How to mount / unmount external drives in terminal?

Hi all,

in terminal - this works...

diskutil unmount /Volumes/MyDrive1/

but after unmount - the opposite (while still connected) :

diskutil mount /Volumes/MyDrive1/

this says - Unable to find disk for /Volumes/MyDrive1/

How can I get the drive to mount again after unmount?

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Jan 6, 2022 8:08 AM

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4 replies

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

747,671 points

Jan 6, 2022 8:43 AM in response to revDAVE

Use a command such as:

diskutil mount /dev/disk1s1

The numbers may vary; checking the information for the volume in the Disk Utility will reveal them.

(211449)

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,366 points

Jan 6, 2022 8:46 AM in response to revDAVE

You can also get the disk/volume identifier in Terminal with

diskutil list

/Volumes/MyDrive1 is the mount point where the file system shows the mounted disk volume.

If you eject the disk, MyDrive1 doesn't exist anymore.

Owl-53

Level 10

108,959 points

Jan 6, 2022 8:39 AM in response to revDAVE

Is it still showing in Disk Utilities after the unmount command is executed ?

revDAVE Author

Level 2

350 points

Jan 30, 2022 8:48 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks to both of you for the help.

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How to mount / unmount external drives in terminal?