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How To Fix An External Hard Drive Is Seen In Disk Utility But Not Finder?

My external hard drive can be seen by Disk Utility but not by Finder. Also, Disk Utility says the hard drive is full. I have tried this hard drive on both Windows computers and other Macs, neither of which had any issues accessing the files. I also have another external hard drive that I use for the Time Machine, and it can be seen by both Finder and Disk Utility. Hoping someone on here can help me!!

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Vain Rowe

Vain Rowe

Answered on Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Hi there, since you have mentioned that Disk Utility can see your hard drive without a hitch, I can tell the hard drive works fine on your computer. As the issue that the hard drive shows up in Disk Utility but not in Finder, I recommend you check the Finder preferences: 

Step 1: Go to Finder > Preferences > General tab and select "External disks" to make external hard drives show on the desktop.

Step 2: Go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar and make sure the "External disks" under "Locations" are ticked. Then your external hard drive will appear in a Finder window.

Step 3: Go to Desktop/Finder and check if your external hard drive is showing up.

 

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