krwical

Q: Macbook won't recognize Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive

I just recently purchased a Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive, and it worked just fine for a few hours but now when I plug it in the Macbook (using the most recent version of El Capitan) does not recognize that it's plugged in at all. It does not show up in the Finder sidebar (even though I have my preferences set to show all items), there's no desktop icon, and the disk utility does not show it as present.

 

Previously, I installed the most recent NTFS DMG, and was able to transfer files to and from it with no issue, but now the Mac does not respond to it at all when it's plugged into the USB. Has anyone else dealt with a similar issue or know how to fix it? I can format the drive if need be, but I would like to not if I don't have to. Any help or pointers would be much appreciated. Thank you!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

Posted on Aug 30, 2016 12:51 PM

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Q: Macbook won't recognize Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive

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  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Aug 30, 2016 1:25 PM in response to krwical
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    Aug 30, 2016 1:25 PM in response to krwical

    Previously, I installed the most recent NTFS DMG, and was able to transfer files to and from it with no issue, but now the Mac does not respond to it at all when it's plugged into the USB.

    What is this drive formatted in now: NTFS or HFS+ or something else? What do you mean by "NTFS DMG?" Are you referring to a disk image of an NTFS conversion application?

  • by krwical,

    krwical krwical Aug 30, 2016 1:32 PM in response to Tesserax
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    Aug 30, 2016 1:32 PM in response to Tesserax

    Sorry for the confusion - what I meant was that I downloaded the DMG file "NTFS_For_Mac_14.0.456.dmg" as instructed by the manual pre-loaded on the hard drive, and ran that. After that had installed, and I restarted, I was able to move files on and off of the hard drive. But after ejecting it, then plugging it back in 30 minutes later, the Macbook no longer recognizes the Seagate hard drive in any capacity.

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Aug 30, 2016 1:39 PM in response to krwical
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    Aug 30, 2016 1:39 PM in response to krwical

    Ok, thanks for clarifying that for me. So, is it safe to say that this drive is currently formatted in NTFS? Does it need to be? That is, are you using this drive for both OS X and Windows?

     

    Is the "NTFS_For_Mac..." this Paragon product or some other solution? Regardless, these (not just Paragon's version) have been known not to be dependable and may be the reason you are having issues.

  • by krwical,

    krwical krwical Aug 30, 2016 2:16 PM in response to Tesserax
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    Aug 30, 2016 2:16 PM in response to Tesserax

    It is currently formatted in NTFS - the intention was to use the external hard drive to move files from my old Windows desktop (for clarity, the hard drive has never been set up on a Windows computer, all of the setup and file transfers were performed on this Macbook).

     

    That Paragon product is the one! Is there a better formatting software I can be using? Like I said, if it means I have to format the hard drive, it's not a huge deal, nothing would be lost permanently since I was just copying files over to test it.

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Aug 30, 2016 2:25 PM in response to krwical
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    Aug 30, 2016 2:25 PM in response to krwical

    The native OS X driver supports reading from NTFS-formatted disks. It just doesn't allow you to write to them. If you are transferring FROM a Windows PC, that PC can certainly write to this disk (since it's formatted for NTFS) and your Mac should be able to read these files from that same disk. Is this not the case?

     

    The Paragon product basically substitutes its driver for the native OS X one, allowing you to both read and write from/to NTFS drives. It would really not be necessary if you are, again, just transferring files from the PC to the Mac.

     

    The other option, is to reformat this drive for FAT-32 or ExFAT. Both are read/write compatible for each operating system. The latter supports larger file / drive sizes, but can only be formatted from a Windows device.

  • by krwical,

    krwical krwical Aug 30, 2016 2:33 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 30, 2016 2:33 PM in response to Tesserax

    That is not the case - neither computer even recognizes that anything is happening when I plug the external hard drive into a USB port. I'd like the hard drive to be compatible to write and read from both units though.


    So if I were to re-format it for ExFAT, how does that work if neither computer is even recognizing that something is plugged in? It's reading other USB equipment just fine, but not the external hard drive.

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Aug 30, 2016 2:46 PM in response to krwical
    Level 9 (54,025 points)
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    Aug 30, 2016 2:46 PM in response to krwical

    If neither computer is recognizing the drive, then one of the following is most likely the reason:

    1. The drive is not properly partitioned (& formatted).
    2. The drive or cable is faulty.