How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Appear in Mac

It is a common yet frustrating experience: you plug in your storage device to transfer important files, only to find the external hard drive not showing up in Mac. Whether it is a hardware glitch or a file system conflict, this issue can halt your productivity instantly.

This guide provides authoritative solutions to help you fix external hard drive not appear in Mac using both built-in tools and professional software. We will walk you through troubleshooting steps ranging from simple hardware checks to advanced mounting techniques.

Basic Hardware and Settings Checks

Before assuming the drive is broken, you must exclude simple connectivity or configuration errors that prevent the system from displaying your device. Often, when an external hard drive is not showing up in my computer Mac, the culprit is a loose cable or a hidden setting.

To begin troubleshooting, follow these essential steps:

Swap USB Ports: Try connecting the drive to a different USB port on your Mac to rule out a faulty port.
Test on Another Mac: Plug the external HDD, USB drive, or SD card into another Mac. If it works there, the issue lies with your computer’s settings or ports.
Isolate the Connection: Remove other peripherals (printers, cameras, etc.) and keep only the external hard drive connected to ensure a sufficient power supply.
Restart Your System: Reboot your Mac and try reconnecting the drive several times to refresh the hardware detection process.
Adjust Finder Preferences: If the drive is connected but invisible on the desktop, go to Finder > Settings (or Preferences) > General. Ensure the box for "External disks" is ticked so they appear on your desktop.

2 Solutions to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing up in My Computer Mac

In this part, you can learn 2 ways to fix external hard drive not showing up in Mac

Method 1. Manually Mount and Repair the Drive

Option 1. Disk Utility to Mount

If your mac doesn't recognize external hard drive volumes after the basic checks, the issue might be a software-level mounting failure. Mac OS includes a built-in tool called Disk Utility designed to manage and repair storage devices.

Disk Utility can often force a drive to appear if the system has failed to "mount" it automatically.

Open Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. In the sidebar, look for your external drive. If it is greyed out, select it and click the Mount button at the top of the window.

Once the process is complete, check if the drive becomes accessible in Finder or not.

Option 2. Try PartitionAssistant NTFS for Mac to mount drives

In many cases, a Mac doesn't recognize external hard drive because the drive is formatted with the Windows NTFS file system. While mac OS can usually "see" these drives, it often struggles to mount them properly or limits you to "Read-Only" mode. To bridge this gap, PartitionAssistant NTFS for Mac is the professional solution.

PartitionAssistant NTFS for Mac is a powerful utility designed to grant mac OS full Read/Write access to NTFS drives. It allows you to delete, rename, and move files on Windows-formatted drives just as easily as you would on a native Mac drive. It supports a wide range of devices, including HDD, SSD, USB, SD, and CF cards. Whether you are using an Intel-based Mac or the latest Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) chips running mac OS 12 or later, this tool ensures seamless compatibility.

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🧐 Note: You need to configure the Security Policy in iOS Recovery Mode. macOS can only read NTFS partitions by default, not write directly to them. To write data to an NTFS partition on macOS, you need to use a third-party NTFS driver.

Step 1.  Run Partition Assistant NTFS for Mac and connect your external hard drive.

Step 2. The external drives will be mounted and listed. 

Option 3. Use First Aid to repair your external hard drive

If the external hard drive has been mounted, there is only an unmount option available. In this case, you need to use the First Aid option instead to fix the external hard drive not showing up in my Mac computer.

All you need is to choose the grayed-out external hard drive from the left sidebar, click the First Aid option, and then choose Run. After a while, you'll get the results saying the drive has been repaired or it's failed to get repaired.

Method 2. Format The External Hard Drive

If you have tried all the above and the external hard drive is not showing up in my Mac computer, the drive’s partition map may be corrupted. As a last resort, reformatting the drive will create a fresh file system that macOS can recognize.

Step 1. Open Disk Utility. Select the external drive from the left sidebar and click Erase.

Step 2. Choose a compatible format:

• APFS or Mac OS Extended: Best for use only on Mac.
• ExFAT or MS-DOS (FAT): Best if you need to use the drive on both Windows and Mac.

Step 3. Click Erase and wait for the process to finish. Your drive should now appear normally.

Ending

To fix external hard drive not appear in Mac, you should start with hardware checks and Finder settings before moving to Disk Utility. If the issue stems from NTFS compatibility, PartitionAssistant NTFS for Mac provides the most reliable way to mount, read, and write to your drive without data loss. By following these steps, you can ensure your data remains accessible and your external storage performs optimally.

FAQs

1. Why is my external hard drive not showing up on my Mac desktop?

This usually happens because the Finder preferences are set to hide external disks. Go to Finder > Settings > General and ensure "External disks" is checked. It could also be due to a faulty USB cable or port.

2. Can Mac read and write to an NTFS-formatted drive?

By default, macOS can only read NTFS drives, not write to them. To gain full "Read/Write" access and fix mounting issues, it is recommended to use a professional tool like PartitionAssistant NTFS for Mac.

3. What should I do if Disk Utility cannot repair my drive?

If First Aid fails, the drive may have severe logical damage or physical failure. You can try reformatting the drive to ExFAT or APFS, but remember that this will erase all stored data.

4. Does PartitionAssistant work on the new M1 and M2 Macs?

Yes, PartitionAssistant NTFS for Mac fully supports macOS 12 and later, including systems powered by both Intel processors and Apple Silicon (M1, M2, and M3 chips).

5. Is it safe to unplug my hard drive if it isn't showing up?

You should always try to "Eject" the drive via software first. If it isn't showing up, try shutting down the Mac completely before unplugging the drive to minimize the risk of data corruption.