Find Hard Drive On Mac

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Find your network drive and click Add, then close the window; Now, your network drive will be mapped and automatically remounted when you reboot your Mac. Network drives won't, however, connect automatically if you're using a different WiFi network. Make a network drive accessible from Mac desktop. Check if Hard Drive is being Mounted. Connecting the external hard drive is different from mounting it. The contents of a hard drive show up on Mac OS X only when it is mounted, not just connected. Go to Utilities for checking Disk Utility. If you see the hard drive on the left side, then highlight the volume and press the Mount button. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner. Select About This Mac from the drop-down menu. Click on the System Report button in the pop-up window (below the information about your Mac & its operating system). Check the external hard drive there. Fix Your Hard Drive. Sometimes, restarting your Mac is more than enough to fix the problem. However, if that does not work, then you might want to look into the angle that there might be something wrong with your hard drive. If that is the case, you have to boot your MacBook Pro in Recovery Mode via Disk Utility.

Summary :

Many people are complaining about the same problem: external hard drive not showing up on Mac. Actually, the external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, and even internal hard drive maybe not detected by Mac sometimes due to different reasons. 11 useful solutions are provided here to help users fix hard drive not working on Mac.

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Hearthstone install mac. In general, a hard drive or flash drive will be recognized and showing up on the desktop automatically after it's connected to Mac. However, it's true that there are chances for Mac not reading external hard drive after users connected the drive to Mac. External hard drive not showing up Mac is a hot topic among users. A lot of reasons should be blamed when you can't see external hard drive: the cable or port issue, corrupted system settings, improper file system, virus attack, etc. It's important to figure out the causes of Mac not recognizing external hard drive (internal hard drive, USB flash drive, or SD card) and try the corresponding methods to fix the problem.

Tip: You can go to the home page to get various tools (data recovery software for both Windows platform and Mac platform, system backup software, video converter, screen recorder, etc.) for solving computer problems & improving performance.

How to fix hard drive not showing up on Mac? I'll demonstrate the Solutions from 3 aspects.

External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Mac

In this section, I'll summarize some popular causes for Mac not recognizing external hard drive and the corresponding tips on how to find external hard drive on Mac.

First of all, I'd like to advise Mac users to solve external drive not showing up by: removing the external drive completely -> restarting Mac (repeat this action for several times to see whether it works) -> re-connecting the external drive to Mac properly. If this didn't work, please try the following methods.

Find Hard Drive On Mac

How to fix external hard drive not showing up or recognized on Windows?

The problem – external hard drive not showing up/recognized/detected – can be fixed easily by following ways.

#1. Take a Look at the System Information

Seagate external hard drive not showing up Mac:

Hi. I have a 1TB Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive, and it won't show up in my Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is the 2006 Intel Xeon model running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. The System requirements for the external HDD are snow leopard or higher, so I don't know why it isn't working.

P.S. When I plug in the USB cable into the computer, the HDD starts to spin, but it never shows up in the finder or on the desktop. Also, this HDD works in my MacBook Pro, but not the Mac Pro. If anyone has any useful information, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. - posted by DisneyWorld in Apple Community

Find Hard Drive On Mac

How to fix external hard drive not showing up or recognized on Windows?

The problem – external hard drive not showing up/recognized/detected – can be fixed easily by following ways.

#1. Take a Look at the System Information

Seagate external hard drive not showing up Mac:

Hi. I have a 1TB Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive, and it won't show up in my Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is the 2006 Intel Xeon model running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. The System requirements for the external HDD are snow leopard or higher, so I don't know why it isn't working.

P.S. When I plug in the USB cable into the computer, the HDD starts to spin, but it never shows up in the finder or on the desktop. Also, this HDD works in my MacBook Pro, but not the Mac Pro. If anyone has any useful information, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. - posted by DisneyWorld in Apple Community

Many people are trying to help by providing possible solutions to Mac won't recognize external hard drive after DisneyWorld published this post to ask for help. Finally, DisneyWorld got his drive showing up and working after inspected it in System Report.

How to Check Using System Report

  1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner.
  2. Select About This Mac from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click on the System Report… button in the pop-up window (below the information about your Mac & its operating system).
  4. Check the external hard drive there.

#2. Check Hardware for Problems

How do I get my Mac to recognize a hard drive connected through USB? Here are some quick tips.

  • Please try a different port on your Mac.
  • Check whether the USB connector/USB adapter works well.
  • If you're using a hub, please try to plug your external hard drive directly into the Mac.
  • If you're plugging into a wall outlet, please try a different outlet.
  • Please check the cable to see whether it's physically damaged (whether there are snug fits, frayed cables, or missing pins). You can also try to use a different USB cable.
  • Connect the external hard drive to another Mac or a PC. You can also test the disk on PC manually.
  • Please try to connect the external device to its own power source, if applicable.

How to fix when USB flash drive not recognized on Windows?

Various solutions are provided for you to fix USB flash drive not recognized error and recover data from the inaccessible flash drive.

#3. Change Finder Preferences

Why is my external hard drive not showing up Mac? Another common reason is that the Finder preferences settings are not proper. How to change the settings?

  1. Open Finder on your Mac.
  2. Select Finder from the menu bar at the top.
  3. Choose Preferences from the submenu you see.
  4. Go to the General tab and look for the Show these items on the desktop section.
  5. Check External disks option under it.
  6. Then, go to the Sidebar tab at the top.
  7. Check External disks under Show these items on the sidebar.

#4. Check in Disk Utility

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Select Applications from the left sidebar (under Favorites).
  3. Choose Utilities from the right-hand panel.
  4. Click on Disk Utility to open a new window.
  5. Browse the drives list here.

External Hard Drive Not Mounting Mac

Sometimes, your external hard drive won't mount. If you find the external hard disk in Disk Utility but it doesn't shows up, it may be not mounted. Not mounting and improper disk format (how to check disk format will be talked later) are two of the common reasons causing new hard drive not showing up.

How to mount external hard drive Mac?

  1. Select the target external hard drive from the left sidebar.
  2. Click on the Mount option from the menu bar at the top.

Applications like photoshop for mac. If your Mac is set to show only mountable drives, you should try to fix Mac not recognizing external hard drive by allowing Show All Devices. How take screen shot on mac.

  1. Open Finder -> select Applications -> select Utilities -> choose Disk Utility.
  2. Select View from the menu bar at the top of the window.
  3. Click Show All Devices from the drop-down menu to view all mountable and non-mountable drives.

#5. Repair the Disk with First Aid

First Aid is a tool built in Mac to check disk for errors (startup problems, corrupted files, corrupted file system, etc.) and then repair them. If your external hard drive appears but not shows up on desktop, please run First Aid.

  1. Repeat step1 ~ 4 mentioned in method 4.
  2. Select the problematic external hard drive from the left panel.
  3. Click on the First Aid option in the top menu bar.
  4. Click Run in the pop-up confirmation dialog window.
  5. Follow the on-screen instructions to continue.

How to Recover Data from Mac Hard Drive

You may find some important files not showing in the external hard drive (internal hard drive, flash drive, SD card, etc.). How to get them back on Mac? You should get a professional recovery tool that supports Mac to help you (Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, jointly designed by MiniTool and Stellar, is a good choice).

  1. Download the software to a location which doesn't contain any lost files (to avoid data overwriting).
  2. Double click on the setup program and follow the on-screen instructions to finish the installation process.
  3. Run the software to start the recovery process (please make sure the external disk is always connected properly to Mac).
  4. In the Select What To Recover page, please toggle the switch under Recover Everything to ON or choose the file types you need from Documents, Emails, Videos, Audio, and Photos.
  5. Click on the Next button to continue.
  6. Choose the target hard disk which can't show up on Mac in the next Select Location page.
  7. Click on the Scan button in the lower right corner to start scanning the drive (you can turn on the Deep Scan feature in the lower left corner to show more scan results).
  8. Browse the found files and folders carefully and select all the ones you want to recover.
  9. Click on the Recover button in the lower right corner.
  10. Please select a destination to store the recovered files by clicking Browse.
  11. Click on the Save button to confirm your selection.
  12. Wait for the recovery process to finish.
Tip: If the documents created by Microsoft Word (contained in Microsoft Office for Mac) are lost from Mac, how to recover them? You should read this page to learn more about Mac Word files recovery.

Some people may want to recover crucial data from their Mac when it can't boot successfully. What should they do? This post tells you all about how to recover from a crashed/dead MacBook (MacBook Pro).

#6. Repair External Drive by Using Terminal

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Select Applications and then Utilities.
  3. Double click on Terminal to open it.
  4. Type diskutil list into the command line and press Return.
  5. The basic information of volumes and drives available will be displayed.
  6. Look for the disk# section of the target external disk.
  7. Type diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk# and press Return.
  8. Type diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk# and press Return.
  9. Wait for the process to finish.
  10. Go to the Terminal and then Quit Terminal.

#7. Check Disk Format

If you can find your external hard drive under Disk Utility, but you can't mount and use it, it's possible that the disk format is the issue. Your Mac can't recognize a drive that's been formatted with a file system that it cannot read.

In this case, you need to reformat the drive (please backup at least the important files on target drive since the erase action will ruin them):

  1. Open Disk Utility.
  2. Select the target external disk from the left panel.
  3. Click Erase at the top.
  4. You can give a name to the disk.
  5. Choose a proper file system from the drop-down menu of Format.
  6. Choose a Scheme and then click on the Erase button to confirm.
  7. Wait for the operation to finish.

APFS and Mac OS Extended are used frequently on Mac; you should figure out the differences between them (read APFS vs Mac OS Extended) before you decide which one to use.

Can you read a Mac-formatted hard drive on a Windows PC?

Usually, you can't read Mac drive on a Windows PC; this post shows you how to view content on Mac-formatted drive easily.

#8. Reset NVRAM

If there's problem with the Mac's RAM, it may cause external hard drive not showing up. You can troubleshoot the problem by resetting NVRAM properly.

  1. Restart your Mac (shut down and turn it on again).
  2. Press these 4 keys simultaneously: Command+Option+P+R; hold them for at least 20 seconds.
  3. Release these keys when you hear the second startup chime

#9. Check the /Volumes/ Folder

When you can't find an external hard disk on Mac, you can also try your luck by checking the /Volumes/ folder.

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Select Go from the top menu bar.
  3. Choose Go to Folder from the drop-down menu.
  4. Type /Volume/ into the textbox.
  5. Click on the Go button below or press Enter.
  6. Look for your external hard drive under Volumes folder.

How to recover a Mac file deleted from a folder or the desktop?

Believe it or not, we can make it easy to recover deleted data on Mac even if you are totally a novice.

#10. Uninstall Conflicting Apps

The applications you have installed on you Mac may have conflict with the external hard drive so that it can't be detected. How to troubleshoot Mac not detecting external hard drive?

  • If you have installed new apps on Mac recently, please go to uninstall them completely.
  • If you haven't installed any new app, please go to browse your installed apps and delete the ones with potential conflict.

#11. Update macOS

Updating OS is another useful fix for hard drive not showing up Mac.

  1. Select Apple menu.
  2. Choose SystemPreferences.
  3. Click Software Update.
  4. Wait for the checking process.
  5. Click Update Now when available updates are found.
  6. Wait for the update to complete.

If your external disk runs very slow after you updated the macOS, please try to troubleshoot the issue by resetting the SMC (System Management Controller).

Bonus Tip: Internal Hard Drive Not Showing Up

If your internal hard drive doesn't show up on Mac suddenly, please try to fix it by the following solutions:

  • Change Finder Preferences settings.
  • Mount/repair the hard drive in Disk Utility.
  • Repair disk in macOS recovery mode.
  • Check the internal hard drive in Terminal.

For more information about USB not showing up on Mac or flash drive/SD card not showing up Mac, please read this page.

Verdict

There are many actions and issues that could lead to the problem – external hard drive not showing up Mac. You should read this page carefully to find out the possible reasons and master the corresponding solutions that may help you fix the problem yourself.

Macintosh HD, or the MacBook internal hard drive, is basically the startup drive of most Apple computers. That means if your Mac or MacBook Pro can't mount its startup disk, it is likely that you will experience problems, like your computer gets stuck on the login screen or it does not boot at all. Situations like this can be very annoying, especially if you have critical and important files stored on the 'unmountable' hard drive.

Fret not, because we will teach you what to do if your MacBook Pro won't mount its startup disk. But before we do that, you better have a backup of all your data.

Backup, Backup, Backup!

Before you proceed with fixing the problem, it is best that you back up all your data first. That way, you can easily retrieve or recover your important documents and files in case something goes wrong.

Now, you might be wondering if it is possible to create a backup of your data, especially that your Mac is not even booting. Here's what you should know: your Mac has a built-in Disk Utility, which can be accessed before startup. To use this, follow the steps below:

  1. Get an external hard drive and connect it to your Mac.
  2. Switch off your Mac. After five seconds, switch it back on.
  3. After hearing the startup sound, press the CMD and R keys. Hold them until the Apple logo appears.
  4. The macOS Utilities window will now appear.
  5. Choose Disk Utility and hit Continue to proceed.
  6. You can now start backing up your data using the external drive. Once you have backed up all your data, you can try a few fixes to your 'unmountable' hard drive problems.

4 Fixes to a MacBook Pro That Can't Mount Its Startup Disk

Find Hard Drive On Mac

In most cases, mounting is an automatic process that happens as soon as the hard drive is connected to a Mac or MacBook Pro. Then again, drive mounting can be performed manually using the Disk Utility of your machine. It will be discussed further below.

Going forward, assuming you already have a backup of your important files and data, let's proceed with resolving the problem. Below are a few ways to fix a MacBook Pro that can't mount its startup disk:

1. Fix Your Hard Drive.

Find Hard Drive On Mac

Sometimes, restarting your Mac is more than enough to fix the problem. However, if that does not work, then you might want to look into the angle that there might be something wrong with your hard drive. If that is the case, you have to boot your MacBook Pro in Recovery Mode via Disk Utility.

To hopefully fix your hard drive, follow these steps:

  1. Switch off your MacBook Pro.
  2. Turn it back on by pressing the Power button. But while doing that, press the CMD and R keys as well until the Apple logo appears.
  3. The macOS Utilities window will open. From there, select Disk Utility.
  4. From the left pane, choose your MacBook Pro hard drive.
  5. Navigate to the First Aid tab.
  6. Click the First Aid button to start fixing your drive.
  7. Wait for the process to finish before restarting your machine.

2. Run Your MacBook Pro in Safe Mode.

When booted in Safe Mode, your MacBook Pro will start only with the minimum requirements and utilities needed. All other programs and apps that are unnecessary will never be loaded. Hence, if the reason why your startup disk cannot be mounted is a faulty app or program, booting your MacBook Pro in Safe Mode might just fix your problem.

To run your MacBook Pro in Safe Mode, do these:

  1. Restart your MacBook Pro.
  2. After you hear the startup sound, press the SHIFT key immediately. Continue holding it until the Apple logo appears.
  3. If your MacBook Pro boots up properly, then uninstall any program or app you suspect is causing the problem.
  4. Restart your machine.

3. Disconnect All External Peripherals.

It is possible that a faulty peripheral connected to your MacBook Pro could be causing your startup disk problems. To verify this, follow the steps below:

  1. Switch off your machine.
  2. Disconnect all external peripherals connected to your MacBook Pro, including printers, external hard drives, USBs, and scanner. You may leave the keyboard and mouse attached in the meantime.
  3. Switch on your Mac. If it boots properly, then one of the peripherals is causing the problem.
  4. Identify the exact cause of the problem by connecting each of the peripherals one by one. Make sure you reboot your MacBook Pro every time you connect a peripheral.

4. Reset the SMC and PRAM.

This may sound like a technical solution, but it isn't. In fact, resetting the SMC and the PRAM takes only a few seconds.

To reset the PRAM and SMC, follow these instructions:

  1. Reboot your MacBook Pro.
  2. After you hear the startup sound, press the Option, CMD, P, and R keys. Hold them until you hear the second startup tone.
  3. Release the keys. Your PRAM will then be reset.
  4. Restart your MacBook Pro and check if the problem persists.
  5. If resetting the PRAM does not fix the problem, try resetting the SMC. Start by shutting down your MacBook Pro.
  6. Plug your machine into a wall outlet.
  7. Next, press the CTRL, SHIFT, Option, and Power keys for 10 seconds and release them together.
  8. Restart your MacBook Pro and see if it worked.

How To Find Hard Drive On Macbook Pro

How to Mount a Startup Disk on MacBook Pro

At this point, you probably want to know how to properly mount a startup disk on your MacBook Pro to avoid problems in the future. Well, mounting a startup disk does not literally suggest physically setting it up with all the wires. It simply means making the startup disk available for your system to perform different read and write operations.

If the startup drive is in good shape, your system Disk Utility should see it. Under the Disk Utility window, select your preferred startup disk. Click on it to mount. By now, your new startup disk should be accessible by your operating system.

What's Next?

Now that you know how to deal with your 'unmountable' startup disk problem, it's time that you get your MacBook Pro running fast and smooth by downloading and installing a reliable tool like Outbyte MacRepair. Not only will this tool allow you to conveniently find and fix speed and stability problems, it will also protect your privacy. What more can you ask for from such a powerful tool?

If you know other ways to fix a MacBook Pro that can't mount its startup disk, please share them with us below. We're looking forward to hearing from you.

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