My External Hard Drive Became Unreadable, How Can I Access the Videos on It?

data recovery
1

I stored my recently filmed event on an external hard drive. However, when I connected it to my Mac Pro and tried to play the video, I found the drive had become inaccessible.

It shows up on the desktop, but I can’t open it. Any reliable ways to access my videos? They are important to me. Much appreciated.

2

If the drive mounts (shows on the desktop) but won’t open, that’s actually a good sign; it means macOS can still detect the device. The issue is likely at the file system or permission level, not total hardware failure.

Here’s how I’d approach it step by step on macOS:

1. Check Disk Utility

  • Open Disk Utility → select the external drive
  • Click First Aid
  • This can fix minor file system corruption

2. Identify the file system

  • If it’s NTFS, macOS can read but sometimes struggles if the drive wasn’t ejected properly from Windows
  • If it’s exFAT/APFS/HFS+, compatibility should be fine.

3. Try remounting the drive manually

  • Access Disk Utility
  • Select the external drive from the left sidebar
  • Click Unmount and then click Mount to mount it again.

4. Data recovery (if needed)
If the above ways failed, it shows that the file system is corrupted:

  • Use recovery tools before reformatting the drive

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can help you recover files from an inaccessible, corrupted external disk. Once you have installed it, select your drive and let it scan your external drive to show up the recoverable videos. Then you can recover them with one-click.

:point_right: Key point: since it still shows up, your videos are likely recoverable, unless the drive has severe physical damage.