Mac: External hard drive in system utility but not in Finder

houseembers wrote:

The files are not backed up anywhere. They are only located on the faulty hard drive

Being a 5TB drive, I'm assuming this is a Hard Drive. If the drive is failing and you need to recovery files, then you should contact a professional data recovery service as they can provide you with an estimate to recover the files.

Stop trying to access a failing Hard Drive since you will only make the failure worse where even a professional data recovery service may not be able to recover any files. You may only get one chance at recovering those files.

I also suspect the external Hard Drive has a hardware failure as @leroydouglas also suspects. You can run the third party app DriveDx (free trial period) and post the complete text report here so I can review it for you. Post the DriveDx text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar. You will need to install a special USB driver in order to attempt to access the health information on the external drive (DriveDx will prompt you when you attempt to access the health information for the external drive).

If DriveDx does not show any common hardware issues, then I may be able to provide you other options to attempt to recover the data.

houseembers wrote:

*Update, I was able to access the files from an older Mac desktop. I was then able to transfer them to a different hard drive and back them up. Thank goodness.

I'm glad you were able to access the files.

Since we don't have any specific details, it is hard to figure out the issue. I can think of several possibilities from the limited details we have:

• Drive is failing (DriveDx may be able to tell us if the drive is having hardware issues)
• Drive may not be receiving enough power
• Sometimes connecting a drive to a hub can help (powered hub is best)
• Tahoe tends to require higher quality cables for external devices....the cables supplied by the manufacturer many times are low quality cables as are many you find online (I know you swapped cables, but was one of them high quality?)
• Some third party software could be interfering....you could try booting into Safe Mode to access the drive
• File system may be corrupted. You can try running First Aid on it (now that you got the data from it).

houseembers wrote:

" I ran first aid on it a few times but it kept failing"

....are my files gone for good?

re: external drive

Sounds like it is failing. In that case replace it.

Do you have stuff in the cloud, synced with iphone, drop box, some other third party backup???

Do you have a current TM backup on a different drive?

Back up your Mac with Time Machine

Is your Mac still working trouble free— seems all your data would be there, no(?)

If you value your user data, don't wait for a catastrophic failure—

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

More than one device, more than one backup methodology— and backup regularly.

houseembers wrote:

The files are not backed up anywhere. They are only located on the faulty hard drive

If those file are unique & important, then you should make sure to back them up or you could lose them. This was a wake up call that those files are at risk without a backup.

Might be a good idea to to back up your replacement hard drive, so you can avoid a future catastrophe.

If you are using Time Machine to back up your Mac, you can have Time Machine back up the attached hard drive as well.