Why your Mac does not recognize external hard drive.Let’s take a look at why this is happening and how you can fix the external hard drive not showing up problem: And besides, there can be a risk that data on the external USB pen, hard, or flash drive is corrupt, which means you can’t transfer what you need between devices at all.Ĭorrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too. It’s annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then. However, sometimes, an external hard drive doesn't show up. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the Finder in the left-hand column under Locations. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Disk Drill brings deleted files back from the dead.