You can use a tool like Disk Drill to recover data from your external hard drive on a Mac. To do this, you generally have two options available: use data recovery software like Disk Drill, or send your drive to a data recovery center. If your disk drive isn’t mounting at all, even with the above steps, you might still be able to recover some – or all – of the data on it. How to Recover Data from an External Disk That Isn’t Mounting on a Mac If you need to recover your files afterwards, this can be done with a tool like Disk Drill, provided you use a separate drive for recovery. Your drive will now be erased and automatically formatted. Note: this will erase all data on the hard drive! In more extreme cases, such as a corrupted filesystem on the drive, you might need to reformat the drive entirely. Hold down the right shift, left option, and left control keys for 7 seconds, and then press and hold the power button for 7 seconds.Press the power button and keep it held down for 10 seconds.Resetting your NVRAM, PRAM, and/or SMC can occasionally be useful when dealing with tricky issues that you can’t link to anything else.

Select your hard drive from the list on the left.Using an Intel processor: hold down Command + R until you see the utilities window.Using an Apple processor: Keep the power button held until you see the startup options window.The first step varies depending on your processor type, but it’s the same regardless if you have Mac Big Sur, Mac Monterey, Mac Catalina, or any other distribution. Using Disk Utility is another option for fixing a drive that won’t show up. Fix #5: Use Disk Utility’s First Aid Tool Sometimes things can get stuck behind the scenes in non-obvious ways, and the only way to fix the problem is to give your Mac a reboot. Fix #4: Restart Your MacĪnother simple fix that works surprisingly often is to just restart your computer.

If an HDD won’t mount, sometimes all it needs is a restart of the connection to get it running again. Simply unplug the drive and plug it back in.

Select the disk drive if you see it in the list.

One of the simplest fixes when a disk won’t mount on a Mac is to try remounting it through Disk Utility. To check if that’s the case – and fix it – follow these steps:įix #2: Remount External Disk in Disk Utility It’s possible that your disk drive is simply prevented from showing up in your system settings. Fix #1: Change macOS Drive Display Settings Make sure to take a structured approach to this and note your results. Not all of them will work, and sometimes you might not reach a solution in the end. In order to fix a hard drive that won’t mount on a Mac, you should try the following steps. How to Fix Your External Hard Drive Not Showing Up on a Mac Fix 1: Change macOS Drive Display Settingsįix 2: Remount External Disk in Disk Utility

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