Can't Access Files on My External Hard Drive, How to Fix

All my files are on an external hard drive, Seagate Backup Plus 4 TB, formatted APFS and encrypted. It shows up in Disk Utility and on the desktop, but when I go into an application, it doesn't show the hard drive.

Best Answered by

Brithny· Answered on Jan 04, 2024

Can't access files on my external hard drive? Don't worry, this article will introduce 2 effective ways to access the external hard drive on your Mac. If your Seagate not showing up on Mac, first you should check if the Seagate external hard drive is connected failure or physically damaged.

Try to replug, use another USB plot, test the external hard drive on another device, or restart your Mac to fix the issue of Mac external hard drive not showing up. An unreadable external disk can also result from a file system crash, in which case you must format your disk to ensure that it returns to normal use.

Before formatting it, you should recover data on the external hard drive if you storing essential data on it. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is a powerful data recovery tool that can recover numerous types of files from every storage device. Check out the following steps:

Step 1. Connect the Seagate external hard drive to your Mac, open the EaseUS recovery software, and choose the external hard drive.

Step 2. Click 'Search for lost files' to view all the files on the Seagate external hard drive. Opt for one of the files in the scanning list and click 'Preview' to view its content.

Step 3. Select the files you want to save, click 'Recover', and choose a safe location on other hard drives rather than the Seagate external hard drive to save them.

And then, you can format the external hard drive using Disk Utility. Follow the steps here:

Step 1. Start your Mac into Recovery Mode, and choose 'Disk Utility' to continue.

Step 2. Select the unmountable Seagate external hard drive in the left panel, and click 'Erase'.

Step 3. Choose the new format of the Seagate external hard drive, and rename it if you want.

Step 4. Click 'Erase' again to confirm, and the external hard drive will be formatted in a few minutes.

Waiting for the external hard drive to erase, click 'Unmount', and replug it to check if it works correctly.

Use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover deleted or lost files easily and quickly.

Tutorials on how to recover lost, deleted, or formatted data from HDD, SSD, USB, SD card, or other storage media on Windows and Mac.

People Also Ask