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How to Recover Data from Unmounted APFS External Hard Drive

Wondershare Recoverit Authors

Mar 28, 2024 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions

Thanks to its portability and reliability, the APFS external hard drive has become an excellent storage tool. Though it is reliable, defaults like unmounted isssue happen occasionally, which may lead to data loss. To solve the troublesome issue, read the guide to get idea on how to recover your data from an unmounted APFS hard drive.

What Are the Causes of APFS Unmounting?

The causes of this problem are usually easy to prevent by taking some precautionary measures, also, knowing the possible causes is necessary to make an accurate diagnosis of the current state of your hard drive and thus know if it is prudent or not to continue using it if you need change some component. Next, I will talk about the most common causes of APFS unmounting.


Steps to Mount Your APFS Drive via Disk Utility

Mounting a disk is necessary to be able to use it regardless of the use you want to give the information you store on it. Through "Disk Utility" it is very simple since the tool has a practical and intuitive user interface.

Step 1 Launch "Disk Utility"

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You can find this tool in the "Applications" section.

Step 2 Select the APFS external hard drive

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Once "Disk utility" is open you will see a list on the left side of the window, here you will find all the connected disks.

Step 3 Click on the "Mount" button

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Once you have selected the drive, in the top panel you will see some available options, now click on "Mount"


How to Recover Data from Unmounted APFS External Hard Drive?

It is always advisable to have at least one backup of the important and necessary data. In this way, if data loss and data corruption happen, you could easily access it through the backup copy.

But if you do not have any backup, don't worry! it is possible to fully recover the information from your unmounted external hard drive. Wondershare Recovery is an ideal tool since it can recover APFS files even when it has been deleted or corrupted in three simple steps. You can download it and start your data recovery trip!

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Step 1 Select the APFS Drive

recoverit select apfs hard drive

To recover lost or deleted files from an external hard drive, you should choose it as the target location for data scanning and searching.

Step 2 Scan the Drive

mac scanning lost files

An all-around scan starts once you make the choice. Usually, the process takes from seconds to minutes, it is depended on your scanning file volume. During the process, you can filter and locate files.

Step 3 Preview and recover files

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During scanning, you can "Preview" the files to make sure whether it is what you want. Then, select one or batch and click "Recover" to get your data back.


How to Reformat the Unmounted APFS Drive?

The format of a hard disk is essential for the operating system to identify the logical order of structuring the files, therefore, all storage devices need a format to manage data and the information that makes up this format is hosted within the storage device, whereby, when the storage medium suffers loss or damage to the information contained, this may compromise the integrity of its format.

If your External Hard Drive suffered damage to its format but remains in good physical condition, you probably want to reformat the disk to continue using it. Formatting an external hard drive is simple and you can use the Disk Utility tool for this purpose but it is important to keep in mind that once you do this process you will erase all the information stored on the disk so you will not be able to recover it by conventional means, but don't worry, you can do it with the help of a professional data recovery software.

Step 1 Open the "Disk Utility"

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Go to "Utilities" and click on "Disk Utility"

Step 2 Choose the Drive

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Click the icon of your hard drive in the sidebar on the left. (Make sure you have selected the correct disk since formatting the disk will erase the information it contains).

Step 3 Go to "Erase" section

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Click the Erase tab along the top of the window and choose a Format and a Name for the Disk.

Step 4 Click on "Erase"

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Click the Erase button to start the format operation. After the format completes, the unreadable/unmounted APFS drive will be working again.

Read More: How to Mount APFS Drive on Linux


Conclusion

An unmounted hard drive may seem like a serious problem, however, it is a common problem experienced. Just taking some precautionary measures, you can prevent these problems from arising in the future. Besides that, if you are facing with data loss due to unmounted APFS hard drive, you can retrieve your files easily through Recoverit. Hope you have got the problem settled.

Recoverit author

Theo Lucia

chief Editor

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