External Hard Drive not recognized by Macbook pro 2015 (even after first Aid)

Question

External Hard Drive not recognized by Macbook pro 2015 (even after first Aid)

Hello everyone,

This is the first post I've ever written here, and right now I'm going nuts trying to solve this issue. So I own a MacBook Pro 15' Mid 2015, which I've never had problems with. I also own a Verbatim HD external hard drive (Store and Go 1TB) which I had formatted on FAT32.

For storage reasons I did a backup on another external hard drive, eventually formatting my Verbatim HD to Mac Journaled. Everything was working fine and my data was successfully transferred, so I decided to clean my trash on the MacBook, of files that I had copied on to the other external hard drive just in case.

After everything was finished I tried to shut down my computer but it was not responding, so I relaunched Finder, thinking it would be something in the matter of the Finder still doing a process with my Verbatim.

I restarted the computer and my Verbatim HD was recognised in disk utility but not mounted. I run it through first aid and everything was fine, but still not mounted. I also restarted my NVRAM and the status didn't change.

I heard that if I killed fsck process it would mount the drive, but I couldn't find such process. So right now I'm out of ideas, and about to send a (what I think) is a perfectly working external hard drive to recover my data because I can't seem to find a solution.

I'll attach some data if needed.

Thanks,

Agustin

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 15, 2020 11:31 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,269 points

Jun 15, 2020 11:40 AM in response to AgustinSebastian

Have you tried mounting the drive? Open Disk Utility and select the volume from the sidebar list. The volume will appear ghosted, if it isn't mounted. Click the Mount button in the Disk Utility toolbar. If the volume mounts on your Desktop, then it's good to go. Try running First Aid again to check that the drive unmount and remounts.

If the cable you use on the drive is fairly old, consider replacing it.

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

362,269 points

Jun 15, 2020 12:21 PM in response to AgustinSebastian

Offhand, I'd consider reformatting the drive. If that doesn't work, then consider the drive is failing. It's an old Seagate drive. I recognize the drive's ID. I own several of that model.

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Answer 3

Jun 15, 2020 12:24 PM in response to Kappy

You reckon I could recover some data before reformatting?

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Answer 4

Jun 15, 2020 12:00 PM in response to Kappy

I've tried mounting it and it won't. I've also tried unmounting via terminal and it says that is unmounted but still appears on my disk utility. I've also tried killing fsck but it says there's no such process.

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Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

362,269 points

Jun 15, 2020 12:31 PM in response to AgustinSebastian

Depends on whether the drive is accessible.

General File Recovery

If you stop using the disk it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Disk Drill, MAC Data Recovery, Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on a bootable CD to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the disk. Recovery software usually provides trial versions that enable you to determine if the software would help before actually paying for it. Beyond this or if the drive has completely failed, then you would need to send the drive to a recovery service like Drive Savers, which is very expensive.

The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten. Unfortunately, these programs do not work on SSDs.

Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

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External Hard Drive not recognized by Macbook pro 2015 (even after first Aid)

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