Mac Os External Hard Drive Not Mounting

By Spencer Mcfadden, on October 15, 2020, in macOS Problems| SOLVED

1. Hard Drive Not Mounting Mac
2. Mount External Hard Drive Mac
3. Mac Internal Drive Not Mounting

1. If your external hard drive is not mounting on your Mac, don't panic. Most of the time, you are going to fix this disk problem with the solutions above. Moreover, if you worry about data loss when the disk becomes unmountable, you can use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover your files first.
2. It may be coincidence but I have only had this problem since updated the OS, until then the disk was mounting and running without any problems. I can see the drive in Disk Utilities and also in ‘About this Mac System Preferences Hardware USB', but it will not mount.

Look on your hard drive and look in the /media folder. You should see other folders in there that are mount points. You can create a folder for that mount point of your choosing. An example: mkdir -p /media/mac the above line would create a folder called mac in the /media folder that you can use to mount your Mac drive to. So, the mount command. Fixing drive connection. A bad physical connection is among the most common problems that.

Summary: [macOS Big Sur Problems] Find your External Hard Drive Not Showing Up on your Mac after plugging it in? Check out our complete tutorial on how to fix external hard drive not showing up on Mac problem. Get Omni Remover Free >

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In computing, an external hard drive device is for storing information outside a computer. You can permanently attached an an external hard drive device to your Mac, or you can use it when you need (What Is Other On Mac Storage). Usually when you plug an external hard drive into one of your Mac's USB port, you can see it shows up on the desktop of your Mac (or mount this external hard drive on the Mac desktop).

However, sometimes you may find an external hard drive doesn't show up on your Mac desktop after plugging it in. It would be quite annoying when you need to use or backup data on this external hard drive. There are several ways to cause an external hard drive not showing up on your Mac, for instance it has not been formatted correctly, the hardware has been corrupted, or your Mac Finder settings are faulty (How To Clear Cache on Mac). In this macOS Big Sur Manual article, we will discuss how to fix external hard drive not showing up on Mac issue.

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How To Fix External Hard Drive Now Showing Up On Mac (Diagnosis): On Mac computers, USB is available with Type USB-A (commonly called USB, USB 2 or USB 3 ports) and Type USB-C (either standard USB-C ports or Thunderbolt 3) ports, depending on your Mac model. To get your external hard drive showing up on your Mac, you need to fulfill its specifications with proper USB cable and power (How To Connect An iPhone 11/11 Pro To iTunes). Check things below to fix your External Hard Drive not showing up on Mac issue.

How To Fix External Hard Drive Now Showing Up On Mac Problems (Solutions):

• Step 1 - Check all external hard drive connections: Unplug the external hard drive device from your Mac, then plug it back in, and make sure that all cables and adapters are securely connected at both ends. Test with another cable or adapter, if available.
• Step 2 - Don't use USB hub: Plug the external hard drive device directly into your Mac instead of a USB hub or other device, and if necessary test with a different USB port on your Mac or device.
• Step 3 - Use an AC power adapter if available: If your external hard drive device came with an AC power adapter, you should use it. Some external hard drive devices can be powered solely by the USB port on your Mac, while others may need more power than your Mac can provide.

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How To Fix External Hard Drive Now Showing Up On Mac (Diagnosis): Normally when you connect an external hard drive to Mac, you can see it on your Mac Desktop. However, if you find multiple external hard drive devices are all not showing up, it's possible that you have modified the macOS preferences that disabled your Mac to display all external hard drive devices. You can follow steps below to have a fix.

How To Fix External Hard Drive Now Showing Up On Mac Problems (Solutions):

• Steps - 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.

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How To Fix External Hard Drive Now Showing Up On Mac (Diagnosis): Disk Utility is a system utility for performing disk and disk volume-related tasks on macOS (How To Uninstall Programs on Mac). Since Disk Utility also functions as mounting, unmounting and ejecting disk volumes (such as your hard disks, removable media, and disk volume images), you may troubleshoot your external hard drive not showing up on Mac issue by using Apple's Disk Utility program to access the disk and fix malfunctioning parts that're causing the issue.

1. Step 1:

   On macOS Big Sur, Catalina or other recent Mac OS X, Open the Disk Utility app on your Mac > Choose View >Show All Devices.

   Step 1: Disk Utility > View > Show All Devices
2. Step 2:

   In the sidebar, select the external hard disk or volume you want to mount on your Mac, then click the First Aid button.

   Step 2: First Aid
3. Step 3:

   Click Run > Click Continue. If Disk Utility reports that this external hard drive disk appears to be OK or has been repaired, you may now be able to see this external disk on your Mac Desktop.

   Step 3: Run Disk Repair

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How To Fix External Hard Drive Now Showing Up On Mac (Diagnosis): If the Disk Utility is unable to repair this external hard drive disk to let it show on your Mac, it's possible that it's formatted using a Windows oriented file system that the Mac cannot read. In that case, you'd better go find a Windows PC computer, offload and backup your data to your PC hard drive, and using macOS Disk Utility to reformat it as Apple HFS+/APFS format.

1. Step 1:

   Open Disk Utility > If you have backed up your data or you don't need the data on this external hard drive, select the disk and click Erase.

   Step 1: Disk Utility > Select Disk > Erase
2. Step 2:

   Before Disk Utility starts to erase your external hard drive disk, it will pick a format for you. You can change this if you click on the Formatting options.

   Step 2: Reformat External Disk On Mac

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Now can you fix your External Hard Drive Disk Now Showing Up on macOS Big Sur issue with our suggestions above? If you still have further macOS Big Sur problems or bugs, feel free to contact us and we are happy to help. In addition, we will keep updating our macOS Big Sur Porblems list so that to cover all upcoming software/hardware glitches on your Apple devices.

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Summary: External hard drive not mounting on Mac means that you can't access data stored on it. This page helps you mount external hard drives, as well as SD cards and USB flash drives, etc. on Mac. If the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, you can download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drives.

Usually, an external hard drive will appear (aka mounted) automatically on your Mac once you plug it in, and you can access data on this drive. So, it's annoying when you find that your external hard drive is not mounting or recognized by your Mac, just like the user below.

'I have a 500 GB LaCie external hard drive, formatted as macOS Extend journaled on MacBook Pro 2014 and I have been using it to do Time Machine backups. Now after updating, macOS is not mounting this external hard drive. The main drive is greyed out in Disk Utility and the partition is not showing up. I can't do First Aid as my LaCie external drive does not mount on the MacBook Pro. Any ideas? Thanks!'

Wondering 'why my external hard drives won't mount on Mac'? This post explains the reasons and teachs how to fix this disk problem without losing data.

Dos and Don'ts When External Hard Drive Not Mounting on Mac

Before you go further, it's better to know what you can do and can't do.

1. Do not go straight to reformat this not mounted external hard drive, especially when you have important files on it. Reformatting will wipe the data on this disk and cause serious data loss.

2. Do not run First Aid to directly repair the disk, any further operation is very likely to overwrite your original files and make them unrecoverable.

3. Check if you have a copy of a data backup. If not, recover important files from this unmountable external hard drive first to avoid data loss.

Now, let's make the external disk accessible on Mac.

Fix external hard drives not mounting issue on Mac

To access your external hard drive on Mac, try solutions suggested in this part one by one. Hopefully, you'll be able to open this external hard drive on Mac again.

First, try some simple tricks to mount external hard drive on Mac

In case you miss anything necessary, you can first have some basic checks as following:

1. Re-plug your external hard drive to another port or try another USB cable.

A faulty connection, though it is foolproof, might be the key fix if LaCie thunderbolt drive is not mounting, in that users always forget to check if the port is wobbly or if the cable is broken.

2. Try a super slow jam.

Strange but true, some users found that their external will mount properly when they plug it in exceptional slow motion. However, if they try and plug in the external hard drive normally, the Mac doesn't recognize the disk.

3. Check your Finder Preferences.

When your external hard drive does not appear on the desktop, you can open Finder, choose 'Preference' (or press Command +, ) and check 'External disks' both in General tab and in Sidebar tab to show your external hard drive on your Mac computer.

If Mac could not mount the external hard drive on desktop still, let's troubleshoot this issue with the following solutions.

Solution 1: Force mount this external hard drive in Disk Utility

If you can't find the external hard drive on the desktop or in the Finder, you can try to make the disk online manually in Disk Utility (a native disk management tool in your Mac).

Here is how to mount an external hard drive on Mac:

• Steps - 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.

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How To Fix External Hard Drive Now Showing Up On Mac (Diagnosis): Disk Utility is a system utility for performing disk and disk volume-related tasks on macOS (How To Uninstall Programs on Mac). Since Disk Utility also functions as mounting, unmounting and ejecting disk volumes (such as your hard disks, removable media, and disk volume images), you may troubleshoot your external hard drive not showing up on Mac issue by using Apple's Disk Utility program to access the disk and fix malfunctioning parts that're causing the issue.

1. Step 1:

   On macOS Big Sur, Catalina or other recent Mac OS X, Open the Disk Utility app on your Mac > Choose View >Show All Devices.

   Step 1: Disk Utility > View > Show All Devices
2. Step 2:

   In the sidebar, select the external hard disk or volume you want to mount on your Mac, then click the First Aid button.

   Step 2: First Aid
3. Step 3:

   Click Run > Click Continue. If Disk Utility reports that this external hard drive disk appears to be OK or has been repaired, you may now be able to see this external disk on your Mac Desktop.

   Step 3: Run Disk Repair

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How To Fix External Hard Drive Now Showing Up On Mac (Diagnosis): If the Disk Utility is unable to repair this external hard drive disk to let it show on your Mac, it's possible that it's formatted using a Windows oriented file system that the Mac cannot read. In that case, you'd better go find a Windows PC computer, offload and backup your data to your PC hard drive, and using macOS Disk Utility to reformat it as Apple HFS+/APFS format.

1. Step 1:

   Open Disk Utility > If you have backed up your data or you don't need the data on this external hard drive, select the disk and click Erase.

   Step 1: Disk Utility > Select Disk > Erase
2. Step 2:

   Before Disk Utility starts to erase your external hard drive disk, it will pick a format for you. You can change this if you click on the Formatting options.

   Step 2: Reformat External Disk On Mac

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Now can you fix your External Hard Drive Disk Now Showing Up on macOS Big Sur issue with our suggestions above? If you still have further macOS Big Sur problems or bugs, feel free to contact us and we are happy to help. In addition, we will keep updating our macOS Big Sur Porblems list so that to cover all upcoming software/hardware glitches on your Apple devices.

Omni Remover

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Tags: iPhone Data RecoveryiPhone TransferiPhone Fixes

Summary: External hard drive not mounting on Mac means that you can't access data stored on it. This page helps you mount external hard drives, as well as SD cards and USB flash drives, etc. on Mac. If the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, you can download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drives.

Usually, an external hard drive will appear (aka mounted) automatically on your Mac once you plug it in, and you can access data on this drive. So, it's annoying when you find that your external hard drive is not mounting or recognized by your Mac, just like the user below.

'I have a 500 GB LaCie external hard drive, formatted as macOS Extend journaled on MacBook Pro 2014 and I have been using it to do Time Machine backups. Now after updating, macOS is not mounting this external hard drive. The main drive is greyed out in Disk Utility and the partition is not showing up. I can't do First Aid as my LaCie external drive does not mount on the MacBook Pro. Any ideas? Thanks!'

Wondering 'why my external hard drives won't mount on Mac'? This post explains the reasons and teachs how to fix this disk problem without losing data.

Dos and Don'ts When External Hard Drive Not Mounting on Mac

Before you go further, it's better to know what you can do and can't do.

1. Do not go straight to reformat this not mounted external hard drive, especially when you have important files on it. Reformatting will wipe the data on this disk and cause serious data loss.

2. Do not run First Aid to directly repair the disk, any further operation is very likely to overwrite your original files and make them unrecoverable.

3. Check if you have a copy of a data backup. If not, recover important files from this unmountable external hard drive first to avoid data loss.

Now, let's make the external disk accessible on Mac.

Fix external hard drives not mounting issue on Mac

To access your external hard drive on Mac, try solutions suggested in this part one by one. Hopefully, you'll be able to open this external hard drive on Mac again.

First, try some simple tricks to mount external hard drive on Mac

In case you miss anything necessary, you can first have some basic checks as following:

1. Re-plug your external hard drive to another port or try another USB cable.

A faulty connection, though it is foolproof, might be the key fix if LaCie thunderbolt drive is not mounting, in that users always forget to check if the port is wobbly or if the cable is broken.

2. Try a super slow jam.

Strange but true, some users found that their external will mount properly when they plug it in exceptional slow motion. However, if they try and plug in the external hard drive normally, the Mac doesn't recognize the disk.

3. Check your Finder Preferences.

When your external hard drive does not appear on the desktop, you can open Finder, choose 'Preference' (or press Command +, ) and check 'External disks' both in General tab and in Sidebar tab to show your external hard drive on your Mac computer.

If Mac could not mount the external hard drive on desktop still, let's troubleshoot this issue with the following solutions.

Solution 1: Force mount this external hard drive in Disk Utility

If you can't find the external hard drive on the desktop or in the Finder, you can try to make the disk online manually in Disk Utility (a native disk management tool in your Mac).

Here is how to mount an external hard drive on Mac:

• 1. Click Go at the upper left of your desktop and go to Utilities, then launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
• 2. Click on 'Show All Devices' in View option to list or connected drives.
• 3. Choose the grayed external hard drive in the left sidebar.
• 4. Select Mount in the top center of Disk Utility.

However, if you find that your external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility (not a single volume but the whole disk disappears), it is very likely that your disk is suffering some physical damage. In this case, you need to send it to a local data recovery service. But if the Mount option is grayed out and you can see this external hard drive in Disk Utility, you can try another solution then.

Solution 2: Repair this unmountable external hard drive with First Aid

The second suggestion is First Aid in Disk Utility if you are unable to mount the external hard drive on Mac. First Aid is a very simple tool that is built in your Mac, and it is able to detect and repair directory damage and other disk errors. You are advised to run the tool more than once to ensure you are receiving a consistent result.

Follow the instructions and repair the external hard drive that is not accepted by your macOS or Mac OS X.

• 1. Go to Utilities and launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
• 2. Select the unmountable external hard drive on the left sidebar.
• 3. Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.

Solution 3: Reformat the unmounted external hard drive

If your external hard drive still can't be mounted in Disk Utility after you perform First Aid, or if First Aid failed to repair it like the situation below, your drive should have some serious errors like file system corruption.

• Disk Utility can't repair this disk, what do to?

• How to format external hard drives on Mac?

In this case, you need to back up your important data on the external hard drive, such as family photos, valuable work documents, or any other files. If you don't have a copy of a data backup in hand, the following guide can help you recover lost data from this unmountable external hard drive. And then, you can reformat your exteranl hard drive to make it work again on Mac.

How to recover data from an external hard drive that won't mount?

As long as your external hard drive doesn't have any hardware problem, fortunately, you can retrieve your files with professional Mac data recovery software - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac with no fuss.

Best External Hard Drive Data Recovery - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

• Recover lost data from unmountable, formatted, inaccessible, unreadable, corrupted external hard drives.
• Supported storage devices: external hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, SD cards, etc.
• Supported file types: photos, videos, audio files, documents, emails, etc.
• Suppported Mac OS: macOS Big Sur 11/10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

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Tutorial for external hard drive data recovery on Mac with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

• 1. Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your computer, and then restart your Mac.
• 2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
• 3. Select the external hard drive that is not mounting and click Scan button to scan for all lost data.
• 4. Preview the searching results, choose files you need, and click Recover to get them back.
• 5. Have a check to ensure you have got all lost data back.

Note: You need to save the recovered files to another usable drive.

After having successfully restored all data on this drive, you can set out to erase this external hard drive to fix the disk not mounting on Mac issue.

Tutorial to reformat unmountable external hard drives on Mac

Hard Drive Not Mounting Mac

• 1. Launch Disk Utility.
• 2. Click the icon of your unmountable external hard drive on the left sidebar.
• 3. Click on the Erase button function on the top of the Disk Utility window.
• 4. Complete the related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase button to finish reformatting.

Mount External Hard Drive Mac

After reformatting, your external hard drive will be assigned with a new file system so that you can mount this unmountable hard drive again. Mac pro for development.

Then, why we can't access the external hard drive on Mac?

Probably, the user above would never know why his MacBook is not mounting the external hard drive. As a matter of fact, this problem could be caused by many factors, such as damaged file system, virus attack, unsafe ejection or any other improper operations.

Here are some common ones.

1. A damaged file system: If your external hard drive is attacked by virus or if you abruptly eject this drive, it's likely that the file system of this disk would be damaged or corrupted. As a result, the operating system is unable to recognize this disk, and the disk will not be mounted or read by macOS.
2. Connection problems: Another reason that hard drive won't mount on Mac could be a dirty or loose connection between your cable, USB-C multi-adapter, Thunderbolt 3, or other connecting ports. A clear, clean, snug and fit tightly connection is the premise of mounting an external hard drive successfully.
3. Hardware issue: Also, problems related to hardware could also make the disk unmountable, especially when your external hard drive has too much bad sectors or have been physically damaged.

Knowledge Base: What does 'Mount' mean on Mac?

Mounting an external hard disk means the macOS gives a mount point (entrance) to read and access information on the hard drive. Information is accessed by the disk file system and partition table. So, it's a necessary step before the operating system can access a disk (including read from and write to).

Therefore, if an externalhard drive won't mount on Mac, it means the system gets into trouble in recognizing the file system or other information of this hard drive.

Mac Internal Drive Not Mounting

Conclusion:

If your external hard drive is not mounting on your Mac, don't panic. Most of the time, you are going to fix this disk problem with the solutions above. Moreover, if you worry about data loss when the disk becomes unmountable, you can use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover your files first. Remember that, no matter what disk problem you meet, you should perform hard drive data recovery in case of losing data.