hello everyone welcome back to our
channel in this video we're going to
talk about how to find an external hard
drive
on a mac that's not showing up in the
device list
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button down below
we all use external drives to keep our
important files safe
and transfer a large amount of data
between two computers
so when your macbook stops recognizing a
hard drive
even after you've connected it several
times things start to get a bit
frustrating
in this situation many people reach out
to a technician to try to get the hard
drive repaired
but before taking such an extreme
measure and potentially wasting hundreds
of dollars
there are a few things that you can try
to fix an external hard drive
that doesn't show up in mac by yourself
make sure to watch this video right to
the end and you'll be able to fix your
hard drive
easily firstly let's understand why
external hard drives aren't showing up
on your mac
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in general a hard drive may not show up
in the device list due to different
reasons
a few of these reasons include the fact
that your usb port
on your macbook might be broken there
might be a partition
on your hard drive that is causing you a
problem there might be
outdated drivers on your macbook and
the hard drive itself might be formatted
in the wrong file system
if your mac is not detecting the
external hard drive
don't panic because no matter what is
causing the error you can fix it on your
own
let's follow these solutions to fix the
external hard drive not showing
on your mac error
the first and simplest way is to check
the cable
first check the hard drive's cable and
ensure it hasn't encountered any
physical damage there are many
situations when hard drive cables
become loose or damaged due to daily use
if that's the case all that you need to
do is replace the cable with a new one
and your macbook will start recognizing
your hard drive again
also check that the port isn't causing
the problem as well
try plugging in your hard drive into a
different port or
if you have one try plugging another
device
in that port to see if it works okay
another reason that
might restrict a hard drive from showing
up in your mac is a lack of power
so make sure that you have enough power
for the drive as this may fix the error
it's worth noting that an external hard
drive needs an adequate amount of power
when it connects to a computer this is
genuinely achieved
by using the right type of cable for
instance
for some hard drives they require a
special power cable
to successfully connect it to your pc
this type of cable has
two split ends for a usb type a
connector
as well as another type a connector to
be plugged in
to the two usb ports on your macbook so
make sure that you are using the right
type of cable that is compatible with
your hard drive
and make sure that it's getting enough
required power
if changing the cable didn't fix the
problem and there is no
issue with power then the next step
would be to change the preference
settings
in finder
follow these steps to change the
preference settings of finder
start by opening finder and click the
menu icon in the top left corner
click preferences and then go to the
general tab
now make sure that the external drives
option is
checked finally close finder and you'll
automatically see the external hard
drive icon
on your desktop if your mac still
doesn't recognize the hard drive
you can use disk utility to access the
drive
here's what to do to use the official
disk utility program
in mac to find your external hard drive
that isn't showing up
press command plus the space bar and
type a disk utility
and then press enter in the left menu
bar click
your external hard drive and select the
volume
now simply tap the mount button and the
hard disk will automatically show up on
your desktop
if your drive is still inaccessible then
run first aid
in the disk utility
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here you can also use its first aid
feature from the top of the disk utility
window
to repair corrupt hard drives so if
you've had no luck
so far you might want to run the first
aid check on the hard drive
and hopefully it fixes the problem again
launch disk utility as i've shown you
before
select your hard drive and click the
first aid button
at the top of the screen click run on
the window that's appeared
and wait for the process to complete
close the disk utility
and check if your external hard drive
icon is showing on the desktop or not
in case none of the previous solutions
work it's possible that the hard drive
is formatted in the wrong file system so
what we need to do is change the file
system on your hard drive
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in this case you can reformat the hard
drive using disk utility again
open disk utility and highlight the
external hard drive
now click the arrays option and choose a
compatible file format from the list
ideally if you want to use the hard
drive on your mac
you should either choose apfs or
exfat click arrays to complete the
format once the process completes
you'll see the hard drive icon on your
desktop we hope you can fix the mac not
detecting the external hard drive issue
from any of the methods that i've
introduced but in case you are still
unable to repair your issues your drive
might be truly broken
or formatted using a file system that
the mac cannot read
in this way we suggest you follow the
next steps to recover
data from the disk drive
to recover lost data from an external
hard drive it would be better to use
a recovery tool to retrieve the files
before initiating the format
why not try wondershare recovery it's a
professional recovery tool
that can be used to recover different
types of files from a variety of
storage devices it also has a
user-friendly interface
which means that anyone can use it to
recover files here's how to retrieve
data from an external hard drive
that doesn't show up on your mac using
recover it install and launch recover it
on your mac
connect your hard drive to your computer
and select it
under the external drive tab on the
recover its home screen
click start and recover it will
automatically start scanning the drive
be patient as this may take a while to
complete depending on the size of the
hard drive
once the scanning process completes
select the files that you want to
retrieve and click recover
choose a safe location on your computer
and the selected files will be
automatically saved there so that's how
you can fix
the external hard drive not showing on
your mac error
if you face any problems with any of
these solutions then please
let us know down in the comment section
below and we'll get back to you
in case you found this video helpful
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don't miss out on any future videos
anywhere everyone will see you in the
next video bye
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