In Apple support communities a number of Mac OS X users have reported that their Mac machine won't show up Seagate Backup Plus drive. There are various reasons for this. This article gives you a brief idea about the reasons behind this problem along with the solutions.
Seagate backup plus not appearing on Mac…..
Why Seagate Backup Plus for Mac Not Recognized?
Below are the causes for Mac not recognizing Seagate backup plus.
- Problem with USB ports
- Recent OS update issue
- System failure
- Virus infection
- Motherboard issue
- External drive damage or corruption etc.
When the drive is flashing, it usually means your Mac is running through a series of check to mount the drive. And for some reason, it's getting stuck in this process. Try using Terminal to eject the disk, then shut down your Mac, wait 20-30 seconds and unplug the external drive from the Mac, and power your Mac back on. Unless your drive says 'for Mac' on the front of the box then the drive will be formatted for Windows. In Windows-based computer, there is no need to do anything special or additional to make the drive work. Simply plug in the power, plug in the USB cable, and the drive should appear in (My) Computer/This PC and Windows Explorer/File Explorer. Usually, when an external hard drive is plugged into Mac via a USB port, it gets mounted over the desktop. You can even find it under the Devices column on the left in the Finder. Just in case, your Seagate hard drive not showing up on Mac, there can be a number of reasons behind it.
So it is suggested to check whether the power cables are connected properly or not. If so then uninterrupted power supply may not transmit power. Try by connecting the Seagate drive to all ports of Mac machine if not working then connect it to some other system and check whether it works.
If it is working well then recover your important files, documents, audios, videos, photos from Mac external hard drive. And, try the troubleshooting techniques explained in the Part 2 section of this page.
In case, your Seagate Backup Plus drive is not detected in other systems then immediately recover data from Seagate Backup Plus drive that is not detected on Mac using Remo Recover; because chances are there that you may lose data while fixing undetected Seagate backup plus drive. So, it is suggested to backup your data from Seagate backup plus drive before you start resolving the issue.
And, is this regard Remo Recover can help you. It will easily recover even your pictures from an external hard drive on Mac machines that is not showing up. This software can recover data from all Mac OS X including High Sierra, macOS Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, etc.
Part 1: Recover Data from Seagate Backup Plus Drive That Is Not Detected on Mac with Remo Recover Mac
Get the free download of Remo Recover (Mac) software on your Macintosh and install it. Next, follow the below step-by-step instructions to recover data from Seagate backup plus drive that is not recognized on Mac OS X.
Mac OS X 10.5 - Leopard
Mac OS X 10.6 - Snow Leopard
Steps to recover data from unrecognized Seagate backup plus drive on Mac with Remo Recover:
1. Connect your Seagate backup plus drive to the software installed Mac, launch Remo Recover (Mac) tool and click the Recover Volumes/Drives button on the main screen.
2.Next, click on the Volumes Recovery button to recover data from Seagate backup plus drive volumes.
3. Select the connected Seagate backup plus drive, followed by all its volumes and click 'Next'.
4. If you wish you can specify file types to recover from the Seagate plus drive. Else, hit the Skip button to select all file formats by default.
5. The data recovery software deep scans the selected Seagate backup plus drive and lists all recovered files.
6. Preview recovered data and Save your required files on the Mac machine's internal hard drive (HDD).
Note: Don't save recovered files onto the same Seagate backup plus drive from where it is retrieved.
Now, you have your data safely recovered from the Seagate backup plus drive. So, you can start fixing Seagate backup plus drive that is not detected on Mac.
Part 2: Fix Seagate Backup Plus Drive that is Not Detected On Mac
Step 1:
- OpenDisk Utility and check if the external hard drive is faded or grayed out and uncountable?
- If so then connect another external drive or pen drive. This drive also grayed out and not recognized then do a proper eject from Finder Windows list
- Then restart the computer and connect the external drive again
Step 2:
- On Mac, go to Disk Utility and choose the external drive from the left sidebar. Then click on verify disc. This will help you to find and correct the minor errors
Step 3:
- Go to Mac's Finder Menu and select Go to Finder
- Then type Seagate drive path which appears under Disk Utility and checks whether it will display your drive.
Step 4:
- Start Mac
- Go to Settings
- Select Finder Preferences
- Then under the General tab select the external hard drive in Show these items on the desktop
- Now reinsert the drive and check
Step 5:
- Open Mac
- Go to Applications then toUtilities
- Click on Disk Utilities
- From that change the format of Seagate external drive that is compatible with your Mac OS
Step 6:
If any of the above methods didn't help you to solve the problem, then install the fresh OS X and try. Or else connect Seagate drive to any Windows computer, delete the partition and connect back to Mac Pro.
I hope your issue is resolved by using the above techniques. In case, if you have tried any other technique and successfully fixed the Seagate backup plus drive that is not recognized on Mac then you can Leave a Reply and share your solution here.
Summary: External hard drive not mounting on Mac means that you can't access data stored on it. This page helps you mount external hard drives, as well as SD cards and USB flash drives, etc. on Mac. If the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, you can download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drives.
Usually, an external hard drive will appear (aka mounted) automatically on your Mac once you plug it in, and you can access data on this drive. So, it's annoying when you find that your external hard drive is not mounting for the com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error or not recognized by your Mac, just like the user below.
'I have a 500 GB LaCie external hard drive, formatted as macOS Extend journaled on MacBook Pro 2014 and I have been using it to do Time Machine backups. Now after updating, macOS is not mounting this external hard drive. The main drive is greyed out in Disk Utility and the partition is not showing up. I can't do First Aid as my LaCie external drive does not mount on the MacBook Pro. Any ideas? Thanks!'
Wondering 'why my external hard drives won't mount on Mac'? This post explains the reasons and teachs how to fix this disk problem without losing data.
Dos and Don'ts When External Hard Drive Not Mounting on Mac
Before you go further, it's better to know what you can do and can't do.
1. Do not go straight to reformat this not mounted external hard drive, especially when you have important files on it. Reformatting will wipe the data on this disk and cause serious data loss.
2. Do not run First Aid to directly repair the disk, any further operation is very likely to overwrite your original files and make them unrecoverable.
Seagate Mac Driver
Step 5:
- Open Mac
- Go to Applications then toUtilities
- Click on Disk Utilities
- From that change the format of Seagate external drive that is compatible with your Mac OS
Step 6:
If any of the above methods didn't help you to solve the problem, then install the fresh OS X and try. Or else connect Seagate drive to any Windows computer, delete the partition and connect back to Mac Pro.
I hope your issue is resolved by using the above techniques. In case, if you have tried any other technique and successfully fixed the Seagate backup plus drive that is not recognized on Mac then you can Leave a Reply and share your solution here.
Summary: External hard drive not mounting on Mac means that you can't access data stored on it. This page helps you mount external hard drives, as well as SD cards and USB flash drives, etc. on Mac. If the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, you can download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover lost data from unmountable external hard drives.
Usually, an external hard drive will appear (aka mounted) automatically on your Mac once you plug it in, and you can access data on this drive. So, it's annoying when you find that your external hard drive is not mounting for the com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error or not recognized by your Mac, just like the user below.
'I have a 500 GB LaCie external hard drive, formatted as macOS Extend journaled on MacBook Pro 2014 and I have been using it to do Time Machine backups. Now after updating, macOS is not mounting this external hard drive. The main drive is greyed out in Disk Utility and the partition is not showing up. I can't do First Aid as my LaCie external drive does not mount on the MacBook Pro. Any ideas? Thanks!'
Wondering 'why my external hard drives won't mount on Mac'? This post explains the reasons and teachs how to fix this disk problem without losing data.
Dos and Don'ts When External Hard Drive Not Mounting on Mac
Before you go further, it's better to know what you can do and can't do.
1. Do not go straight to reformat this not mounted external hard drive, especially when you have important files on it. Reformatting will wipe the data on this disk and cause serious data loss.
2. Do not run First Aid to directly repair the disk, any further operation is very likely to overwrite your original files and make them unrecoverable.
Seagate Mac Driver
3. Check if you have a copy of a data backup. If not, recover important files from this unmountable external hard drive first to avoid data loss.
Now, let's make the external disk accessible on Mac.
Fix external hard drives not mounting issue on Mac
To access your external hard drive on Mac, try solutions suggested in this part one by one. Hopefully, you'll be able to open this external hard drive on Mac again.
First, try some simple tricks to mount external hard drive on Mac
Saving files on mac to folders. In case you miss anything necessary, you can first have some basic checks as following:
1. Re-plug your external hard drive to another port or try another USB cable.
A faulty connection, though it is foolproof, might be the key fix if LaCie thunderbolt drive is not mounting, in that users always forget to check if the port is wobbly or if the cable is broken.
2. Try a super slow jam.
Strange but true, some users found that their external will mount properly when they plug it in exceptional slow motion. However, if they try and plug in the external hard drive normally, the Mac doesn't recognize the disk.
3. Check your Finder Preferences.
When your external hard drive does not appear on the desktop, you can open Finder, choose 'Preference' (or press Command +, ) and check 'External disks' both in General tab and in Sidebar tab to show your external hard drive on your Mac computer.
If Mac could not mount the external hard drive on desktop still, let's troubleshoot this issue with the following solutions.
Solution 1: Force mount this external hard drive in Disk Utility
If you can't find the external hard drive on the desktop or in the Finder, you can try to make the disk online manually in Disk Utility (a native disk management tool in your Mac).
Here is how to mount an external hard drive on Mac:
- 1. Click Go at the upper left of your desktop and go to Utilities, then launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
- 2. Click on 'Show All Devices' in View option to list or connected drives.
- 3. Choose the grayed external hard drive in the left sidebar.
- 4. Select Mount in the top center of Disk Utility.
However, if you find that your external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility (not a single volume but the whole disk disappears), it is very likely that your disk is suffering some physical damage. In this case, you need to send it to a local data recovery service. But if the Mount option is grayed out and you can see this external hard drive in Disk Utility, you can try another solution then.
Solution 2: Repair this unmountable external hard drive with First Aid
The second suggestion is First Aid in Disk Utility if you are unable to mount the external hard drive on Mac. First Aid is a very simple tool that is built in your Mac, and it is able to detect and repair directory damage and other disk errors. You are advised to run the tool more than once to ensure you are receiving a consistent result.
Follow the instructions and repair the external hard drive that is not accepted by your macOS or Mac OS X.
- 1. Go to Utilities and launch Disk Utility on your Mac computer.
- 2. Select the unmountable external hard drive on the left sidebar.
- 3. Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.
Solution 3: Reformat the unmounted external hard drive
If your external hard drive still can't be mounted in Disk Utility after you perform First Aid, or if First Aid failed to repair it like the situation below, your drive should have some serious errors like file system corruption.
• Disk Utility can't repair this disk, what do to?
• How to format external hard drives on Mac?
In this case, you need to back up your important data on the external hard drive, such as family photos, valuable work documents, or any other files. If you don't have a copy of a data backup in hand, the following guide can help you recover lost data from this unmountable external hard drive. And then, you can reformat your exteranl hard drive to make it work again on Mac.
How to recover data from an external hard drive that won't mount?
As long as your external hard drive doesn't have any hardware problem, fortunately, you can retrieve your files with professional Mac data recovery software - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac with no fuss.
Best External Hard Drive Data Recovery - iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
- Recover lost data from unmountable, formatted, inaccessible, unreadable, corrupted external hard drives.
- Supported storage devices: external hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, SD cards, etc.
- Supported file types: photos, videos, audio files, documents, emails, etc.
- Suppported Mac OS: macOS Big Sur 11/10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Mount Seagate Drive Mac Mojave
Read-only & risk-free
Tutorial for external hard drive data recovery on Mac with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
- 1. Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your computer, and then restart your Mac.
- 2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- 3. Select the external hard drive that is not mounting and click Scan button to scan for all lost data.
- 4. Preview the searching results, choose files you need, and click Recover to get them back.
- 5. Have a check to ensure you have got all lost data back.
Note: You need to save the recovered files to another usable drive.
After having successfully restored all data on this drive, you can set out to erase this external hard drive to fix the disk not mounting on Mac issue.
Tutorial to reformat unmountable external hard drives on Mac
- 1. Launch Disk Utility.
- 2. Click the icon of your unmountable external hard drive on the left sidebar.
- 3. Click on the Erase button function on the top of the Disk Utility window.
- 4. Complete the related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase button to finish reformatting.
After reformatting, your external hard drive will be assigned with a new file system so that you can mount this unmountable hard drive again.
Then, why we can't access the external hard drive on Mac?
Probably, the user above would never know why his MacBook is not mounting the external hard drive. As a matter of fact, this problem could be caused by many factors, such as damaged file system, virus attack, unsafe ejection or any other improper operations.
Here are some common ones.
- A damaged file system: If your external hard drive is attacked by virus or if you abruptly eject this drive, it's likely that the file system of this disk would be damaged or corrupted. As a result, the operating system is unable to recognize this disk, and the disk will not be mounted or read by macOS.
- Connection problems: Another reason that hard drive won't mount on Mac could be a dirty or loose connection between your cable, USB-C multi-adapter, Thunderbolt 3, or other connecting ports. A clear, clean, snug and fit tightly connection is the premise of mounting an external hard drive successfully.
- Hardware issue: Also, problems related to hardware could also make the disk unmountable, especially when your external hard drive has too much bad sectors or have been physically damaged.
Knowledge Base: What does 'Mount' mean on Mac?
Mounting an external hard disk means the macOS gives a mount point (entrance) to read and access information on the hard drive. Information is accessed by the disk file system and partition table. So, it's a necessary step before the operating system can access a disk (including read from and write to).
Therefore, if an externalhard drive won't mount on Mac, it means the system gets into trouble in recognizing the file system or other information of this hard drive.
Conclusion:
If your external hard drive is not mounting on your Mac, don't panic. Most of the time, you are going to fix this disk problem with the solutions above. Moreover, if you worry about data loss when the disk becomes unmountable, you can use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover your files first. Remember that, no matter what disk problem you meet, you should perform hard drive data recovery in case of losing data.