- Usb Drive Not Mounting Machine
- Usb Drive Not Mounting Mac
- Usb Drive Not Mounting Macro
- Usb Drive Not Mounting Machines
Oct 26, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
There is no doubt that getting quick access to the Mac HD directory can be quite helpful in many situations. You can easily access several folders, such as System, Users, Applications, and Library. All these folders contain data that any Mac user access on a regular basis. Sadly, macOS High Sierra may not display you the Macintosh HD folder on your desktop or Finder by default. It makes access to files difficult.
Note- there are plenty of options you will find on internet for this issue, e.g. Safe mode unmount 2.repair ext. Hard drive in disk utility 3.
The good news is that there are some ways to show the hard drive on Mac. Here, in this post, you will get to learn that, and also, you get to know how to find the external hard drive on Mac.
Question: Q: External hard drive not mounting Mac After upgrading from OS X Sierra to OS X High Sierra on my MacBook Air, I can no longer mount and read my external hard drive. During the upgrade, I converted my MacBook hard drive to APFS. It does not mount on any Mac computer and is not visible in Disc Utility. I tried re-formatting the USB as FAT32 (on the PC), but the issue remains. When I re-format the USB as FAT on the PC, the USB becomes visible on the Mac, but I cannot read/write from the drive. If I attempt to open a file, the USB immediate ejects/dismounts.
Part 1. Why You Can't See Hard Drive on Mac?
Well, there are a number of reasons why you can't see the hard drive on your Mac. Here, we are going to mention the most common ones:
- Preference Issue: You may have not set preferences that make the hard drive visible on your Mac Finder or desktop.
- Connector Issue: It might be the case that you fail to connect the hard drive to your Mac USB port correctly. And maybe the cable you're using for connection is damaged or non-functional.
- Corruption of File system: It might also case that the file system of the hard drive is corrupt due to bad sectors, logical errors, etc. Sometimes, your hard drive file system damage leads to non-mounting HD in Finder.
- Hard drive failure: It might be the case that your drive is physically damaged due to component failure, head crash, or etc.
Part 2. How to Show Hard Drive Icon on Mac Desktop?
It is the Finder's job for displaying the desktop and its icons, which include storage devices icon too. 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.
To begin with, you need to first have the Finder option in the foreground. For this, check if there is the word 'Finder' in your Mac menu bar. If no, then all you have to do is to tap on the 'Finder' icon from the Dock of your Mac to appear it in the foreground.
Once you are able to do it, follow the below steps to show the hard drive on a Mac desktop:
- Go to the Menu bar, and then, move to 'Finder'. Next, click on the 'Preferences' option.
- Next, select the 'General' tab when the Finder preferences window appears on your Mac screen.
- After that, check the box 'Hard disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop'.
- Finally, the Mac hard drive icon should now appear on your desktop as shown in the below figure.
As you can see how much it is easy to show and hide Mac hard disks or drives on your desktop. Whenever you want quick access to the data on your Mac, all you have to do is double-click on your Mac HD drive from the desktop and you'll be navigated to the place where all of your Mac data is stored.
Part 3. How to Find External Hard Drive on Mac?
Is your Mac not detecting the external hard drive? In many cases, an external hard drive doesn't show up on your Mac. There is no doubt that it is quite frustrating, especially when you want to transfer something very important right then. Besides this, there can be a change that data present on an external hard drive is corrupt, which is one of the reasons why your Mac can't detect an external drive.
The good news is that there are some solutions that can help you to come out of this problem with ease. Let's look at them:
1. Mount the External Hard Drive on Mac
It could be the case that your Mac already detects an external hard drive, but it just not showing its icon on your desktop screen. If it is the case, then you can easily mount and access your drive again and all you have to do is to follow the below steps:
- To start with, move to the Finder menu and here, choose Preferences.
- In the Finder preferences window, choose the General tab.
- Here, you need to make sure that the 'External disks' option under 'Show these items on the desktop' is ticked.
Also, you can set your Mac to display an external hard drive in Finder. For this, go to 'Finder'>' Preferences'>' Sidebar'. Here, you need to tick the option 'External disks' under the 'Locations' menu.
Transfer files from windows to mac. This method will probably help you to show the connected external hard drive on your Mac. If it doesn't, then you can go for the next solution. And if you need to make a USB flash drive detected, the solutions might be more feasible: Fix USB not showing up on Mac.
2. Launch Disk Utility to Run First Aid
There might be a case that your external hard drive is going through some problems you are unaware of it. In this case, you can try to resolve them yourself using Disk Utility to run the First Aid tool. Afterward, you can even access your files. The tool will inspect the disk for issues and errors and then, try to repair it as required. It is quite helpful when it comes to verifying and repairing a wide range of problems related to external and HD drive.
Here is the step-by-step guide on how you can run First Aid on your external hard drive:
- To start with, launch Disk Utility. You can search for it using Spotlight Search or go to 'Finder'>' Application'>' Utility'
- After that, you need to check on an external hard drive. Next, click on the 'First Aid' tab and choose 'Run' to begin running diagnostics.
If First Aid tools become successful in fixing problems, then your external hard drive should now be available for you to mount. What if the tool fails to repair issues? Then, your drive is badly broken or maybe formatted through a file system that your Mac can't read. In this way, we recommended that you should recover data from the damaged hard drive. Check out the next section to learn how to get back and how hard disk data on Mac.
Part 4. How to Recover and Show Hard Drive Data on Mac?
Have you ever wondered what if you found that you can't access the data stored on your Mac hard drive due to sudden power failure, or virus attack? Or if the above methods fail to fix 'external hard drive not mounting Mac'. In such cases, data recovery software can help you to easily get back hard drive data on your Mac.
1. Recoverit - The Best Software to Recover Mac Files:
Whenever you experience a data loss situation, Recoverit Data Recovery Mac will help you to retrieve it. This data recovery software will come in handy even when you've never made a backup of your device. You now know how to partition Mac hard drive and un-partition it. But knowing how you can recover the lost or deleted files from the drive is also necessary.
2. How to Recover Lost Word Files on Mac:
Step 1: Select a Location
Launch the software and select the drive from where the data files are lost. If you don't know which drive to search, tap on the 'I can't find my partition' option, and hit the Start button.
Step 2: Scan the Location
Typically, the software will run an All-Around Recovery scan and search for the lost and deleted files on the entire drive.
Step 3: Preview and Recover
When the scan completes, the files will be listed on the screen. The software will sort out the files according to format to make the search easier. You can select multiple files at a time and have a preview of them.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that creating and removing a Mac drive partition is not that tough. You just have to careful during the process. And in case of a mishap, Recoverit is always here for your help so that you don't have to suffer from data loss situation.
What's Wrong with Mac
- Recover Your Mac
- Fix Your Mac
- Delete Your Mac
- Learn Mac Hacks
Summary: This blog explains five best ways to resolve the 'external hard drive not mounting' issue on Mac.
It also shares a reliable software-based method to recover data from unmounting (or un-mountable) USB hard drive on Mac. Free evaluate the best Mac external drive recovery software from the below.
When you connect an external hard drive on Mac, it will show up on Desktop, Finder, and DiskUtility. But sometimes the external drive won't appear on any of these places. Consequently, data inside the unmounted external hard drive turns inaccessible. The contained files and the external drive's integrity comes to a stake.
Don'tworry, read and apply the below fixes to resolve Mac unmounted external drive issue.
1. Change macOS Settings
Ensure Finder preference to show external disks on Desktop or Finder is enabled.
- Open Finder from Dock. From the top Menu Bar, go to Finder > Preferences.
- On the 'Finder Preferences' window, click the General tab.
- Under the 'Show these items on the Desktop' section, select the 'External disks' checkbox. Your Desktop will now show the external hard drive icon.
- Click the Sidebar tab. Under the Locations section, select the 'External disks' checkbox. Your Finder sidebar will now show the external hard drive.
Ensure Disk Utility's View menu has 'ShowAllDevices' option selected.
- Press Command + Space Bar keys to open Spotlight.
- Type ‘disk utility' and hit Return to open Disk Utility.
- Click the View menu located at the top left corner of Disk Utility and select 'Show All Devices'. Your Disk Utility's sidebar will now show the external hard drive.
2. Reset Mac Firmware Settings
Reset NVRAM (Non-volatile RAM) & PRAM (Parameter RAM).
- Restart Mac then immediately press and hold Option + Command + P + R keys until you hear a second chime.
Reset SMC (System Management Controller) on your Mac.
- For iMac, Mac Pro/mini, or laptop with a removable battery—detach the power cable or take out the battery then press and hold the Power button for 5 seconds.
- For MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or MacBook with non-removable battery—press and hold Shift + Control + Option + Power Button for 10 seconds.
3. Fix External Hard Drive Connectivity Issue
Ensure proper connectivity of your external hard drive to your Mac.
- Reconnect the USB connector or adapter to fit the hard drive snugly.
- Connect the hard drive to a different USB port or a different Mac.
- Replace the USB cable or adapter in case you suspect it to be damaged.
- Connect external power source if the hard drive requires one.
- Check the LED light to ensure the storage device is powered on and working.
- Swap the hard drive with a different case if you presume it to be faulty.
ReadCaseStudy: Whooping 94% data recovered from unmounted external drive on MacBook Pro
4. Troubleshoot External Hard Drive
Mount the external hard drive from Disk Utility.
- Open DiskUtility then select the greyed out hard drive from the sidebar.
- Click the Mount tab. The drive will mount automatically.
Repair hard drive from Disk Utility.
- Open Disk Utility then select the hard drive from the sidebar.
- Click First Aid then hit Run to verify and repair logical issues with the hard drive.
Check the SMART status of the external hard drive if it unmounts intermittently. Node js ide mac.
- Open Disk Utility then check the SMART Status of the external hard drive.
- In case the SMART Status is failing, then back up the drive by cloning.
- Replace the failing drive with a new one to safeguard against data loss.
Usb Drive Not Mounting Machine
- Go to the Menu bar, and then, move to 'Finder'. Next, click on the 'Preferences' option.
- Next, select the 'General' tab when the Finder preferences window appears on your Mac screen.
- After that, check the box 'Hard disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop'.
- Finally, the Mac hard drive icon should now appear on your desktop as shown in the below figure.
As you can see how much it is easy to show and hide Mac hard disks or drives on your desktop. Whenever you want quick access to the data on your Mac, all you have to do is double-click on your Mac HD drive from the desktop and you'll be navigated to the place where all of your Mac data is stored.
Part 3. How to Find External Hard Drive on Mac?
Is your Mac not detecting the external hard drive? In many cases, an external hard drive doesn't show up on your Mac. There is no doubt that it is quite frustrating, especially when you want to transfer something very important right then. Besides this, there can be a change that data present on an external hard drive is corrupt, which is one of the reasons why your Mac can't detect an external drive.
The good news is that there are some solutions that can help you to come out of this problem with ease. Let's look at them:
1. Mount the External Hard Drive on Mac
It could be the case that your Mac already detects an external hard drive, but it just not showing its icon on your desktop screen. If it is the case, then you can easily mount and access your drive again and all you have to do is to follow the below steps:
- To start with, move to the Finder menu and here, choose Preferences.
- In the Finder preferences window, choose the General tab.
- Here, you need to make sure that the 'External disks' option under 'Show these items on the desktop' is ticked.
Also, you can set your Mac to display an external hard drive in Finder. For this, go to 'Finder'>' Preferences'>' Sidebar'. Here, you need to tick the option 'External disks' under the 'Locations' menu.
Transfer files from windows to mac. This method will probably help you to show the connected external hard drive on your Mac. If it doesn't, then you can go for the next solution. And if you need to make a USB flash drive detected, the solutions might be more feasible: Fix USB not showing up on Mac.
2. Launch Disk Utility to Run First Aid
There might be a case that your external hard drive is going through some problems you are unaware of it. In this case, you can try to resolve them yourself using Disk Utility to run the First Aid tool. Afterward, you can even access your files. The tool will inspect the disk for issues and errors and then, try to repair it as required. It is quite helpful when it comes to verifying and repairing a wide range of problems related to external and HD drive.
Here is the step-by-step guide on how you can run First Aid on your external hard drive:
- To start with, launch Disk Utility. You can search for it using Spotlight Search or go to 'Finder'>' Application'>' Utility'
- After that, you need to check on an external hard drive. Next, click on the 'First Aid' tab and choose 'Run' to begin running diagnostics.
If First Aid tools become successful in fixing problems, then your external hard drive should now be available for you to mount. What if the tool fails to repair issues? Then, your drive is badly broken or maybe formatted through a file system that your Mac can't read. In this way, we recommended that you should recover data from the damaged hard drive. Check out the next section to learn how to get back and how hard disk data on Mac.
Part 4. How to Recover and Show Hard Drive Data on Mac?
Have you ever wondered what if you found that you can't access the data stored on your Mac hard drive due to sudden power failure, or virus attack? Or if the above methods fail to fix 'external hard drive not mounting Mac'. In such cases, data recovery software can help you to easily get back hard drive data on your Mac.
1. Recoverit - The Best Software to Recover Mac Files:
Whenever you experience a data loss situation, Recoverit Data Recovery Mac will help you to retrieve it. This data recovery software will come in handy even when you've never made a backup of your device. You now know how to partition Mac hard drive and un-partition it. But knowing how you can recover the lost or deleted files from the drive is also necessary.
2. How to Recover Lost Word Files on Mac:
Step 1: Select a Location
Launch the software and select the drive from where the data files are lost. If you don't know which drive to search, tap on the 'I can't find my partition' option, and hit the Start button.
Step 2: Scan the Location
Typically, the software will run an All-Around Recovery scan and search for the lost and deleted files on the entire drive.
Step 3: Preview and Recover
When the scan completes, the files will be listed on the screen. The software will sort out the files according to format to make the search easier. You can select multiple files at a time and have a preview of them.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that creating and removing a Mac drive partition is not that tough. You just have to careful during the process. And in case of a mishap, Recoverit is always here for your help so that you don't have to suffer from data loss situation.
What's Wrong with Mac
- Recover Your Mac
- Fix Your Mac
- Delete Your Mac
- Learn Mac Hacks
Summary: This blog explains five best ways to resolve the 'external hard drive not mounting' issue on Mac.
It also shares a reliable software-based method to recover data from unmounting (or un-mountable) USB hard drive on Mac. Free evaluate the best Mac external drive recovery software from the below.
When you connect an external hard drive on Mac, it will show up on Desktop, Finder, and DiskUtility. But sometimes the external drive won't appear on any of these places. Consequently, data inside the unmounted external hard drive turns inaccessible. The contained files and the external drive's integrity comes to a stake.
Don'tworry, read and apply the below fixes to resolve Mac unmounted external drive issue.
1. Change macOS Settings
Ensure Finder preference to show external disks on Desktop or Finder is enabled.
- Open Finder from Dock. From the top Menu Bar, go to Finder > Preferences.
- On the 'Finder Preferences' window, click the General tab.
- Under the 'Show these items on the Desktop' section, select the 'External disks' checkbox. Your Desktop will now show the external hard drive icon.
- Click the Sidebar tab. Under the Locations section, select the 'External disks' checkbox. Your Finder sidebar will now show the external hard drive.
Ensure Disk Utility's View menu has 'ShowAllDevices' option selected.
- Press Command + Space Bar keys to open Spotlight.
- Type ‘disk utility' and hit Return to open Disk Utility.
- Click the View menu located at the top left corner of Disk Utility and select 'Show All Devices'. Your Disk Utility's sidebar will now show the external hard drive.
2. Reset Mac Firmware Settings
Reset NVRAM (Non-volatile RAM) & PRAM (Parameter RAM).
- Restart Mac then immediately press and hold Option + Command + P + R keys until you hear a second chime.
Reset SMC (System Management Controller) on your Mac.
- For iMac, Mac Pro/mini, or laptop with a removable battery—detach the power cable or take out the battery then press and hold the Power button for 5 seconds.
- For MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or MacBook with non-removable battery—press and hold Shift + Control + Option + Power Button for 10 seconds.
3. Fix External Hard Drive Connectivity Issue
Ensure proper connectivity of your external hard drive to your Mac.
- Reconnect the USB connector or adapter to fit the hard drive snugly.
- Connect the hard drive to a different USB port or a different Mac.
- Replace the USB cable or adapter in case you suspect it to be damaged.
- Connect external power source if the hard drive requires one.
- Check the LED light to ensure the storage device is powered on and working.
- Swap the hard drive with a different case if you presume it to be faulty.
ReadCaseStudy: Whooping 94% data recovered from unmounted external drive on MacBook Pro
4. Troubleshoot External Hard Drive
Mount the external hard drive from Disk Utility.
- Open DiskUtility then select the greyed out hard drive from the sidebar.
- Click the Mount tab. The drive will mount automatically.
Repair hard drive from Disk Utility.
- Open Disk Utility then select the hard drive from the sidebar.
- Click First Aid then hit Run to verify and repair logical issues with the hard drive.
Check the SMART status of the external hard drive if it unmounts intermittently. Node js ide mac.
- Open Disk Utility then check the SMART Status of the external hard drive.
- In case the SMART Status is failing, then back up the drive by cloning.
- Replace the failing drive with a new one to safeguard against data loss.
Usb Drive Not Mounting Machine
5. Recover Data from Non-Mounting External Mac Hard Drive
Ensure the external hard drive is detected in Disk Utility, then fulfill the following data recovery prerequisite.
- On your Mac system, download and install the *trial version of Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac.
- Launch the software by double-clicking on its icon. [You'll interact with its intuitive graphical user interface.]
Leverage the Mac external drive recovery software to recover data from the not-mounting external storage drive.
- Select the types of files present on the drive then click Next.
- Select the not-mounting external hard drive then toggle on Deep Scan.
- Click Scan. And let the scan to finish till completion.
- View the scanned items in Classic, File, or Deleted List. Once a view mode is selected, navigate the folders then preview any scanned files from the right pane.
- Select all the required files by clicking their corresponding checkbox, then click Recover. Specify a save destination then click Save.
Note: *Trial software allows you to scan storage drive and preview scanned files. Activate Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac by using its activation key and recover the files.
Watch the next video to know more about the software and its usage.
Conclusion
Usb Drive Not Mounting Mac
This blog presented 5 different methods to troubleshoot ‘external hard drive not mounting' issue on Mac. You can begin with fixing the external hard drive connectivity issue, changing macOS settings, resetting Mac firmware settings, troubleshooting the drive, and finally recovering data from the hard drive.
Usb Drive Not Mounting Macro
If the external hard drive is not detected in Disk Utility, then it may have a hardware issue. And if the basic hard drive connectivity fixes don't resolve the problem, then you need to try Stellar Data Recovery software for Mac.
Usb Drive Not Mounting Machines
We hope this blog post helped you understand the possible reasons, as to why macOS can't mount the external drive on Mac and how to troubleshoot and recover the unmounted Mac external drive. For any query, write to us in the comments section below.
