How to Eject Your External Hard Drive on a Mac

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Are you having trouble ejecting an external hard drive from your Mac? If so, you’re not alone. Ejecting an external hard drive from a Mac can be tricky, as there are several different ways to do it depending on whch version of macOS you’re using. Fortunately, we’ve got all the information you need to easily and safely eject your external hard drive in no time.

First off, let’s look at the basics of an external hard drive. An external hard drive is a storage device that plugs into your computer via a USB port or FireWire connection. This type of storage device is typically used to store large amounts of data, such as music, documents, and photos. It’s also great for backing up important files and transferring data betwen computers.

Now that we know what an external hard drive is and why people use them, let’s move on to how to eject one from your Mac. The most common way to eject an external hard drive from a Mac is by clicking the Eject icon next to the name of the device in Finder. This method works with any version of macOS and requires no additional software or drivers. If you don’t see the Eject icon in Finder when you plug in an external hard drive, then you may need to install additional drivers for it beore proceeding.

If you’re using macOS Sierra 10.12 or earlier, anoter method for ejecting an external hard drive is dragging it directly into the trash can located in Finder or on the desktop screen. For those using macOS High Sierra 10.13 or later, this method no longer works as Apple has removed this feature from its operating system due to potential data loss issues associated with it.

For users running macOS Mojave 10.14 or later, yet another method for ejecting an external hard drive is by using Disk Utility found within Finder > Applications > Utilities folder (or by searching ‘Disk Utility’ in Spotlight). Once opened, select the volume containing your external hard drive on list left side then select Eject from the bottom right corner (it looks like a triangle pointing down). This will safely remove your device without risk of damaging any data stored on it.

Finally, if all else fails and none of these methods work for ejecting your external hard drive from a Mac then simply restart your computer and try again afterwards; this should solve amost any issue related to disconnecting an external storage device from Macs running any version of macOS (except Big Sur).

We hope this article was helpful in showing you how to easily and safely eject an external hard drive from your Mac! If there are other methods that work beter for you than those listed above then please feel free to share them with us in the comments section below!

How to Eject Your External Hard Drive on a Mac 1

Ejecting an External Hard Drive from a Mac

To eject an external hard drive from your Mac, you can do one of the following:

1. Select the item to eject, then choose File > Eject. In the Finder sidebar, click the Eject button next to the item’s name.
2. On the desktop, drag the item that you want to eject to the Trash.
3. If you have an optical drive connected, you can quickly eject disks usig the Eject menu in the menu bar.

Troubleshooting Issues with Ejecting an External Drive

There are several possible reasons why you may not be able to eject your external drive. The most common cause of this issue is that the external drive is being used by a program or process running in the background. This will prevent the drive from being ejected until the program or process is closed. Another possibility is that there are corrupted or incomplete files on the external drive, which can prevent it from being ejected. Finally, if you have recently installed any programs or updates, they may have caused conflicts with the external drive and prevented it from being ejected.

Forcing Ejection of an External Hard Drive

To force eject your external hard drive, you need to first open File Explorer. You can do this by holding the Windows key + E, or double clicking This PC. Once File Explorer is open, navigate to My PC on the left side of the window and find your external USB hard drive. Right-click it, then select Eject. If this does not work, try uing the Safely Remove Hardware feature in the system tray at the bottom right corner of your screen. If this still doesn’t work, you may need to shut down your computer and physically unplug your external hard drive in order for it to be ejected properly.

Forcing Ejection of an External Hard Drive from Mac Terminal

In order to force eject an external hard drive from Mac terminal, you will need to use the diskutil command. First, open your Terminal window. Then, type in “diskutil list” and hit enter. This will show you a list of all the disks connected to your machine, including your external hard drive. To unmount the drive, you will need to know its identifier. The identifier is usually a long string of letters and numbers in the form of diskXsY (X beng a number and Y being a letter). Once you have identified the correct disk (make sure you double-check), type in “diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskXsY” (replace X and Y with the actual values) and hit enter again. This should force eject your external hard drive from Mac terminal.

Ejecting a Drive Without an Option

If you don’t see an option to eject your drive, you can still safely remove it by following these steps:
1. Open File Explorer and locate the drive you want to remove.
2. Right-click the drive and select “Eject” from the menu.
3. Wait for the drive to finish any tasks it is currently performing and disconnect it from your computer.
4. If there are any files open on the drive, make sure to close them before ejecting.
5. You sould now be able to safely disconnect your drive without risking data loss or corruption.

Ejecting USB From Mac Without Icon

Method 2: The Force Eject option To eject USB drives from Mac withut their icon, you can use the Force Eject option. To access this, open Finder and select the USB drive in the sidebar. Then, right-click on it and select the “Eject” option. This will force your Mac to eject the drive without displaying its icon. However, you should use caution when using this method as it may cause data loss if not done correctly.

The Consequences of Unplugging an External Hard Drive Without Ejecting

No, it is not recommended that you unplug your external hard drive witout first ejecting it. Ejecting the drive will ensure that any data currently being written to the drive is properly stored and that the drive is safely disconnected from your computer. If you disconnect the drive without ejecting, there is a chance that any data currently being written will not be saved or could be corrupted. To avoid this, it is best to always eject your external hard drive before unplugging it.

Manually Ejecting a Hard Drive

Manually ejecting a hard drive is easy and straightforward. First, locate the external storage device’s icon on the desktop. Then, drag the icon to the Trash bin, which will change to an Eject icon. Alternatively, you can hold down the “Ctrl” key and left-click your mouse on the external drive’s icon. This will bring up a pop-up menu with an Eject option that you can select. Once you select this option, the drive will be ejected from your computer. It is important to remember to safely eject any external drives beore unplugging them from your computer to avoid any potential data loss or corruption.

Ejecting a Seagate from a Mac

To eject a Seagate drive from your Mac, first open a Finder window. On the sidebar, select either Devices or Locations and locate the Seagate drive you want to eject. Click the eject symbol which is located to the right of the drive name. Once you have clicked the eject symbol, wait until the device disappears from the sidebar or for the Finder window to close. When this happens, your Seagate drive has been successfully ejected and is safe to disconnect from your Mac.

Unable to Unmount External Hard Drive on Mac

Your Mac can’t unmount your external hard drive because it is currently being used. This means the files or folders on the drive are open, or the operating system is running off of it. In order to unmount the drive, you must close any open files or applications that are using it and then eject it from Finder or Disk Utility.

Fixing an Unresponsive External Hard Drive on Mac

If your external hard drive is unresponsive on your Mac, there are a few steps you can take to try and fix it. First, make sure that the drive is securely connected to your Mac and that it has enough power. If necessary, try using a different cable or power adapter.

Next, open Disk Utility on your computer and choose View > Show All Devices. Select the external hard drive in the sidebar, then click the First Aid button. In the First Aid dialog box, click Run to initiate the process. This will scan for any problems with the disk and attempt to repair any issues that it finds. When this process has finished, click Done and try accessing your drive again.

If this does not resolve the issue, you may need to reformat the drive and use it as a new storage device. To do this, open Disk Utility again and select Erase from the options at the top of the window. Then choose a format you would like to use (such as MS-DOS) and click Erase. Once this process is complete, you should be able to access your external hard drive normally again.