What Is A Hard Drive Cleaner Mac
By Marice, Last updated: August 27, 2019
I use an external hard disk drive in order to save most of my pictures, videos, and music. I store my documents in my external hard disk drive too. The problem right now is I’m connecting my external HDD on my MacBook Pro but it’s not showing up. How do I fix this?
Keeping in mind all these possible threats, we can suggest you a second method: how to clean your Mac hard drive by using a trusted software. Nowadays, there are many apps designed to help you clean up hard drives and memory. Many of those are free, but it is hard to find a good one, especially with a stable operating management. Is a hard drive of your MacBook getting full? We’ll explain to you how to clean a hard drive on Mac or SSD with a portion of built-in Macintosh instruments and several free and paid utilities. First, you should check if there is a necessity to clean up your MacBook drive. For those who struggle with a slow system and overloaded hard drive there is a simple and easy solution. Learn how to clean a Mac Book Pro. For those who struggle with a slow system and overloaded hard drive there is a simple and easy solution. Learn how to clean a Mac Book Pro. The best Mac Cleaner software helps you to do this without iCloud. You do not have to spend additional money if you can locate free space in your Mac itself. Other reasons why you need to consider Mac cleaner software includes the removal of GBs application data that is not often used.
- The best hard drive cleaner for mac we recommend you is the MacFly Pro. This smart app will bring your hard drive in order and improve your Mac’s general performance. MacFly Pro Guarantees Mac Clean Harddrive MacFly Pro is the smartest cleaner designed for Mac lovers which delivers efficient cleaning help and boosts the computer’s performance.
- Here are the best Mac hard drives and external storage options in 2019. Find out which hard drive can help increase your storage or safely back up your Mac.
~External HDD User
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Part I: Introduction
You might be panicking right now because your external hard disk drive cannot be recognized by your Mac device. But you really don’t have to go crazy.
Most likely, nothing has happened to your files within the external HDD. All of it will still be intact within the storage device. But, whatever the reason may be, you simply cannot access these data.
Lucky for you, there are methods you can implement in order for your Mac device to recognize the external HDD and keep you back on your feet. Let’s get started onto why your HDD or flash drive isn’t showing up on your Mac device.
Part II: Reasons For HDDs Not Showing Up On A Mac Device
There are cases wherein you plugged your hard disk drive or flash drive on your Mac and the device cannot recognize it. This could be caused by a broken cable or a faulty USB port. Before you delve into some methods for troubleshooting your system, you should begin with the basics first.
First, you have to make sure that the hard disk drive is really plugged into the device. It might not be plugged properly. After which you have to notice the structure of your USB connector. Is it damaged? Is it misshapen? Ensure that the cable is in perfect condition. There might be exposed wires or it might be frayed.
If you plug your external hard disk drive into an outlet, you should try a different one. It might be the wall outlet that’s faulty. You can also try using another USB cable. The USB cable might be broken even though it’s not obvious or physically damaged.
You can also opt to plug the external HDD to another Mac device. If it works on other Mac devices, your USB ports on the previous Mac might be broken. There might be cases wherein your hard disk drive is formatted to work on Windows computers.
That’s why you should test it out on a laptop or computer with Windows in it. It might be possible that your hard disk drive is formatted to work on Windows PCs and not on Mac devices.
Another thing you can do is to simply turn off your Mac device and turning it on again. Simple rebooting can do wonders on your Mac. You can also try to reboot USB drives.
First, turn off your Mac device, after which, restart it. While in the process of restarting, hold the keys CMD + P + R + Option. Release the said keys when a sound comes up and the screen flashes. Then, let your Mac devices boot itself up as it normally would.
If you have done everything that we have listed above-- inspected your device visually, tested the hard disk drives on different power outlets, cables, and computer devices, and implemented various systems-- and nothing happened, then it’s high time to follow our guide below:
Part III: Methods To Help Your Mac Device Recognize The HDD
There are different ways to let your HDD show up within your Mac device. The first thing would be to modify the settings of Finder. The next would be mounting the external HDD on your Mac device and so on. Let’s get started with the first one:
Method 01: Modifying Settings Of Finder
There is one common reason why Mac doesn’t display or recognize external hard disk drives. The reason we’re stating here is the state wherein the Mac device’ system is not set up to actually show hard disk drives within its Desktop.
This can be fixed easily by following the steps below:
Step 01 - Launch a Finder window.
Step 02 - Visit the Preferences.
Step 03 - After which, visit General.
Step 04 - Make sure that the feature External disks are activated.
But what if it doesn’t work after you have done this? Well, the next thing you should do is to mount the external hard disk drive manually on your Mac device.
Method 02: Manually Mounting Your External HDD Within The Mac Device
If Mac still doesn’t recognize the external hard disk drive you plugged into it, the next thing you should do is to force it to recognize the said storage item. Here are the steps you should follow:
Step 01 - Go towards System Preferences.
Step 02 - Visit Disk Utility.
Step 03 - Examine if the external hard disk drive is shown on the sidebar towards the left.
Step 04 - Select the hard drive and make sure it is highlighted.
Step 05 - Choose Mount. Now, the hard disk drive should be seen within the Finder Window under Devices.
Again, what if forcing your Mac drive to display the external hard disk drive doesn’t work? Well, the next step is to utilize First Aid.
Method 03: Running First Aid Through Your External HDD
Mac has a built-in utility called First Aid. This is utilized for the verification and repairing of a wide variety of issues especially with those that are related to apps and files that are corrupted. It also fixes issues with regards to startup and of course, external hard disk drives.
The steps below are for one type of issue. This issue is with that of a hard disk drive that is displayed on your Mac but doesn’t give you access to data. First Aid would be the tool you would use if you have to fix this issue. Simply follow the steps below:
Step 01 - Visit System Preferences.
Step 02 - Launch Disk Utility.
Step 03 - Make sure the external hard disk drive is highlighted or selected.
Step 04 - Press First Aid.
Step 05 - Choose Run. This will now start the process of diagnosing the Mac for any issues and fixing the corresponding problems.
If your attempt to fix this problem with First Aid is a success, your hard disk drive would now be available for mounting. If this doesn’t work again, you should try the option below:
Method 04: Removing Incompatible Or Conflicting Applications
Did you experience the problem of not having an external hard disk drive show up just recently? If it was okay a few days before (just a couple of days), then the problem might be with an application that is in conflict with it.
Think about it. Have you downloaded and installed apps just recently? These might be culprits. What you can do is to uninstall or remove these programs one by one.
Connect your hard disk drive towards your Mac device after you uninstall each program. Check out which app is causing conflict.
You can simply delete these applications by utilizing Launchpad. Or, for a very simple process, you can drag these apps towards the Trash Bin. However, we do not recommend each of the two methods.
It’s because of the fact that even when an app is deleted, leftovers and associated files are still kept intact in your system. These leftover files might be the ones preventing you to access the hard disk drive.
What we do recommend is for you to useFoneDog’s Mac Cleaner. It has a module called Mac Uninstaller that you can use to uninstall applications without leaving any leftover behind. Here are the advantages and the steps to use the tool:
* It gives you the ability to make your Mac device perform faster by freeing up more space within the said device.
* It scanning mode is very powerful and helps locate duplicate files, system files, junk files, unnecessary applications, clutter, etc.
* It gives you the ability to clear up junk files. It helps you locate and remove duplicate files. It helps you find and clear up similar images. It helps you delete large files and old files. The Mac Cleaner helps you delete unnecessary applications without leaving any leftovers behind. Plus, it helps in securing redundant searching history. Finally, it helps in the management of extensions, shredding of files, and cleaning of browsers.
* All of the features of the Mac Cleaner can be implemented with just a few clicks.
* Scanned results of the Mac Cleaner can be sorted on a variety of factors including date, time, size, etc.
* The Mac device status is displayed by the device including disk usage, CPU status, memory usage, etc.
What Is A Hard Drive Cleaner Mac Os
* It helps you locate and detect files that are identical. Thus, more space is freed up within your device because no two files are exactly the same. Redundancy is removed within your device.
Here’s how to use FoneDog’s Mac Cleaner step by step (The following screenshots are under dark mode on Mac):
Step 01 - Download the tool.
Step 02 - Launch it within your Mac device. The main interface will show a variety of the device’ system status.
Step 03 - Select Uninstaller, the tool under the ToolKit module. Thus, please click the ToolKit icon and select Uninstaller.
Step 04 - Press Scan button. The tool will now do a comprehensive scan of your device.
Step 05 - Once the process of scanning is complete, click View. This will allow you to check scanned results.
Step 06 - Choose a particular application. In this case, Uninstaller will begin to remove the application you select by clicking the Clean button.
Step 07 - Confirm the cleaning operation.
Step 08 - Wait until the cleaning process is finished.
Note that you simply have to select the Mac Uninstaller tool on Step 03. Select the module Cleaner to scan for unwanted files and clean them afterward.
Now, if you have gone through every installed application in your device and still nothing works, it might be because your hard disk drive has already crashed.
Or maybe, it can be completely broken. What you have to do in cases like these is to use a utility called Disk Drill. This tool will help you rescue your files.
Method 05: Disk Permissions Repair
Disk permissions are very important in keeping your files safe and secure. Every single file and folder within your Mac device has permissions associated with it. But sometimes, these permissions can become messed up.
You won’t even realize it. These messed up permissions can lead to a big problem. You can actually fix this on your own using a tool for repairing permissions.
Part III: Conclusion
External hard disk drives can be great for storage. If it is not showing up on your Mac device, you could try out our guidelines above for you to fix it.
Clean Hard Drive Mac
The best thing, though, is to back up your data all the time to avoid losing files. Finally, you can use FoneDog’s Mac Cleaner to uninstall programs and applications using the Mac Uninstaller Module.
It helps you get rid of applications without leaving any leftover files behind.
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Criminy! Where does all this stuff come from? Suddenly MacBook’s spacious 512GB solid-state drive has 19GB left, and you start feeling pinched. It’s time to do some easy regular maintenance work!
Before you consider buying a new internal or external drive, take the smart step: Sweep your laptop’s drive clean of unnecessary and space-hogging software and temporary files.
Clean things the manual way
If you’re willing to dig into your data a little, you have no reason to buy additional software to help you clean up your hard drive. All you really need is the willpower to announce, “I simply don’t need this application any longer.” (And, sometimes, that’s tougher than it might seem.)
Unnecessary files and unneeded folders
Consider all the stuff that you probably don’t really need:
Game demos and shareware that you no longer play (or even remember)
Movie trailers and other QuickTime video files that have long since passed into obscurity
Temporary files that you created and promptly forgot
Log files that chronicle application installations and errors
ZIP and StuffIt archives that you downloaded and no longer covet
iTunes music and videos that no longer appeal to your eye and ear
How hard is it to clean this stuff off your drive? Easier than you might think!
You can easily delete files.
You can move seldom used files and folders to external storage (such as a USB flash drive, an external hard drive, or a DVD) to free up space on your laptop’s internal drive.
You can uninstall applications purchased from the App Store using Launchpad — from the Launchpad display, click and hold down the icon until it wiggles. If an X button appears on the icon, you can click the X to remove the application from your MacBook.
You can get rid of an unnecessary application by deleting its application folder that was created during the installation process.
Always check the application’s README file and documentation for any special instructions before you manually delete any application’s folder! If you created any documents in that folder that you want to keep, don’t forget to move them before you trash the folder and its contents. In fact, some applications may come complete with their own uninstall utility, so checking the README file and documentation may save you unnecessary steps.
Removing an application or a file from your drive is usually two simple steps:
Hard Drive Cleaner Mac
Display the file or application folder in a Finder window.
Delete the file or folder with one of these steps:
Drag the icon to the Trash.
Press cmd+Delete.
Right-click the icon and choose Move to Trash.
Select the icon and click the Delete button on the Finder toolbar (if you added one).
Truly, no big whoop.
Don’t forget to actually empty the Trash, or you’ll wonder why you aren’t regaining any drive space. (Mountain Lion works hard to store the contents of the Trash until you manually delete it, just in case you want to undelete something.) To get rid of that stuff permanently and reclaim the space, follow these steps:
Right-click the Trash icon in the Dock.
Choose Empty Trash from the pop-up menu that appears.
Associated files in other folders
Some applications install files in different locations across your drive. (Applications in this category include Microsoft Office and Photoshop.) How can you clear out these orphan files after you delete the application folder?
The process is a little more involved than deleting a single folder, but it’s still no big whoop. Here’s the procedure:
Click the Search text box in a Finder window.
Type the name of the application in the Search text box.
Decide which of these files belong to the to-be-deleted application.
Be sure that the files you choose to delete are part of the deleted application. For example, a Keynote presentation with the name Instructions on Building with Adobe might not be part of Adobe Illustrator.
Many associated files either
Have the same icon as the parent application
Are in the Preferences, Caches, or Application Support folders
In the Search Results window, click the associated file(s) that you want to delete and just drag them to the Trash.
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Don’t empty the Trash immediately after you delete these files. Wait a few hours or a day. That way, if you realize that you deleted a file that you truly need, you can easily restore it from the Trash.
How to use a commercial cleanup tool
If you’d rather use a commercial application to help you clean up your drive, a number of them are available but most are shareware and perform only one task. For example, Tidy Up! 3 from Hyperbolic Software finds only duplicate files on your drive, matching by criteria such as filename, size, content, and extension.
For keeping your MacBook’s drive slim and trim, consider CCleaner for Mac, from Piriform. This great utility can clean everything from Internet crud (browser cookies and your surfing history) to the OS X system caches that can grow so doggone huge, and you can easily fine-tune what CCleaner for Mac will remove. The utility can also uninstall many applications for you with a single click.