Q: Mac Mini won't recognize external hard drive
Hi!
I have weird issue on my Mac Mini. I have two Seagate 8TB external hard drives connected by USB to my Mac Mini (mid 2011 with Maverics). The discs have worked fine, but suddenly one of them will not be recognized by the Mac Mini.
I have connected the hard drive to my MacBook Pro and an old PC and it works fine and all the files are available, but for some reason my Mac Mini won't have anything to do with it anymore.
It does not appear in the finder or the disc utility. I have disconnected the hard drive for hours and then tried to reconnect it without any luck. I have restarted the Mac Mini several times. I have also tried to connect it to all the USB ports on the Mac Mini. When I connect it to the USB ports, it does make that murmuring sound indicating it has started working. However, no sign of it on the Mac Mini.
It's like the Mac Mini has decided to ignore the external hard drive no matter what I do. Seeing it works on other devices, I'm pretty certain that the problem lies within the Mac Mini.
I am no expert at this, so any help will be very valuable to me. And if you are kind to help, please explain it to me like I'm either 8 or 93 years old.
Thank you.
Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)
Posted on Apr 14, 2016 9:57 AM
Yay, I solved my issue. Thank you for all the replies.
This is how I fixed it: I removed the USB cable and replaced it with another one! Have noooo idea why the Mac Mini suddenly found the old USB cable unacceptable, because the disc would work with that USB cable on both MacBook Pro and a PC. Anywho, as long as it works I'm happy.
Posted on Apr 14, 2016 12:49 PM

