Mac: External hard drive cannot be activated - you can do that

It just worked! - Sudden connection problems to the external hard drive are a widespread problem among Mac users. Here's what you can do if an external hard drive on your Mac can no longer be activated.

1. Reactivating the hard disk via the power / data cable

If there is insufficient power, the hard drive will not connect to the Mac.

• Typically, the Mac itself provides enough power to the external hard drives. However, if this is not the case, you must connect it to the power network with an additional power cable . Also remove other devices connected to the USB slots to keep power consumption as low as possible.

2. Self-activation via the MacOS hard disk utility

However, it can also happen that your Mac simply has not yet activated the hard drive.

1. Using the hard disk utility program tool, you can manually start external devices that are not yet mounted (that is, have not yet started) using the "Activate" button.

3. Restart the Mac

A simple reactivation of the hard disk by restarting can also lead to a solution.

• It may sound primitive, but a simple restart often helps so that the hard drive can reactivate itself. You should then find the hard drive via "Devices" in the Finder.

In another article, we also explain how to format a hard drive on Mac.