X, which is far easier.
All you need to do is:
- Click on Maintenance from the left sidebar menu.
- Check the box next to Repair Disk Permissions.
- Click Run.
The program will scan and fix any it finds that are broken or faulty. Your Mac should be running as good as new.
To prevent an external hard drive not showing up on Mac turning into an all-out disaster, always backup files on your system hard drive and in the cloud. Anytime you use an external drive, unmount the disk properly and store it safely. And finally, use CleanMyMac to uninstall apps and run regular Maintenance on your system to prevent applications conflicting with hard drive performance.
These might also interest you:
Nov 13, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
When you plug in your external hard disk to your computer, you may find that your hard drive is detected by the operating system, but you're not able to open.
Such a problem can occur due to multiple factors, and if you're worried that you won't be able to reaccess the drive and thinking 'how to fix the external hard drive, not opening?'
There is no need to start panicking! You can follow our complete guide to learn the reason behind your hard disk inaccessibility, and we will also guide you through the process of how to repair that external hard drive and recover the erased data along the way too.
Part 1. Why External Hard Drive Recognized But Not Accessible?
There could be several reasons why your external hard drive may fail to respond to your Windows PC. It can be caused by some technical glitch in your operating system, or it might be due to the drive's internal hardware failure. It can also occur when you fail to plug in the device through the USB port properly.
Most of the time, such an issue gets resolved when you re-plug the drive into the PC or restart the system again entirely. But if such a problem with your hard drive persists and it remains visible on the system but doesn't open, even if you connect it to another computer system. Then there might be a deeper problem at play with the hard drive. Here is the list of issues that could be behind the problem with your external Hard Drive.
- Presence of bad sectors caused by inappropriately removing the drive from PC without following the removal protocol.
- Mechanical failure is caused by dropping the drive on the ground.
- Virus or Malware is caused by opening an ill-conceived website or file.
- Driver issue caused by some software glitch.
Whatever may be the reason behind this problem, in this article, we will help you repair your hard drive, which will allow you to access the important files within.
- Go to System Preferences > Disk Utility.
- Highlight your external hard drive and click on First Aid.
- Select Run to start running diagnostics and prompt Mac to automatically fix any issues.
If First Aid is successful in repairing any faults, your hard drive should be available to mount. If not, you'll need to try the next option.
4. Delete potentially conflicting apps
How recent is the problem? If a flash drive not showing up on Mac was completely fine a few days earlier there could be an app causing conflict. If you've downloaded any new apps recently, uninstall them one at a time, connecting your hard drive after each uninstallation to see if the issue is resolved.
You can delete apps using the Launchpad or by dragging them to the Trash, but neither method is recommended in this situation. You see, while an app might appear to be deleted, associated files will be left on your system — files that could be preventing access to your external hard drive.
Instead, let CleanMyMac X take care of it. CleanMyMac X has an Uninstaller tool that can define your installed applications and associated files and remove every trace of an unwanted app.
And it couldn't be easier to use.
- Download CleanMyMac X (for free).
- Launch the app and select Uninstaller.
- Click on View All Applications and select a recently installed app.
- Click Uninstall.
How to edit a pdf on mac for free. If you've worked through all recently installed apps and are still no further forward, your hard drive may have crashed or, worse, be completely broken. In this case, you'll need a heavy duty tool like Disk Drill to rescue files.
5. Repair disk permissions
Disk permissions keeps your files secure. Every file and folder has an associated set of permissions. Unfortunately, these can get messed up without you realising it, which can cause serious problems. You can fix these two ways. Either manually, as we mention in this article, or using CleanMyMac X, which is far easier.
All you need to do is:
- Click on Maintenance from the left sidebar menu.
- Check the box next to Repair Disk Permissions.
- Click Run.
The program will scan and fix any it finds that are broken or faulty. Your Mac should be running as good as new.
To prevent an external hard drive not showing up on Mac turning into an all-out disaster, always backup files on your system hard drive and in the cloud. Anytime you use an external drive, unmount the disk properly and store it safely. And finally, use CleanMyMac to uninstall apps and run regular Maintenance on your system to prevent applications conflicting with hard drive performance.
These might also interest you:
Nov 13, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
When you plug in your external hard disk to your computer, you may find that your hard drive is detected by the operating system, but you're not able to open.
Such a problem can occur due to multiple factors, and if you're worried that you won't be able to reaccess the drive and thinking 'how to fix the external hard drive, not opening?'
There is no need to start panicking! You can follow our complete guide to learn the reason behind your hard disk inaccessibility, and we will also guide you through the process of how to repair that external hard drive and recover the erased data along the way too.
Part 1. Why External Hard Drive Recognized But Not Accessible?
There could be several reasons why your external hard drive may fail to respond to your Windows PC. It can be caused by some technical glitch in your operating system, or it might be due to the drive's internal hardware failure. It can also occur when you fail to plug in the device through the USB port properly.
Most of the time, such an issue gets resolved when you re-plug the drive into the PC or restart the system again entirely. But if such a problem with your hard drive persists and it remains visible on the system but doesn't open, even if you connect it to another computer system. Then there might be a deeper problem at play with the hard drive. Here is the list of issues that could be behind the problem with your external Hard Drive.
- Presence of bad sectors caused by inappropriately removing the drive from PC without following the removal protocol.
- Mechanical failure is caused by dropping the drive on the ground.
- Virus or Malware is caused by opening an ill-conceived website or file.
- Driver issue caused by some software glitch.
Whatever may be the reason behind this problem, in this article, we will help you repair your hard drive, which will allow you to access the important files within.
Part 2. How to Fix External Hard Disk Detected But Not Opening?
Before initiating the process to fix the issues with your hard drive, some external drives have power cables or a physical power switch, which should be ON at all times for you to perform operations on the disk. It is a simple step, but you should check it before anything.
After checking the ON/OFF switch, you can proceed further to perform other solutions to fix the inaccessibility problem.
Solution 1. Check the External Hardware:
Before performing any step, it is advised that you check the health of the external hardware of your system and the drive's accessories, which are as follows:
1. USB port.
2. Power/Data cable.
Please follow these steps to check whether the problem is with your drive or with your computer.
- It is advised that you plug in the external hard drive on some other System to check whether there is some kind of issue with your PC.
- Please try to Re-Plug the device on some different USB port, as the frequent usage of one port might have caused some wear and tear which could have loosened the hinges.
- Try the Data Cable of your external drive on some other device to see that it is functioning correctly. The casual and repeated use of the power cable may cause it to lose its functionality.
Solution 2. Restart your PC:
Restarting is perhaps the most natural solution to our hard drive being unresponsive. This fix usually solves the error half of the time. There are many ways to restart your computer, but we will try it the conventional way, so please follow our guide to perform this solution.
- Open Start menu.
- Click on Restart.
- After restarting the system, try plugging the device into the PC to review the issue at hand. If the problem persists, then hop onto the next solution.
Solution 3. Update Driver of the Disk:
If you continue to remove your device casually from the computer, it may cause some sort of damage to the driver of your hard drive. This hassle can be fixed by reinstalling or updating the external hard drives, which can fix any problem with your storage device.
The Hard Drive's Driver:
The driver of the external disk is very similar to, the internal HDD on a computer, which consists of a rotating platter with a magnetic surface that rapidly stores digitally encoded data. It also provides the means of communication between the drive and the computer to which it is connected. It functions by giving the hard drive's serial/model number as well as physical information (sectors, heads, and the storage capacity) to the operating system so that it can recognize it.
Follow our step-by-step solution guide to check your drivers.
- Open Device Manager on your computer by entering the name in the search bar.
- Right-click on your Hard Drive's driver.
- Click on Properties.
- Click on the Driver tab and click on Update Driver.
- Click on 'Search automatically for updated driver software', or you can click on 'Browse my computer for driver software' if you have the driver file on your PC.
- The system will start searching for your diver software, you can also uninstall the device and reinstall it, using the same utility.
- Your PC will automatically update the software if there is a new update. Otherwise, it will notify you that 'The best drivers for your device is already installed'.
- If the issue persists after that, click on Close and jump to the next solution.
Solution 4. Fix it by Disk Management and Format it:
You will be able to access the properties and storage of your external storage drive with the help of the Disk Management utility. It can create a new partition within the device, if there is unallocated space and assign it a new letter to enable access. Follow our solution below:
- Open Disk Management through the Start menu.
- Right-click on your external drive's icon.
- If you find unallocated space, then click on New Simple Volume and click on Next.
How Do I Open My External Hard Drive On Mac Catalina
- Assign a letter to the drive and click on Next.
How Do I Open My External Hard Drive On Macbook Pro
- Select the Do not Format option and push Next.
- Click on Finish.
- You can also format the device by right-clicking on the icon of the drive and selecting Format.
Solution 5. Run Windows Troubleshooter:
You can fix specific problems through the Windows troubleshoot utility, which automates the diagnosis and repairs the problem with your computer system. Follow our guide to use the windows troubleshoot utility, which may fix the hard drive inaccessibility issue.
- Open the Start menu and click on Settings.
- Click on Troubleshoot and find Hardware and Devices.
- Click on Run the Troubleshooter.
- The troubleshooter will start scanning for irregularities in the PC.
- It will notify you after finishing the scan and will advise you to apply the fix if any problem is detected. Choosing the option will prompt you to restart the computer.
Solution 6. Run CHKDSK to Repair Disk:
You can use the CHKDSK facility by using the command prompt on your PC. Before using the check disk command, it is important to know what type of functions it performs to fix specific disk-related problems.
1. It scans the integrity of the file system and file system metadata on a disk volume.
2. It fixes all types of logical file system errors that it finds during the scan.
3. Through its disk scan, CHKDSK detects the good and the bad sectors of the selected disk.
Follow our procedure to run the check disk command on your external hard drive to detect problems.
- Open Command Prompt on your PC through the Start menu.
- Run the program as an administrator.
- Your Command prompt window will open, type the following command inside the display, and hit Enter.
How to unlock a mac laptop. chkdsk X: /r /f where X is the external hard drive letter and /r & /f are the parameters of CHKDSK.
- The command will run its scan. Once the scan is complete, remove the drive and re-attach it again with the PC to see whether the procedure worked or not.
Part 3. How to Recover Data from Hard Drive Not Detected?
If you select the solution of formatting the external drive, then it will erase all the data. If the files inside your hard drive are irreplaceable and you intend to use those again, then you can recover all of your data. The data can be recovered until you overwrite the drive's memory with new data. To retrieve the files, you are required to perform a recovery operation by using a data recovery tool for Windows, and there is none better than Recoverit Data Recovery Tool by Wondershare.
Features of Recoverit:
- Works on every type of portable device (USB, HDD).
- It recovers data in more than 1000 file formats known in the tech world.
- Recoverit supports all types of File system formats like exFAT, FAT32, HFS, NTFS.
- It keeps your data secure and retrieves it with 96% efficiency.
- It is available on both macOS and Windows PC.
To recover all of your files, you are required to follow our three-step process to recover deleted files after installing the app.
1. Select the Location:
Please follow the steps mentioned below to begin.
- Launch it from the Start menu.
- Select the 'Location' of your external hard drive.
- Click on the 'Start' button for the process to begin.
2. Scan for Lost Data:
- The scanning process will start. It will take some time for the scan to finish, depending on the storage space of your external hard disk.
- A scan completion pop up will appear on the screen with a beep tone.
- There is also a Pause and Stop button, which enables you to stop the scanning process.
- The results will be displayed, which you will be able to view them from the File Type and File Path section.
- You can pause or stop the disk recovery scan by clicking the Pause/or Stop button.
3. Recover the Lost Data:
- Recoverit allows users to Preview the recovered files, which will enable you to check the authenticity of the erased data.
- You can select your files and retrieve them by clicking on the 'Recover' button to reclaim your data back.
Closing Words:
It is entirely up to your personal maintenance, and handling of your computer's hardware and how you keep your PC protected by using some good antivirus. You are advised to check the way you plug in the drive inside the USB port. You are also required to press the eject button before removing the disk from the computer. It is also important that you check the health of your external storage device regularly by scanning it through the CHKDSK utility.
Now you know six possible solutions to fix the hard drive if any such issue ever arises. However, if you still aren't able to access your files or have formatted the drive entirely, then you can recover those files by using the Recoverit Data Recovery program to gain access and recover all the important data.
What's Wrong with Drive
- Recover Your Drive
- Fix Your Drive
- Format/Wipe Drive
- Know Your Drive
