I am having the same problem with my Mac Book Pro-2015, I upgraded to Sierra and now I cant use my external Hard Drives, I have 2 of them, 1 is a Toshiba 2TB, and the other one is Touro 1 TB HDD,it wont read them is there a software program i can use to fix this problem?
Overview of Seagate External Hard Drive Backup
Seagate hard drives usually come with a backup solution - Seagate Dashboard. However, this solution doesn't work as well as it has expected in some special situations. Many users are complaining Seagate free agent backup is not working, Seagate Dashboard doesn't work with Windows 10 or something like that. Besides, people also have trouble creating a backup for Seagate external hard drive using Windows 10 built-in backup feature because the disk cannot be recognized. While facing all these annoying problems, many users choose to turn to the help of reliable Seagate backup software that allows them to successfully perform Seagate hard drive backup.
Seagate Backup Software - EaseUS Todo Backup
A powerful alternative and supplement to Seagate Dashboard is EaseUS Todo Backup, the versatile Windows backup software. It provides more and flexible backup choices for you to back up your Seagate external hard drive, including:
- Backing up disks/partitions, Windows system, files, and emails
- Backing up content to a local hard drive, external hard drive, cloud storage, NAS device, and more
- Backing up files automatically according to your needs
- Backing up external hard drives from Seagate, Buffalo, WD, Toshiba, Samsung, Lacie, Silicon, ADATA and more
Other than the backup feature, EaseUS Todo Backup also has the disk cloning feature. Its graphical interface and advanced & flexible backup features will you with easier and more comfortable Seagate hard drive backup experience. Download the Seagate backup software immediately and make a copy of your hard disk as you like.
Back Up External Hard Drive with Seagate Backup Software
Seagate Support Downloads Item Backup Plus Mac Software Masters
You can choose to back up your Seagate external hard drive as a whole or selectively. If you intend to make a copy of your hard drive data on cloud storage, you need to choose 'File Backup' instead of 'Disk/Partition Backup' that is shown below.
Step 1. Expand the menu on the top left. Select 'Disk/Partition Backup' to create a backup image of your Seagate hard drive data.
Step 2. Among all the hard disks and partitions on your computer, choose the Seagate hard disk. If there are many partitions on it, choose only several partitions if necessary.
When choosing a backup location, please click 'Browse...' at the end of 'Destination'. And on the new pop-up window, choose an ideal backup place such as an external hard drive, NAS device, Network or Cloud storages. Click 'OK'.
You can also explore much more advanced backup plan by turning on 'Schedule' or customizing 'Backup options'.
Step 3. Click 'Proceed' to back up your Seagate hard drive at once.
After the backup, you can recover the files whenever you want as long as the image file is available.
It's no doubt that Seagate Dashboard can assist you to back up your Seagate external hard drive. But Seagate has announced the removal of some Seagate Dashboard features, including Mobile Backup, Social (Save and Share), and Cloud Backup, the last of which is perfectly enabled by EaseUS Todo Backup. Besides, EaseUS hard drive backup utility not only fully supports Seagate hard drive backup but also provides other useful features like system clone, system transfer, and emergency disk creation. Download the software on your Windows computer and minimize the risk of data loss by backing up your data regularly with it.
Summary: Tutorial to make Mac recognize Seagate Backup Plus drive when it's not showing up on Mac. You'll know how to fix when Mac doesn't detect Seagate Backup Plus drive. If necessary, you can also recover data from the unrecognized Seagate Backup Plus drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Seagate Backup Plus drives are great external hard drives for Mac and PC. And there are many options like Ultra Touch, Slim, and Portable. However, many users report that the Seagate Backup Plus for Mac is recognized, or the external hard drive is not showing up on Mac at all.
Here is an example:
I use a Seagate 2TB Backup Plus Portable HD as my Time Machine backups drive and it had been working fine. Since I upgrade to Yosemite (maybe coincidental?) the HD is no longer recognized by my MacBook Pro. I can see the light on HD so I am sure it is getting power. I searched for all day but no Seagate firmware update available (attempt to update shows it to be current) and no other help available from Seagate 'support.' Can anybody help me cuz I'm really in need of the files on this drive?
- Post from Apple Communities
In this case, you can't see files on the external hard drive or access them at all. So, it's important to know why and how to fix when Seagate Backup Plus drive is not showing up on Mac.
- Table of contents
- 1. Why is Seagate Backup Plus drive not showing up on Mac?
- 2. Have some basic checks
- 3. Show Seagate Backup Plus drive in Finder and on Mac desktop
- 4. Check if Seagate Backup Plus drive is showing up in Disk Utility
- 5. Ways to use Seagate Backup Plus drive on Mac
Why Seagate Backup Plus drive not showing up on Mac?
Actually, it's a common issue that the Seagate Backup Plus drive is not recognized or detected. And sometimes the external hard drive even greyed out in Disk Utility. The reason for this issue is various. And here are some possible causes for this problem.
The causes for Seagate Backup Plus drive not detected issue could be:
- A recent macOS update or software update, which could cause many types of incompatibility.
- The hard drive is encrypted or password-protected, especially for Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch hard drive.
- Faulty connections such as the wobbly USB port and broken USB cable.
- Power supply failure, especially when MacBook is in low power mode and external hard drives requires extra power resource.
- The outdated disk driver that appears if you haven’t updated your software and hardware for a long time.
- Virus infection that comes from recently downloaded files, applications, patch, etc.
- External drive hardware errors like bad sectors.
- Other unknown reasons.
Then how can you fix the problem that Seagate Backup Plus Drive is not recognized/showing up on Mac?
First of all: Have some basic checks
Once your Seagate Backup Plus drive is not recognized on your Mac computer, you can try some routine checks first.
- Re-plug the Seagate Backup Plus drive and verify if the drive light is on. Desktop Drives typically require a power adapter.
- Try a different USB port or cable to see whether the USB port or cable is bad.
- Connect Seagate Backup Plus drive to another Mac or PC and see if it is compatible with it.
All checks seem to be OK? Then you can fix this issue with the following solutions one by one.
Show Seagate Backup Plus drive in Finder and on Mac desktop
For many Mac users, when they say Seagate Backup Plus drive is not showing up, they mean their drives can't show up in Finder or on Mac desktop. In this case, you can try to show your Seagate Backup Plus drive through resetting Finder Preferences.
Step 1: Go to Finder >Preferences > Sidebar.
Step 2: Tick 'External disks' in Sidebar tab to show external hard drives in Finder.
Seagate Support Downloads Item Backup Plus Mac Software Mastercard
Step 3: Shift to the General tab.
Step 4: Check 'External disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' and you’re your connected Seagate Backup Plus drive will appear on Mac desktop.
Check if Seagate Backup Plus drive is showing up in Disk Utility
After setting 'External disk' to show up in the Finder or on desktop, your Seagate Backup Plus drive is still not showing up on Mac? You need to check if the Seagate Backup Plus drive is showing up in Disk Utility.
Scenario 1: Seagate Backup Plus drive shows up in Disk Utility
If Seagate Backup Plus drive is listed in Disk Utility, then you can have a relief because it means your drive has no serious hardware problem. And you can follow the below solutions to fix the unrecognizable Seagate Backup Plus drive.
a. Mount Seagate Backup Plus drive
Sometimes, external hard drives cannot be automatically mounted on Mac. But you still have a way to mount Seagate Backup Plus drive manually in Disk Utility:
Step 1: Open Disk Utility.
Step 2: Right-click the Seagate Backup Plus drive from the left sidebar and then click the Mount button.
b. Repair Seagate Backup Plus drive via First Aid
If the above method doesn't work, it might refer to some file system errors on the Seagate Backup Plus drive. You should check and verify Seagate Backup Plus drive by First Aid.
Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.
Step 2: Choose the grayed-out Seagate Backup Plus drive.
Step 3: Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.
Tips: You can also download Seagate's software like Seagate Dashboard to diagnose and repair disk drive errors.
c. Reformat Seagate Backup Plus drive
Http://seagate.com/in/en/support/downloads/item/backup-plus-mac-software-master/
If First Aid fails to correct errors on Seagate Backup Plus drive, the last choice is to reformat Seagate Backup Plus drive. But reformatting will erase all data stored on Seagate Backup Plus drive. If data stored on the external hard drive are important for you and you don't have any backup, you'd better recover lost data from the unrecognized Seagate Backup Plus drive at first with Mac data recovery software, like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Step 1: Recover lost data from Seagate Backup Plus drive
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is a free Mac data recovery software that can recover data from Seagate Backup Plus drive efficiently, whether the drive is unrecognized, formatted, inaccessible, corrupted, unmountable, or unreadable. It also can recover deleted files from emptied Mac trash. This data recovery tool works with macOS 10.15/10.14 /10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Tutorial to recover lost data from Seagate Backup Plus drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
Seagate Support Downloads Item Backup Plus Mac Software Master Station
1. Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.
2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
3. Select the drive you want to recover lost data from 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.
Step 2: Reformat Seagate Backup Plus drive
1. Launch Disk Utility.
2. Select the Seagate Backup Plus drive on the left part of the window.
3. Click the Erase on the top of the Disk Utility window.
4. Complete the related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase.
Scenario 2: Seagate Backup Plus drive not showing up in Disk Utility
If Seagate Backup Plus drive is not showing up in Disk Utility, unfortunately, your Seagate Backup Plus drive may have some physical problems. In this case, you'd better send the drive to a local data recovery service and see if they could help. What's more, you can contact Seagate Backup Plus support team for disk repair and replacement service.
Bonus part: ways to use Seagate Backup Plus drives on Mac
Seagate Backup Plus drives are available in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB. And usually, the Seagate Backup Plus drive is formatted with either exFAT, FAT32 or NTFS. That’s to say, you can use Seagate Backup Plus drive for different aims. For example, you can use Seagate Backup Plus drive for Time Machine Backup, or you can simply use it to free up space for Mac internal hard drive.
How to use Seagate Backup Plus drive to back up files on Mac?
Different from Windows computer, you can download Seagate software like Toolkit to back up and sync files directly. On Mac computer, you can follow these steps to back up files like photos, documents, and videos on Mac.
Step 1: Plug in your Seagate Backup Plus (It could be Ultra Touch, Slim, and Portable) to your system.
Step 2: Choose Yes when Mac asks you 'Do you want to use your Backup Plus as a destination for Time Machine'.
Seagate Support Downloads Item Backup Plus Mac Software Master Station
Or you can manually open Time Machine from your Menu Bar (or from System Preferences), choose Select Backup Disk, and then select Seagate Backup Plus Drive for Backup.
Tips: If you newly bought a Seagate Backup Plus drive for your Mac which is NTFS (Read-only on Mac) formatted, you need to reformat it as HFS+ or exFAT before you use it on Mac. Or you can download an NTFS for Mac software, then you can use the NTFS external hard drive both on a Mac and PC.