#Change your hard drives boot drive mac how to
#Change your hard drives boot drive mac software
#Change your hard drives boot drive mac mac

Check that the drive is receiving enough power.

Make sure your drive doesnвЂ™t have or use a power-saving or sleep function.

Try attaching the external drive to another computer to see if it works on that one to rule out damage to the drive itself.

Some imported drives come completely empty, and while macOS should detect and offer to format them, it doesnвЂ™t always work.

Make sure the drive has been formatted.

#Change your hard drives boot drive mac mac

Reboot your Mac to see if it was an open program or app stopping the drive from being detected.

Try a different wall outlet if there is one nearby.

Change the hard drive power cable if you have a spare.

Check the condition of the cable and swap it if you have a spare.

Check that the external hard drive has power if it needs it.

Check that the cable from the hard drive to your Mac is connected properly.

After all, no one wants to waste half a day because they didnвЂ™t realize something just wasnвЂ™t plugged in properly. Get into the habit of doing this with any computer issues, as it can save time, money, and hassle in the long run. Troubleshooting an External Drive with a Mac First, we will check the basics, and from there we make sure that macOS is set up to display external drives, can mount the drive, and that the drive has no errors on either the disk itself or its file structure. If your external drive still doesnвЂ™t appear, we have a couple of simple troubleshooting tips to fix an external hard drive not showing up on Mac. вЂќДЇrom there you can troubleshoot the problem and usually fix it. Then, use the Search bar in the upper right-hand corner and search for вЂњ Disk Utility.

If you have trouble finding it, simply open Finder (the icon that looks like a blue and grey face) and click on Applications on the left-hand side.

This is a sub-folder within the Applications folder, with a crossed screwdriver and wrench on the folder icon, while Disk Utility looks like a hard drive being examined with a stethoscope.

If it doesnвЂ™t show up in Finder, though, it will surely show up in the Disk Utility within Utilities.

From here, Finder should open showing your external drive.

You can use the Thunderbolt, USB, or even the USB-C port depending on the model youвЂ™re using.

All you need to do is connect the external hard drive to your Mac or MacBook.

WeвЂ™re using Catalina and Sierra, but the instructions are all fairly similar.Д®xternal drives are a cheap way to expand storage without having to replace the internal hard drive.

#Change your hard drives boot drive mac software

The steps may vary depending on your software version so if weвЂ™ve missed a step check out AppleвЂ™s article here. LetвЂ™s first ensure that youвЂ™ve properly connected your external hard drive and walk through some basic setup steps.

#Change your hard drives boot drive mac how to

How to Connect Your External Hard Drive to a Mac In this article, weвЂ™ll explain how to get your external hard drive to appear. Even when youвЂ™ve completed all basic troubleshooting tips, it may not appear. One of the more frustrating issues you can come across is an external hard drive not showing up on a Mac.

These issues are all the more frustrating because of their rarity, and they may need a little work to figure out.