Seagate external hard drive help

[sunshinecourt9]

I have an issue. I have been using a Seagate external hard drive on my macbook air to backup time machine. I went to back it up today like I usually do and no matter what I do my mac is not reading my Seagate! Every other time, I plug it in and it shows up. What do I do? I need to free up space because I don't have room to even back up my iPhone at this point. I think I did an IOS update last week...did that do something?

 

[rigormortis]

is it spinning? hold it up to your ear. this makes sure the drive is alive


is it beeping ? this means its not getting enough power

are you using a hub? try plugging it directly to the mac


is it clicking? this means the drive is damaged


plug it into a different computer

take it out of its case and attach it to a SATA port read the smart sensor
or use something like this???
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/47045/s-m-a-r-t-for-usb-and-firewire-drives

if smart status is verified then the drive has not failed

try disk utility or disk warrior to check the disk

if its just a time machine backup and not important data, you can just reformat it


go to seagates page and give it the serial # of the drive to see if its under warranty

 

[Boyd01]

if its just a time machine backup and not important data, you can just reformat it

True, but do you really want to continue using a questionable hard drive for backups?

 

[sunshinecourt9]

Yes, when I plug it in to the USB port, the light on the Seagate comes on and I hear internal noises like spinning.

There are pictures on it that I have removed from my computer and placed on the external for storage reasons, so I don't want to risk losing anything.

I will try the link you posted for more help.

 

[rigormortis]

True, but do you really want to continue using a questionable hard drive for backups?

what i meant to put there was if all these things above pass and there is nothing important then just reformat it.

as long as the smart status is "verified" and the drive is spinning and not beeping or clicking the drive IS NOT considered questionable

if you feel you have a problem with the disk and you want to prove that it is not questionable, your best bet is to do a full pass erase, multiple times, 3 should do it, you can do 35 passes if you want. this proves that the disk is fine ( does not apply to solid state)

 

[rigormortis]

Yes, when I plug it in to the USB port, the light on the Seagate comes on and I hear internal noises like spinning.

There are pictures on it that I have removed from my computer and placed on the external for storage reasons, so I don't want to risk losing anything.

I will try the link you posted for more help.

if its spinning, try disk warrior

 

[c8rlo]

i had the same problem when i bought an WD external HD, even after formatting it was still not recognized. yet if i use a dedicated laptop hard drive in an enclosure i have no problems whatsoever when it's connected to the notebook.