Seagate Drive Not Showing Up Mac

May 24, 2018 All you need to do is: Click on Maintenance from the left sidebar menu. Check the box next to Repair Disk Permissions. Aug 19, 2013 You have to 'partition the hard drive.' Click 'GO' in the menu bar, then 'Utilities', then double click on 'Disk Utility', select the 'Seagate' icon at the left (it doesn't matter which one), select 'erase' top right, and under 'Volume Format', select 'Mac OS Extended.' If the drive was not detected under Disk Drives then check the following: Within Device Manager look for any entries called unknown device, other device, or mass storage device with a yellow! If you see an unknown device or other device then right-click on it and select properties. If the box is checked, move on to fix external hard drive not showing up on Mac. Mount the Drive in Finder If you think the drive works fine, let us see if we can manually attach it to MacOS. Bottom Line ‘Seagate external hard drive, not showing up mac' is a common issue among Apple users on Mac. This is due to several reasons like viruses, software updates, loose connections, and physical damage, etc. As we stated above.

Occasionally, when you plug in any Seagate external hard drive to PC, it may not show up or be detected by your PC. Consequently, the disk itself and the folders and files saved on it become unapproachable and unluckily this is a common problem with Seagate drives. If you don't have any important data on the hard drive, you can just format it easily. However, if it contains lots of important data, how can you recover data from it? In this article, we'll tell you why is your Seagate external hard drive not showing up or detected. Then, we'll cover the methods to fix it as well. And what's important, we'll tell you how to recover data from the hard drive after making it work again.

1Why Seagate External Hard Drive Not Showing Up or Detected?

In most cases, you can access the Seagate External Hard Drive through Windows File Explorer. However, there is a great possibility that the hard drive doesn't show up in the devices and drives list. Apart from that, the Seagate external hard drive might also not show up in Disk Management. The problem can be caused by one of the following reasons:

• Broken USB port or broken USB cable

• Unsupported File System

• Partition issues on the hard drive

• The hard drive driver is corrupted or outdated.

In the following part, we'll talk about how to fix the Seagate external hard drive not showing up in the computers based on the above possibilities.

2Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Showing Up or Detected in Windows 10/8/7

Seagate external hard drive is always used to back up important data or transfer data between computers. So, it's essential to make it works fine all the time. The following are some solutions to solve 'Seagate external hard drive not showing up or detected'.

• Method 1: Try a Different USB Port or USB Cable

• Method 2: Initializing the External Hard Drive

• Method 3: Create a New Partition

• Method 4: Change or Assign Drive Letter

• Method 5: Reformat Hard Drive

• Method 6: Update or Reinstall the Device Driver

Method 1: Try a Different USB Port or USB Cable

If your Seagate external hard drive is blinking but is not detected by your PC, then you can try to unplug it from the USB port and should plug it into a different USB port. Besides, you can reboot your PC and try to connect your Seagate external hard drive to the computer again. You can also connect it to a different computer or use a different USB cable. If this simple solution works then your problem is resolved. If not then move on to the other solutions offered here.

Method 2: Initializing the External Hard Drive

When you find the Seagate external hard drive is not showing up in your computer, the first place you should check is Disk Management. You can right click on the Windows button and choose 'Disk Management' from the list. Or press Windows button + R to bring out the dialog. Enter diskmgmt.msc to proceed. This will also open Disk Management.

You'll see the available hard drives which are connected and recognized by the computer. If you are attaching a brand new external hard drive to the computer for the first time, you'll see it here but it's not initialized. Follow the simple steps below to initialize the disk.

Step 1: Right click on the disk and select 'Initialize Disk'.

Step 2: Choose a proper partition style and click 'OK' to confirm it.

Method 3: Create a New Partition

If you see that your disk is simply unallocated, you only need to create a new partition for it. Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Right click on the unallocated disk and choose 'New Simple Volume' from the options.

Step 2: A 'New Simple Volume Wizard' will show up. Follow the wizard to specify the volume size and assign drive letter or path.

Once done, remove the Seagate external hard drive and connect it to the computer again. Then, you'll find that the disk is detected and showing up in the Windows File Explorer.

Method 4: Change or Assign Drive Letter

If the Seagate external hard drive does not have a drive letter or the drive letter conflicts with other disks, the hard drive won't show up in your computer. Under this circumstance, you need to assign or change the drive letter.

Step 1: Right click on your hard drive and select 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'.

Step 2: Select 'Add' option if your hard drive doesn't have a drive letter, and select 'Change' option if it already has one and you want to change it.

Step 3: Choose a letter for the drive and that's all.

Method 5: Reformat Hard Drive

As we have mentioned in the Part 1, the unsupported File System will cause the 'Seagate external hard drive not showing up' issue. If you find your hard drive is partitioned but still not show up in your computer, it is possible that it's partitioned with a different file system. For example, if you have formatted the hard drive with APFS File System on Mac, this problem will certainly happen when you connect the hard drive to Windows computers. To fix it, you need to reformat your Seagate external hard drive with NTFS File System or FAT32 File System.

Step 1: To do this, right click on the hard drive and select 'Format' option.

Step 2: Choose 'NTFS' or 'FAT32' from the File Sysetem.

Note: Reformat your Seagate external hard drive with new File System with erase all the data on it. If you can, please remember to back up your data before formatting. However, if you do not have the chance to back up the data, you can use a professional tool to recover the data after formatting.

Method 6: Update or Reinstall the Device Driver

Maybe your Windows has a driver problem with your device and by using the Device Manager you can check it. You can open Device Manager by pressing Win+R together to open the 'Run' dialog then enter devmgmt.msc. Next, Expand the Disk drives category and check for any devices with a yellow exclamation point next to them, right-click on its name and select 'Update Driver'. If it works then it's ok otherwise uninstall and then reinstall the driver. To uninstall the driver, click on Uninstall that will help you completely uninstall Drivers.

3Bonus: How to Recover Files from Formatted Seagate External Hard Drive?

Due to the 'Seagate external hard drive not showing up' issue, you might not be able to back up your data before initializing or reformatting the hard drive. Ms office for mac yosemite. Luckily, there are loads of powerful data recovery programs nowadays. One such program is iMyFone AnyRecover which can help you recover data from the formatted hard drive easily and quickly. Furthermore, it is compatible with all the versions of Windows. Together with the accessible interface, the software does not require any technical knowledge. You can do it by yourself without anyone's assistance.

Why Choose iMyFone AnyRecover?

It proves helpful to support 1000+ file types including documents, musics, images, audios, emails, archives and others.

Based on the all-round scan and deep scan, it guarantees the highest recovery rate in the market.

After scaning, you can preview the data freely. And you can use the free version to recover 3 files for free.

By using the program, your data security is 100% ensured.

Simple Steps to Recover Data from Formatted Hard Drive:

Step 1: First of all launch AnyRecover software. Then select a disk under the 'External Removable Devices' tab.

Step 2: After selecting the location, hit 'Start' button to start scanning.

Step 3: The program will start scanning, and show you all the lost files in the list. You can select to preview them and click 'Recover' to get back your data.

Overall, it is not too difficult to fix Seagate external hard drive not showing up only if you take proper action. If you tried the above-mentioned solutions and the Seagate external hard drive still not detected or recognized the cause might be the hard drive itself. If you accidentally format your Seagate external hard drive, iMyFone AnyRecover can help you recover data from it.

Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac's USB port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the Finder in the left-hand column under Devices, since Mac's treat them the same way as another computer.

However, sometimes, an external hard drive doesn't show up. It's annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then. And besides, there can be a risk that data on the external USB pen, hard, or flash drive is corrupt, which means you can't transfer what you need between devices at all.

Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too. Let's take a look why this is happening and how you can get an external drive to appear on your Mac and get recover data to access to your documents.

How to fix an external disk drive that won't show up on a Mac

Why an external disk drive is not showing up? There could be a few reasons why a USB flash drive isn't making an appearance.

Open an External Drive Not Showing on Mac

Seagate Drive Not Showing Up Mac

Get a huge set of top utilities for troubleshooting external hard drives not mounting on a Mac

Start with the basics:

1. Check whether the drive is properly plugged in. It sounds obvious, but since this relies on a wire - either a USB cable or HDMI cable - if it's not connected properly then it won't appear on your desktop.
2. Faulty cable. Assuming it's plugged in correctly, not wobbly or loose, the cable could be at fault. Try connecting the same device with a different cable.
3. Damaged USB or flash drive port. It could be a hardware issue with the Mac. If you've got another port, try connecting the device to that one.
4. Reboot your Mac. Sometimes, if a USB disk won't boot, the cause is macOS issue. Hopefully, some data damage that can be fixed by restarting. Choose the Apple menu > Restart. Or press and hold the power button and, when a dialog box appears, click the Restart or press R. Restarting your Mac essentially clears your macOS's memory and starts it up fresh.
5. Incorrectly formatted drive. Not every external drive is optimized for Macs. It could be that you are trying to connect something only fit to interact with Windows devices. If you've got a PC or laptop, it's worth connecting and seeing if you can access the files through another device. The best way to look for an incorrectly formatted drive is to go to
   Apple (in the top toolbar menu) > About This Mac > Storage.
   See if the external drive shows up here. For more information, go to the same menu option, then select System Report.
6. Mac not formatted to display external drives on the desktop. It could be that your Mac already recognizes the device, but just isn't showing its icon on the desktop screen. Even if that is the case, the drive will still appear in the left-hand column of the Finder menu under Devices. You should be able to access your drive that way, and, in the Finder menu under Preferences > General, you can check External Drives to ensure that from now on it shows up on your desktop too.
7. Reset NVRAM. To do this, shut down or restart your Mac, switch it back on and immediately press these four keys together for at least 20 seconds: Option, Command, P, and R. It should look as though your Mac has started again; if it has, release the keys when you hear the second startup chime. Hopefully, the hard drive has shown up now.
8. Check Apple's Disk Utility to see if an external drive is showing up. Disk Utility is within System Preferences, or you can find it using Spotlight. If it is visible, then click the option to Mount, which should make it visible on the desktop and in the External Drives option in the Finder menu.

Unfortunately, if none of those options has worked and the external drive still isn't visible, then it could have crashed, or be well and truly broken. Mac snap app. But there might still be a way you can recover the data on the external drive.

How to show connected devices in Finder

1. Go to the Finder menu and select Preferences (Cmd+comma).
2. From General tab tick External disks to ensure that from now on it shows on the desktop.

In the Sidebar tab you can choose which folders and devices will be shown in the left-hand column of the Finder window.

How to add cloud storages to Finder

You can also mount cloud storage as local drive on your Mac. By connecting Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon to your computer, you get more space for securely accessing and sharing files. For your ease, add cloud drives to Finder with CloudMounter app, so that you keep them close at hand. You can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here.

Repair the failed external drives with First Aid

If your drive is having problems, you can try to fix them yourself with First Aid and therefore get access to your files. First Aid tool will check the disk for errors and then attempt a repair as needed. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup HD and external drive problems. If you are able to fix the hard drive or SSD in your Mac (or an external drive) using Disk Utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files.

To run Fist Aid on an external hard drive: Virus search mac.

1. Open Disk Utility. You can searching for it using Spotlight Search or via Finder > Application > Utility
2. Check on your external hard drive, click the First Aid tab and select Run to start running diagnostics.

If First Aid successful in fixing errors, the external drive should be available to mount. If the utility unable to repair issues, your drive truly is broken or formatted using a file system that the Mac cannot read - in this way we suggest you follow the next steps to recover data from a damaged disk drive.

How to recover data from a crashed drive

Thankfully, there is an app for that. Disk Drill is the world's premier data recovery software for Mac OS X. Powerful enough to retrieve long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, external hard drives and USB drives and camera cards.

Get a file recovery app

With Setapp you get a pack of professional tools for file recovery and Mac maintenance.

An easy way to recover lost files on an external hard drive

Providing you already have Disk Drill Pro version, which you can get automatically by downloading from Setapp:

1. Connect your drive to the Mac.
2. Quit all other applications on the Mac, especially those that may be trying to access the external drive (e.g. iPhoto, Words)
3. Launch Disk Drill.
4. Click on the external drive that you are trying to recover files from. If it has partitions, you will see all of them. If, however, you still don't see any volume to the external drive then you may need to try some of the steps above again or read the Disk Drill Scanning FAQs.
5. To avoid the external drive being accessed during the recovery process, click Extras next to the drive or drive partition or file, then select Remount Volume As Read Only. A padlock will appear, protecting the drive during the process.
6. Now click Rebuild (or Recover) next to the file(s) you are trying to recover. Once the scan is finished - it may take some time if the files are large - a list of files will appeal.
7. Next, click Mount Found Items as Disk button on the bottom-left below the scan results.
8. Disk Drill 'strongly suggest saving the files to a different drive than the one you are trying to recover files from. Saving to the same drive substantially lowers your chances of recovery.'
9. A drive icon will appear, which once you double click will give you the option to open the files as you would do before they were lost. Drag them to another location, such as your desktop or a folder on your Mac.
10. Open the files to ensure they have been recovered properly and safely eject the external drive.

Seagate Hard Drive Not Showing Up

Disk Drill does have other ways to recover lost files but assuming there aren't complications, this method is the most effective. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available from Setapp, along with dozens of Mac apps that will make your life easier. Never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive again.

A few more tips on getting your files back

1. Macs and third-party apps that look after Macs, such as Disk Drill and iStat Menus come with a S.M.A.R.T. (also known as Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) status monitor. If a SMART check reports errors, then it could mean the hard drive is at risk of failing completely. Within Disk Utility and Disk Drill, there are several solutions for this: Repair Disk Permissions and Repair Disk. If neither work, it's recommended that you backup all of the data from the disk, erase, then run a SMART check again. The external hard drive should show up as Verified.
2. Partitions can get lost within hard drives, temporarily hiding all of the information contained within. Disk Drill can help to identify and restore this information.
3. Within Disk Drill, you can restore data when a hard drive is damaged or add formatting, which is also something Disk Utility can help with.
4. CleanMyMac, another useful app available from Setapp, can help you identify external hard drive errors and repair them. It is an essential tool worth trying when you're having external hard drive difficulties.

Try all these apps for free

Get a huge set of top apps for keeping your Mac in shape. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go!

Alternative ways to recover data from an external hard drive

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. If you've got a battery that you can't remove:

• Shut down and unplug the power adapter
• Press Shift-Control-Option and the power button at the same time. Do this for 10 seconds
• Release all keys
• Plug the power adapter back in and switch your Mac back on

For Macs with removable batteries, you need to switch them off, remove the battery, then press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. After that, put the battery back in, plug in the power adapter and switch the power on again.

What's your file format? One reason your Mac isn't recognizing the hard drive is the file format. Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on Mac and Windows computers, providing you format using exFAT. However, if you're having problems accessing the files and the issue is due to formatting, you will need to connect it to a device it can be read on, and then format the files correctly for the computer you are going to use it on next.

How to make Ext2/Ext3 drives readable on Mac

The common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted drives are not readable on macOS. There are two ways to access such external drives on your Mac – via Linux OS or FUSE system. The easiest would be installing Linux to a secondary drive or virtual machine.

If you go with Linux installation, dual boot your Mac with Linux on another drive and use FAT32 as a transfer intermediary. If you don't have a drive to install Linux to, use virtual machine as an interface for it. Transferring can be done the same way – with FAT32, or via network.

Another option for reading Ext2/Ext3 disks is mounting disk with Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE). Basically, it works as an extra interface enabling file system access via specially installed modules. Here's how to mount drives with FUSE:

1. Install FUSE for macOS or MacFUSE as well as fuse-ext2 module.
2. Use the following Terminal command to enable Disk Utility's debug menu and see all partitions: defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1
3. Attach your Ext2/Ext3 drive and locate the device name via Disk Utility.
4. In your user account, create a folder to be used as a mount point.
5. Use the following Terminal command to mount the drive as read-only: fuse-ext2 /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint
6. For write support, use the command: fuse-ext2 -o force /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint

And that's not the only case where Terminal helps you access external drive.

Employ the handy all-powerful Terminal, which always comes forward with solutions for difficult problems. Especially if System Information does recognize the USB or hard drive, but continues to hide it from you, disconnect the drive and try to find it using the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities.

• Once in the Terminal, type in the command diskutil list
• A list with information about volumes and drives should appear
• Look for a section labelled /dev/disk_ (external, physical)
• Make a note of the whole line after the word disk
• Now put the following command into the Terminal diskutil info disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
• Now you should see detailed information about the drive, therefore confirming that your Mac can and does recognize it
• Eject using the Terminal by entering the command diskutil eject disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
• Physically remove the disk from you Mac
• Plug it back in and your Mac should recognize it

Console is also reliable when it comes to solving tricky problems, although it isn't always that easy to use. You can find Console under Applications > Utilities > Console. Console shows if an external drive or any error is detected under the Errors and Faults tab. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device.

To sum up, there are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading an external hard drive. If we were to pick one, Disk Drill seems to be the most well-rounded, offering plenty of customizations and power in an easy-to-use interface. Disk Drill Pro recovery app is available via Setapp, along with 150+ Mac apps that strive to make your life much much easier. At the very least, you'll never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive ever again.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

Sign Up