Getting an external hard drive is a very good idea because you can store all your extra stuff on there. That means your Mac’s hard drive can be used for the regular tasks, something that will help save a significant amount of time and space. However, there can be times when the external hard drive is not showing properly. Here you have a list with the things that you want to do.

Edit Preferences

From the Finder you can go to Preferences, General and there you want to tick the hard drives option, as it won’t appear on your desktop otherwise. It’s a menial and simple thing, but it can lead to issues if you’re not tackling it appropriately. That’s why you want to make the most out of this process and ensure it works as expected.

Check and replace the cable if needed

Sometimes the reason why it’s not showing can be hardware-related. If you see that the cable is not working properly, use another cable and see if it works or not. Once you replace it with another cable, you can see if it detects the external hard drive. If not, you can try the other tips here.

Go to Disk Utility

Disk Utility can help you see if the drive is accessible or not. If you see the hard drive here but not anywhere else, what you can do is to try and access the drive simply via mounting it properly. First Aid also helps because it will find the errors and then help you repair the disk. That can help and it’s certainly one of the ways you can solve problems.

Check the drive format

If the external hard drive is formatted under Windows, it will have the NTFS format. It might be that the hard drive is formatted under another file system. If it was Windows formatted, you can go there and format it again using exFAT. That way it will be accessible on Mac, and you can format it to the HFS+ or APFS format depending on what Mac you have.

Use a data recovery app

Sometimes using this kind of app can help you recover the drive by resetting some of the internal software within your Mac. It might not seem like a whole lot at first, but it will provide you with a great way to solve any problems and ensure everything is working as expected.

Aside from these tips, you always want to ensure that you disconnect the drive properly. If you don’t eject it before removing it manually, that can lead to problems. Doing that will help prevent a lot of the potential issues. Avoid any rush when you use any external hard drive and use these tips if you want to protect your device. Doing that will help quite a bit, and it will give you the insight and assistance you want. In the end, that can make a huge difference and prevent any downsides down the line.