Seagate GoFlex external HD not mounting

Question

Level 1

4 points

Seagate GoFlex external HD not mounting

I have a 1.5 TB "Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Media" external hard drive. I have been using the drive for about 8 months on my 2008 black MacBook running 10.6.8 with no problems other than the loose, poorly designed dock and cable that came with the drive causing it to dismount from time to time.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a brand new non-retina MBP running OS10.8 with USB 3.0 ports. For the first few days the Seagate would mount intermittently. When it didn't mount, unplugging it and plugging it back in would work. Now it will not mount at all, ever. I have changed the settings on my MBP so that drives will show up on the desktop. I have also deleted the seagate driver from the MBP as recommended on a few forums and this did nothing. The drive still mounts quickly on my old machine, but does not show up on the desktop or in Disk Utility on my new MBP.

Please do not tell me to buy a different hard drive. I know what my options are and I would like to access my data on this drive on my new machine if possible. Is there a driver or software I'm missing that will help with compatibility or is this an issue with MBP's USB 3.0?

Thank You very much for your time,

Nathan

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion, 2.6i7/8GB/1TB5400

Posted on Aug 17, 2012 8:33 PM

Reply

Answer 1

natechien Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 21, 2012 12:42 PM in response to natechien

Bump...

I am now using a USB 2.0 interface with my GoFlex enabling it to mount, but the 3.0 connection is simply not working!

Any comments, tips or suggestions? I will of course be buying a new HD and trying to get my $ back for the GoFlex but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

Are there other suggestions for a 3.0 portable external that will 100% certainly work with the new mac USB 3.0 ports? I have a sordid and hellish history with WD so I'm apt to opt away from them. They have a history of sudden failure that I'm aware of by way of personal experience.

What about Iomegas?

Or am I better off building my own?

I think it's the drivers etc that are getting in the way, so maybe a very simple 2.5" HD with a seagate esata to 3.0 cable in a generic enclosure would do the trick?

Thoughts anyone?

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 8, 2013 2:02 PM in response to natechien

Finally got this worked out.

go to this article at Seagate:

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/214531en

You will need to reformat your drive to mac osx (there is an article on the settings you should use linked there:

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207851en

Notice that the drive can put itself to sleep (item #2). Download the program that shuts off the auto-sleep mode.

After your drive is reformatted and has the program loaded (it runs in the background after installation), you should be good to go.

Hope it works for you.

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 21, 2013 2:32 AM in response to natechien

Here's one thing I discovered (while trying to figure out a completely different issue about the actual hardware...it's a little flimsy IMHO):

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/004752en?language=en_US

Good luck.

Reply

Answer 4

DariusD

Level 1

9 points

Jul 25, 2013 5:50 AM in response to captainsalamander

I had this "auto-sleep mode" problem, and the utility to disable the sleep function seems to have fixed it.

The symptoms were that whenever I left the computer running with the GoFlex drive attached, if I waited long enough I would come back to a warning to properly eject the drive before disconnecting it.

So, if your Seagate GoFlex drive works, but ejects itself unexpectedly, try the FreeAgent Go sleep disable utility described here:

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207851en

Note that they say that attaching the drive to a Windows PC running the Seagate Manager may turn the sleep function back on again.

Reply

Answer 5

DariusD

Level 1

9 points

Jul 31, 2013 5:14 AM in response to DariusD

It turns out that this did not "fix" my problem. Without careful testing, it seems that maybe it made it a little less frequent, but something else is still going on that causes this drive to unmount.

Reply

Answer 6

DariusD

Level 1

9 points

Jul 31, 2013 5:22 AM in response to DariusD

Possible new solution!

Last night, I hooked the drive up to a powered USB hub, and then the hub to the laptop. Everything else was the same.

The drive stayed mounted!

Conclusion: There is something going on with the power on the USB that this drive doesn't handle the same as other drives. I have a couple USB-powered drives, and this is the only one that has this "unmounting itself" symptom.

This laptop is a Retina Macbook Pro 13", Late 2012. It is set to "Never Sleep" (except display) and "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is disabled. I changed none of these settings before trying this USB HUb experiment.

Reply