Does this mean your drive is not recognized by Mac? Probably not. But this time, the external hard drive is not showing up on Mac. Then you can see it on the desktop or in Finder in seconds. Usually, the external drives will be automatically mounted by Mac. Mac doesn't recognize external hard drive: Check Finder settings If the "external hard drive not detected" issue persists on Mac, your Mac likely has been set not to display the external hard drives.
But to make it convenient for users to access all the data stored on the drive, it will check the system preferences and decide if users want to automatically mount and show the external hard disk on the desktop and in the finder.Īmazing, right? You probably never know the details. Meanwhile, other programs get notified that there is a new volume available. Going so far, macOS has recognized the external hard drive. Step 5: Mac shows the external hard drive for users. A recognized file system will let macOS know how and where your data is stored on the external hard drive so that it can mount this external hard drive for use. Once Mac successfully reads the partition information of the drive, it will go further by calling related programs to recognize the file system of each partition on the drive. Step 4: macOS recognizes the files in the external hard drive. If the drive is readable by the Mac, a visible disk icon would be formed consequently. Step 3: macOS reads the external hard drive.Īfter recognizing the hardware information of the drive, the Mac will call other system components to read the external hard drive's type and partition information.
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It's going to tell the device's type and manufacturer information, which will help macOS know how to load and read this drive. Step 2: macOS detects the external hard drive.Īfter the connection, the Mac would detect that a new storage device is plugged in. Visually, you can see the external hard drive lighting on and hear it spinning. Plugging the external drive into a computer will establish the hardware connection, which would supply the drive with sufficient power and data transferring capability. Step 1: The external hard drive is connected to your Mac. To understand the reasons for Intel & M1 Mac not recognizing external hard drive, we need to take a closer look at how macOS recognizes an external hard drive. If you find your Seagate, WD my passport, Toshiba, or any external hard drive not detected by Mac, your Mac may have failed to recognize the drive. Read more > Why is my Mac not reading my external hard drive? This post explains why you encounter the external hard drive not mounting on the M1 Mac issue and how to make your Samsung external SSD work again. How to Fix Samsung External SSD Not Working on Apple Silicon M1 Mac? Mac not recognizing external hard drive FAQs Mac not reading external hard drive: Check its file system
Mac won't recognize external hard drive: Check its partitions Mac not detecting external hard drive: Check it in System Information Are macOS 12 bugs rendering Mac not detecting external hard drive? Mac not recognizing external hard drive: Check the connections Why is my Mac not reading my external hard drive? Guide to Mac does not recognize external hard drive: You will find it helpful for the seem-to-be-dead USB on Macs running macOS Monterey. How to make Mac computers detect the external hard drive again? We offer a detailed guide in this post to fix the "Intel Mac and M1 Mac not recognizing external hard drive" issue. Recently this issue affects some Mac models after updating to macOS 12 Monterey as well. Whether you are using MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or iMac, strangely, sometimes the Mac won't recognize the external hard drive that you plug into.