- Leaders in Diagnostic Maintenance and Drive Repair for Mac. I did a Volume Optimization and next day when I booted up the LaCie (1TB Grand Hard Disk) it did not mount to my desktop (iMAC 3.1 GHz Core i5 16GB RAM). Hookthe LaCie to another Mac, and do a Repair Disk with Disk Utility, and or run TechTool / DiskWarrior / Drive Genius or whatever you have on it. It's more likely a corrupted drive problem than a. It may be coincidence but I have only had this problem since updated the OS, until then the disk was mounting and running without any problems. I can see the drive in Disk Utilities and also in ‘About this Mac System Preferences Hardware USB', but it will not mount.
Since updating to macOS Catalina, my Seagate 3TB external hard drive is not mounted on Mac. In Disk Utility I cannot do anything but format it which I don't want to do, because there are many important files. Any suggestion to repair unmounted external hard drive or recover data?
When you connect an external hard drive to your Mac, it will show up on Mac Desktop, Finder and Disk Utility. But sometimes the external drive won't show up on any of these places. So, data inside the unmountable external hard drive turns inaccessible.
Don't worry, read and apply the below soluitons to resolve external hard drive not mounting issue.
Unable to mount external hard drive, how to fix it?
There are five solutions to fix external hard drive not mounted issue on your Mac:
1. Change macOS Settings Mac os x yosemite free. download full version.
Ensure Finder preference to show external disks on Desktop or Finder is enabled.
Step 1: Open Finder from Dock. Click Finder and select Preferences.
Step 2: On the 'Finder Preferences' window, click the General tab.
Step 3: Under 'Show these items on the Desktop' section, check 'External disks' option. The external hard drive will show up on your Mac desktop.
Step 4: Click the Sidebar tab. Under 'Locations' section, check 'External disks' option. The external hard drive will show up in Finder sidebar.
Step 5: Open Applications, Utilities and Disk Utility. Click the View menu located at the top left corner of Disk Utility and select 'Show All Devices'. Your Disk Utility's sidebar will show the external hard drive.
2. Fix external hard drive connectivity issue
The first thing you can do is to ensure that your external hard drive is connected to your Mac properly. Here are some things you can try:
Reconnect the USB connector or adapter to fit the hard drive snugly
Connect the hard drive to a different USB port or a different Mac
Replace the USB cable or adapter in case that it was damaged or broken
Connect it to a Windows PC and see if the external hard drive is powered on and working
3. Repair unmounted external hard drive with Disk Utility
First Aid is a utility built-in Mac operating system. It can check and repair file system errors on Macintosh HD, external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, etc,.
Steps to fix external hard drive not mounting issue with First Aid:
Step 1: Open Applications folder, select Utitities and Disk Utility.
Step 2: In the left panel of Disk Utility, select the problematic external hard drive.
Step 3: Click 'First Aid' button in the toolbar of Disk Utility.
Step 4: Click 'Run' button, First Aid will check the volume for errors and then fix the problem if possible.
Wait until the procedure is complete. If you get returned a message saying success, restart your Mac and see if the external hard drive is mounted.
If another message says that disk utility cannot repair the disk, go to solution 4 to recover lost data.
4. Recover data from unmountable external hard drive
M3 Data Recovery for Mac is a professional Mac data recovery software. It can recover lost data from corrupted, unreadble, unmountable external hard drive.
M3 Data Recovery for Mac is fully compatible with macOS Catalina 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8 and supports APFS, encrypted APFS, HFS, HFS+, exFAT and FAT32 file systems.
Steps to recover data from unmountable external hard drive:
Step 1: Download, install and then launch M3 Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac computer.
Step 2: Select the volume or external hard drive.
Step 3: M3 Data Recovery for Mac is scanning lost data from unmounted external hard drive.
Step 4: After the scan completes, you can check and preview the found files.
M3 Data Recovery for Mac can preview documents, photos and play videos, audios so that you can see if your lost files are recoverable.
Step 5: Select the needed files and click Recover to start recovery.
After data recovery is successfully done, you can reformat this external hard drive and make it working again.
5. Erase the external hard drive
If this external hard drive doesn't have important data, format is the best choice to make it usage.
Step 1: Open Applicatins folder, select Utilities and select Disk Utility.
Step 2: Select this external hard drive from Disk Utility sidebar.
Step 3: Click 'Erase' button in the toolbar of Disk Utility.
Step 4: Select file system and then click 'Erase' button, the unmountable disk will be working again after erasing.
Related articles:
Summary: External hard drive not mounting on Mac means that you can't access data stored on it. This page helps you mount external hard drives, as well as SD cards and USB flash drives, etc. on Mac. If the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, you can download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drives.
Usually, an external hard drive will appear (aka mounted) automatically on your Mac once you plug it in, and you can access data on this drive. So, it's annoying when you find that your external hard drive is not mounting for the com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error or not recognized by your Mac, just like the user below.
'I have a 500 GB LaCie external hard drive, formatted as macOS Extend journaled on MacBook Pro 2014 and I have been using it to do Time Machine backups. Now after updating, macOS is not mounting this external hard drive. The main drive is greyed out in Disk Utility and the partition is not showing up. I can't do First Aid as my LaCie external drive does not mount on the MacBook Pro. Any ideas? Thanks!'
Wondering 'why my external hard drives won't mount on Mac'? This post explains the reasons and teachs how to fix this disk problem without losing data.
Dos and Don'ts When External Hard Drive Not Mounting on Mac
Before you go further, it's better to know what you can do and can't do.
1. Do not go straight to reformat this not mounted external hard drive, especially when you have important files on it. Reformatting will wipe the data on this disk and cause serious data loss.
2. Do not run First Aid to directly repair the disk, any further operation is very likely to overwrite your original files and make them unrecoverable.
3. Check if you have a copy of a data backup. If not, recover important files from this unmountable external hard drive first to avoid data loss.
Now, let's make the external disk accessible on Mac.
Fix external hard drives not mounting issue on Mac
To access your external hard drive on Mac, try solutions suggested in this part one by one. Hopefully, you'll be able to open this external hard drive on Mac again.
First, try some simple tricks to mount external hard drive on Mac
In case you miss anything necessary, you can first have some basic checks as following:
1. Re-plug your external hard drive to another port or try another USB cable.
A faulty connection, though it is foolproof, might be the key fix if LaCie thunderbolt drive is not mounting, in that users always forget to check if the port is wobbly or if the cable is broken.
2. Try a super slow jam.
Strange but true, some users found that their external will mount properly when they plug it in exceptional slow motion. However, if they try and plug in the external hard drive normally, the Mac doesn't recognize the disk.
3. Check your Finder Preferences.
When your external hard drive does not appear on the desktop, you can open Finder, choose 'Preference' (or press Command +, ) and check 'External disks' both in General tab and in Sidebar tab to show your external hard drive on your Mac computer.
If Mac could not mount the external hard drive on desktop still, let's troubleshoot this issue with the following solutions.
Solution 1: Force mount this external hard drive in Disk Utility
If you can't find the external hard drive on the desktop or in the Finder, you can try to make the disk online manually in Disk Utility (a native disk management tool in your Mac).
Here is how to mount an external hard drive on Mac:
- 1. Click Go at the upper left of your desktop and go to Utilities, then launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
- 2. Click on 'Show All Devices' in View option to list or connected drives.
- 3. Choose the grayed external hard drive in the left sidebar.
- 4. Select Mount in the top center of Disk Utility.
However, if you find that your external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility (not a single volume but the whole disk disappears), it is very likely that your disk is suffering some physical damage. In this case, you need to send it to a local data recovery service. But if the Mount option is grayed out and you can see this external hard drive in Disk Utility, you can try another solution then.
Solution 2: Repair this unmountable external hard drive with First Aid
The second suggestion is First Aid in Disk Utility if you are unable to mount the external hard drive on Mac. First Aid is a very simple tool that is built in your Mac, and it is able to detect and repair directory damage and other disk errors. You are advised to run the tool more than once to ensure you are receiving a consistent result.
Follow the instructions and repair the external hard drive that is not accepted by your macOS or Mac OS X.
- 1. Go to Utilities and launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
- 2. Select the unmountable external hard drive on the left sidebar.
- 3. Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.
Lacie Drive Not Mounting Mac Os
Solution 3: Reformat the unmounted external hard drive
If your external hard drive still can't be mounted in Disk Utility after you perform First Aid, or if First Aid failed to repair it like the situation below, your drive should have some serious errors like file system corruption.
• Disk Utility can't repair this disk, what do to?
• How to format external hard drives on Mac?
In this case, you need to back up your important data on the external hard drive, such as family photos, valuable work documents, or any other files. If you don't have a copy of a data backup in hand, the following guide can help you recover lost data from this unmountable external hard drive. And then, you can reformat your exteranl hard drive to make it work again on Mac.
How to recover data from an external hard drive that won't mount?
- Leaders in Diagnostic Maintenance and Drive Repair for Mac. I did a Volume Optimization and next day when I booted up the LaCie (1TB Grand Hard Disk) it did not mount to my desktop (iMAC 3.1 GHz Core i5 16GB RAM). Hookthe LaCie to another Mac, and do a Repair Disk with Disk Utility, and or run TechTool / DiskWarrior / Drive Genius or whatever you have on it. It's more likely a corrupted drive problem than a. It may be coincidence but I have only had this problem since updated the OS, until then the disk was mounting and running without any problems. I can see the drive in Disk Utilities and also in ‘About this Mac System Preferences Hardware USB', but it will not mount.
Since updating to macOS Catalina, my Seagate 3TB external hard drive is not mounted on Mac. In Disk Utility I cannot do anything but format it which I don't want to do, because there are many important files. Any suggestion to repair unmounted external hard drive or recover data?
When you connect an external hard drive to your Mac, it will show up on Mac Desktop, Finder and Disk Utility. But sometimes the external drive won't show up on any of these places. So, data inside the unmountable external hard drive turns inaccessible.
Don't worry, read and apply the below soluitons to resolve external hard drive not mounting issue.
Unable to mount external hard drive, how to fix it?
There are five solutions to fix external hard drive not mounted issue on your Mac:
1. Change macOS Settings Mac os x yosemite free. download full version.
Ensure Finder preference to show external disks on Desktop or Finder is enabled.
Step 1: Open Finder from Dock. Click Finder and select Preferences.
Step 2: On the 'Finder Preferences' window, click the General tab.
Step 3: Under 'Show these items on the Desktop' section, check 'External disks' option. The external hard drive will show up on your Mac desktop.
Step 4: Click the Sidebar tab. Under 'Locations' section, check 'External disks' option. The external hard drive will show up in Finder sidebar.
Step 5: Open Applications, Utilities and Disk Utility. Click the View menu located at the top left corner of Disk Utility and select 'Show All Devices'. Your Disk Utility's sidebar will show the external hard drive.
2. Fix external hard drive connectivity issue
The first thing you can do is to ensure that your external hard drive is connected to your Mac properly. Here are some things you can try:
Reconnect the USB connector or adapter to fit the hard drive snugly
Connect the hard drive to a different USB port or a different Mac
Replace the USB cable or adapter in case that it was damaged or broken
Connect it to a Windows PC and see if the external hard drive is powered on and working
3. Repair unmounted external hard drive with Disk Utility
First Aid is a utility built-in Mac operating system. It can check and repair file system errors on Macintosh HD, external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, etc,.
Steps to fix external hard drive not mounting issue with First Aid:
Step 1: Open Applications folder, select Utitities and Disk Utility.
Step 2: In the left panel of Disk Utility, select the problematic external hard drive.
Step 3: Click 'First Aid' button in the toolbar of Disk Utility.
Step 4: Click 'Run' button, First Aid will check the volume for errors and then fix the problem if possible.
Wait until the procedure is complete. If you get returned a message saying success, restart your Mac and see if the external hard drive is mounted.
If another message says that disk utility cannot repair the disk, go to solution 4 to recover lost data.
4. Recover data from unmountable external hard drive
M3 Data Recovery for Mac is a professional Mac data recovery software. It can recover lost data from corrupted, unreadble, unmountable external hard drive.
M3 Data Recovery for Mac is fully compatible with macOS Catalina 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8 and supports APFS, encrypted APFS, HFS, HFS+, exFAT and FAT32 file systems.
Steps to recover data from unmountable external hard drive:
Step 1: Download, install and then launch M3 Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac computer.
Step 2: Select the volume or external hard drive.
Step 3: M3 Data Recovery for Mac is scanning lost data from unmounted external hard drive.
Step 4: After the scan completes, you can check and preview the found files.
M3 Data Recovery for Mac can preview documents, photos and play videos, audios so that you can see if your lost files are recoverable.
Step 5: Select the needed files and click Recover to start recovery.
After data recovery is successfully done, you can reformat this external hard drive and make it working again.
5. Erase the external hard drive
If this external hard drive doesn't have important data, format is the best choice to make it usage.
Step 1: Open Applicatins folder, select Utilities and select Disk Utility.
Step 2: Select this external hard drive from Disk Utility sidebar.
Step 3: Click 'Erase' button in the toolbar of Disk Utility.
Step 4: Select file system and then click 'Erase' button, the unmountable disk will be working again after erasing.
Related articles:
Summary: External hard drive not mounting on Mac means that you can't access data stored on it. This page helps you mount external hard drives, as well as SD cards and USB flash drives, etc. on Mac. If the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, you can download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drives.
Usually, an external hard drive will appear (aka mounted) automatically on your Mac once you plug it in, and you can access data on this drive. So, it's annoying when you find that your external hard drive is not mounting for the com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error or not recognized by your Mac, just like the user below.
'I have a 500 GB LaCie external hard drive, formatted as macOS Extend journaled on MacBook Pro 2014 and I have been using it to do Time Machine backups. Now after updating, macOS is not mounting this external hard drive. The main drive is greyed out in Disk Utility and the partition is not showing up. I can't do First Aid as my LaCie external drive does not mount on the MacBook Pro. Any ideas? Thanks!'
Wondering 'why my external hard drives won't mount on Mac'? This post explains the reasons and teachs how to fix this disk problem without losing data.
Dos and Don'ts When External Hard Drive Not Mounting on Mac
Before you go further, it's better to know what you can do and can't do.
1. Do not go straight to reformat this not mounted external hard drive, especially when you have important files on it. Reformatting will wipe the data on this disk and cause serious data loss.
2. Do not run First Aid to directly repair the disk, any further operation is very likely to overwrite your original files and make them unrecoverable.
3. Check if you have a copy of a data backup. If not, recover important files from this unmountable external hard drive first to avoid data loss.
Now, let's make the external disk accessible on Mac.
Fix external hard drives not mounting issue on Mac
To access your external hard drive on Mac, try solutions suggested in this part one by one. Hopefully, you'll be able to open this external hard drive on Mac again.
First, try some simple tricks to mount external hard drive on Mac
In case you miss anything necessary, you can first have some basic checks as following:
1. Re-plug your external hard drive to another port or try another USB cable.
A faulty connection, though it is foolproof, might be the key fix if LaCie thunderbolt drive is not mounting, in that users always forget to check if the port is wobbly or if the cable is broken.
2. Try a super slow jam.
Strange but true, some users found that their external will mount properly when they plug it in exceptional slow motion. However, if they try and plug in the external hard drive normally, the Mac doesn't recognize the disk.
3. Check your Finder Preferences.
When your external hard drive does not appear on the desktop, you can open Finder, choose 'Preference' (or press Command +, ) and check 'External disks' both in General tab and in Sidebar tab to show your external hard drive on your Mac computer.
If Mac could not mount the external hard drive on desktop still, let's troubleshoot this issue with the following solutions.
Solution 1: Force mount this external hard drive in Disk Utility
If you can't find the external hard drive on the desktop or in the Finder, you can try to make the disk online manually in Disk Utility (a native disk management tool in your Mac).
Here is how to mount an external hard drive on Mac:
- 1. Click Go at the upper left of your desktop and go to Utilities, then launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
- 2. Click on 'Show All Devices' in View option to list or connected drives.
- 3. Choose the grayed external hard drive in the left sidebar.
- 4. Select Mount in the top center of Disk Utility.
However, if you find that your external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility (not a single volume but the whole disk disappears), it is very likely that your disk is suffering some physical damage. In this case, you need to send it to a local data recovery service. But if the Mount option is grayed out and you can see this external hard drive in Disk Utility, you can try another solution then.
Solution 2: Repair this unmountable external hard drive with First Aid
The second suggestion is First Aid in Disk Utility if you are unable to mount the external hard drive on Mac. First Aid is a very simple tool that is built in your Mac, and it is able to detect and repair directory damage and other disk errors. You are advised to run the tool more than once to ensure you are receiving a consistent result.
Follow the instructions and repair the external hard drive that is not accepted by your macOS or Mac OS X.
- 1. Go to Utilities and launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
- 2. Select the unmountable external hard drive on the left sidebar.
- 3. Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.
Lacie Drive Not Mounting Mac Os
Solution 3: Reformat the unmounted external hard drive
If your external hard drive still can't be mounted in Disk Utility after you perform First Aid, or if First Aid failed to repair it like the situation below, your drive should have some serious errors like file system corruption.
• Disk Utility can't repair this disk, what do to?
• How to format external hard drives on Mac?
In this case, you need to back up your important data on the external hard drive, such as family photos, valuable work documents, or any other files. If you don't have a copy of a data backup in hand, the following guide can help you recover lost data from this unmountable external hard drive. And then, you can reformat your exteranl hard drive to make it work again on Mac.
How to recover data from an external hard drive that won't mount?
As long as your external hard drive doesn't have any hardware problem, fortunately, you can retrieve your files with professional Mac data recovery software - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac with no fuss.
Best External Hard Drive Data Recovery - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
- Recover lost data from unmountable, formatted, inaccessible, unreadable, corrupted external hard drives.
- Supported storage devices: external hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, SD cards, etc.
- Supported file types: photos, videos, audio files, documents, emails, etc.
- Suppported Mac OS: macOS Big Sur 11/10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Read-only & risk-free
Tutorial for external hard drive data recovery on Mac with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
- 1. Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your computer, and then restart your Mac.
- 2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- 3. Select the external hard drive that is not mounting and click Scan button to scan for all lost data.
- 4. Preview the searching results, choose files you need, and click Recover to get them back.
- 5. Have a check to ensure you have got all lost data back.
Note: You need to save the recovered files to another usable drive.
After having successfully restored all data on this drive, you can set out to erase this external hard drive to fix the disk not mounting on Mac issue.
Tutorial to reformat unmountable external hard drives on Mac
- 1. Launch Disk Utility.
- 2. Click the icon of your unmountable external hard drive on the left sidebar.
- 3. Click on the Erase button function on the top of the Disk Utility window.
- 4. Complete the related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase button to finish reformatting.
After reformatting, your external hard drive will be assigned with a new file system so that you can mount this unmountable hard drive again.
Then, why we can't access the external hard drive on Mac?
Probably, the user above would never know why his MacBook is not mounting the external hard drive. As a matter of fact, this problem could be caused by many factors, such as damaged file system, virus attack, unsafe ejection or any other improper operations.
Lacie Hard Drive Pc
Here are some common ones.
- A damaged file system: If your external hard drive is attacked by virus or if you abruptly eject this drive, it's likely that the file system of this disk would be damaged or corrupted. As a result, the operating system is unable to recognize this disk, and the disk will not be mounted or read by macOS.
- Connection problems: Another reason that hard drive won't mount on Mac could be a dirty or loose connection between your cable, USB-C multi-adapter, Thunderbolt 3, or other connecting ports. A clear, clean, snug and fit tightly connection is the premise of mounting an external hard drive successfully.
- Hardware issue: Also, problems related to hardware could also make the disk unmountable, especially when your external hard drive has too much bad sectors or have been physically damaged.
Lacie Drive Not Mounting Mac Hard Drive
Knowledge Base: What does 'Mount' mean on Mac?
Mounting an external hard disk means the macOS gives a mount point (entrance) to read and access information on the hard drive. Information is accessed by the disk file system and partition table. So, it's a necessary step before the operating system can access a disk (including read from and write to).
Therefore, if an externalhard drive won't mount on Mac, it means the system gets into trouble in recognizing the file system or other information of this hard drive.
Lacie Drive Not Mounting Mac Usb
Conclusion:
If your external hard drive is not mounting on your Mac, don't panic. Most of the time, you are going to fix this disk problem with the solutions above. Moreover, if you worry about data loss when the disk becomes unmountable, you can use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover your files first. Remember that, no matter what disk problem you meet, you should perform hard drive data recovery in case of losing data.
