Unable to access external HDD

yannick261 wrote:

Now the thing is, I‘ve been using amongst others, a specific 6TB external HDD, first used and set up by windows Pc. This had as result that I could read and copy files on the disk, but not write. That was all ok. Now so far there where every other time that mac did not recognize this disk (not showing in explorer). Sometimes it took replugging it in/out few times to make it work.

Now just today it is not recogniting it at all (just 2 days ago was still working). It starts up (you hear the drive rotating - is still old fashioned mechanical disk, no SSD Drive, and the light is burning). However it does not show in Explorer so I cannot acces/open the drive.

I assume the connection to the computer is by means of a USB cable.

Is this a 3.5" drive with its own power supply, or is it a 2.5" laptop class drive that is powered by the USB connection?

If it a USB powered drive, then you might consider plugging it into the computer by means of a powered hub or dock.

In either case, you might try using a new USB cable and see if that affects the connection.

FYI, the Mac uses 'Finder' as the drive and file interface.

'Explorer' is Microsoft's interface in Windows.

Strange enough if I go to ‚about this Mac‘ and I check storage media, it is in the list, but cannot select it. But can I then conclude it does recognize the disk? It is not giving errors that disk is corrupted or needs formatting before it can be used, none of that.

If the drive is shown on any Finder window or in the System Information, then yes, the drive is recognized. But being recognized and being usable are two different things. A drive may be recognized, but also have formatting issues or data corruption or incompatibility that prevents normal use.

The Mac can natively read and write to PC drives that are formatted with Ex-FAT and FAT-32 formats. The Mac can read NTFS formatted drives, but cannot write to these without an additional third-party utility. I suspect your drive may use this format.

If you wish to learn if the drive is healthy, then you can use a drive utility like DriveDx to scan and evaluate the drive.

It gets stranger even.

It is a seagate backup station HDD with 2 USB on front face to allow connecting 2 more HDD via this docking station.

when I do connect my second same manfacturer seagate HDS , my mac DOES recognize without issues this other disk THROUGH the not recognized main HDD.

I find it very strange.

This is not uncommon. Many drive enclosures include pass-thru ports for connecting additional drives or other hardware. Your 6TB drive may fail without affecting this daisy chain connection.

None of any of the online help had any success or made any difference so far.

Desperatly out of options looking for realsolutions perhaps not having to loose 6TB of critical data.

If data loss is a concern, I suggest that before you do any more work with this drive you should create a backup on another external drive. There is a possibility that your drive is experiencing some failure, hardware or software, and the fix may well require the drive be wiped and reformatted. Make your backup NOW, while you still can.

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