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Q: Seagate External HDD won't show up.

Hi.

I have a 1TB Seagate Back up Plus external harddrive, and it wont show up in my Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro is the 2006 Intel Xeon model running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. The System requirements for the external HDD are snow leopard or higher, so I don't know why it isn't working.

P.S. When I plug in the USB cable into the computer, the HDD starts to spin, but it never shows up in the finder or on the desktop. Also, this HDD works in my MacBook Pro, but not the Mac Pro.

If anyone has any useful information, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Mac Pro 1,1

Posted on Apr 16, 2014 8:27 AM

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Q: Seagate External HDD won't show up.

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  • by demrayhalen,

    demrayhalen demrayhalen Dec 27, 2015 12:05 AM in response to pkincses
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 27, 2015 12:05 AM in response to pkincses

    STILL NEED HELP:
    I just ran a first-time backup with my new Seagate 1T drive, and that first time plugged in I ran a 6-hr Time Machine backup.  Since running that, each time I plug in, the device is not found.  The external drive light comes on, remains on, and I can hear it whir for a couple seconds but it shows up nowhere on my MacBookPro.  The only place it appears to be acknowledged is under the USB hardware screen (farthest right window).  I have tried plugging it in & out of either USB port (one on each side of laptop), tried restarting with or without external drive plugged in, etc.  The packaging on the Seagate drive indicates it is compatible with 2.0 or 3.0 USB. El Capitan 10.11.1 is my most recent software - asking for upgrade to be installed but requires more than 4GB space for that upgrade, which I do not have on laptop hard-drive, hence the need for external drive.

    Screen Shot 2015-12-27 at 1.53.04 AM.png

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Dec 27, 2015 1:13 AM in response to demrayhalen
    Level 10 (187,938 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 27, 2015 1:13 AM in response to demrayhalen

    - Try resetting the SMC

    Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

    - Try another cable

    - Try on another computer

    If still problem seems like a problem with the enclosure or the disk. System Profiler should fully identify the disk including the capacity, which is not your case

  • by demrayhalen,

    demrayhalen demrayhalen Dec 27, 2015 2:44 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 27, 2015 2:44 AM in response to lllaass

    I tried the SMC, including battery removal, and am experiencing no changes. The 1TB drive is brand new.  I do not have another cord, nor another computer to try the external drive with, unfortunately.  Any suggestions?  This is the updated screen shot since performing the SMC. I am using WiFi.

    Screen Shot 2015-12-27 at 4.36.55 AM.png

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Dec 27, 2015 2:53 AM in response to demrayhalen
    Level 10 (187,938 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 27, 2015 2:53 AM in response to demrayhalen

    Try on another computer to confirm that either bad enclosure or disk or bad cable

  • by CD27,

    CD27 CD27 Dec 31, 2015 1:59 PM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 31, 2015 1:59 PM in response to lllaass

    I am also looking for help. My Seagate Backup Plus portable 2 TB drive won't show up on either computer, not in disk utility, not under Devices in the sidebar. The light goes on and I can feel the drive spinning. I restarted my computer. Both computers are running El Capitan. The drive has been working until I tried to erase it. The erase failed and when I tried to find out why I lost that window and the drive disappeared. I am grateful for any advice.

    Thank you for help!

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Dec 31, 2015 2:38 PM in response to CD27
    Level 10 (187,938 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 31, 2015 2:38 PM in response to CD27

    - Does it show in System Profiler under USB? You should see the chipset in the enclosure as well as the HD itself

    OS X: About System Information and System Profiler - Apple Support

     

    you should see both the enclosure and the HD itself.

    Have you tried another cable?

    Could be that the drive inside failed or the enclosure failed.

  • by CD27,

    CD27 CD27 Dec 31, 2015 2:49 PM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 31, 2015 2:49 PM in response to lllaass

    I have tried another cable. It does not show up in the system profiler. The light goes on and it feels like the drive is spinning when I hold the case.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Dec 31, 2015 5:39 PM in response to CD27
    Level 9 (60,692 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 31, 2015 5:39 PM in response to CD27

    Your symptoms could be an indication that the drive died when you tried to erase it.

     

    A drive that cannot tell Disk Utility its Make&Model, and a sensible, non-zero size/capacity, has died.

     

    The most frequent cause of death of external drives is the converter-card in the enclosure. If a standard drive was used, the drive can be sometimes be removed and placed in a new enclosure, and may be fine.

     

    But some manufacturers combine the adapter card onto the drive card, and death of that card cannot be fixed.

  • by CD27,

    CD27 CD27 Jan 1, 2016 3:31 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 1, 2016 3:31 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Thank you for this excellent information. I imagine that along with low prices we have to expect less than  excellent reliability. It teaches me that 2 back ups is not redundant.

    Happy New Year to you and all the people who generously share their knowledge.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jan 1, 2016 4:25 AM in response to CD27
    Level 10 (187,938 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 1, 2016 4:25 AM in response to CD27

    Since it does not show up in System Profiler that tends to indicate the enclosure failed. Likely the disk inside is still good.

  • by CD27,

    CD27 CD27 Jan 1, 2016 5:11 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 1, 2016 5:11 AM in response to lllaass

    Yes, I can tell the drive is spinning. I'm not sure what you mean by 'enclosure' or 'card'. I need to educate myself on what's inside these.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jan 1, 2016 7:26 AM in response to CD27
    Level 10 (187,938 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 1, 2016 7:26 AM in response to CD27

    An external USB enclosure includes electronics to convert the USB signal to the HD's SATA signal. If only the HD itself was bad System Profiler would show the enclosure electronics and might show something but not all information about the disk..

    If the electrons really failed then system profiler will not show anything

  • by Miss_SC,

    Miss_SC Miss_SC Jan 3, 2016 8:34 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 3, 2016 8:34 AM in response to lllaass

    I'm having the same trouble - since I upgraded to El Capitan, I've had to use the NTFS Paragon install so that I could actually copy files across to my Seagate 500GB External hard drive.

     

    Today I tried to copy a folder of images across and it was back to 'read-only'. I updated the NTFS and restarted the computer and since then the drive won't show in my finder - it's also now saying I've used up the full 500GB when I was nowhere near the capacity? Showing up in Disk Utility and in System Report (see below)

     

    Screen Shot 2016-01-03 at 16.25.32.png

    Screen Shot 2016-01-03 at 16.25.15.png

     

    I have also had to update the Seagate Dashboard - where the device is recognised, and again is saying it is full?! I can't view the files or access them to see what's taking up so much room?! I hope I haven't lost everything?!

     

    Screen Shot 2016-01-03 at 16.28.05.png

     

    Any help would be greatly appreciated - it wad showing up fine earlier on today - but as a 'read-only'. I only have PC's in the house and have plugged it into one of those - all my files are on it and I have 379GB free?

     

    Thanks

  • by CD27,

    CD27 CD27 Jan 3, 2016 8:39 AM in response to Miss_SC
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 3, 2016 8:39 AM in response to Miss_SC

    I had updated to el Capitan long before I had any problem. Talking to friends, I'm learning external HD failures are more common than I had thought. THe only answer is, I think, cloud backup and/or redundancy.

  • by Miss_SC,

    Miss_SC Miss_SC Jan 3, 2016 8:42 AM in response to CD27
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 3, 2016 8:42 AM in response to CD27

    As soon as I can get this sorted I'm going old school and backing everything up to an actual disc that you eject and write on at least I haven't lost anything because it's still all on there - I just can't see it or edit it!!!

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