My SeaGate external hard drive wont load on my MacBook Pro

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My SeaGate external hard drive wont load on my MacBook Pro

Hey all, I bought the following hard drive from SeaGate late last summer:

http://www.seagate.com/products/laptop-mobile-storage/laptop-external-drives/bac kup-plus-slim-mac/

I used it once or twice when I bought it to export all of my data from my old laptop to my new MacBook pro (which I also bought late last summer). I used it a couple more times since then and still never had any problems. But when I tried it again another time, the hard drive would not show up in the desktop or the finder window under devices. I suspect this is due to me not ejecting the hard drive properly when I was done using it (I remember doing this a couple of times).

Anyways, now I need to recover all of the files that are in this SeaGate hard drive. I have thousands of pictures, videos, pdfs, and word documents in this hard drive that are very important to me. Is it too late to recover them or have I completely corrupted my hard drive?

I can open Disk Utility and see the name of the hard drive but I can't seem to do anything else besides that.

This is what my disk utility shows when I open it:

http://prntscr.com/9ycg19

This is what happens when I click verify disk:

http://prntscr.com/9ycgq6

This is what happens when I click repair disk:

http://prntscr.com/9ycgys

On the disk utility program it says at the bottom that the "used space" of the hard drive is only about 350MB. Does this mean that all of my files are already gone? (considering there was about 50GB of data on it before it went corrupt)

Is there a way to recover the huge amount of data that used to be in that hard drive? If not, is there a way I can repair the hard drive so that it becomes usable again? If I have to say goodbye to the data that used to be on it I wouldn't really care, as long as I have a working hard drive again.

Anyways, I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me what to do here. Thanks a lot!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Feb 2, 2016 7:42 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Feb 2, 2016 7:53 PM in response to flayev

The physical drive has no logical volumes like your Macintosh HD. Off hand I would say either you never prepped the drive correctly before using it or your drive never had anything. It is currently a newly formatted drive that is empty and has never been partitioned and formatted.

If you ever had data on that drive it is no longer there.

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Answer 2

flayev Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 2, 2016 7:55 PM in response to Kappy

So how do I make this hard drive work now? I'm willing to cut my losses and forget about the lost data, but is there a way I can make the hard drive function again and show up when I connect it to my MacBook?

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Feb 3, 2016 3:30 PM in response to flayev

Assuming it is still functional the following is what you need to do if your MBP meets these requirements: Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery.

Install OS X Using Network Recovery

Be sure you have backed up your files because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

Boot to the Network Recovery Server:

Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.

Partition and Format the hard drive:

Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the out-dented entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.

Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.

Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.

If your MBP is earlier than those from the above link, then you must start with an original installer disc that came with the computer when it was new or a retail copy of Snow Leopard provided your computer can boot from 10.6.3 retail.

Clean Install of Snow Leopard

Be sure you have backed up your files because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came

with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.

After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see

a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.

2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue

button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive

size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of

partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button

and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended

(Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.

3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed

with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.

4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup

Assistant. After you finish Setup Assistant will complete the installation after which

you will be running a fresh install of OS X. You can now begin the update process

by opening Software Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your

installation current.

Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

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