Wd External Hard Drive Not Mounting Mac

  

I have a 1TB Seagate (FAT32) and 4TB Seagate (Mac OS Extended), and the 1TB works perfectly fine under USB while my 4TB just shows up in disk utility. I have 2 external drives that do not mount. And my apple usb wired keyboard doesnt work either. My WD external hard drive will not mount and does not show up anywhere. Western Digital's 'MyBook' drives are very convenient and popular storage options, but if the drive stops working then you might have success by giving it a quick love tap. Topher Kessler March 14. Go to Applications Utilities Disk Utility. Select the unmountable WD external hard drive and click 'Erase' on the top. Provide a name and a format to erase the drive. When finished, you can mount your WD external hard drive on Mac and use it again. Also read: Other ways to erase external hard drive on Mac. The recent Western Digital 'easy store' and 'My Book' hard drives have a Mac Sierra 10.12.6 issue: They are invisible to the Desktop. WD Utilities says my two drives check out ok; Mac Utilities recognizes both hard drives. Going to the Mac Genius Bar on Monday. BestBuy sold me the original WD easystore 8T and WD sent me a My Book 8T.

External hard drives are not only renowned for their data storing capability but also for their portability function. Whenever you connect your external hard drive to the USB port of your Mac computer, it shows up not only on the desktop but also in the Finder menu on the left-hand side under Locations or Devices.

Virtual set tutorial free download. Due to various reasons which are mentioned below, you might find your external hard drive not showing up on Mac. If you have saved all your crucial backup on the external drive, MacBook not recognizing external hard drive can lead to a data loss scenario.

In this article find out:

Why is my external hard drive not showing up Mac?

  • External hard drive corruption.
  • Physical damage to the external hard drive.
  • Faulty USB connector.
  • Problem with Mac USB ports.
  • Hidden external drive.
  • Improper formatting on the external hard drive.
  • Recent macOS Big Sur or Catalina update issue.

Before you move on to find proven ways to troubleshoot external drive not showing up on Mac, let us first know how to recover data from it.

How to Recover Data from External hard drive not showing up on Mac?

Download Remo Recover Mac, a user-friendly tool to recover data from internal and external storage devices like external HDD, SSD, USB, SD card, etc. The tool supports recovery of more than 300 file types such as photos, videos, PDF files, audio files, raw images, Office files. Using this tool, you can easily restore data from MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, WD MY Passport, Seagate external hard drive, and many more.

Mac

Steps to Recover data from External hard drive not showing up on Mac:

Download and install Remo Recover (Mac/ Windows)> Launch the tool and click on Recover Volumes/ Drives option > Choose Volume Recovery and select the external hard drive that is not showing up on Mac to restore data from it > Click on Advance Scan button to start data recovery process > After scanning completes, select the files which you want to recover from your external hard drive not showing up Mac > Finally, click Save button to restore the selected files to any location of your choice.

How to Fix External hard drive not showing up on Mac?

1. Connect the External Hard drive Properly

The first and foremost thing to do if your external hard drive not showing up on Mac is to check if the external hard disk is properly connected or not. Once, it is confirmed that the external hard drive is properly connected to your Mac device, then your Mac should easily recognize the external hard drive and the data saved on it.

If your Mac not recognizing external hard drive due to any hardware issues, you can plugin the unrecognized external hard drive into a different USB port of your Mac. It might look like child's play but inserting an external hard disk to another or healthy USB port can help you understand whether the issue is pertaining to the hard drive failure or USB cable.

2. Fix issues with the USB cable

Your external hard drive not showing up on Mac can be due to the USB cable or HDMI cable connecting the external hard drive to your MacBook Pro or Air.

  • Accessing data from an external hard drive on Mac is dependent on the USB cable. If the USB cable is not properly connected to your device then, Mac won’t recognize the external hard drive.
  • If your USB cable is damaged, then fixing it becomes a priority to access your external hard disk on Mac. Hence, make use of a different USB cable to connect the external hard drive to a Mac computer.

Quick Note: If your MacBook is having USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 ports, then use USB-C to USB adapter to connect the external hard drive to your Mac.

3. Reset Mac computer

Resetting a Mac machine can reboot a few system settings to its default and ensure any issue with respect to it is resolved. This can also help you fix the external hard drive not booting issue due to Mac operating system. To Restart your Mac;

Go to the Apple menu and click Restart. (or) Press and hold the power key until a dialog box displays and hit the Restart or press R key.

4. Change Preference Settings

Wd External Hard Drive Not Mounting Mac Os

One of the reasons why the external hard drive does not show up on Mac is due to Preference settings. If you have not allowed your Mac to access the external hard disk in the preference setting, then Mac won’t show up external hard disk on the desktop. To allow your Mac to show up the external hard drive, edit the preference setting using the below steps;

  • Open a Finder window.
  • Go to Preference and select General.
  • Under “Show these items on the desktop”, check the External disks option.

In most cases, this method will resolve your issue of external hard drive not showing up on Mac desktop or Finder menu.

If your Mac not recognizing external hard drive despite performing the above steps or if this preference setting is already set up, then move down to the below section. Download grimm season 3.

5. Use different Mac or Windows PC

If you still find your Mac not recognizing hard drive then, try connecting the external hard disk to a different Mac system, sometimes there might be a problem with your Mac computer itself.

Connect your external hard drive to a different Mac to find out whether it is mounting on it or not. If the external HDD is mounting on the new or different Mac, then the problem is with your old Mac. In case, if the external hard drive not showing up on both Mac devices, then connect it to a Windows computer.

Quick Note: If your external hard drive is accessible on Windows 10 but not on Mac, then the external hard disk is formatted for Windows computers and not for Mac systems. Check out this article on how to make an external hard disk compatible with Mac.

6. Use Disk Utility

Once you find out that the Mac device is not responsible for the external hard drive not showing up issue. Follow the below steps to run the first aid utility to fix external hard drive corruption.

  • Navigate to Go > Utilities > Applications > Disk Utility
  • If your external hard drive appears in the Disk Utility, right-click on the drive and select Mount. This will make your external hard drive option available on the desktop and in the Finder menu. Thus, you can access all your files present on the external hard drive.

    (Note: If the Mac has already mounted your external hard drive (volume) then, the option Unmount will be displayed.)
  • If the drive is not accessible then, the Mount option will be greyed out.

    (Note: To repair your inaccessible or not showing external hard drive Run First Aid.)
  • Now, choose the First Aid option and click Run.

  • After running the First Aid, if the Disk Utility detects any issues or errors on the external hard drive then, click Repair Disk.

Using this method, you can easily repair minor corruption and access an unrecognized external hard drive on Mac. In case, if the first aid utility fails to repair the external hard drive or SSD, this indicates the following 2 reasons;

A) Your external drive is severely corrupt or broken: If First Aid Disk Utility fails to repair the drive, it could be due to the RAW or broken drive. The file system registry that holds the information of the data present on the drive gets broken or damaged then, Mac does not recognize the external hard drive.

B) The external hard drive file system is not compatible with Mac: External hard drive or USB is formatted using a file system that your Mac cannot read. For example, if an external hard drive is formatted using the NTFS file system then, no Mac computer can read or write the external hard drive. In the same way, if the external hard drive or USB is formatted with the HFS+ file system then, no Windows operating system can support it.

ExFAT and FAT32 are the two most common file systems that can be easily supported by both Windows and Mac operating systems.

Now, the last thing to do to fix the external hard drive not showing up on Mac is to format it using the compatible Mac file systems like exFAT, FAT32, HFS+, or APFS.

7. Format unrecognized External hard drive

Formatting the external HDD on Mac leads to a data loss scenario. Before you format your external hard drive to exFAT, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), FAT, or APFS file system, it is suggested to recover data from it using Remo Recover Mac.

Remo Recover (Mac/ Windows) is designed with advanced scanning algorithms to effortlessly recover files from corrupt, unrecognized, formatted, or inaccessible external hard drive on Mac. This tool is compatible with all the versions of Windows and Mac operating systems including the latest Windows 10 or Mac Big Sur.

To format external hard drive not showing up on Mac:

  1. Navigate to Disk Utility
  2. Select the external hard drive not showing up on Mac and click the Erase option
  3. Now, give a new name to your external hard drive (optional)
  4. Click the Format button to choose the format type you want to perform on it. (Select exFAT if you want to make sure it's compatible with PC and Mac, otherwise, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is probably the best option)
  5. Click on the Erase optionand wait until the Disk utility function removes all the files present on the external hard disk and then reformat it with the selected file system.

Conclusion

In most cases, editing the Preference setting to show the external hard drive on the desktop fixes the issue. However, if the external hard drive is corrupt then, you should repair it using First Aid utility or format it with compatible Mac file systems like exFAT or APFS.

An external hard drive is often purchased to extend the space of your Mac or Windows PC, for the first time of using a newly purchased external hard drive, like Seagate, you will be required to initialize the disk. But why there is still error about external hard drive uninitialized on mac and how to fix this?

RecognizeDrive

To solve this, here are 8 fixes regarding External Hard Drive Uninitialized on mac. Also, you will learn about how to recover data from uninitialized external hard drive on mac, no matter which brand of external hard drive you are using.

Recover Uninitialized External Disk Data

  • Compatible on macOS 11 Big Sur
  • Recover files from uninitialized, formatted and deleted external hard drive
  • Recover 200+ types of file from external and internal hard drive
  • 5 recovery modes to restore data lost due to different reasons
  • Preview files before recovery
  • High recovery rate
Free Download

What Does Uninitialized External Hard Drive Mean?

If there appears a message indicating uninitialized external hard drive, it has 2 meanings:

For 1st time user of a brand new external hard drive, you will be required to initialize the disk for use, if your mac shows it as initialized external hard drive when connecting, it means your new external hard drive is not activated and not ready for use, your mac needs to use its own language to assign a starting value to the variable of this external hard drive.

For users who have initialized the external hard drive before, uninitialized external hard drive means your mac cannot read your disk anymore and deems this risk is not accessible, while this happens in most of the cases when talking about uninitialized external hard drive. This can be caused by different reasons, keep reading to find out how this come out.

Reasons for Uninitialized External Hard Drive

Reasons to cause uninitialized external hard drive vary but basically fall into following types:

  • Connection issue
  • Physical damages
  • Virus Attack
  • Partition Loss
  • Bad sectors
  • File system corruption

To fix uninitialized external hard drive caused under different situations, here we list 9 solutions as in following part, you can choose the one according to you need.

8 Fixes for Uninitialized External Hard Drive on Mac

#1 Restart Mac

When errors happen, no matter on your mac, Windows PC, iPhone or Android phone, you will be recommended to restart your device as the first aid, since restarting is the most magical method to put everything back to normal again.

You just need to unplug your external hard drive from your mac, then click the Apple icon>Restart, or press Command+Control+Power to restart your mac, then connect the hard drive to your mac again and check if this works.

#2 Reconnect External Hard Drive

Your Seagate or WD uninitialized external hard drive may be caused by connection issues, you can reconnect your external hard drive to mac by changing a USB port or use another USB cable, to make sure it is connected properly.

#3 Scan Virus

As we mentioned in the 2nd part, virus attack may lead to uninitialized disk, no matter there is virus attacking your mac or not, you can scan virus with an anti-virus program on your mac to make sure there is no harm from outside, trying to weaken your mac.

As for anti-virus program, you can try following:

  • Kaspersky
  • Norton
  • ESET
  • Bitdefender
  • Avast

#4 Fix with Disk Utility

Disk Utility is the free macOS program designed to manage and repair both internal & external hard drive, also, you can utilize Disk Utility to format and combine disks. For uninitialized external hard drive on mac, you can use Disk Utility as the first aid to kill this problem.

Steps to Fix Uninitialized External Hard Drive with Disk Utility

  1. Go to Applications>Disk Utility, run the program;
  2. Choose your external hard drive name;
  3. Click on First Aid>Run, repair the external hard drive on your mac;
  4. Then check if the hard drive can be accessed to;

#5 Reinstall, Upgrade or Downgrade macOS

If the uninitialized external hard drive happens just after you upgrade or downgrade macOS, that may be the problem, the working environment has changed. In this case, you may need to reinstall macOS, upgrade or downgrade to original macOS version, get back the files from your external hard drive first, then install your preferred macOS.

Fix Uninitialized External Hard Drive with OS Reinstallation

  • Press Power button;
  • Once you hear the sound, press and hold Command+R;
  • In the macOS utilities interface, choose Reinstall macOS;
  • Choose hard drive, click Install and wait for the installation to finish.

Fix Uninitialized External Hard Drive with OS Upgrade

If your external hard drive is displayed as Uninitialized after macOS downgrade, you will need to upgrade to your original macOS.

  1. Go to Mac Appstore;
  2. Click “Update”;
  3. Download and install the latest macOS;
  4. Restart your mac and plug your external hard drive for check.

Fix Uninitialized External Hard Drive with OS Upgrade

(with TimeMachine Backup)

  1. Click Apple icon>Restart;
  2. Once you hear the startup sound, press and hold Command+R until the Apple logo appears;
  3. Choose Restore from a Time Machine Backup, click Continue;
  4. Choose your Time Machine backup disk;
  5. Choose the Time Machine backup to restore and follow the onscreen instructions;

#6 Format

If above listed methods all fail to fix your uninitialized external hard drive on mac, maybe it is time to format it. To format the disk means erasing the data from your disk, a data recovery program will be needed to restore these formatted files, yes, this is risky, but it is an efficient way to fix your uninitialized disk.

Wd external hard drive not mounting mac os

Also, for your information, formatting doesn’t mean deleting files permanently, it refers to no portal is provided to find and access to these files anymore, they become invisible but is available for add new data. Once there is new data added, the previously formatted files won't be recovered anymore.

Steps to Fix Uninitialized External Hard Drive with Formatting

  1. Go to Disk Utility, run the program;
  2. Choose your external hard drive;
  3. Click Erase, choose name and format for your disk;
  4. Then click Erase;
  5. Find a data recovery program to recover files from formatted hard drive. (You can jump to the 3rd part for steps)

#7 Contact Support

Or the issue of uninitialized external hard drive is caused by physical damages of the disk, like loose or malfunctioned small elements in the hard disk, then you can contact the support staff from the supplier of your hard drive, especially your hard drive is still within the expiry date. If you are using Seagate or Western Digital or other famous brands of hard drive, it is quite easy to get contact with their support.

Just visit their official website, grab the contact information and have a call, or find out your receipt and contact as instructed on the file.

#8 Replace

If your hard drive is still in its life circle, fix 1 to fix 7 should have worked, but if failed, you just need a new one to replace this uninitialized hard drive. Before disposal, find a professional data recovery software to save the files into your mac or other storage devices, then buy yourself a new and better external hard drive.

Recover Data from Uninitialized External Hard Drive

What if you just lost the files in an uninitialized external hard drive? Take it easy, you can get them back. A data recovery software is designed to handle this.

The list of data recovery tools is long, but Cisdem’s won't ever let you down. Cisdem Data Recovery is a mac program enabling users to recover more than 200 types of file from both external and internal storage devices on mac, it provides 5 recovery mode to deal with data loss caused by different reason, like formatting, trash removing, external hard drive file loss, etc.

Why Cisdem Data Recovery for Mac?

  • Recover files from uninitialized, formatted and deleted external hard drive
  • Get files back from external and internal hard drive;
  • Support recovering 200+ types of files: video, audio, image, document, etc.;
  • 5 recovery modes to restore data lost due to different reasons;
  • Preview files before recovery;
  • High recovery rate;
  • Easy and fast;
Free Download

Steps to Recover Data from Uninitialized External Hard Drive on Mac

  1. Go to Disk Utility, run the program;
  2. Choose your external hard drive;
  3. Click Erase, choose name and format for your disk;
  4. Then click Erase;
  5. Download and install Cisdem Data Recovery to your mac;
    Free Download
  6. Run the program and choose External Drive Recovery mode;
  7. Choose your external hard drive and click Scan to start scanning your hard drive;
  8. Preview and recover files from your uninitialized external hard drive on mac;

Extended: How Do I Initialize External Hard Drive on Mac

Then how to initialize an external hard drive for use? Actually, it is quite easy, because macOS can detect that if a hard drive is initialized or not, then lead you to the initialization.

Wd External Hard Drive Not Mounting Mac Pro

1. Click on your external hard drive on mac;

2. Then continue with “Initialize” as following, done;

Wd External Hard Drive Reviews

Conclusion

Wd External Hard Drive Drivers

It is not that difficult to fix an uninitialized external hard drive as long as you figure out what caused this, then refer to above listed 8 fixes to get the problem solved. What’s the key is, how to recover the files from your uninitialized external disk even when you are locked out of the disk for now or forever, in this case, Data Recovery Software, like Cisdem will be the life savior.