Seagate 3T drive not recognized with Yosemite (10.10.5 in Mac Mini)

Question

Seagate 3T drive not recognized with Yosemite (10.10.5 in Mac Mini)

Seagate 3T drive, formatted MacOs_Journaled, is not recognized with Yosemite (10.10.5 in my "new" MacMini). The drive, IS, however, recognized perfectly with Mountain Lion (10.8.5 in my second, earlier, MacMini) ! The drive does not appear at all in the Disk Utility window of the Yosemite machine. All USB ports of the Yosemite machine check out OK for Flash Drives. The Seagate 3T drive is a "Backup Plus for Mac Desktop Drive", model SRD00F2.

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), OSX 10.10.5

Posted on Dec 15, 2015 1:30 PM

Reply

Answer 1

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Dec 15, 2015 1:47 PM in response to klatuinredmond

What is listed under USB in System Profiler?

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

You should see both the enclosure/chipset and the actual drive.

Is the disk powered by the USB bus? A wall adopter?

Can you hear/feel the drive spinning?

Are any lights on the enclosure lit?

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 15, 2015 4:41 PM in response to lllaass

Hey thanks for the comeback lllaass !! In answer to your additional questions : the Seagate is powered with a wall adapter, In can hear the drive spinning and attempting to launch, and there is a power light lit on the enclosure. There is no trace of it shown in the System Profiler/USB section. Again, thanks in advance for the comeback . .

cheers, klatu

Reply

Answer 3

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Dec 16, 2015 1:16 AM in response to klatuinredmond

- Try resetting the SMC and NVRAM/PRAM

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

About NVRAM and PRAM

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 16, 2015 11:15 AM in response to lllaass

Did those things. . . . and still no joy. I'm beginning to wonder if it is a USB SW driver change that happened between 10.8 and 10.10. . . .or possibly some USB port hardware change that was implemented on the "newer" Mac Mini's . . . maybe its time for the Apple store "genius bar" to take a look..

Again, thanks for your time lllaass . . . . klatu

Reply

Answer 5

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Dec 16, 2015 12:47 PM in response to klatuinredmond

Do other external drives work?

Try booting to Recovery

OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support

since that helps rule out a problem with the OS. See if the disk appear in Recovery's Disk Utility

Reply

Answer 6

Dec 16, 2015 2:36 PM in response to lllaass

PROBLEM SOLVED !! I feel incredibly STUPID about this one!! It was an Inadequate Wall Adapter for the Drive that I had purchased as a second power supply for it. Turns out, it was different in deliverable current capacity from the Brick that came with the Drive. It was not providing sufficient current for the Drive to completely spin-up. As soon as I tried the brick that came with the drive on my Yosemite Mac. . JOY !!. The reason it seemed to work with my "older" Mac Mini (with OSX 10.8) is that it was the Mac that I was using with the Wall Adapter that came with the Drive. I was trying to use the inadequate Brick with my "new" Mac Mini which produced the result of not mounting. Thanks again for your multiple responses to my issue . . .

cheers, klatu

Reply

Answer 7

Dec 16, 2015 6:38 PM in response to klatuinredmond

Update since my previous Reply :

Further experimentation has revealed that my original problem of the Seagate 3T Drive not mounting has nothing to do with either the OSX Version I'm using or which Mac Mini I'm using. The whole problem seems to be the Drive itself is not spinning up properly because of some stupid DC power plug issue between different Wall Adapter brands (even though they both meet the DC Voltage and Current specs. required by the drive). The plug associated with the Seagate-supplied adapter is slightly smaller diameter and shorter in length than the plug supplied with the off-the-shelf adapter I purchased (Antoble model LD-12069). Using it's DC power plug, the Drive will absolutely NOT spin-up properly, whereas, the Seagate Wall Adapter supplied with the Drive works perfectly now in both Macs. The plug supplied by Seagate with it's Drive seems to be a very custom size (WIERD !!). So the take away seems: be very careful which substitute wall adapter you use on this particular Seagate Drive !!!

Cheers, klatu

Reply