External Hard Drive does not mount on MacBook Air (Sonoma 14.1.1)

My TOSHIBA Canvio External Hard Drive 2TB suddenly stopped mounting on my Macbook Air.

I've tried Disk Utility setting to force mount but it failed and First Aid also does not work.


Here's the failure error on First Aid diagnosis:


Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

The hard drive was mounting correctly 2 days ago, and I could not think of any operational misbehavior that may have caused this. Any advise will help. Thank you.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.1

Posted on Nov 11, 2023 9:00 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 11, 2023 9:39 PM

kosuke178 Said:

"External Hard Drive does not mount on MacBook Air (Sonoma 14.1.1)"

-------


If a Drive Won't Mount:


A. Verify the Connection:

See if the speaker is even seen: 

  1. Hold Down: the Option key
  2. Click: the Apple menu
  3. Click: System Information button
  4. Select: Storage (on the left of screen)
  5. Select: USB (on the left of screen)
  6. Look For this hard drive


B. Try Another Computer:

Does this read on any other computer, particularly a Mac?


C. Use a Different Cable:

The cable may have gone bad. So, try another one.


D. Perform a SMC and NVRAM Reset:

Sometimes changes are made to the system(i.e. updates) and then settings (i.e. for Power) become manipulated, technically.  So, reset both the SMC and NVRAM on your Mac.


E. Single-Out this User:

Create an Administrator user (for troubleshooting this), and then log into it. Once logged in, plug the drive in, and then see if it connects and is accessible. If so, then is is an issue with the current user. If not, then it is an issue with the entire macOS or Mac itself.

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2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 11, 2023 9:39 PM in response to kosuke178

kosuke178 Said:

"External Hard Drive does not mount on MacBook Air (Sonoma 14.1.1)"

-------


If a Drive Won't Mount:


A. Verify the Connection:

See if the speaker is even seen: 

  1. Hold Down: the Option key
  2. Click: the Apple menu
  3. Click: System Information button
  4. Select: Storage (on the left of screen)
  5. Select: USB (on the left of screen)
  6. Look For this hard drive


B. Try Another Computer:

Does this read on any other computer, particularly a Mac?


C. Use a Different Cable:

The cable may have gone bad. So, try another one.


D. Perform a SMC and NVRAM Reset:

Sometimes changes are made to the system(i.e. updates) and then settings (i.e. for Power) become manipulated, technically.  So, reset both the SMC and NVRAM on your Mac.


E. Single-Out this User:

Create an Administrator user (for troubleshooting this), and then log into it. Once logged in, plug the drive in, and then see if it connects and is accessible. If so, then is is an issue with the current user. If not, then it is an issue with the entire macOS or Mac itself.

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External Hard Drive does not mount on MacBook Air (Sonoma 14.1.1)

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