mac external hard drive not showing up in disk utility

If the partition is mountable and readable, it will be mounted.

To mount a specific partition, use the mount command with the correct disk identifier, visible in the right-most column of diskutil list’s results. It will automatically mount all mountable and UI-browsable volumes on the given disk when run. Run the command below using the correct device name (disk2, disk3, etc). If you see the disk in the list, but it’s not visible in Finder, you’ll want to try mounting it with Terminal. This will show a list of all the drives currently visible to your device, mounted or otherwise.Ĥ. Type the command below and press Enter: diskutil listģ. Open Terminal from “/Application/Utilities.”Ģ. Using the diskutil Terminal command, you can get slightly more insight into your disk mounting than Disk Utility may provide, sometimes showing drives that are hidden from Disk Utility for various reasons.ġ. Right-click on the greyed-out volume you want to mount in the drawer on the left and choose the “Mount” option in the context menu. The descriptions can be cryptic, but normally manufacturer name and size will help you locate your target drive.ģ. Look at the drawer on the left of the application for a description of your drive. Open Disk Utility, found in “/Applications/Utilities”Ģ. But sometimes all it takes is a quick tap of the Mount option to get things working.ġ.

The disk formatting might be corrupt or unsupported by the Mac, preventing it from mounting properly.

However, a failure to mount is sometimes for a good reason. Mounting is the last step between you and your data. It’s possible for a drive to be connected to your Mac and for the operating system to notice the drive but not mount it. Check Disk Utilityĭisk Utility will list drives both mounted and unmounted. If possible, use good, known hardware, like a USB cable that you recently used to successfully connect a device previously. If there’s a light on the drive, is it turning on? If it’s a spinning disk, do you feel the drive spinning through the hard drive’s case? Try a different port and different cable to confirm that these are not issues. Most problems with drives on a Mac are caused by a poor connection, so the first step to troubleshooting the problem is to ensure your drive is actually connected to your Mac properly.

Mac external hard drive not showing up in disk utility