LaCie External Hard Drive won't start up Thread. It did show that 450 GB of the drive was taken up. So if the files could have been corrupt, would that still show. Therefore, if an externalhard drive won't mount on Mac, it means the system gets into trouble in recognizing the file system or other information of this hard drive. Conclusion: If your external hard drive is not mounting on your Mac, don't panic. Most of the time, you are going to fix this disk problem with the solutions above. When I connect the Lacie to the PC with Disk1, windows won't pick it up (does not show in device Manager or My computer), but it can be used using the Firewire400. When I connect it to the PC with Disk2 the USB2 connection works normally. Curious thing is that I also have a Seagate USB2 external drive and it works perfectly with Disk1. LaCie drives conserve power by spinning down when you set your computer to sleep mode. When the computer awakes from sleep mode, the drive may not have enough time.
- Lacie External Hard Drive Not Showing Up
- Lacie Drive Not Working
- My Lacie Drive Won't Show Up
- My Lacie Drive Won't Show Up On My Computer
Summary :
Sometimes, you might find that some files are not showing up in the external hard drive. In the following contents, we will discuss about the possible causes and solutions, as well as an effective and reliable way to recover data for the external hard drive.
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Problem – Files Not Showing in External Hard Drive
Although external hard drives have brought as great convenience in daily life and work, there are chances that they might fail to display some of their files or even seem to have lost them completely, despite the disk capacity in disk properties being shown as utilized.
You will be able to tell that it is indeed your files utilizing that space in the external drive if you have a general impression of how much space your data occupies.
But here is the problem - people sometimes find their files not showing in external hard drive and get anxious; they are afraid of losing the important files forever. What is really happening when this issue is present? Can you fix it or rescue the missing data here?
I will answer those questions for you. Now, let's start with rescuing files missing from external hard drive with MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
When data recovery is done, I will explain the possible causes for files not showing problem and then give corresponding solutions. In the last section, I am going to help you know more about the external hard drive you use.
Recover Data from External Hard Drive
When you finally discover that some files are missing from external hard drive or even a partition in it is damaged/lost, you must conduct data recovery on external hard drive right away.
In this case, please stop writing any new data into the external hard drive and then follow the operations below to recover data with MiniTool Power Data Recovery easily. This software will light the hope of data recovery as long as the external hard drive is not physically damaged.
3 Steps to Recover Data from External Hard Drive
When you find that some useful files not showing in external hard drive are actually lost, please adopt MiniTool Power Data Recovery immediately.
Then, follow this tutorial to recover data.
Step 1: connect the external hard drive to computer. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery, and then choose Hard Disk Drive.
Step 2: select the target external hard drive from the right side and click on the Scan button.
Step 3: during the scan, you can see more and more files being found by the software. Now, you can browse them one by one to check the ones you need and then choose a safe location to store them by pressing the 'Save' button. After that, click on the OK button to confirm your selection. Soon, the data you choose will be recovered to the appointed location.
When you can confirm that all data you need are recovered successfully to another device and all the existing files have been backed up, you can choose to format the external hard drive in order to use it again. Additionally, you may follow the methods given below to try to fix the current external drive.
How to fix when external hard drive stops working?
A relatively comprehensive analysis & fix plan about external hard drive not working issue are given here to help people get out of trouble.
Why Can't See Files in External Hard Drive & How to Solve
I find files missing from external hard drive become a frequently discussed issue in many forums. So there must be some ideas that catch the point.
Based on this, I decide to make a list of the possible reasons and useful suggestions for users to refer to. Here, I have summarized 4 main causes as well as the solutions in Windows 7 through internet searching and actual operations.
4 Causes That Can Be Fixed Directly in Windows
- The files are hidden.
- There are file system errors.
- The 'CheckedValue' is suffering from virus infection.
- The mirror image in memory is damaged.
Possible cause 1 – the files are hidden.
Sometimes, the files are not really missing from external hard drive; they're just hidden and not being shown. Here are 4 solutions to unhide them.
Solution 1:
- Type cmd to the search box and press Enter.
- Right click on the cmd.exe and select Run as administrator.
- Input DIR/A x:-s (x refers to the drive letter of your external hard drive). The meaning of this command is: list the non-system files in x: drive.
- If this command returns nothing, it means your folder has been marked as protected system files, and then you can refer to the second solution.
Solution 2: check whether the files are endowed with system property.
- Run control folders, or go to Control Panel and Appearance and Personalization.
- You can see the window Folder Options.
- In view tab, check show hidden files, folders, and drives and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
- Then check whether the files/folders are there.
Solution 3:
- If your files keep missing from the external hard d drive, run cmd and press Enter key.
- Then, if the hard drive letter is O:, you should enter this command: attrib -h -r -s /s /d o:*.*.
- Finally, check if the real files will be showed.
Solution 4:
If all solutions above failed, try the following process which is most complex:
- Run cmd.
- Type the location of the external hard drive. Example: 'd:', 'e:', 'f:', etc.
- Type dir /ah. You will now see the files/folders with hidden attributes.
- Type attrib [name of file/folder] -r -a -s -h.
- You should repeatedly type dir /ah after un-hiding some files/folders so you know if the files/folders are now appearing or hiding.
- Finally check your external hard drives, all data should be there.
Please note:
- If you're going to unhide files, you should type the whole name plus the expanded-name. Example for file named party: attrib party.jpg -r -a -s -h.
- If you have folder names with 6 characters or more, type the first 6 characters followed by '~1'. Example for folder named birthday: attrib birthd~1 -r -a -s -h.
Possible cause 2 – there are file system errors.
In some cases, the files may be not showing in external hard drive because the file system is corrupted or because it doesn't contain a recognized file system. At this time, you had better recover data from external hard drive firstly.
Here's how to confirm:
- Right click on the external hard drive.
- Choose Properties.
- Select Tools tab and click on the Check now button.
- Check Automatically fix file system errors from the pop-up window.
- Click on the Start button to begin and wait for the process.
Possible cause 3 – 'CheckedValue' is suffering from virus infection.
Here's how to fix:
- Run Regedit.
- Then, follow this route in Registry Editor: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvancedFolderHiddenSHOWAL.
- Check whether the data value of CheckedValue is 1.
- If NOT, delete CheckedValue, create a new DWOR in the blank and rename it as CheckedValue. After that, modify the value data as 1.
Possible cause 4 – the mirror image in memory is damaged.
Sometimes the mirror image in memory is damaged and the operating system does not respond a timely refresh, which happens by chance.
How to fix: restart the computer and then reconnect the external hard drive to check if the actual files are shown.
That's all for the solutions. In fact, each solution has helped many users get rid of files not showing in external hard drive problem, and I also hope they are helpful for you.
2 Cases for Missing Files from External Hard Drive
But what's the real story? How exactly did they disappear? These kinds of questions are all over the internet. The following mentioned examples are just a drop in the bucket.
Case 1:
I have a problem with my external hard disk. I saved some school documents on my drive. When I got to the school computer to copy my home task, then I noticed all my folders went missing, except ones that are not in folder. I still have my used memory, but can't see my folders. Please help me!shegzy4 from Makeuseof
Case 2:
Hey guys I have a problem with my external hard drive .. 2 days ago I've bought a new laptop and when I plugged my hard drive into it to install some games I found that it doesn't contain anything except 2 files. Also it shows 900 GB used space and this means that my old files are still there. So please help me return them back because I need them. By the way I've tried showing hidden folders and everything in folder options.Sarooo from Tomshardware
Faced with such confusion, most users behave like ants on hot bricks, while some users skillfully find that if they try to type the path or address of a specific folder, it opens. However, typically you have stored large numbers of files and folders in the external hard drive and you cannot remember all names of folders…So any better idea?
Learn More about External Hard Drive
Different from internal hard drive, an external hard drive is a portable storage device that can be attached to a computer via USB, eSATA, or Firewire. External hard drives typically have high storage capacities and are often used to back up computers.
Having our videos, pictures and other large files copied to an external hard drive is a safe way to back up things. Besides, external hard drive is always acting as a data storage medium and transmission medium, thus you don't have to carry on computers with you everywhere.
External Hard Drive Becomes a Necessity in Modern Life
External hard drive enjoys many advantages when compared to other storage devices, so they are getting more and more closely to our daily life. Today people are accustomed to bring an external hard drive with us in case of data transmission, such as to deal with working paper between office and home.
By using external hard drive, you can avoid the network requirement, the uploading and downloading process, and time. But, if your families share one computer with you at home, there will be a big risk of data loss. So backing up important data to external hard drive becomes a wise choice.
During the process of using external hard drives, you will inevitably encounter some difficulties, 'external hard drive doesn't appear in My Computer' and 'files not shown in external hard drive'. I have laid my emphasis on the second issue in this post.
Characteristics That Make External Hard Drive Popular
External hard drives usually have the following advantages in common:
- Small volume: an external hard drive is usually several inches in size, such as 2.5 inches, 3.5 inches in common.
- Large capacity: external hard drives always adopt large capacity and the unit is always Terabyte.
- High speed: external hard drive connected via Firewire usually works at high speed, which makes it rather easy to transfer data between computer and external hard drives.
- Portability: since external hard drives have small volume, it is available to carry them everywhere.
- Easy to use: external hard drive is very easy to handle. It can be applied in both Windows & Mac and will be automatically detected in a few seconds. Then you can use it like internal hard drive.
- Lower cost per GB: the price of external hard drive is getting lower and lower due to proven technique. Normally you only spend several cents per GB on an external hard drive.
Bottom Line
I have noticed 'files not showing in external hard drive' is a frequently asked question in many forums. Therefore, in this post I have summarized almost all feasible solutions for users who have got a headache on this issue. Program adobe premiere.
What is bluestacks for windows. Remember, external hard drives today have become indispensable medium for us to deal with data backup, privacy protection, data transmission, and so on, so you need to pay more attention to the operations you have made during the usage to avoid unnecessary trouble.
What's more? Once something unlucky happens and leads to serious data loss, you should stop all operations and turn to reliable solutions quickly, so as to ensure the largest possibility for data recovery.
Files Not Showing in External Hard Drive FAQ
- Open File Explorer the way you like.
- Select View from the menu bar.
- Click Options and choose Change folder and search options.
- Go to the View tab and look for the Advanced settings area.
- Check Show hidden files, folders, and drives and click OK.
Summary: External hard drive not mounting on Mac means that you can't access data stored on it. This page helps you mount external hard drives, as well as SD cards and USB flash drives, etc. on Mac. If the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, you can download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drives.
Usually, an external hard drive will appear (aka mounted) automatically on your Mac once you plug it in, and you can access data on this drive. So, it's annoying when you find that your external hard drive is not mounting for the com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error or not recognized by your Mac, just like the user below.
'I have a 500 GB LaCie external hard drive, formatted as macOS Extend journaled on MacBook Pro 2014 and I have been using it to do Time Machine backups. Now after updating, macOS is not mounting this external hard drive. The main drive is greyed out in Disk Utility and the partition is not showing up. I can't do First Aid as my LaCie external drive does not mount on the MacBook Pro. Any ideas? Thanks!'
Wondering 'why my external hard drives won't mount on Mac'? This post explains the reasons and teachs how to fix this disk problem without losing data.
Dos and Don'ts When External Hard Drive Not Mounting on Mac
Before you go further, it's better to know what you can do and can't do.
1. Do not go straight to reformat this not mounted external hard drive, especially when you have important files on it. Reformatting will wipe the data on this disk and cause serious data loss.
2. Do not run First Aid to directly repair the disk, any further operation is very likely to overwrite your original files and make them unrecoverable.
3. Check if you have a copy of a data backup. If not, recover important files from this unmountable external hard drive first to avoid data loss.
Now, let's make the external disk accessible on Mac.
Fix external hard drives not mounting issue on Mac
To access your external hard drive on Mac, try solutions suggested in this part one by one. Hopefully, you'll be able to open this external hard drive on Mac again.
First, try some simple tricks to mount external hard drive on Mac
In case you miss anything necessary, you can first have some basic checks as following:
1. Re-plug your external hard drive to another port or try another USB cable.
A faulty connection, though it is foolproof, might be the key fix if LaCie thunderbolt drive is not mounting, in that users always forget to check if the port is wobbly or if the cable is broken.
2. Try a super slow jam.
Strange but true, some users found that their external will mount properly when they plug it in exceptional slow motion. However, if they try and plug in the external hard drive normally, the Mac doesn't recognize the disk.
3. Check your Finder Preferences.
When your external hard drive does not appear on the desktop, you can open Finder, choose 'Preference' (or press Command +, ) and check 'External disks' both in General tab and in Sidebar tab to show your external hard drive on your Mac computer.
If Mac could not mount the external hard drive on desktop still, let's troubleshoot this issue with the following solutions.
Solution 1: Force mount this external hard drive in Disk Utility
If you can't find the external hard drive on the desktop or in the Finder, you can try to make the disk online manually in Disk Utility (a native disk management tool in your Mac).
Here is how to mount an external hard drive on Mac:
- 1. Click Go at the upper left of your desktop and go to Utilities, then launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
- 2. Click on 'Show All Devices' in View option to list or connected drives.
- 3. Choose the grayed external hard drive in the left sidebar.
- 4. Select Mount in the top center of Disk Utility.
However, if you find that your external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility (not a single volume but the whole disk disappears), it is very likely that your disk is suffering some physical damage. In this case, you need to send it to a local data recovery service. But if the Mount option is grayed out and you can see this external hard drive in Disk Utility, you can try another solution then.
Solution 2: Repair this unmountable external hard drive with First Aid
The second suggestion is First Aid in Disk Utility if you are unable to mount the external hard drive on Mac. First Aid is a very simple tool that is built in your Mac, and it is able to detect and repair directory damage and other disk errors. You are advised to run the tool more than once to ensure you are receiving a consistent result.
Follow the instructions and repair the external hard drive that is not accepted by your macOS or Mac OS X.
- 1. Go to Utilities and launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
- 2. Select the unmountable external hard drive on the left sidebar.
- 3. Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.
Solution 3: Reformat the unmounted external hard drive
If your external hard drive still can't be mounted in Disk Utility after you perform First Aid, or if First Aid failed to repair it like the situation below, your drive should have some serious errors like file system corruption.
• Disk Utility can't repair this disk, what do to?
• How to format external hard drives on Mac?
Lacie External Hard Drive Not Showing Up
In this case, you need to back up your important data on the external hard drive, such as family photos, valuable work documents, or any other files. If you don't have a copy of a data backup in hand, the following guide can help you recover lost data from this unmountable external hard drive. And then, you can reformat your exteranl hard drive to make it work again on Mac.
How to recover data from an external hard drive that won't mount?
Lacie Drive Not Working
As long as your external hard drive doesn't have any hardware problem, fortunately, you can retrieve your files with professional Mac data recovery software - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac with no fuss.
Best External Hard Drive Data Recovery - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
- Recover lost data from unmountable, formatted, inaccessible, unreadable, corrupted external hard drives.
- Supported storage devices: external hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, SD cards, etc.
- Supported file types: photos, videos, audio files, documents, emails, etc.
- Suppported Mac OS: macOS Big Sur 11/10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Read-only & risk-free
Tutorial for external hard drive data recovery on Mac with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
My Lacie Drive Won't Show Up
- 1. Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your computer, and then restart your Mac.
- 2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- 3. Select the external hard drive that is not mounting and click Scan button to scan for all lost data.
- 4. Preview the searching results, choose files you need, and click Recover to get them back.
- 5. Have a check to ensure you have got all lost data back.
Note: You need to save the recovered files to another usable drive.
After having successfully restored all data on this drive, you can set out to erase this external hard drive to fix the disk not mounting on Mac issue.
Tutorial to reformat unmountable external hard drives on Mac
- 1. Launch Disk Utility.
- 2. Click the icon of your unmountable external hard drive on the left sidebar.
- 3. Click on the Erase button function on the top of the Disk Utility window.
- 4. Complete the related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase button to finish reformatting.
After reformatting, your external hard drive will be assigned with a new file system so that you can mount this unmountable hard drive again.
Then, why we can't access the external hard drive on Mac?
My Lacie Drive Won't Show Up On My Computer
Probably, the user above would never know why his MacBook is not mounting the external hard drive. As a matter of fact, this problem could be caused by many factors, such as damaged file system, virus attack, unsafe ejection or any other improper operations.
Here are some common ones.
- A damaged file system: If your external hard drive is attacked by virus or if you abruptly eject this drive, it's likely that the file system of this disk would be damaged or corrupted. As a result, the operating system is unable to recognize this disk, and the disk will not be mounted or read by macOS.
- Connection problems: Another reason that hard drive won't mount on Mac could be a dirty or loose connection between your cable, USB-C multi-adapter, Thunderbolt 3, or other connecting ports. A clear, clean, snug and fit tightly connection is the premise of mounting an external hard drive successfully.
- Hardware issue: Also, problems related to hardware could also make the disk unmountable, especially when your external hard drive has too much bad sectors or have been physically damaged.
Knowledge Base: What does 'Mount' mean on Mac?
Mounting an external hard disk means the macOS gives a mount point (entrance) to read and access information on the hard drive. Information is accessed by the disk file system and partition table. So, it's a necessary step before the operating system can access a disk (including read from and write to).
Therefore, if an externalhard drive won't mount on Mac, it means the system gets into trouble in recognizing the file system or other information of this hard drive.
Conclusion:
If your external hard drive is not mounting on your Mac, don't panic. Most of the time, you are going to fix this disk problem with the solutions above. Moreover, if you worry about data loss when the disk becomes unmountable, you can use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover your files first. Remember that, no matter what disk problem you meet, you should perform hard drive data recovery in case of losing data.