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Oct 26, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
Passfab ios password manager 1 3 2 player games. Step 1: Boot your Mac into macOS Recovery mode. Start your Mac and hold down the Command + R + Option keys. Step 2: Select Disk Utility from the macOS Utilities menu. Step 3: Select the corrupted internal hard drive from the left-hand panel if you can see it. Step 4: Click First Aid on the top. If your drive shows up but is not mounted, select the mount option which should mount that disk. To verify, click on the Apple logo in your screen’s top left corner and select About This Mac. Select the Storage tab and see if your drive appears here. If not, return to Disk Utility and select your external drive from the left sidebar. Your external drive seems to be invisible to macOS. The hard drive won't appear on the desktop or in the Finder. If you have long been bothered by this issue, the below solutions for fixing external hard drive not showing up on Mac might be helpful to you. Part 2: Solutions to external drive not showing up on Mac.
While the external hard drive connected to the Windows computer or Mac, and the device did not show up. How to fix external hard drive not recognized? Don't worry, in this guide we will show you the best solution to fix the hard drive not recognized problem.
This problem will cause by some partition issues: the external hard drive partition got damaged, the file system got crashed, the drive errors in Windows computer, or the dead USB ports. You can try the hard drive on another computer or connect it with other USB ports. If it does not get working, you can follow the next solution to fix the external hard drive not recognized on Windows computer and Mac, and you can recover lost data from external hard drive with Recoverit Data Recovery.
Part 1. How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Recognized on Windows
In windows, this problem can be because of partition issues, dead USB ports, driver windows conflicts, file systems, dead or outdated drivers. Here are the steps you can follow to fix this issue in case of USB flash or external hard drives:
Step 1You might be plugging in the USB cable in a dead USB port. Unplug your external hard drive and plugin it in some other USB ports. Now, see if it is present there in the My Computer window. If not, follow step 2.
Step 2Now, look for the external drive in the Disk Management Window. For this, click Start and then click Run or press windows key + r, press enter after typing diskmgmt.msc in the Run dialog. This will open the Disk Management Window. Now, look for the external disk in this window. In this window, 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 four.
Step 3If it is not recognized by plugging in some other port or it is not visible in the Disk Management Window, then there might be some issue with the external drive. Check it on some other computers. Now, follow step 1 to step 3 in that computer in case the external drive is not recognized. If the problem exists with another computer also then something is wrong with the drive, otherwise follow step 5:
Step 4If it is working in some other systems but not in yours, Windows is having some problem with the drivers. To diagnose a driver problem, open the run dialog by pressing Windows + r and type 'devmgmt.msc'? Now press enter. Expand Disk Drives and look for a device having a yellow exclamation mark. This yellow exclamation mark indicates a problematic driver. Now, right-click on that device and read the error message after selecting properties. Roadblock 1 5 8 download free. 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 drive again or follow step 6 if the drive is still not recognized.
If your external hard drive has been recognized but your files can't be found anywhere, sometimes they are lost or deleted. Is there any way to get all back? 3 methods are recommended: Recycle bin, backup, and Recoverit Data Recovery. Recoverit is able to help you recover 1000+ types and formats of files in different scenarios. Free download it right now!
Step 5Problem in partitioning and formatting can also be a cause of this issue. Partitioning and file system issues can be fixed by using Windows Disk Management tools. To create a new partition, right-click inside the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume. You can create a new partition by following onscreen instructions. Sometimes, your drive is formatted with the ext4 file system of Linux, NTFS file system, HFS Plus file system, or FAT32 file system which is not recognized by your Windows. Reformatting of the drive can resolve this issue. For this, right-click on the partition, select format, and then select the file system. Here, it is important to know that all files in the drive will be deleted. Therefore, copy your files in some other systems before proceeding.
Video Tutorial on How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up
Part 2. How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Recognized on Mac
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. Now, look for the drive below the remote disk.
Step 2 If the external drive is not there, make sure that the USB cable is properly plugged in the external hard drive and the port.
Step 3 Sometimes, the drive is connected but not mounted. To mount a drive, open Disk Utility and look for the drive in the list. If it is there, check below it. Now click on the mounting button to mount it. Open a Finder window to see if the drive is mounted or not.
Step 4 If you still cannot find it in the finder, it might not be getting enough power. Single USB ports can provide only 5 V. In that case, make use of USB cable having one USB connection for the external HD and two for Mac. This will 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. However, if still the issue is not resolved, you can avail of professional help.
Part 3. The Best External Hard Drive Data Recovery Software
While the external hard drive got damaged and did not detect on the computer, after you fix the problem, you should your data back. We will introduce the best external hard drive data recovery to help you retrieve data back. Recoverit Data Recovery Software is a powerful data recovery program, it can help you recover data from external hard drives easily and effectively.
Recoverit External Hard Drive Recovery Software
Recoverit Data Recovery is the best external hard drive recovery program, it can easily and effectively help you recover lost or accidentally deleted files from the hard disk drive, or another external storage device: USB drive, flash drive, SD card.
Steps on How to Recover Data from External Hard Drive
Download and install Recoverit Data Recovery on your computer. Launch Recoverit Data Recovery and follow the next steps to perform external hard drive data recovery on a Windows computer, if you are a Mac user, you can download Recoverit Data Recovery for Mac to go on.
Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to the computer, select it while the disk detected on the program.
Step 2. The external hard drive recovery software will start scanning the device to searching the lost files.
Step 3. In minutesï¼ all recovered files will display on the result. You can preview photos, videos, music, Word, Excel, PPT, and PDF. Select your files and click the 'Recover' button to restore.
When the external hard drive got damaged, you can try to fix it with the solution mentioned above. Also, get your data back with Recoverit Data Recovery in 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
“Why can’t my Mac show up the external hard drive? I have tried to connect and disconnect the external hard drive to my MacBook for times, but still the external hard drive doesn’t show up on Mac. What’s wrong? How can I fix external hard drive not showing up on Mac issue?”
Sometimes MacBooks, MacBook Pros, or Macs don’t recognize external drives or external thumb drives. This often occurs after you initially eject the external drive and unplug it from your computer. When you try to plug in the drive again, your Mac no longer sees it. It won’t mount at all and acts as if it’s utterly invisible to macOS.
In many cases, the only way you could try to solve this problem is to completely remove the external drives and then restart your MacBook or Mac several times until the drives finally show up again. But in this guide, we would like to recommend you several different effective solutions to help you solve the issue of external hard drive not showing up on Mac computer. You could just check the below content to get the effective solutions.
Part 1: Possible reasons that cause external drive not showing up on Mac?
Hard drive corruption and faulty connections would mostly be the main reasons that cause external drives not showing up on Mac computer. But there have been reported feedback that other factors can make external hard drive invisible on Mac as well.
![How How](https://www.minitool.com/images/uploads/articles/2018/08/hard-drive-not-showing-up-7.jpg)
The causes for external hard drives, USB pen drives, and SD cards not showing up on Mac could include:
- The USB cable is broken.
- The USB port is malfunctioned.
- The USB adapter is not working properly.
- The external hard drive is not formatted incorrectly.
- The hardware and software like disk driver need an update.
- The file system of the external hard drive is corrupted.
When the above things happen, when you try to connect your external hard drive to your Mac computer, there is nothing showing up on Mac. Your external drive seems to be invisible to macOS. The hard drive won't appear on the desktop or in the Finder. If you have long been bothered by this issue, the below solutions for fixing external hard drive not showing up on Mac might be helpful to you.
Part 2: Solutions to external drive not showing up on Mac
So, when you have connected your external hard drive to Mac computer, but there shows nothing on your Mac computer, what can you do to fix this external hard drive not showing up on Mac? Refer to the below solutions.
1. Check the Connections of the External Hard Drive
External hard drives like Buffalo Ministation, WD, Samsung, Seagate, and Lacie are connected to Mac using USB cables and ports. But if the connection fails, your external drive won't show up on Mac.
So, if Mac not seeing your external hard drive, check if the external hard drive is properly connected in the below ways:
- Check the power connections: External hard drive requires electricity to light up, spin, and transfer data. So, if the external hard drive is lack of power, it won't show up on Mac. You can do these things to check the power supply.
- Check the other connections: Sometimes, the external hard drive like a Seagate hard drive is not recognized by Mac. Then, you need to check the other parts of connections as well, especially when your external hard drive lights on but is not detected or showing up on Mac.
2. Try another Mac and then try a PC
The next step is to try plugging the drive into another Mac. If it also fails to mount there you will know that there is a problem with the drive while if it does mount then the problem is with your Mac.
The next step is to try plugging the drive into a PC. 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.
3. Edit your preferences
Hopefully there is a really easy fix to get the hard drive to mount on your desktop. Try the following to make sure your Mac is set to show mounted drives on the desktop.
- Open the Finder.
- Click on Finder in the menu at the top of your screen.
- Choose Preferences > General and make sure that there is a tick beside External Drives.
If it was already set up so that the external drive would appear on the desktop, then continue to follow the steps below.
4. Check if the Mac is Set to Show Connected External Drives
Sometimes, the external hard drive is not showing up because your Mac is not set to. If you can't see the external hard drive on Mac, you can get Finder to locate the external hard drive.
To make external HDD show up on the desktop and in the Finder of macOS Catalina, Mojave, or earlier, you could refer to the below operations:
- Show the external hard drive on the desktop: Go to Finder > Preferences > General tab and select 'External disks' to make external hard drives show on the desktop.
- Show external hard drives in Finder: Go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar and make sure the 'External disks' under 'Locations' is ticked. Then your external hard drive will appear in Finder.
5. Access the External Hard Drive by /Volumes/ Folder
If the external hard drive is not showing up on Mac still, where else you can find the hard drive? In fact, you can try your luck by checking the /Volumes/ folder. Most of the time, Mac will show connected and mounted volumes there.
You could follow the below steps to learn how to access external hard drive by Volume/Folder:
- Launch Finder and click Go in the top menu bar > Go to folder.
- Then type /Volume/ and hit Enter.
- Then you can see the volumes folder that lists all mounted drives and disk images. If your external hard drive is listed, access the hard drive and get to your files there directly.
6. Check Whether the External HDD Can be Found in Disk Utility
Disk Utility is within System Preferences, or you can find it using Spotlight. If it is visible, then click the option to Mount, which should make it visible on the desktop and in the External Drives option in the Finder menu. To make sure whether your external hard drive is detected by macOS, you can go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility and check if Mac is picking up the external hard drive.
7. Reboot your Mac.
Sometimes, if a USB disk won't boot, the cause is macOS issue. Hopefully, some data damage that can be fixed by restarting. Choose the Apple menu > Restart. Or press and hold the power button and, when a dialog box appears, click the Restart or press R. Restarting your Mac essentially clears your macOS’s memory and starts it up fresh.
8. Change the drive format
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.
After trying these, you could still use other solutions like resetting NVRAM, formatting Mac to display external hard drive, formatting external hard drive correctly, checking your external hard drive status, etc.
Part 3: Rip and backup DVD after the issue fixed
With external hard drive not showing up on Mac, you could now back up your external hard drive content to your computer. Occasionally, we would need to rip and back up DVD movies on Mac computer. How can we do that? Try Leawo DVD Ripper for Mac.
It is a professional DVD ripper tool that could decrypt, rip and convert DVD to MP4, like MP4, MKV, FLV, MOV, M4V, WMV, AVI, etc. for various devices and players. With advanced disc decryption feature, Leawo DVD Ripper could rip both homemade and commercial DVD disc, folder and ISO image files. What’s more, it enables you to adjust the video and audio parameters of output files before converting. You will get exactly what you want for DVD backup and converting.
Download and install Leawo DVD Ripper for Mac on your computer. Get source DVD movie files ready. And then follow the below guide to learn how to rip and convert DVD to Mac for backup.
DVD Ripper
☉ Convert DVD to video/audio files like MKV, MP4, AVI, FLV, RMVB, etc
☉ Convert DVD to iPad, iPhone, Android devices
☉ Edit DVD video files with built-in video editor
☉ Add 3D effect with built-in 3D movie creator
☉ Selectable subtitles and audio tracks from source DVD movies for output videos
Note: Leawo DVD Ripper is a module built in Leawo Prof. Media.
Reformat A Partitioned Hard Drive
Step 1. Enter DVD Ripper module
Launch Leawo Prof. Media on your MacBook. Then click the 'Blu-ray/DVD Ripper' option or the 'Convert' option on the menu bar to enter DVD Ripper module.
Step 2. Add source DVD movies
Under the 'Convert' module, click the 'Add Blu-ray/DVD' button to browse and load DVD disc, folder and/or ISO image files.
Note: Leawo DVD Ripper offers 3 different content loading modes: Full Movie, Main Movie and Custom Mode. Full Movie, without doubt, loads and rips all the videos in source DVD movie. Main Movie will by default load the longest title but allows you to switch titles. Custom Mode is provided for those who’d like to select videos manually. Select one mode and then determine which titles to load. Afterwards, click the “OK” button.
Step 3. Set output format
Click the button right before the big green “Convert” button. Then, on the drop-down panel, click the 'Change' button to enter the Profile panel to set output format from “Format” and “Device” groups. Select the profile you need.
Leawo DVD Ripper enables you to adjust output profile parameters including video codec, audio codec, bit rate, aspect ratio, frame rate, sample rate, channel, etc. Click the 'Edit' option on the drop-down panel mentioned above to set these parameters.
Step 4. Set output directory
Click the big green 'Convert' button and then set output directory in the 'Save to' box. You could view required space here. After that, click the Convert button on the sidebar to start converting DVD movie files to videos on MacBook computer.
You then only need to wait for the conversion to complete. Leawo DVD Ripper could complete the DVD to Mac conversion quickly.
Part 4: Conclusion
Undo Partitioned Hard Drive
If you are bothered by the issue of external hard drive not showing up on Mac computer, you could try the above-mentioned solutions. In most cases, these solutions would help. For DVD movie backup, you could try Leawo DVD Ripper for Mac. This is a really wonderful DVD decrypter and converter program that handles both commercial and homemade DVD content. It even allows you to create 3D movies out of 2D DVD content.