How to connect external hard drive to imac?

1. Connect the FireWire, Thunderbolt, or USB cable betwixt the drive and your computer.
2. Plug the external drive into a convenient surge protector or UPS (uninterruptible power supply).
3. Switch on the external drive.

Best answer for this question, how do I get my Mac to read an external hard drive? Go to Applications → Utilities → Disk Utility → View → Show All Devices. The sidebar on the left will display any external drives — you should be able to view your hard drive there. Click on the volume for a menu to appear. If the drive has been mounted, there will be an option to unmount the device.

You asked, why can’t I use my external hard drive on my Mac? Sometimes when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac, you’ll find that it’s set to read only. This happens because the drive is formatted with Microsoft’s NTFS filesystem, which macOS doesn’t support by default. Fortunately, it’s easy to fix so that your external hard drive is no longer read only.

Similarly, how do I get my computer to recognize an external hard drive?

1. Make Sure It’s Plugged In and Powered On. Western Digital My Book.
2. Try Another USB Port (or Another PC)
3. Update Your Drivers.
4. Enable and Format the Drive in Disk Management.
5. Clean the Disk and Start From Scratch.
6. Remove and Test the Bare Drive.

Correspondingly, will any external hard drive work with Mac? Will hard drives formatted for PC work on a Mac? Generally, yes—for the most part, a hard drive is a hard drive, and any hard drive you buy for a Windows PC should work fine on a Mac as well. … Otherwise, any hard drive with a USB connection should have no trouble working on a Mac.Answer: A: Answer: A: Open Disk Utility, select your drive from the left side list, then click on the Enable Journaling icon in the toolbar. This will do what you want without losing anything.

How do I fix Windows not recognizing my external hard drive?

1. Make Sure It’s Plugged In and Powered On. Western Digital My Book.
2. Try Another USB Port (or Another PC)
3. Update Your Drivers.
4. Enable and Format the Drive in Disk Management.
5. Clean the Disk and Start From Scratch.
6. Remove and Test the Bare Drive.

Why is my Macbook Pro not recognizing my external hard drive?

If you’ve plugged in a flash drive or USB drive and it’s not showing up on your Mac at all, it could be down to a faulty cable or USB port. … Try a different USB cable — even cables with no visible defects can fail. Try connecting the hard drive to a different USB port — it could be a hardware issue.

Why is my Seagate external hard drive not showing up?

If your Seagate external hard drive is detected, the original cable is the cause. If the problem still appears, connect the external hard drive to another USB port. … If your computer is desktop, you should make sure that the USB port into which the Seagate external hard drive plugs is on the back of your computer.

Is Seagate hard drive compatible with Mac?

Newer Seagate and LaCie branded external drives come preformatted with the exFAT file system, which allows it to be used on both Mac and Windows without reformatting the drive.

How do I move photos from Mac to external hard drive?

Right click on the Photos library icon and select Get Info. Verify that you have enough free space for the library on the external drive. Drag and drop the Photos library icon onto the hard drive icon either in Finder or on your Desktop. Wait for the copy to complete.

How do I make my external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC?

1. Select the drive you want to format.
2. Enter the amount of space you want to set aside for Time Machine.
3. Select the new untitled partition so we can format it as exFAT for use with both Mac and Windows.
4. Give the partition a name and select exFAT for the format.

What happens when you format an external hard drive?

When computer’s the hard drive is formatted or reformatted, all the data on the disk will be erased completely and a new copy of the operating system will be reinstalled. … Formatting a hard drive can improve your computer performance through deleting harmful programs during the process.

Can I change the format of my external hard drive without losing files?

Yes, It Is Possible! It’s perfectly possible to wipe your hard drive without losing all your data. The process requires you to format your drive, then use data recovery tools to salvage your data.

Why is my computer not detecting my hard drive?

If your new harddisk is not detected by or Disk Manager, it could be because of a driver issue, connection issue, or faulty BIOS settings. These can be fixed. Connection issues can be from a faulty USB port, or a damaged cable. Incorrect BIOS settings may cause the new hard drive to be disabled.

How do I fix Seagate External Hard Drive not detected?

1. Try connecting the drive to a different port on the computer.
2. If possible, try using a different cable.
3. Try using the drive on a different computer.
4. Verify the drive light is on.
5. Try a different power outlet.

Why is my TV not recognizing my external hard drive?

If your TV does not support the NTFS file format, but prefers the Fat32 format instead, then you will need to download a third party utility to convert your NTFS drive to Fat32 — since Windows 7 cannot do this natively. One go-to application that has worked well for us in the past is Fat32format.