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How To Repair External Hard Drive Mac

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Nov 23, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions

Stellar Data Recovery Technician for Mac scans the Mac storage disk drive to recover permanently deleted files as well. You can connect an external hard drive and perform formatted recovery, partition recovery and restore lost data conveniently. Method 2: Repair external hard drive with fsck If the above solution fails to repair external hard drive, don't be upset, you can try fsck command. This command line is a bit more complex, but it works for situations when Disk Utility can't repair disk. The external hard drive becomes unreadable and corrupted due to carelessly disconnecting or powering down the industry without following the eject drive protocol. You can fix corrupted hard drive with a quick scan on the PC with the disk checking utility and its drive repair function. Worst-case scenario, if you cannot fix the disk, then there is a way to recover all the valuable data, which.

While the external hard drive connected to the Windows computer or Mac, and the device did not show up. How to fix external hard drive not recognized? Don't worry, in this guide we will show you the best solution to fix the hard drive not recognized problem.

This problem will cause by some partition issues: the external hard drive partition got damaged, the file system got crashed, the drive errors in Windows computer, or the dead USB ports. You can try the hard drive on another computer or connect it with other USB ports. If it does not get working, you can follow the next solution to fix the external hard drive not recognized on Windows computer and Mac, and you can recover lost data from external hard drive with Recoverit Data Recovery.

Part 1. How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Recognized on Windows

In windows, this problem can be because of partition issues, dead USB ports, driver windows conflicts, file systems, dead or outdated drivers. Here are the steps you can follow to fix this issue in case of USB flash or external hard drives:

Step 1You might be plugging in the USB cable in a dead USB port. Unplug your external hard drive and plugin it in some other USB ports. Now, see if it is present there in the My Computer window. If not, follow step 2.

Step 2Now, look for the external drive in the Disk Management Window. For this, click Start and then click Run or press windows key + r, press enter after typing diskmgmt.msc in the Run dialog. This will open the Disk Management Window. Now, look for the external disk in this window. In this window, you can find your drive even if it is not recognized because of no partition. If you cannot find the drive in the Disk Management window then you can go for step four.

Step 3If it is not recognized by plugging in some other port or it is not visible in the Disk Management Window, then there might be some issue with the external drive. Check it on some other computers. Now, follow step 1 to step 3 in that computer in case the external drive is not recognized. If the problem exists with another computer also then something is wrong with the drive, otherwise follow step 5:

Step 4If it is working in some other systems but not in yours, Windows is having some problem with the drivers. To diagnose a driver problem, open the run dialog by pressing Windows + r and type 'devmgmt.msc'? Now press enter. Expand Disk Drives and look for a device having a yellow exclamation mark. This yellow exclamation mark indicates a problematic driver. Now, right-click on that device and read the error message after selecting properties. This issue can resolve in the following two ways:

  1. Click on the update driver button for installing updated drivers.
  2. Uninstall the driver and restart your computer. After restarting, the Windows will automatically reinstall and reconfigure the driver.

Now, plug in the external drive again or follow step 6 if the drive is still not recognized.

If your external hard drive has been recognized but your files can't be found anywhere, sometimes they are lost or deleted. Is there any way to get all back? 3 methods are recommended: Recycle bin, backup, and Recoverit Data Recovery. Recoverit is able to help you recover 1000+ types and formats of files in different scenarios. Free download it right now!

Step 5Problem in partitioning and formatting can also be a cause of this issue. Partitioning and file system issues can be fixed by using Windows Disk Management tools. To create a new partition, right-click inside the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume. You can create a new partition by following onscreen instructions. Sometimes, your drive is formatted with the ext4 file system of Linux, NTFS file system, HFS Plus file system, or FAT32 file system which is not recognized by your Windows. Reformatting of the drive can resolve this issue. For this, right-click on the partition, select format, and then select the file system. Here, it is important to know that all files in the drive will be deleted. Therefore, copy your files in some other systems before proceeding.

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Video Tutorial on How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up

Part 2. How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Recognized on Mac

Like Windows, Mac also detects an external drive automatically. If it doesn't, follow these steps:

Step 1 First of all, look for the external hard drive in the finder window. For this, click on File and then click New Finder Window. Now, look for the drive below the remote disk.

Step 2 If the external drive is not there, make sure that the USB cable is properly plugged in the external hard drive and the port.

Step 3 Sometimes, the drive is connected but not mounted. Mac journaled format. To mount a drive, open Disk Utility and look for the drive in the list. If it is there, check below it. Now click on the mounting button to mount it. Open a Finder window to see if the drive is mounted or not.

Step 4 If you still cannot find it in the finder, it might not be getting enough power. Single USB ports can provide only 5 V. In that case, make use of USB cable having one USB connection for the external HD and two for Mac. This will supply the power required by the external hard drive.

These steps for fixing an external hard drive not recognized on Windows and Mac are suitable for external hard drives of all capacities and manufacturers. However, if still the issue is not resolved, you can avail of professional help.

Part 3. The Best External Hard Drive Data Recovery Software

While the external hard drive got damaged and did not detect on the computer, after you fix the problem, you should your data back. We will introduce the best external hard drive data recovery to help you retrieve data back. Recoverit Data Recovery Software is a powerful data recovery program, it can help you recover data from external hard drives easily and effectively.

Recoverit External Hard Drive Recovery Software

Recoverit Data Recovery is the best external hard drive recovery program, it can easily and effectively help you recover lost or accidentally deleted files from the hard disk drive, or another external storage device: USB drive, flash drive, SD card.

Steps on How to Recover Data from External Hard Drive

Download and install Recoverit Data Recovery on your computer. Launch Recoverit Data Recovery and follow the next steps to perform external hard drive data recovery on a Windows computer, if you are a Mac user, you can download Recoverit Data Recovery for Mac to go on.

Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to the computer, select it while the disk detected on the program.

Step 2. The external hard drive recovery software will start scanning the device to searching the lost files.

Step 3. In minutes� all recovered files will display on the result. You can preview photos, videos, music, Word, Excel, PPT, and PDF. Select your files and click the 'Recover' button to restore.

When the external hard drive got damaged, you can try to fix it with the solution mentioned above. Also, get your data back with Recoverit Data Recovery in simple steps. Download and try it for now.

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Summary: In this blog, we'll share a variety of alternative methods to repair your Mac external hard drive in case Disk Utility fails to fix the drive. You'll learn to:
1. Use FSCK Command in Terminal to Repair External Hard Drive
2. Use FSCK Command in Single-User Mode to Fix External Drive
3. Recover Inaccessible Data Using Mac Data Recovery Software
Download the free-to-try Mac data recovery tool to recover data from an external hard drive.

Disk Utility is a useful storagedrive management software that allows you to perform the external hard driverepair task with ease by using First Aid. But sometimes, Disk Utility's FirstAid fails to repair your external hard drive and the drive's data remains inaccessible.Don't worry, you can use alternative methods to repair your Mac external harddrive in case Disk Utility doesn't work. Also, you can recover data from acorrupt external drive on Mac.

But before learning the repair andrecovery methods, know why a Mac external hard drive turns inaccessible, appreciatethe Mac file system and its importance, and learn the reasons that lead to filesystem corruption.

Why Mac External Hard Drive TurnsInaccessible?

At times, an unexpected eventcorrupts the partition table, EFI partition, or APFS/HFS file system of the Macexternal storage drive. Free mac for students. This logical damage of the external hard drive makesthe drive and its stored data inaccessible on Mac.

Mac File System and Its Importance

Your Mac external hard drive containsreserved space for GUID Partition Table, EFI System Partition, and APFSContainer. The APFS container comprises Container superblock, Checkpoint area,Space manager area, and storage for objects and file data. The container canhave multiple volumes with their file systems. The Mac's file system allowsstorage and retrieval of data to and from the storage drive.

Reasons for File System Corruption

The following situations may damagethe storage drive's file system, which may not get fixed with Disk Utility'sFirst Aid feature:

  • An application may write into thefile system thereby causing corruption on the disk.
  • If the block containing the filesystem of the drive turns bad, then the storage drive fails.
  • A malware on Mac may write on thefile system space, thus crippling drive access.

Few reasons for corruption of legacyfile-system formatted storage drive are as follows:

  • A macOS crash or abrupt power cutresults in non-syncing of information to the file system, which results in itscorruption.
  • The sudden removal of an externalstorage drive without proper un-mounting may result in an incomplete writeoperation and corruption.
  • If the external storage drive doesnot un-mount due to running programs that are accessing the drive, forcedejection can corrupt its file system.

The next sections describe numerous methodsto repair Mac storage drive without Disk Utility.

1. Use FSCK Command in Terminal to Repair External Hard Drive

How To Repair External Hard Drive Mac

When Disk Utility's First Aid can't fixthe file system corruption issue on your Mac external hard drive, run the fsck (filesystem consistency check) command in the macOS Terminal.

How To Repair External Hard Drive Mac
Mac

Steps to repair Mac external harddrive by using Terminal are as follows:

  1. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
  2. In the Terminal window, type df –h and hit Return. Note down the file system identifier of the external hard drive, say /dev/disk4s1.
  3. Type unmount /dev/disk4s1 and hit Return. This command unmounts the external drive.
  4. Type fsck_hfs -y /dev/disk4s1 and hit Return. The fsck_hfs verifies and repairs hfs containers and volumes. If the external storage drive is in the apfs format, use fsck_apfs instead of fsck_hfs. The parameter -y repairs any damage that is found.
  5. If you receive the message 'File system was modified', re-run the above fsck command.
  6. Use the fsck command again until it says, 'The volume appears to be OK.'

Also Read: List of Top 5 Mac Hard Disk Drive Repair Software

2. Use FSCK Command in Single-User Mode to Fix External Drive

Use the fsck command in the single-usermode to repair the file system corruption issue on your Mac external hard drive.

Steps to repair Mac external harddrive by using single-user mode are as follows:

  1. Start or restart your Mac thenpromptly press and hold Command + S keys.
  2. Release the keys once you see whitetext. Your Mac boots into single-user mode.
  3. On the prompt, type fsck_hfs –y /dev/disk4s1 and hit Return.
  4. Check the message provided by thefsck command. Rerun fsck command till you get OK.
  5. Reboot your Mac and this time don'tpress any key to boot your Mac normally.

3. Recover Inaccessible Data Using Mac Data Recovery Software

When none of the above methodssucceed to repair the external hard drive, use a Mac data recovery software torecover the inaccessible data from the drive whose file system, EFI partition,or partition table is lost, deleted, or damaged.

Steps to recover data from a corruptMac external drive are as follows:

Free download the *trial version of Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac.

  • Install the software in the Applications folder on your Mac.
  • Launch the software. Toggle on the file types to customize the scan. Click Next.
  • Select the corrupt external hard drive then click Scan.
  • Preview the scanned items to check their integrity. Select all those files that are required.
  • Click Recover then click Browse to specify the save location. Click Save.
  • View the recovered files from the recovery location.

Disk Repair Utility For Mac

*The trial software allows you to scan and preview files, but you need to activate it to save the recoverable files. The software has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so activate with confidence.

Once you recover your data, use DiskUtility to erase the external hard drive, and recreate a new file system.Restore the recovered data to the newly formatted external hard drive.

External Hard Drive Recovery Mac

Precautions and Best Practices

The following precautions and bestpractices will lessen the chances of file system corruption:

  • Always unmount your external harddrive safely.
  • Do not eject or pull the cable of thedrive abruptly.
  • Don't transfer files or manageexternal disk when your Mac is low in battery.
  • Back up your external hard drivedata.

Conclusion

How to run windows on mac air. When Disk Utility's First Aid can't repairan external hard drive, use file system consistency check (fsck) command in Terminalor Single-User Mode to fix file system corruption issue. Corruption in the filesystem makes the stored data inaccessible, so follow the precautions and bestpractices to mitigate it.

The fsck method is risky and can result in data loss, so back up the external hard drive before performing the steps. If you can't back up the data or want a safer solution, use Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac to scan and recover data from the corrupt external hard drive. Later, erase the drive and restore data to the drive.





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