My Mac stopped recognizing my external hard drives. I have two western digital hard drives that I use to backup my photos. They used to work great. Now the computer will not recognize either one of them.
iMac 27″, macOS 15.1
Try restarting in Safe Mode per the directions in Safe Mode. Do this restart with all external HD's physically disconnected. If you have a wireless keyboard, it's wise to plug in the USB connection (charging cable) it came with and do the restart with that cable attached. After you have restarted in Safe Mode please re-start normally. Introduce 1 External Hard Disk and see if Finder and Disk Utility finds it. If it does, rinse and repeat with the remainder of the EHD's.
If no connection is made please answer the following:
Do you have any of the following third party apps installed on your Mac?
• Antivirus Apps
• Cleaning Apps
• Security Apps
• VPN Apps
• Maintenance Apps
Try restarting in Safe Mode per the directions in Safe Mode. Do this restart with all external HD's physically disconnected. If you have a wireless keyboard, it's wise to plug in the USB connection (charging cable) it came with and do the restart with that cable attached. After you have restarted in Safe Mode please re-start normally. Introduce 1 External Hard Disk and see if Finder and Disk Utility finds it. If it does, rinse and repeat with the remainder of the EHD's.
If no connection is made please answer the following:
Do you have any of the following third party apps installed on your Mac?
• Antivirus Apps
• Cleaning Apps
• Security Apps
• VPN Apps
• Maintenance Apps
Have you tried to restart your Mac to see if the issues persist?
If they persist, boot up disk utility by typing disk utility in the launchpad, see if you need to run disk first aid on the disks
Thank you. Yes, I have restarted and tried to use disk utility but it will not allow me to select disk first aid.
My Mac stopped recognizing my external hard drives
