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Jun 13, 2019 Solution 1: Show WD external hard drive on the desktop By default, your Mac is supposed to display the icons of all external disks on the desktop. Then users can access the disk on the desktop directly. If the setting is somehow changed, the WD hard drive will stop showing up on the desktop. Get your Windows computer connected to seagate external drive or WD passport. Remove the partition and reconnect to MacBook Pro. Read Also: How to Factory Reset MacBook Pro. It is hoped that with the solutions above, you will most likely be able to solve the issue of your external hard drive not showing up on Mac. If you do not select the Hard disks option, then Mac drive’s and partitions icons remain hidden from the desktop; this could be a reason why you’re unable to access the drive. The cables might be faulty. One of the reasons why your Mac cannot read WD external drive could be due to the loose connections.
- External Drive Not Showing Mac
- Wd External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Mac Operating System
- Wd External Hard Drive Not Recognized Mac
Summary : Sometimes, external hard drives do not show up while connecting and thus making the data inaccessible. Here are the ways to resolve external hard drive not showing up issue and steps to recover data from an inaccessible drive using the most trusted Stellar Data Recovery software.
At times, when you plug in an external drive into your system it does not show up or AutoPlay in Windows. Here, you will be able, to take a look at ways to resolve external hard drive not showing up issue in Windows and make it accessible for use.
The problem starts when you plug in an external USB or hard drive to your system, and nothing happens. At times, you might hear the USB connection sound as well, but still, AutoPlay doesn’t run. When you check the drive in ‘Computer’, you don’t see any external drive there. Usually, external hard drive not showing up problem occurs when Windows names the drive to a letter that is already in use.
Steps to Locate Not Showing External Hard Drive in Windows 10, 8, 7
- Open ‘Disk Management’.
- In the disk management window, a list of all the connected external drives and the existing ones along with their complete details will be visible. Here, you will be able to determine the drive you’re trying to access by its size and format type.
- Now, right-click on the drive, select ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths’ option and then click on the Change button.
- Select a drive letter from the available alphabets to rename it. Make sure the selected drive letter is not already in use.
- A warning dialogue prompted and asked you to change the drive letter. Click Yes.
- Now, you will be able to see the changed the drive letter
- After the successful process, you’ll be able to see the AutoPlay screen asking what you want to do with the drive and ‘Computer’ also displays the drive that can be accessed.
Following these steps will most probably resolve the external hard drive not showing up in Windows. But what if the drive or new hard drive is not showing in the Disk Management as well?
External Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Disk Management
If Windows doesn’t list your external drive in the Disk Management, then possibly there could be a problem with USB port, a driver problem with Windows or you are using a dead drive.
1. Check USB Port:
- First, try to plug your targeted drive in another USB port on your computer. If it works then, you might have a dead USB port. In case you are using a USB hub then try to connect the drive directly to the computer instead since some USB hubs don’t provide sufficient power to the external drive for their proper functioning.
- If still, the drive doesn’t appear in Disk Management then connect it to another computer’s USB port to check whether the drive itself is bad or the computer has certain issues. Make sure you have checked whether the drive appears in the computer’s Disk Management window. If not then you are using a dead drive that needs to be replaced.
2. Update The Driver
- If the external hard drive does work on another computer then your Windows itself may be having a driver problem. You can determine it using Device Manager.
- Open Device Manager and check for devices with a yellow exclamation mark next to them. If you can find out a yellow exclamation mark, then there must be a driver problem. Right-click the device with a yellow exclamation mark and choose Properties, and go through the error message. This error message can help you resolve the issue.
- To resolve such problem, you can also run System Restore or can also use the Update Driver button to install an updated driver. To revert any changes, select the Roll Back Driver button or use Uninstall button to uninstall the driver from your system. Hopefully, this will configure your external drive correctly when you reconnect the drive.
3. Partitioning And Formatting the Drive
At times unpartitioned drive is also a reason for an invisible or an inaccessible external drive. When the drive is full of “unallocated space,” then you need to create a new partition on it to show its visibility. Windows Disk Management tool can fix this partition and file system issue.
Right-click inside the unallocated space, select New Simple Volume and follow the wizard to create a new partition.
In case the drive is partitioned, but still, you can’t access the drive from another device, then probably it is not formatted as NTFS. At times many devices can’t read the Windows NTFS file system. To fix this problem format the drive with the FAT32 file system.
Note:This process will remove all the stored files on your external drive, therefore first try to copy important files to another drive. In case you are unable to access the data, recover it with an efficient partition recovery software .
4. Use Professional Recovery Software
Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows is a highly recommended tool that is capable enough to restore inaccessible files from the external hard drive. Its simple and intuitive interface doesn’t require any technical know-how to run it properly. Due to its highly positive reviews many windows users use this utility to recover data from their inaccessible external drive. You can download the software by clicking on below button.
- From the main screen, ‘Select What To Recover Data’, choose the file types you want to recover and click on ‘Next’.
- Then choose the external formatted or RAW (Unrecognized) drive from the options under ‘Connected Drives’.
- Turn on the ‘Deep Scan’ toggle at the bottom and click ‘Scan.’
- During the scan, you can turn ON/OFF the file preview.
Tip: Turning file preview OFF boosts the scanning speed.
- After the scan, you’ll see that the files/folders get listed under ‘File Type’, ‘Tree View’ and ‘Deleted List.’
- Select the desired files that you want to recover from the scan result, and click on the ‘Recover’ button.
- Click ‘Browse’ and choose a save location.
- Click ‘Start Saving’ to save the recovered files at your desired location.
Final Words
Overall, whenever you face issues with your external drives, it is always better to go with a reliable data recovery software instead of trying different methods to make it accessible as it might end up with a data loss situation.
In general, when you plug in an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you will see it shows up automatically on the desktop, in the Finder, and in the Disk Utility. However, there are times that you cannot find it because the computer is not set up properly or the disk fails to mount. If that is exactly what is happening to your WD external hard drive, follow the quick fixes and effective methods below to make the drive show up again.
Let’s check all the basics first to save time, money and hassles.
1. Windows 7 software download. Make sure the USB cable is plugged to the end of the USB port.
2. Change USB port/cable to detect WD external hard drive.
3. Detach the drive and reboot your Mac to quit any apps that might stop the drive from being detected.
4. Try connecting the WD external hard drive to another computer to see if it works.
After doing all these basic checks, if the WD hard drive doesn’t show up on Mac still, you can try out the following solutions one by one.
Solution 1: Show WD external hard drive on the desktop
By default, your Mac is supposed to display the icons of all external disks on the desktop. Then users can access the disk on the desktop directly. If the setting is somehow changed, the WD hard drive will stop showing up on the desktop.
To change the situation:
- Go to Finder in the top menu bar on the desktop.
- Select Preferences….
- Go to the General tab.
- Check External disks.
Then the WD external hard drive will appear on the desktop.
Your hard drive shows up on the desktop but not in the Finder? Well, the cause might be the same.
Solution 2: Show WD external hard drive in the Finder
The detected and mounted internal and external disks will be shown up in the Finder. However, if somebody chooses to hide some items, he or she can set up not to show them in the sidebar of the Finder. However, you can easily change the setting back.
- Open the Finder and go to Finder at the top menu bar.
- Select Preferences….
- Go to the Sidebar tab.
- Check External disks.
You should be able to see the WD external hard drive that doesn’t show up in the Finder now.
The WD external hard drive won’t show up even after you change all the settings? Razer keyboard mac keys. Then it is very possible that the drive is having mounting problems.
Solution 3: Show WD external hard drive in the Disk Utility
First, you have to figure out the mounting problem is caused by physical damages or logical errors by checking the disk in the Disk Utility. If you can find the WD external hard drive in Disk Utility, congratulations! It means the Mac can recognize and detect the WD external hard drive, and, in other words, the disk doesn’t have any hardware issue preventing you from fixing it. It only has some logical issues that result in the system failing to mount it. Then the following steps would help.
First of all, try to select the hard drive and use the Mount button to manually mount the external hard disk. If you are unable to mount the WD external hard drive, please try running the First Aid through Disk Utility. To do this, choose the grayed out external hard drive from the left sidebar, click on First Aid on the top and select Run.
The Mac still doesn’t mount the external hard drive successfully? You have to reformat the disk to make the drive work again. However, you should be aware that reformatting will delete all existing data.
Hard drive data recovery software for Mac like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can easily achieve the task.
Key capabilities of iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac:
- Recover photos, videos, documents, audio, email files, archive files, etc.
- Support data recovery from hard drive, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc.
- Support data recovery from formatted/unredable/unmountable/corrupted disks.
- Recover data from unbootable Mac.
- Support APFS, encrypted APFS, HFS, HFS+, FAT and exFAT file system.
- Work on macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and earlier OS X versions to OS X 10.7.
Here is the simplified process of recovering data from the troubled WD external hard drive:
- Download and install iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery on Mac.
- Launch iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.
- Select the WD unmountable external hard drive and click the Scan button to scan for all the lost data.
4. Preview the searching results, choose the files you need, and click Recover to get them back.
After recovering important files from the WD hard drive, it is time to reformat it. Stay in the Disk Utility window, follow the easy steps to finish fixing the not showing up WD external hard drive.
- Select the WD external hard drive.
- Click on the Erase button.
- Input a name, format (exFAT is recommend for cross-platform users) and scheme.
- Hit Erase.
External Drive Not Showing Mac
After erasing the disk, detach and reattach the hard drive to the Mac. It should be mounted correctly and show up on the desktop, in the Finder and in the Disk Utility.
Wd External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Mac Operating System
Conclusion
Wd External Hard Drive Not Recognized Mac
This post is not only useful when your WD external hard disk is not showing up on Mac, but applies to any external hard drive or SD card not showing up situation on Mac including but not limited to Seagate external hard drives, Samsung external hard drives, and Toshiba external hard drives.