Mac Is Not Detecting External Hard Drive

1. Mac External Drive Not Showing
2. Mac Not Mounting External Hard Drive

Change settings for Mac detecting an external hard disk on the desktop Occasionally, your Mac has already recognized the USB flash drive but not shown it on the desktop. Thus, you should go to Finder Preferences General and make sure the 'External disks' option is ticked. Then you'll see the USB flash drive showing up on Mac desktop. By default, Mac starts from its built-in hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains bootable contents that compatible with your Mac. For example, if you install macOS or Microsoft Windows on a USB drive, your Mac can recognize that drive as a startup disk. This guide provides 2 ways to boot a Mac from a USB flash drive. Change the USB-to-Mac connection way. Have you tried to restart your Mac once or twice? External hard drives, thumb drives, USB drives, Flash memory cards, and devices like iPod are examples of storage devices that you can connect to your Mac using Thunderbolt, USB, or FireWire cables, or connect wirelessly using Bluetooth. Storage devices (such as external hard drives.

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.

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

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.

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.

Mac External Drive Not Showing

7. Replace the external hard drive

Download mac os 10 12. 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.

Are you unable to access your Seagate external hard drive when connected to your PC? Well, I must say that you have come to the exact right webpage because here you will definitely be going to know how to fixSeagate external hard drivenot detected error.

Also, you will get to know how to recover data from Seagate external hard drive not recognized, if the data gets deleted while fixing this error.

But first, let's get started with its fixes…

How To Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Recognized or Not Detected Error

You can try the below solutions to fixSeagate external hard drive unrecognized or undetectable error. These solutions will definitely help you resolve this error now.

Important Note: The below-mentioned solutions are not only applicable to fix Seagate external hard drive driver not recognized the problem but also to fix Seagate external hard drive light not blinking and therefore it is not detecting.

Besides that, these solutions can also be used to fix all other external hard drives such as Samsung, Hitachi, Toshiba, LaCie, Thunderbolt, eSATA, Firewire, etc that does not get recognized by your Windows computer.

Solution #1: Connect External Hard Drive To Another PC or Mac

Sometimes, the USB port of your system does not work properly or the USB port itself is damaged.

So, if you notice that external hard drive light is blinking but it is not getting read by the system, then you can try to connect the hard drive to another system and check if it is getting recognized. Or you can try another USB port to connect the drive to your PC.

You can also try to reboot the PC and retry to connect your hard drive once again.

If it works – it is good. If it does not, then follow the next solution.

Solution #2: Scan External Hard Drive With Virus Cleaner/Anti-Virus Software

If you are confident enough that the virus has infected your Seagate external hard drive and because of this reason, the drive is not getting readable by the system, then you can use Virus Cleaner or Anti-virus software. This software will help you to scan and remove all viruses from your hard drive and PC. After this, you can format the hard drive to make it recognize.

Note: Apply this solution only when you are confident that virus infection has made your external hard drive unrecognizable, or else skip this solution.

Solution #3: Unhide Hidden Devices To Make Seagate External HDD To Get Recognized

• On your PC click Start. In search address bar type devmgmt.mscand hit Enter.

• Hover mouse to View and select Show hidden devices.
• Next, expand all notes just by clicking on the + (plus) symbol.
• If you find any greyed entries, then right-click on it and select Uninstall.
• Now Reboot PC and try to connect external hard drive.

Solution #4: Uninstall Hard Drive Driver to Solve External Hard Drive Undetectable Error

• On your PC, click Start. In search address bar type devmgmt.mscand hit Enter.
• This will open Device Manager. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers and check if any device is showing as unrecognized.

• If it shows unrecognized, then delete or uninstall the drive by going to the driver tab and then check whether external hard drive displays up in My Computer or not.

• If it doesn't display up, then restart or reboot your PC. If external hard drive shows but later it gets disappeared, then open Disk Management and change the name of your external hard drive only.

This will solve all the problems.

Solution #5: Switch ON Root Hub to Fix External Hard Drive Not Recognized Issue

Mac Not Mounting External Hard Drive

• On your PC, click Start. In search address bar type devmgmt.mscand hit Enter.
• This will open Device Manager. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers. Right-click on USB Root Hub > Properties > Power Management > uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.

• Repeat the process for all USB Root Hub shown in the list and then restart/reboot system and try to connect external hard drive.

Solution #6: Make Changes In Registry To Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Recognized Error

Note: Follow this solution very carefully.

• On your PC click Start and in search address bar type regedt32 and then click on Yes.

• After this backup your registry. Go to File>Export.
• On the left panel go to
  

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

• On the right panel, if you see any lowerfilters or upperfilters, then delete
• After this re-try to connect external hard drive again.

Solution #7: Format And Repartition Seagate External Hard Drive

Another solution you can try is to format and repartition the Seagate external hard drive. It is possible to format this hard drive using the drive management or any third-party tool. But, here, you can try these below steps to format and repartition Seagate external hard drive in Disk Management:

• First of all, you have to go to Start menu on your Windows PC ad then type there ‘CMD'.
• Now, you have to make a right click on Command Prompt and then simply select Run as administrator and click there Yes to confirm if it prompts.
• Now, type the below commands one after another and then hit Enter key after each command you type in the command prompt window:

diskpart
list disk
select disk # (replace # with the letter of the USB drive)
clean

• Next, you have to go to Start menu and then simply type there ‘create and format disk partitions' and then open it.
• Now, you have to choose there ‘New Simple Volume….'

• Now, in the next step, you have to follow the steps by step instructions directed to finish the creation. Next, you will be prompted to format the external hard drive to access it.

After performing the above steps, your Seagate hard drive not recognized will be easily fixed.

Recover Data From Unrecognized or Undetectable Seagate External Hard Drive

Many people have asked – how to recover data from Seagate external hard disk which is not detecting? So, when your Seagate external hard drive is not recognized by Windows or Mac computer, then the first thing that will worry you – is the data stored within the hard drive.

So, the first precaution you must take is to restore data from Seagate external hard drive. For this, you can use External Hard Drive Recovery Tool which is suitable and perfect hard drive data recovery. It will allow you to restore almost all file formats of photos, videos and audio files from your Seagate external hard drive on Windows or Mac.

This recovery software for external HDD can easily detect your unrecognized external hard drive and deeply scan and extract digital media files. These media files recovery include pictures, photos, videos, movies, music, songs and other audio files from any external hard drives, including Seagate external HDD as well.

Important Note:As soon as you notice that your Seagate external hard drive is not recognized on your Windows or Mac computer, then you must stop using it and do not add any new data on it. Because adding new data will overwrite the existing data and you will lose the chance for recovering files from it. After this, immediately apply the External Hard Drive Recovery Tool, scan it and recover digital media files from it.

* Free version of the program only scans and previews recoverable objects.

Here, you can go through the step by step guide to recover deleted data from Seagate external hard drive in just three simple steps.

What Is External Hard Drive

In the era of today's world, the external hard drive has major benefits in storing huge amount of data and hence many people would like to buy an external hard drive with a USB port so that they can store lots of data with ease.

Among several external hard drives, Seagate external hard drive is mostly used by a large number of people all across the world, because of its good performance.

However, sometimes when you plug Seagate external hard drive into the USB port of PC or Mac then the hard drive is not detected by the system. If your Seagate external hard drive is brand new, then you can directly go to manufactures to deal with the problem or you can replace it with another hard drive.

Reasons: Why Seagate Hard Drive Not Detected Error Occurs?

There could be several reasons that can make your Seagate hard drive not detected. Some of the common reasons are mentioned below:

• The hard drive might have got damaged
• The USB port of a PC or Mac computer might be damaged or Seagate external hard drive not working
• Maybe your external hard drive has got infected with virus or malware
• Hard drive driver installed on your system might have been outdated
• Hard drive failure or maybe hard drive contains bad sector or it has gone bad or corrupt itself

These are some common problems. So, what you can do to fix these problems when your Seagate hard disk not detected or not recognized?

Just Relax! Below you will find the solutions that will help you to effectively fix these problems and makes your Seagate external hard re-usable once again.

Related External Hard Drive Issues And Solutions

Why Is My External Hard Drive Not Showing Up?

Many people have also asked that – why is my external hard drive not showing up?

Well, the reasons could be various such as in some cases when you try to connect your drive to PC with a USB port you will find that hard drive is not detected. The issues could be caused by partition issue on your external hard drive, wrong file system usage, driver issues, dead USB ports or other issues. In worst situations, the drive itself might be simply dead.

So, how to make external hard drive to show up? Below follow the steps to do so:

• Press Windows Key + R to open RUN dialogue box.
• In RUN Box type diskmgmt.msc and hit ENTER.
• Here, you can see the external hard drive listed in the Disk Management Window, even if it doesn't show up in My Computer since it doesn't contain any partitions, it should show up here.

How Do I Fix My External Hard Drive Without Formatting?

There are many people out there asking for a solution – how do I fix my external hard drive without formatting?

Well, you can follow the above-motioned solutions 1- 6, in order to fix external hard drive issues without formatting. However, if you are looking to format the external hard drive but getting the not formatted error then learn here – How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Formatted Error.

Alexa app desktop mac. If you are looking to recover inaccessible data from drive without formatting it then please visit – How To Recover Files From USB Drive Without Formatting It?

Conclusion

Here I have provided several solutions and I am sure that it will help you to fix Seagate external hard drive not detected or not recognized error. Good mac apps for college students.

However, it is also important to recover digital media files from the external hard drive if the data has been deleted from it unintentionally.

You can try External Hard Drive Recovery Tool to do so and keep safe your data then by keeping a regular backup.

So, just try all the solutions mentioned here and use your external hard drive without any interruption.

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Alex is an expert technical writer with 7+ years of experience. His in-depth knowledge about data recovery and fascination to explore new DIY tools & technologies have helped many. Alex has a great interest in photography and loves to share photography tips and tricks with others.

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