Time Machine USB Hard Drive (Seagate GoFlex) Not Accessible on M2 MacBook Air

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Time Machine USB Hard Drive (Seagate GoFlex) Not Accessible on M2 MacBook Air

Hi Folks,

I recently upgraded my aging Intel MacBook Pro to lovely new M2 MacBook Pro. While most aspects of the migration has gone well, something that has not gone well is using my Time Machine drive on the new laptop. The drive is a Seagate GoFlex. My problem is that this hard drive is completely inaccessible on the new laptop. By this I mean:

The drive does not appear in the Finder
The drive does not appear in Disk Utility
The drive does not appear in the Terminal diskutil list command

I am able to connect other external hard drives. I am also able to connect this hard drive to a Dell laptop running Windows 11 and I can see it in the Disk Management app, although it cannot read it since I'm pretty sure it is formatted as APFS.

I'm largely sure this issue is due either to MacOS Ventura, or using Apple Silicon, as the drive was working fine with the old Intel MacBook Pro that was running MacOS Big Sur.

Has anyone else encountered a similar issue that they were able to fix? If not and no other options are available, does anyone know how I can at least reformat the drive so I can continue to use it? It looks like I should be able to format the drive using the Dell but that surely can't be the only solution, can it?

Cheers in advance for any suggestions.

MacBook Air, macOS 13.0

Posted on Dec 30, 2022 11:28 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

steve626

Level 6

11,285 points

Dec 30, 2022 12:19 PM in response to Marcus Peaston

Seagate GoFlex drives are listed as "unsupported" and "vintage" by Seagate. In other words, they have stopped doing anything to ensure that they will work with a newer computer (Mac or PC).

https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/how-do-i-make-my-goflex-drive-work-with-my-mac-216511en/

describes installation of special Seagate software to enable use on a Mac. Not knowing how you set yours up, it is hard to guess how you should proceed. If you used any custom Seagate tools to configure the drive, it might work fine on older Intel Mac computers but might not work at all on the latest models or the latest MacOS.

[Note added: just saw your second post, you managed to get the drive to appear again. I still recommend replacing it, it seems a bit unpredictable, you appear to have the custom Seagate tools active (which is a way for things to stop working again with some future update to the MacOS), and the drive is quite dated. If you are using it for backups or for anything important, it is essential that it be rock solid, versus the inconsistent behaviors you describe. Ultimately it's up to you but new reliable drives are very inexpensive these days.]

Another factor that may be relevant -- how are you connecting the drive to your Mac? Try using only an Apple adaptor, what is the interface on the drive? Some adaptors don't allow bus powered drives to receive the power they need to operate.

There is probably a way (depending on the answers to the questions above) to make this drive work, but it may have to be reformatted and it is so old that you would be better off with a new modern and faster and more reliable drive that connects directly to the USB-C slots on your newer Mac.

[Note added after seeing your second post: if you were able to get it working again in safe mode, that means you have something installed with this drive that is not compatible with the latest Mac hardware or MacOS. Since the external drive is vintage and no longer supported, I would replace it with a new drive that connects directly to your USB-C ports.]

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Answer 2

Dec 30, 2022 11:59 AM in response to Marcus Peaston

In follow-up, I think the issue is solved, although I don't understand why. I found a troubleshooting guide (https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/kb/usb-external-troubleshooter-003581en/#macintosh) to which I was directed by the LaCie Toolkit software. System Information did indeed show the drive under the Hardware > USB section, which was more than Disk Utility and diskutil did. I then tried the suggestion of restarting the MacBook in Safe Mode, which did mean that a permission dialog appeared asking to enable access to the GoFlex drive. Once permission was granted, it showed up in the Finder and Disk Utility as normal. The MacBook was restarted back into normal mode and all appears to be well.

I'm wondering if the issue was something to do with the permission dialog not appearing. Again, I had no issue connecting another drive on the new laptop, where I presume the dialog for that drive was displayed and approval was given (this was a few weeks ago). When the GoFlex was connected again earlier today I did think that something "flashed" like it was trying to display but then nothing, and I thought perhaps I was imagining it. Now I think it was the permission dialog that was not appearing properly and, without the approval having been given, no apps were able to see the drive that was being blocked.

So, restarting the laptop in Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) looks to have solved my problem. Maybe this info helps someone else in the future.

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Answer 3

Dec 31, 2022 3:30 AM in response to steve626

You are probably right that the drive should be replaced (I forget how old it is but it's a few years old now) but it isn't my only backup (Backblaze) and I'm kinda loathe to throw something away that is still working. I'll see how it goes migrating Time Machine from the old MBP to the new MB. If it gives trouble when running in Normal mode then its replacement time.

Thanks for the reply - definitely helpful information.

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Time Machine USB Hard Drive (Seagate GoFlex) Not Accessible on M2 MacBook Air

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