estherjb11

Q: External Hard Drive not showing up on Macbook Pro

Hello,

I been having problems with my external hard drive not showing up on my mac book pro. I have done the disk utility and still nothing has worked. I have turned my computer on and off and un -plugged the external hard drive. This has been an issue on my mac book for awhile and im getting frustrated now. Im not sure what else to do. My external hard drive is a WD elements 1TB. I have tried the external hard drive on my parents windows and it shows up but does not show up on my mac book. I do youtube videos so i wanted to free my desktop because it all cluttered right now. All my videos and my green screens I use are on this external hard drive. Please help.

 

Thank you

iPod touch

Posted on Jul 16, 2016 6:24 PM

Close

Q: External Hard Drive not showing up on Macbook Pro

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Jul 16, 2016 6:27 PM in response to estherjb11
    Level 10 (120,589 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jul 16, 2016 6:27 PM in response to estherjb11

    Open the Finder then go to the Finder menu bar and click Finder > Preferences then select the General tab then make sure External Disks is selected.

     

    If that doesn't help, make sure OS X is up to date.

     

    Update the software on your Mac - Apple Support

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jul 17, 2016 1:12 AM in response to estherjb11
    Level 10 (188,022 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 17, 2016 1:12 AM in response to estherjb11

    - You said "I have done the disk utility and still nothing has worked". Just what did you do?

    - Do any lights light on the drive? Can yo feel/hear it spinning?

    - Is the drive self-powered, that only powered by the USB bus? If so it could be that the USB port does not provided enough power. You can try a powered USB hub. You can also get a USB pigtail that takes power from to USB ports to the single USB port on the drive like this one.
    StarTech.com® 1' USB Y Male To Micro-B Male Cable For External Hard Drive, Black

    - Do other external drives work with your Mac?

    - Does it show in Disk Utility?
    - Does it show in System Profiler under USB? You should see the chipset in the enclosure as well as the HD itself
    OS X: About System Information and System Profiler - Apple Support
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203001