Seagate External Hard Drive Macbook

1. Seagate External Hard Drive Mac Compatible
2. Seagate External Hard Drives Instructions
3. Seagate External Hard Drive Old

When your Seagate hard drive not working, it is usually about external hard disk not detected, not recognized, or not showing up. This article has the most comprehensive solutions to Seagate internal and external hard drive not working problems on both Windows and Mac. In the final part, you can learn how to recover data from a Seagate (external) hard drive which is not detecting by EaseUS hard drive recovery software.

Is your Seagate external hard drive suddenly not working? This page explains the reasons why your Seagate and other brands of external hard drive not working, not detected, or not showing up, and the fixes to repair external hard disk without losing any data.

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Follow the content navigation and pick up the right methods to make your Seagate external hard drive work again:

Also applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not showing up, external hard drive not detected, Seagate external hard drive light blinking but not work, Seagate external hard drive not recognized Widows 10, USB not showing up, etc.

Error: Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working

'My 1TB Seagate external hard drive cannot be detected by my computer but the light is blinking, what can I do to fix this? I need to get my data back. I use it as a backup so pretty much all of my personal and work files are stored in the drive. Please help me out.'

Seagate external hard drive not working or not detected issue is top concerned among worldwide Seagate users. Normally, the external hard drive should be detected by the Operating System and viable for storing all types of files, without the need for drivers, software, or firmware updates.

However, each drive has its own issues after long-term use or possibly improper use. So the first step that you should take is to find out the reasons why your Seagate disk cannot be detected by a computer. Then, you can follow the presented solutions in the following parts to repair Seagate external hard disk not working issue without losing any data.

Let's start the journey and follow the tutorials below to make your Seagate, Toshiba, Sandisk, etc., external and internal hard drive work properly again.

Why Is Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working/Detected

Generally, 'Not Working' is a state that usually describes a malfunctioning hard disk or external hard drive. For example, you may define your Seagate external hard drive 'not working' as it's not accessible or detected after connecting it to your computer. Or, even you correctly connect it to a computer, it doesn't show up in the drives list in Windows or Mac computer.

So, what caused your external hard drive malfunctioning? Both software and hardware issues may cause a hard drive not working as usual. Here is a list of commonly explored reasons related to this issue:

• Incompatible file system
• File system corruption, Invalid file system, RAW
• The drive turns to unallocated
• Disk drive letter conflict
• Hard drive driver is corrupted or out of date
• The hard drive has too many bad sectors
• The hard drive is damaged, dead, not spinning up

How to Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working in Windows

Applies to: Troubleshoot Seagate external hard drive not working, not detected issue in Windows 10/8/7.

If you tried the above-presented hardware troubleshooting tips but the Seagate external hard drive is still not working, don't worry. You can open disk management to check the state of your external hard drive and refer to the right solutions as presented below for help:

Fix 1. Try a Different USB Port, Connection Cables

Applies to: All types of storage devices that are not working, not showing up or detected in both Windows and Mac computers.

So how to repair Seagate hard drive that is not detected by the computer? Here is a list of basic hardware troubleshooting that you may first try to improve the chance of success in making the hard drive or external hard drive work again:

• 1. Try a different USB port on the computer.
• 2. Switch a new cable if the current one is damaged.
• 3. Try connecting the drive to a different computer.
• 4. Verify if the drive's light is on. (No light could indicate the power adapter is not connected to power.)
• 5. Try a different power outlet. (Desktop Drives)

After following these tips, if your Seagate external hard drive is still not detected, move on and try the other solutions offered here.

If Seagate is detectable but inaccessible, jump to recover Seagate disk data first as presented at the end of this page. Then revert to this part to fix Seagate disk to workable again.

Fix 2. Format RAW Seagate External Hard Drive to NTFS

Applies to: Format RAW Seagate external hard drive, change invalid file system on Seagate disk to a supported one, like NTFS.

When a hard drive's file system turns to RAW, it won't show up in my computer. Also, if your Seagate external hard drive contains an unsupported file system, the drive won't be able to work normally on your computer.

In this page, You need to format the RAW drive to a file system that Windows recognizes, such as NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT.

Step 1. Connect the Seagate external hard drive to your PC and open Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click on the not working RAW drive and select 'Format'.

Step 3. Set volume label, set NTFS as the file system and tick 'Quick Format'. Click 'OK' to start the formatting.

Fix 3. Change Seagate Drive Letter

Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not showing, detected, recognized issue due to drive letter conflict.

Note that, sometimes, if your external hard drive shares the same drive letter as your disk partition, Windows won't show the drive letter of your external device. It will show as New Volume in Disk Management without a drive letter.

And this is why your external hard drive not detected. To fix this issue, you'll need to add a new drive letter to your Seagate disk. Here are the steps:

Step 1. Connect Seagate external to computer and open Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click the partition of not working Seagate disk and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths..'.

Step 3. Set a new drive letter to the Seagate disk and click 'OK' to confirm.

Fix 4. Restore Partition or Create a New Partition on Unallocated Seagate External Disk

Applies to: Fix unallocated Seagate external hard drive not working issue. Exe to ipa converter.

Sometimes, you may not be able to use the Seagate external hard drive if the device shows as unallocated in Disk Management, as shown below:

To make your unallocated Seagate drive show up and recognized again, you have two options:

#1. Restore Lost Partition and Data from Seagate Unallocated Space

If you had partition and data saved on the Seagate external hard drive which suddenly became unallocated, you may directly apply reliable partition recovery software for help. It will scan and recover all lost partition and data from the unallocated space.

Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Recovery on your PC.

Select the disk or device where you lost partition(s), click 'Scan' to continue.

Step 2: Wait for the scanning process to complete.

Let the program scan the selected disk and find the lost partition(s).

Step 3: Preview and restore the lost partition(s).

Double-click on the partition which is marked as 'Lost' with 'Good' recoverability.

Preview the content of the lost partition. Click 'OK' and click 'Proceed' to start restoring the lost partition.

Step 4: Click 'Recover Now' to finish the partition recovery process.

Note: If the program warns you that there is a conflict, back up the listed partition with essential data to an external hard drive first. Then execute the final operation to restore your lost partition.

#2. Create a New Partition on Unallocated Seagate External Disk

If you don't have any valuable data on the not detected Seagate external hard drive, you may directly use Disk Management to create a new partition on the drive with the following steps:

Step 1. Connect the unallocated Seagate external hard drive to PC and open Windows Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click on the unallocated partition and choose 'New Simple Volume..'.

Step 3. Set partition size, drive letter, and file system such as NTFS, etc., click 'OK' to confirm.

Step 4. Click 'Finish' to complete the process.

Fix 5. Uninstall and Re-install Seagate Hard Drive Driver

Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not working error due to outdated drive driver.

Mostly, when the respective hard drive or external hard drive driver is outdated, Windows computer will have a problem of showing it up. So the best solution toward this issue is to update the Seagate drive driver immediately.

Be careful with the following four steps, you will resolve the unrecognition problem of the Seagate external hard drive on your own:

Step 1. Connect the not working Seagate external hard disk to PC.

Step 2. Press Windows + X keys or right-click Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 3. Expand disk drivers and right-click on your external hard drive, select 'Uninstall Device'.

Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software' and restart PC when the process completes.

Fix 6. Turn on USB Root Hub

Applies to: Fix Seagate external USB not working issue due to disabled USB Root Hub.

Sometimes, USB external hard drive devices may stop functioning correctly when multiple devices connected to the same USB hub go into selective suspend.

By enabling the USB root hub, the controllers will recover the USB port from its unresponsive condition so to make your device work normally again:

Step 1. Connect not working Seagate external hard disk to PC.

Step 2. Microsoft mac support. Open Device Manager and expand 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'.

Step 3. Right-click USB Root Hub > Click 'Properties' > 'Power Management'.

Step 4. Uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' and restart PC.

Fix 7. Show All Hidden Devices

Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard disk not showing up, not detected issue.

Sometimes it's because the connected drive is hidden, not showing up in my computer. You need to unhide the device and make Seagate external hard drive shows up in the Windows Device Manager.

Seagate External Hard Drive Mac Compatible

Here are the steps:

Step 1. Press Windows + R keys, type: devmgmt.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2. Click 'View' > Select 'Show hidden devices'.

Step 3. Expand all notes by clicking on the + (plus) symbol.

Step 4. If there are any grayed-out entries, right-click them, and select 'Uninstall'.

Step 5. Reboot PC and check if you can see your Seagate external hard drive.

Fix 8. Run a Virus Cleaner Software

Applies to: Fix virus or malware infection that cause Seagate device not working.

If it is a virus that caused your external hard drive to be undetectable or unrecognized, you can try a virus cleaner software to wipe out and remove any viruses from your PC and hard drive.

Step 1. Download and install an antivirus software on your computer.

Step 2. Connect Seagate external hard drive to your PC.

Step 3. Recording and editing programs. Launch the antivirus tool and scan to remove virus or malware from Seagate drive.

#1. Restore Lost Partition and Data from Seagate Unallocated Space

If you had partition and data saved on the Seagate external hard drive which suddenly became unallocated, you may directly apply reliable partition recovery software for help. It will scan and recover all lost partition and data from the unallocated space.

Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Recovery on your PC.

Select the disk or device where you lost partition(s), click 'Scan' to continue.

Step 2: Wait for the scanning process to complete.

Let the program scan the selected disk and find the lost partition(s).

Step 3: Preview and restore the lost partition(s).

Double-click on the partition which is marked as 'Lost' with 'Good' recoverability.

Preview the content of the lost partition. Click 'OK' and click 'Proceed' to start restoring the lost partition.

Step 4: Click 'Recover Now' to finish the partition recovery process.

Note: If the program warns you that there is a conflict, back up the listed partition with essential data to an external hard drive first. Then execute the final operation to restore your lost partition.

#2. Create a New Partition on Unallocated Seagate External Disk

If you don't have any valuable data on the not detected Seagate external hard drive, you may directly use Disk Management to create a new partition on the drive with the following steps:

Step 1. Connect the unallocated Seagate external hard drive to PC and open Windows Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click on the unallocated partition and choose 'New Simple Volume..'.

Step 3. Set partition size, drive letter, and file system such as NTFS, etc., click 'OK' to confirm.

Step 4. Click 'Finish' to complete the process.

Fix 5. Uninstall and Re-install Seagate Hard Drive Driver

Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not working error due to outdated drive driver.

Mostly, when the respective hard drive or external hard drive driver is outdated, Windows computer will have a problem of showing it up. So the best solution toward this issue is to update the Seagate drive driver immediately.

Be careful with the following four steps, you will resolve the unrecognition problem of the Seagate external hard drive on your own:

Step 1. Connect the not working Seagate external hard disk to PC.

Step 2. Press Windows + X keys or right-click Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 3. Expand disk drivers and right-click on your external hard drive, select 'Uninstall Device'.

Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software' and restart PC when the process completes.

Fix 6. Turn on USB Root Hub

Applies to: Fix Seagate external USB not working issue due to disabled USB Root Hub.

Sometimes, USB external hard drive devices may stop functioning correctly when multiple devices connected to the same USB hub go into selective suspend.

By enabling the USB root hub, the controllers will recover the USB port from its unresponsive condition so to make your device work normally again:

Step 1. Connect not working Seagate external hard disk to PC.

Step 2. Microsoft mac support. Open Device Manager and expand 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'.

Step 3. Right-click USB Root Hub > Click 'Properties' > 'Power Management'.

Step 4. Uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' and restart PC.

Fix 7. Show All Hidden Devices

Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard disk not showing up, not detected issue.

Sometimes it's because the connected drive is hidden, not showing up in my computer. You need to unhide the device and make Seagate external hard drive shows up in the Windows Device Manager.

Seagate External Hard Drive Mac Compatible

Here are the steps:

Step 1. Press Windows + R keys, type: devmgmt.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2. Click 'View' > Select 'Show hidden devices'.

Step 3. Expand all notes by clicking on the + (plus) symbol.

Step 4. If there are any grayed-out entries, right-click them, and select 'Uninstall'.

Step 5. Reboot PC and check if you can see your Seagate external hard drive.

Fix 8. Run a Virus Cleaner Software

Applies to: Fix virus or malware infection that cause Seagate device not working.

If it is a virus that caused your external hard drive to be undetectable or unrecognized, you can try a virus cleaner software to wipe out and remove any viruses from your PC and hard drive.

Step 1. Download and install an antivirus software on your computer.

Step 2. Connect Seagate external hard drive to your PC.

Step 3. Recording and editing programs. Launch the antivirus tool and scan to remove virus or malware from Seagate drive.

Afterward, you can format the hard drive to make it readable again. Remember to run a reliable data recovery software to scan and find all your valuable data on the Seagate device before formatting.

How to Repair Seagate External Disk Not Working/Detected in Mac

Seagate External Hard Drives Instructions

Here we collected 3 troubleshooting for you to follow and repair the Seagate disk to work normally again on your Mac:

Before you go further, check Seagate disk in Disk Utility or System Information/Profiler section:

• If the drive is not showing on your desktop or within Finder check Disk Utility: go and open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
• If the drive is not detected in Disk Utility then see the System Information/System Profiler section.
• If you are using macOS 10.13 or higher then click view in the upper left and select 'Show All Devices' which allows you to see both the disk as well as volumes.

If all the attempts failed to display the Seagate drive on your Mac, go on with the 3solutions.

Fix 1. Format Seagate Disk to macOS Supported File System

Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not working or not detected error due to Mac unsupported file system.

If you switch NTFS Seagate external hard drive to a Mac computer, it won't show up nor work on Mac. The reason is that Mac is only compatible with APFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc., formats.

So to fix this issue, you'll have to format the drive to FAT32 or exFAT. For a step-by-step guide, you may refer to: Format External Hard Drive to FAT32 for help.

Fix 2. Repair Seagate External Hard Drive in First Aid

Applies to: Mount Seagate external disk to make it work on Mac.

If the Seagate drive is unmountable or the Mount icon is greyed out, it could be some disk errors that prevent your Mac from recognizing/detecting the drive correctly. You can repair the problematic drive in the built-in First Aid utility.

Step 1. Click on the Launchpad on the Dock and find Other.

Step 2. Locate Disk Utility and open it.

Step 3. Select the unmountable Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar and choose First Aid at the top.

Step 4. Click 'Run' to repair this Seagate hard drive.

Fix 3. Reformatting Unmountable Seagate External Hard Drive

Applies to: Fix corrupted file system on Seagate external hard drive that cause it not working on Mac.

If the file system on your Seagate hard disk is corrupted, it won't work nor be detected. In this case, reformatting a corrupted drive is the most instant way to revive it.

Let's see how to reformat and make the Seagate external hard disk work again on Mac:

Step 1. Go to Applications > 'Utilities' > Double click and open 'Disk Utility'.

Step 2. Select your Seagate external hard drive on the sidebar, choose 'Erase'.

Step 3. Rename the drive, choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT) for Format, Master Boot Record for Scheme. Then click 'Erase'.

After trying the above presented methods, you should be able to use your Seagate external hard drive to transfer or save data again on both Windows and Mac computers. However, as some of these solutions may cause file loss issue.

Therefore, if your Seagate disk data lost after making it work normally again. Don't worry. You can continue with the data recovery tutorial in the next part to bring all your lost files back immediately.

Bonus Tip: Recover Data from Seagate Drive after Making It Work Again

Applies to: Recover inaccessible or lost files from Seagate external hard drive or USB after making it work again.

After getting your hard drive to be recognized once more, you should check to see whether any files were lost. Files could have been lost due to the drive becoming unreadable, or from fixing this issue.

• If you have backups of your Seagate external hard drive data, you can directly restore those lost files from your backups.
• If you have no backups, here the best hard drive recovery software will help you.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard enables you to restoring unlimited data from your Seagate external hard drive in three simple steps. If you're a Mac users, download the Mac version and apply it to help.

Let's see how to fully restore all data on your Seagate external hard drive within only a few simple clicks:

By going through three short stages, you can easily find lost data on a Seagate external hard drive.

Step 1. Under the 'External Devices', you should see the Seagate external hard drive showing up after it's correctly connected to your computer. Select the drive and click the Scan button.

Step 2. Soon, the software will find more and more data and display the data in the scan results.

Step 3. You can use the Filter feature to quickly locate some specific file types in the results. Select the target files and click the Recover button.

To recover Seagate external hard drive data on Mac, you may refer to: External Hard Drive Data Recovery on Mac for help.

Save your recovered data to another location other than the external storage device. It is recommended that you reformat this Seagate drive to make sure it's secure for storing new data again.

Sum Up

On this page, we explained why is your Seagate external hard drive suddenly doesn't work or not detected by Windows or Mac computers. We also offered respective solutions to repair not working Seagate external hard drive with reliable data recovery software to retrieve all precious data from your disk.

Note that although most of these suggested solutions work to repair device not showing up, not detected, or even not working issues, but it's not the best way out.

Seagate External Hard Drive Old

In order to avoid further data loss, we suggest you create regular backup of your valuable data to another location frequently. Also, forming up the habit of using antivirus software is also a key point to protect your data and privacy.

Whenever you encounter data loss issue, always remember to let EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard help.

Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac's USB port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the Finder in the left-hand column under Devices, since Mac's treat them the same way as another computer.

However, sometimes, an external hard drive doesn't show up. It's annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then. And besides, there can be a risk that data on the external USB pen, hard, or flash drive is corrupt, which means you can't transfer what you need between devices at all.

Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too. Let's take a look why this is happening and how you can get an external drive to appear on your Mac and get recover data to access to your documents.

How to fix an external disk drive that won't show up on a Mac

Why an external disk drive is not showing up? There could be a few reasons why a USB flash drive isn't making an appearance.

Open an External Drive Not Showing on Mac

Get a huge set of top utilities for troubleshooting external hard drives not mounting on a Mac

Start with the basics:

1. Check whether the drive is properly plugged in. It sounds obvious, but since this relies on a wire - either a USB cable or HDMI cable - if it's not connected properly then it won't appear on your desktop.
2. Faulty cable. Assuming it's plugged in correctly, not wobbly or loose, the cable could be at fault. Try connecting the same device with a different cable.
3. Damaged USB or flash drive port. It could be a hardware issue with the Mac. If you've got another port, try connecting the device to that one.
4. Reboot your Mac. Sometimes, if a USB disk won't boot, the cause is macOS issue. Hopefully, some data damage that can be fixed by restarting. Choose the Apple menu > Restart. Or press and hold the power button and, when a dialog box appears, click the Restart or press R. Restarting your Mac essentially clears your macOS's memory and starts it up fresh.
5. Incorrectly formatted drive. Not every external drive is optimized for Macs. It could be that you are trying to connect something only fit to interact with Windows devices. If you've got a PC or laptop, it's worth connecting and seeing if you can access the files through another device. The best way to look for an incorrectly formatted drive is to go to
   Apple (in the top toolbar menu) > About This Mac > Storage.
   See if the external drive shows up here. For more information, go to the same menu option, then select System Report.
6. Mac not formatted to display external drives on the desktop. It could be that your Mac already recognizes the device, but just isn't showing its icon on the desktop screen. Even if that is the case, the drive will still appear in the left-hand column of the Finder menu under Devices. You should be able to access your drive that way, and, in the Finder menu under Preferences > General, you can check External Drives to ensure that from now on it shows up on your desktop too.
7. Reset NVRAM. To do this, shut down or restart your Mac, switch it back on and immediately press these four keys together for at least 20 seconds: Option, Command, P, and R. It should look as though your Mac has started again; if it has, release the keys when you hear the second startup chime. Hopefully, the hard drive has shown up now.
8. Check Apple's Disk Utility to see if an external drive is showing up. Disk Utility is within System Preferences, or you can find it using Spotlight. If it is visible, then click the option to Mount, which should make it visible on the desktop and in the External Drives option in the Finder menu.

Unfortunately, if none of those options has worked and the external drive still isn't visible, then it could have crashed, or be well and truly broken. But there might still be a way you can recover the data on the external drive.

How to show connected devices in Finder

1. Go to the Finder menu and select Preferences (Cmd+comma).
2. From General tab tick External disks to ensure that from now on it shows on the desktop.

In the Sidebar tab you can choose which folders and devices will be shown in the left-hand column of the Finder window.

How to add cloud storages to Finder

You can also mount cloud storage as local drive on your Mac. By connecting Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon to your computer, you get more space for securely accessing and sharing files. For your ease, add cloud drives to Finder with CloudMounter app, so that you keep them close at hand. You can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here.

Repair the failed external drives with First Aid

If your drive is having problems, you can try to fix them yourself with First Aid and therefore get access to your files. First Aid tool will check the disk for errors and then attempt a repair as needed. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup HD and external drive problems. If you are able to fix the hard drive or SSD in your Mac (or an external drive) using Disk Utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files.

To run Fist Aid on an external hard drive:

1. Open Disk Utility. You can searching for it using Spotlight Search or via Finder > Application > Utility
2. Check on your external hard drive, click the First Aid tab and select Run to start running diagnostics.

If First Aid successful in fixing errors, the external drive should be available to mount. If the utility unable to repair issues, your drive truly is 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 a damaged disk drive.

How to recover data from a crashed drive

Thankfully, there is an app for that. Disk Drill is the world's premier data recovery software for Mac OS X. Powerful enough to retrieve long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, external hard drives and USB drives and camera cards.

Get a file recovery app

With Setapp you get a pack of professional tools for file recovery and Mac maintenance.

An easy way to recover lost files on an external hard drive

Providing you already have Disk Drill Pro version, which you can get automatically by downloading from Setapp:

1. Connect your drive to the Mac.
2. Quit all other applications on the Mac, especially those that may be trying to access the external drive (e.g. iPhoto, Words)
3. Launch Disk Drill.
4. Click on the external drive that you are trying to recover files from. If it has partitions, you will see all of them. If, however, you still don't see any volume to the external drive then you may need to try some of the steps above again or read the Disk Drill Scanning FAQs.
5. To avoid the external drive being accessed during the recovery process, click Extras next to the drive or drive partition or file, then select Remount Volume As Read Only. A padlock will appear, protecting the drive during the process.
6. Now click Rebuild (or Recover) next to the file(s) you are trying to recover. Once the scan is finished - it may take some time if the files are large - a list of files will appeal.
7. Next, click Mount Found Items as Disk button on the bottom-left below the scan results.
8. Disk Drill 'strongly suggest saving the files to a different drive than the one you are trying to recover files from. Saving to the same drive substantially lowers your chances of recovery.'
9. A drive icon will appear, which once you double click will give you the option to open the files as you would do before they were lost. Drag them to another location, such as your desktop or a folder on your Mac.
10. Open the files to ensure they have been recovered properly and safely eject the external drive.

Disk Drill does have other ways to recover lost files but assuming there aren't complications, this method is the most effective. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available from Setapp, along with dozens of Mac apps that will make your life easier. Never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive again.

A few more tips on getting your files back

1. Macs and third-party apps that look after Macs, such as Disk Drill and iStat Menus come with a S.M.A.R.T. (also known as Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) status monitor. If a SMART check reports errors, then it could mean the hard drive is at risk of failing completely. Within Disk Utility and Disk Drill, there are several solutions for this: Repair Disk Permissions and Repair Disk. If neither work, it's recommended that you backup all of the data from the disk, erase, then run a SMART check again. The external hard drive should show up as Verified.
2. Partitions can get lost within hard drives, temporarily hiding all of the information contained within. Disk Drill can help to identify and restore this information.
3. Within Disk Drill, you can restore data when a hard drive is damaged or add formatting, which is also something Disk Utility can help with.
4. CleanMyMac, another useful app available from Setapp, can help you identify external hard drive errors and repair them. It is an essential tool worth trying when you're having external hard drive difficulties.

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Alternative ways to recover data from an external hard drive

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. If you've got a battery that you can't remove:

• Shut down and unplug the power adapter
• Press Shift-Control-Option and the power button at the same time. Do this for 10 seconds
• Release all keys
• Plug the power adapter back in and switch your Mac back on

For Macs with removable batteries, you need to switch them off, remove the battery, then press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. Bosch e bike tuning software. After that, put the battery back in, plug in the power adapter and switch the power on again.

What's your file format? One reason your Mac isn't recognizing the hard drive is the file format. Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on Mac and Windows computers, providing you format using exFAT. However, if you're having problems accessing the files and the issue is due to formatting, you will need to connect it to a device it can be read on, and then format the files correctly for the computer you are going to use it on next.

How to make Ext2/Ext3 drives readable on Mac

The common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted drives are not readable on macOS. There are two ways to access such external drives on your Mac – via Linux OS or FUSE system. The easiest would be installing Linux to a secondary drive or virtual machine.

If you go with Linux installation, dual boot your Mac with Linux on another drive and use FAT32 as a transfer intermediary. If you don't have a drive to install Linux to, use virtual machine as an interface for it. Transferring can be done the same way – with FAT32, or via network.

Another option for reading Ext2/Ext3 disks is mounting disk with Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE). Basically, it works as an extra interface enabling file system access via specially installed modules. Here's how to mount drives with FUSE:

1. Install FUSE for macOS or MacFUSE as well as fuse-ext2 module.
2. Use the following Terminal command to enable Disk Utility's debug menu and see all partitions: defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1
3. Attach your Ext2/Ext3 drive and locate the device name via Disk Utility.
4. In your user account, create a folder to be used as a mount point.
5. Use the following Terminal command to mount the drive as read-only: fuse-ext2 /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint
6. For write support, use the command: fuse-ext2 -o force /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint

And that's not the only case where Terminal helps you access external drive.

Employ the handy all-powerful Terminal, which always comes forward with solutions for difficult problems. Especially if System Information does recognize the USB or hard drive, but continues to hide it from you, disconnect the drive and try to find it using the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities.

• Once in the Terminal, type in the command diskutil list
• A list with information about volumes and drives should appear
• Look for a section labelled /dev/disk_ (external, physical)
• Make a note of the whole line after the word disk
• Now put the following command into the Terminal diskutil info disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
• Now you should see detailed information about the drive, therefore confirming that your Mac can and does recognize it
• Eject using the Terminal by entering the command diskutil eject disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
• Physically remove the disk from you Mac
• Plug it back in and your Mac should recognize it

Console is also reliable when it comes to solving tricky problems, although it isn't always that easy to use. You can find Console under Applications > Utilities > Console. Console shows if an external drive or any error is detected under the Errors and Faults tab. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device.

To sum up, there are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading an external hard drive. If we were to pick one, Disk Drill seems to be the most well-rounded, offering plenty of customizations and power in an easy-to-use interface. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available via Setapp, along with 150+ Mac apps that strive to make your life much much easier. At the very least, you'll never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive ever again.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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