My external hard drive suddenly stopped showing up in Finder or Disk Utility on my Mac. It contains important files I need to recover, and I’m looking for safe troubleshooting or data recovery options that won’t erase the drive.
The catch is that recovery software cannot scan a drive macOS does not detect at the hardware level. Check System Information under USB or Thunderbolt, then try another cable, port, power adapter, enclosure, or Mac. Do not initialize, erase, format, or run First Aid yet. If the drive appears again, Disk Drill for Mac can scan it, but recover files to a different drive. If it clicks, spins down, or never appears in System Information, stop powering it up and consider a professional recovery lab.
Disk Utility can hide the physical drive unless you select View > Show All Devices. Check that and run diskutil list in Terminal. If the device appears but its volume does not, make a sector-by-sector image or clone first and recover from that copy rather than stressing the original. If it is absent from both places, recovery software will not see it, so repeated reconnects are more risk than help.
The missing detail is whether the drive powers up normally. Try a known-good cable, another port, and, for a desktop drive, its original power adapter. A failed USB enclosure can make a healthy disk disappear completely. Don’t click Initialize, Erase, or First Aid yet. If the Mac eventually detects the device, Disk Drill may scan it, but recover files to a different drive. Clicking, beeping, or repeated spin-up attempts mean stop testing and consider a recovery lab.
Pull the bare drive out of a dead enclosure and drop it into a cheap dock or new enclosure before you spend a cent on a lab. @foxhq already hinted the enclosure can be the whole problem, and nine times out of ten that’s exactly it with USB desktop drives. Once the disk mounts that way, then let something like Disk Drill scan it to a separate drive.