Usually when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you will see it appearing on the desktop. You can also see it in a finder window in the left column under locations (or devices in older versions of macOS). If the drive does not appear on your Mac chances, it has not been properly formatted, has been destroyed or is defective. Alternatively, you may have set a password for the drive you need to enter before it connects.
We will show you how to find out if the reason why the external drive is not mounted on your Mac -up is due to a problem with the drive itself, cable or gate and how to solve the problem and access data on your drive .
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This article assumes that you have an external drive to connect to your Mac via USB-A, USB-C or a Thunderbolt port. If you have a NAS drive that connects over the network, read our article to connect to a NAS drive.
Why does your hard drive not appear on Mac?
We start by trying to identify the reason why your hard drive is not displayed on the Mac before explaining what to do to find the hard drive on your Mac. If you can identify that reason, you must be able to solve the problem that prevents your external drive from opening on your Mac.
Damaged cable, port or insufficient power
The first call port is always to check that it is connected, but we are sure you have done so. The problem can be with the cable.
One of the main reasons why drives are not fitted is if the drive does not receive enough power. If the drive is driven via a USB-A cable, check that sufficient power is provided for the drive. Very old MACs may require a USB current cable, a cable that is divided into two USB connectors to be connected to both to your Mac to deliver enough power to the drive. Similarly, make sure the drive does not have an external power supply it will need.
Make sure it’s not fault. Try using another cable with the drive to see if it solves the problem. Similarly, if you are using a USB port on a HUB control, that’s not what causes the problem.
Also, check that the gate on your Mac is not the problem. Try to use another port. Or if you only have one port, connect another device and see if it works.
The next step is to try to connect the drive to another Mac. If it also fails to mount there, you will know that there is a problem with the drive while if it is mounted, the problem with your Mac is.
Problem Preferences
Hopefully there is a really easy solution to get the hard drive to mount on your desk. Try the following to make sure your Mac is set to show mounted drives on the desktop.
- Open the finder.
- Click Finder In the menu at the top of your screen.
- Click Settings (Preferences in older macOS versions).
- Click General.
- Make sure there is a cross next to External disks.
If it was already created so that the external drive will appear on the desktop, continue to follow the steps below.
Password protection
You can protect a drive with a password when you initially start using it, so check to see if the reason your drive is not mounted is that a password request box has appeared and you haven’t noticed it.
Sometimes the password popup takes a few minutes to display too, so it helps to be patient.
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The drive is formatted into a PC
It is possible that the drive is formatted using a file system that your Mac cannot read.
- Windows PCS uses NTFS or EXFAT file formats.
- MAC computers before Sierra used the HFS+ file format.
- In High Sierra, Apple introduced a new file system called Apple File System (APFS).
- There is an old FAT32 format can be read with window and Mac computers, but has a restriction on which files can be stored.
An easy way to find out if this is the problem would be to control a PC. If the drive mounts on the PC, it is likely that you have discovered what the problem is: the drive is formatted for PCs and cannot be read by your Mac. 
To make sure your drive can be read by MACs and PCs, format it using EXFAT or the older FAT32. We explain how to do it below.
It is a broken or defective drive
If none of the above was the reason you couldn’t see the external drive on your Mac may be the drive may be defective. If so, you can use Apple’s disk utility program to access the disk and potentially solve what causes the problem. We discuss how to do it below. We will also look at ways you can stop a drive that fails in the future.
How fixes an external drive that does not appear on a Mac
If none of the above solved your problem, it is likely that the drive is either formatted incorrectly or damaged.
Depending on the reason you can’t see the drive, here is what you need to do to make it work.
How to reformat a drive so you can see it on a Mac
Hopefully the drive is fine, but the format is wrong.
It is possible that the hard drive is formatted using another file system (ie on a Windows PC). In this case, if you need to access the data on the drive, connect the drive to a Windows -PC that recognizes it and copies the data before moving on to the next step because the process will involve the transformation of the drive and deleting everything on I).
- To make sure your drive can be read by MACs and PCs, format it using Exfat or the elderly Fat32.
- If you want to format the drive to just be used on a Mac can use HFS+ or Apple File System (APFS) File formats.
After getting the data from the drive via a PC, you can reformat the drive so you can add the data again. How to reformat your drive so that it can be read by a Mac or PC.
- Open Disk Utility (according to the steps above).
- If you do not need the data on the hard drive, select the disk and click Plain.
- Before the disk tool starts to erase the disk, it selects a format for you. You can change this if you click the formatting settings. Choose your format, Exfat If you want to make sure it’s compatible with PC and MAC, otherwise Mac OS Extended (journalized) is probably the best option.
- Click Plain And wait for your Mac to delete and re -formats then driven.
- Give the drive a name.
Screenshot
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Read more: How to format a drive on a Mac.
How to fix the defective drive with disk tool
If the different controls above suggest that the disk is defective, you can use Apple’s disk utility program to access the disk and potentially solve what causes the problem. Here’s what to do:
- Find Disk Utility by opening Spotlight (CMD+Space-Bar) and start writing Disk UtilityPress ENTER to open the program.
- Look in the column on the left to see if the hard drive is displayed there.
- If you can see the hard drive in Disk Tool Control below it for a volume. If it is there, click it and select Mount. If your Mac has already fitted the drive, the setting will appear that UNMount will appear instead. (If there is no volume stated, your Mac is unable to access the drive. The mounting setting will be gray out.)
- Your options are first aid, deletion and recovery. First Aid checks the disk for errors and then repair the disk if necessary and this is the possibility of choosing. Restore allows you to delete the content of the drive and replace it with data from another place. Delete deletes all the data stored on the drive. If you need the data on the drive, do not select Delete or Restore!
- Click First Aid The tab and select Run.
- If MAC after driving first aid finds errors, you can solve, you can see the possibility of repairing the disk. If you do, go ahead and run the repairs.
Best apps to recover data on a lost drive
If your Mac is unable to repair the disk if it is likely that the drive is either formatted using a file system that MAC cannot read or it is good and truly damaged. If it is the latter, we suggest you follow this tutorial to recover data from a damaged disk. It may also be a good idea to consider one of the MAC data recovery apps we recommend in our Round-Up of the best apps for DataNifting Apps for Macs.
Our recommendations include recovery from Wondershare, Data Rescue from Prosoft and Stella Data Recovery for Mac.
How to prevent problems with hard drives on a Mac
We have one last proposal to make it more a guard against this error that happens again.
Make sure your external drive will not be damaged in the future by always removing the disk properly after using it. Don’t just disconnect the USB cable.
To remove your drive you can right-click (check-click) on the icon on the desktop or in the finder and select Eject. Drive problems can occur when the disk is removed without pushing it out properly.
Decided that there is no hope for your defective hard drive? We have a round-up of some of the best we’ve seen here: the best Mac hard drives.