- The Best External Hard Drives and SSDs for Mac in 2020 About Whitson Gordon Whitson Gordon is a writer, gamer, and tech nerd who has been building PCs for 10 years.
- How to recover files from external hard drive not detected: When connect your drive to a PC with a USB port and find the external hard.
- External Drive Not Mounting Mac
- External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Mac
- Mac Not Recognizing External Drive
- Best Mac Compatible External Hard Drive
- Mac Hard Drive Not Detected
Sep 28, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
How to Fix a Samsung External M3 Hard Drive in Under 5 Minutes: There's literally nothing worse in the world than the dreaded moment your hard drive fails, losing all your precious data. The thing is, right, the recovery companies and manufacturers have got a sweet deal going on - they actually build failure int. These steps for fixing an external hard drive not recognized on Windows and Mac are suitable for external hard drives of all capacities and manufacturers. However, if still the issue is not resolved, you can avail of professional help. The Best External Hard Drive Data Recovery Software.
When you plug in your external hard disk to your computer, you may find that your hard drive is detected by the operating system, but you're not able to open.
Such a problem can occur due to multiple factors, and if you're worried that you won't be able to reaccess the drive and thinking 'how to fix the external hard drive, not opening?'
There is no need to start panicking! You can follow our complete guide to learn the reason behind your hard disk inaccessibility, and we will also guide you through the process of how to repair that external hard drive and recover the erased data along the way too.
Part 1. Why External Hard Drive Recognized But Not Accessible?
There could be several reasons why your external hard drive may fail to respond to your Windows PC. It can be caused by some technical glitch in your operating system, or it might be due to the drive's internal hardware failure. It can also occur when you fail to plug in the device through the USB port properly.
Most of the time, such an issue gets resolved when you re-plug the drive into the PC or restart the system again entirely. But if such a problem with your hard drive persists and it remains visible on the system but doesn't open, even if you connect it to another computer system. Then there might be a deeper problem at play with the hard drive. Here is the list of issues that could be behind the problem with your external Hard Drive.
- Presence of bad sectors caused by inappropriately removing the drive from PC without following the removal protocol.
- Mechanical failure is caused by dropping the drive on the ground.
- Virus or Malware is caused by opening an ill-conceived website or file.
- Driver issue caused by some software glitch.
Whatever may be the reason behind this problem, in this article, we will help you repair your hard drive, which will allow you to access the important files within.
Part 2. How to Fix External Hard Disk Detected But Not Opening?
Before initiating the process to fix the issues with your hard drive, some external drives have power cables or a physical power switch, which should be ON at all times for you to perform operations on the disk. It is a simple step, but you should check it before anything.
After checking the ON/OFF switch, you can proceed further to perform other solutions to fix the inaccessibility problem.
Solution 1. Check the External Hardware:
Before performing any step, it is advised that you check the health of the external hardware of your system and the drive's accessories, which are as follows:
1. USB port.
2. Power/Data cable.
Please follow these steps to check whether the problem is with your drive or with your computer.
- It is advised that you plug in the external hard drive on some other System to check whether there is some kind of issue with your PC.
- Please try to Re-Plug the device on some different USB port, as the frequent usage of one port might have caused some wear and tear which could have loosened the hinges.
- Try the Data Cable of your external drive on some other device to see that it is functioning correctly. The casual and repeated use of the power cable may cause it to lose its functionality.
Solution 2. Restart your PC:
Restarting is perhaps the most natural solution to our hard drive being unresponsive. This fix usually solves the error half of the time. Unable to type password at mac login. There are many ways to restart your computer, but we will try it the conventional way, so please follow our guide to perform this solution.
- Open Start menu.
- Click on Restart.
- After restarting the system, try plugging the device into the PC to review the issue at hand. If the problem persists, then hop onto the next solution.
Solution 3. Update Driver of the Disk:
If you continue to remove your device casually from the computer, it may cause some sort of damage to the driver of your hard drive. This hassle can be fixed by reinstalling or updating the external hard drives, which can fix any problem with your storage device.
The Hard Drive's Driver:
![External hard drive not showing up mac External hard drive not showing up mac](https://edge.alluremedia.com.au/m/g/2015/05/samsung_t1_portable_ssd_13.jpg)
The driver of the external disk is very similar to, the internal HDD on a computer, which consists of a rotating platter with a magnetic surface that rapidly stores digitally encoded data. It also provides the means of communication between the drive and the computer to which it is connected. It functions by giving the hard drive's serial/model number as well as physical information (sectors, heads, and the storage capacity) to the operating system so that it can recognize it.
Follow our step-by-step solution guide to check your drivers.
- Open Device Manager on your computer by entering the name in the search bar.
- Right-click on your Hard Drive's driver.
- Click on Properties.
- Click on the Driver tab and click on Update Driver.
- Click on 'Search automatically for updated driver software', or you can click on 'Browse my computer for driver software' if you have the driver file on your PC.
- The system will start searching for your diver software, you can also uninstall the device and reinstall it, using the same utility.
- Your PC will automatically update the software if there is a new update. Otherwise, it will notify you that 'The best drivers for your device is already installed'.
- If the issue persists after that, click on Close and jump to the next solution.
Solution 4. Fix it by Disk Management and Format it:
You will be able to access the properties and storage of your external storage drive with the help of the Disk Management utility. It can create a new partition within the device, if there is unallocated space and assign it a new letter to enable access. Follow our solution below:
- Open Disk Management through the Start menu.
- Right-click on your external drive's icon.
- If you find unallocated space, then click on New Simple Volume and click on Next.
- Assign a letter to the drive and click on Next.
- Select the Do not Format option and push Next.
- Click on Finish.
- You can also format the device by right-clicking on the icon of the drive and selecting Format.
Solution 5. Run Windows Troubleshooter:
You can fix specific problems through the Windows troubleshoot utility, which automates the diagnosis and repairs the problem with your computer system. Follow our guide to use the windows troubleshoot utility, which may fix the hard drive inaccessibility issue.
- Open the Start menu and click on Settings.
- Click on Troubleshoot and find Hardware and Devices.
- Click on Run the Troubleshooter.
- The troubleshooter will start scanning for irregularities in the PC.
- It will notify you after finishing the scan and will advise you to apply the fix if any problem is detected. Choosing the option will prompt you to restart the computer.
Solution 6. Run CHKDSK to Repair Disk:
You can use the CHKDSK facility by using the command prompt on your PC. Before using the check disk command, it is important to know what type of functions it performs to fix specific disk-related problems.
1. It scans the integrity of the file system and file system metadata on a disk volume.
2. It fixes all types of logical file system errors that it finds during the scan.
3. Through its disk scan, CHKDSK detects the good and the bad sectors of the selected disk.
Follow our procedure to run the check disk command on your external hard drive to detect problems.
- Open Command Prompt on your PC through the Start menu.
- Run the program as an administrator.
- Your Command prompt window will open, type the following command inside the display, and hit Enter.
chkdsk X: /r /f where X is the external hard drive letter and /r & /f are the parameters of CHKDSK.
- The command will run its scan. Once the scan is complete, remove the drive and re-attach it again with the PC to see whether the procedure worked or not.
Part 3. How to Recover Data from Hard Drive Not Detected?
If you select the solution of formatting the external drive, then it will erase all the data. If the files inside your hard drive are irreplaceable and you intend to use those again, then you can recover all of your data. The data can be recovered until you overwrite the drive's memory with new data. To retrieve the files, you are required to perform a recovery operation by using a data recovery tool for Windows, and there is none better than Recoverit Data Recovery Tool by Wondershare.
Features of Recoverit:
- Works on every type of portable device (USB, HDD).
- It recovers data in more than 1000 file formats known in the tech world.
- Recoverit supports all types of File system formats like exFAT, FAT32, HFS, NTFS.
- It keeps your data secure and retrieves it with 96% efficiency.
- It is available on both macOS and Windows PC.
To recover all of your files, you are required to follow our three-step process to recover deleted files after installing the app.
1. Select the Location:
Please follow the steps mentioned below to begin.
- Launch it from the Start menu.
- Select the 'Location' of your external hard drive.
- Click on the 'Start' button for the process to begin.
2. Scan for Lost Data:
- The scanning process will start. It will take some time for the scan to finish, depending on the storage space of your external hard disk.
- A scan completion pop up will appear on the screen with a beep tone.
- There is also a Pause and Stop button, which enables you to stop the scanning process.
- The results will be displayed, which you will be able to view them from the File Type and File Path section.
- You can pause or stop the disk recovery scan by clicking the Pause/or Stop button.
3. Recover the Lost Data:
- Recoverit allows users to Preview the recovered files, which will enable you to check the authenticity of the erased data.
- You can select your files and retrieve them by clicking on the 'Recover' button to reclaim your data back.
Closing Words:
It is entirely up to your personal maintenance, and handling of your computer's hardware and how you keep your PC protected by using some good antivirus. You are advised to check the way you plug in the drive inside the USB port. You are also required to press the eject button before removing the disk from the computer. It is also important that you check the health of your external storage device regularly by scanning it through the CHKDSK utility.
Now you know six possible solutions to fix the hard drive if any such issue ever arises. However, if you still aren't able to access your files or have formatted the drive entirely, then you can recover those files by using the Recoverit Data Recovery program to gain access and recover all the important data.
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When your Seagate hard drive not working, it is usually about external hard disk not detected, not recognized, or not showing up. This article has the most comprehensive solutions to Seagate internal and external hard drive not working problems on both Windows and Mac. In the final part, you can learn how to recover data from a Seagate (external) hard drive which is not detecting by EaseUS hard drive recovery software.
Is your Seagate external hard drive suddenly not working? This page explains the reasons why your Seagate and other brands of external hard drive not working, not detected, or not showing up, and the fixes to repair external hard disk without losing any data.
Follow the content navigation and pick up the right methods to make your Seagate external hard drive work again:
PAGE CONTENT:
- Error: Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working
- Why Is Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working/Detected
- How to Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working in Windows
- How to Repair Seagate External Disk Not Working/Detected in Mac
- Bonus Tip: Recover Data from Seagate Drive after Making It Work Again
Print shop mac app store. Also applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not showing up, external hard drive not detected, Seagate external hard drive light blinking but not work, Seagate external hard drive not recognized Widows 10, USB not showing up, etc.
Error: Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working
'My 1TB Seagate external hard drive cannot be detected by my computer but the light is blinking, what can I do to fix this? I need to get my data back. I use it as a backup so pretty much all of my personal and work files are stored in the drive. Please help me out.'
Seagate external hard drive not working or not detected issue is top concerned among worldwide Seagate users. Normally, the external hard drive should be detected by the Operating System and viable for storing all types of files, without the need for drivers, software, or firmware updates.
However, each drive has its own issues after long-term use or possibly improper use. So the first step that you should take is to find out the reasons why your Seagate disk cannot be detected by a computer. Then, you can follow the presented solutions in the following parts to repair Seagate external hard disk not working issue without losing any data.
Let's start the journey and follow the tutorials below to make your Seagate, Toshiba, Sandisk, etc., external and internal hard drive work properly again.
Why Is Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working/Detected
Generally, 'Not Working' is a state that usually describes a malfunctioning hard disk or external hard drive. For example, you may define your Seagate external hard drive 'not working' as it's not accessible or detected after connecting it to your computer. Or, even you correctly connect it to a computer, it doesn't show up in the drives list in Windows or Mac computer.
So, what caused your external hard drive malfunctioning? Both software and hardware issues may cause a hard drive not working as usual. Here is a list of commonly explored reasons related to this issue:
- Incompatible file system
- File system corruption, Invalid file system, RAW
- The drive turns to unallocated
- Disk drive letter conflict
- Hard drive driver is corrupted or out of date
- The hard drive has too many bad sectors
- The hard drive is damaged, dead, not spinning up
How to Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working in Windows
Applies to: Troubleshoot Seagate external hard drive not working, not detected issue in Windows 10/8/7.
If you tried the above-presented hardware troubleshooting tips but the Seagate external hard drive is still not working, don't worry. You can open disk management to check the state of your external hard drive and refer to the right solutions as presented below for help:
Fix 1. Try a Different USB Port, Connection Cables
Applies to: All types of storage devices that are not working, not showing up or detected in both Windows and Mac computers.
So how to repair Seagate hard drive that is not detected by the computer? Here is a list of basic hardware troubleshooting that you may first try to improve the chance of success in making the hard drive or external hard drive work again:
- 1. Try a different USB port on the computer.
- 2. Switch a new cable if the current one is damaged.
- 3. Try connecting the drive to a different computer.
- 4. Verify if the drive's light is on. (No light could indicate the power adapter is not connected to power.)
- 5. Try a different power outlet. (Desktop Drives)
After following these tips, if your Seagate external hard drive is still not detected, move on and try the other solutions offered here.
If Seagate is detectable but inaccessible, jump to recover Seagate disk data first as presented at the end of this page. Then revert to this part to fix Seagate disk to workable again.
Fix 2. Format RAW Seagate External Hard Drive to NTFS
Applies to: Format RAW Seagate external hard drive, change invalid file system on Seagate disk to a supported one, like NTFS.
![Samsung External Hard Drive Not Working On Mac Samsung External Hard Drive Not Working On Mac](https://cdn.pickr.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/samsung-t5-ssd-2017-01.jpg)
When a hard drive's file system turns to RAW, it won't show up in my computer. Also, if your Seagate external hard drive contains an unsupported file system, the drive won't be able to work normally on your computer.
In this page, You need to format the RAW drive to a file system that Windows recognizes, such as NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT.
- Warning
- Note that as formatting will cause data loss on your Seagate device, if you need the data, turn to reliable data recovery software before the formatting.
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard with the tutorial as shown below is capable of recovering data from a RAW, not formatted or inaccessible Seagate HDD, external hard disk and USB flash drive, etc. with ease
Step 1. Connect the Seagate external hard drive to your PC and open Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on the not working RAW drive and select 'Format'.
Step 3. Set volume label, set NTFS as the file system and tick 'Quick Format'. Click 'OK' to start the formatting.
Fix 3. Change Seagate Drive Letter
Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not showing, detected, recognized issue due to drive letter conflict.
Note that, sometimes, if your external hard drive shares the same drive letter as your disk partition, Windows won't show the drive letter of your external device. It will show as New Volume in Disk Management without a drive letter.
And this is why your external hard drive not detected. To fix this issue, you'll need to add a new drive letter to your Seagate disk. Here are the steps:
Step 1. Connect Seagate external to computer and open Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click the partition of not working Seagate disk and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths..'.
Step 3. Set a new drive letter to the Seagate disk and click 'OK' to confirm.
Fix 4. Restore Partition or Create a New Partition on Unallocated Seagate External Disk
Applies to: Fix unallocated Seagate external hard drive not working issue.
Sometimes, you may not be able to use the Seagate external hard drive if the device shows as unallocated in Disk Management, as shown below:
To make your unallocated Seagate drive show up and recognized again, you have two options:
#1. Restore Lost Partition and Data from Seagate Unallocated Space
If you had partition and data saved on the Seagate external hard drive which suddenly became unallocated, you may directly apply reliable partition recovery software for help. It will scan and recover all lost partition and data from the unallocated space.
Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Recovery on your PC.
Select the disk or device where you lost partition(s), click 'Scan' to continue.
Step 2: Wait for the scanning process to complete.
Let the program scan the selected disk and find the lost partition(s).
Step 3: Preview and restore the lost partition(s).
Double-click on the partition which is marked as 'Lost' with 'Good' recoverability.
Preview the content of the lost partition. Click 'OK' and click 'Proceed' to start restoring the lost partition.
Step 4: Click 'Recover Now' to finish the partition recovery process.
Note: If the program warns you that there is a conflict, back up the listed partition with essential data to an external hard drive first. Then execute the final operation to restore your lost partition.
#2. Create a New Partition on Unallocated Seagate External Disk
If you don't have any valuable data on the not detected Seagate external hard drive, you may directly use Disk Management to create a new partition on the drive with the following steps:
Step 1. Connect the unallocated Seagate external hard drive to PC and open Windows Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on the unallocated partition and choose 'New Simple Volume..'.
Step 3. Set partition size, drive letter, and file system such as NTFS, etc., click 'OK' to confirm.
Step 4. Click 'Finish' to complete the process.
Fix 5. Uninstall and Re-install Seagate Hard Drive Driver
Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not working error due to outdated drive driver.
Mostly, when the respective hard drive or external hard drive driver is outdated, Windows computer will have a problem of showing it up. So the best solution toward this issue is to update the Seagate drive driver immediately.
Be careful with the following four steps, you will resolve the unrecognition problem of the Seagate external hard drive on your own:
Step 1. Connect the not working Seagate external hard disk to PC.
Step 2. Press Windows + X keys or right-click Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.
Step 3. Expand disk drivers and right-click on your external hard drive, select 'Uninstall Device'.
Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software' and restart PC when the process completes.
Fix 6. Turn on USB Root Hub
Applies to: Fix Seagate external USB not working issue due to disabled USB Root Hub.
Sometimes, USB external hard drive devices may stop functioning correctly when multiple devices connected to the same USB hub go into selective suspend.
By enabling the USB root hub, the controllers will recover the USB port from its unresponsive condition so to make your device work normally again:
Step 1. Connect not working Seagate external hard disk to PC.
Step 2. Open Device Manager and expand 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'.
Step 3. Right-click USB Root Hub > Click 'Properties' > 'Power Management'.
Step 4. Uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' and restart PC.
Fix 7. Show All Hidden Devices
Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard disk not showing up, not detected issue.
Sometimes it's because the connected drive is hidden, not showing up in my computer. You need to unhide the device and make Seagate external hard drive shows up in the Windows Device Manager.
Here are the steps:
Step 1. Press Windows + R keys, type: devmgmt.msc and hit Enter.
Step 2. Click 'View' > Select 'Show hidden devices'.
Step 3. Expand all notes by clicking on the + (plus) symbol.
Step 4. If there are any grayed-out entries, right-click them, and select 'Uninstall'.
Step 5. Reboot PC and check if you can see your Seagate external hard drive.
Fix 8. Run a Virus Cleaner Software
Applies to: Fix virus or malware infection that cause Seagate device not working.
If it is a virus that caused your external hard drive to be undetectable or unrecognized, you can try a virus cleaner software to wipe out and remove any viruses from your PC and hard drive.
Step 1. Download and install an antivirus software on your computer.
Step 2. Connect Seagate external hard drive to your PC.
External Drive Not Mounting Mac
Step 3. Launch the antivirus tool and scan to remove virus or malware from Seagate drive.
Afterward, you can format the hard drive to make it readable again. Remember to run a reliable data recovery software to scan and find all your valuable data on the Seagate device before formatting.
How to Repair Seagate External Disk Not Working/Detected in Mac
Here we collected 3 troubleshooting for you to follow and repair the Seagate disk to work normally again on your Mac:
Before you go further, check Seagate disk in Disk Utility or System Information/Profiler section:
- If the drive is not showing on your desktop or within Finder check Disk Utility: go and open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
- If the drive is not detected in Disk Utility then see the System Information/System Profiler section.
- If you are using macOS 10.13 or higher then click view in the upper left and select 'Show All Devices' which allows you to see both the disk as well as volumes.
If all the attempts failed to display the Seagate drive on your Mac, go on with the 3solutions.
Fix 1. Format Seagate Disk to macOS Supported File System
Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not working or not detected error due to Mac unsupported file system.
If you switch NTFS Seagate external hard drive to a Mac computer, it won't show up nor work on Mac. The reason is that Mac is only compatible with APFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc., formats.
So to fix this issue, you'll have to format the drive to FAT32 or exFAT. For a step-by-step guide, you may refer to: Format External Hard Drive to FAT32 for help.
Fix 2. Repair Seagate External Hard Drive in First Aid
Applies to: Mount Seagate external disk to make it work on Mac.
If the Seagate drive is unmountable or the Mount icon is greyed out, it could be some disk errors that prevent your Mac from recognizing/detecting the drive correctly. You can repair the problematic drive in the built-in First Aid utility.
Step 1. Click on the Launchpad on the Dock and find Other.
Step 2. Locate Disk Utility and open it.
Step 3. Select the unmountable Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar and choose First Aid at the top.
Step 4. Click 'Run' to repair this Seagate hard drive.
Fix 3. Reformatting Unmountable Seagate External Hard Drive
Applies to: Fix corrupted file system on Seagate external hard drive that cause it not working on Mac.
If the file system on your Seagate hard disk is corrupted, it won't work nor be detected. In this case, reformatting a corrupted drive is the most instant way to revive it.
- Warning
- As formatting a disk will erase data, so make sure that you will turn to reliable data recovery software like EaseUS data recovery software for Mac for help after the formatting.
Let's see how to reformat and make the Seagate external hard disk work again on Mac:
Step 1. Go to Applications > 'Utilities' > Double click and open 'Disk Utility'.
Step 2. Select your Seagate external hard drive on the sidebar, choose 'Erase'.
Step 3. Rename the drive, choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT) for Format, Master Boot Record for Scheme. Then click 'Erase'.
After trying the above presented methods, you should be able to use your Seagate external hard drive to transfer or save data again on both Windows and Mac computers. However, as some of these solutions may cause file loss issue.
Therefore, if your Seagate disk data lost after making it work normally again. Don't worry. You can continue with the data recovery tutorial in the next part to bring all your lost files back immediately.
Bonus Tip: Recover Data from Seagate Drive after Making It Work Again
Applies to: Recover inaccessible or lost files from Seagate external hard drive or USB after making it work again.
After getting your hard drive to be recognized once more, you should check to see whether any files were lost. Files could have been lost due to the drive becoming unreadable, or from fixing this issue.
- If you have backups of your Seagate external hard drive data, you can directly restore those lost files from your backups.
- If you have no backups, here the best hard drive recovery software will help you.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard enables you to restoring unlimited data from your Seagate external hard drive in three simple steps. If you're a Mac users, download the Mac version and apply it to help.
Let's see how to fully restore all data on your Seagate external hard drive within only a few simple clicks:
By going through three short stages, you can easily find lost data on a Seagate external hard drive.
Step 1. Under the 'External Devices', you should see the Seagate external hard drive showing up after it's correctly connected to your computer. Select the drive and click the Scan button.
Step 2. Soon, the software will find more and more data and display the data in the scan results.
Step 3. You can use the Filter feature to quickly locate some specific file types in the results. Select the target files and click the Recover button.
External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Mac
To recover Seagate external hard drive data on Mac, you may refer to: External Hard Drive Data Recovery on Mac for help.
Save your recovered data to another location other than the external storage device. It is recommended that you reformat this Seagate drive to make sure it's secure for storing new data again.
Mac Not Recognizing External Drive
Sum Up
On this page, we explained why is your Seagate external hard drive suddenly doesn't work or not detected by Windows or Mac computers. We also offered respective solutions to repair not working Seagate external hard drive with reliable data recovery software to retrieve all precious data from your disk.
Note that although most of these suggested solutions work to repair device not showing up, not detected, or even not working issues, but it's not the best way out.
Best Mac Compatible External Hard Drive
In order to avoid further data loss, we suggest you create regular backup of your valuable data to another location frequently. Also, forming up the habit of using antivirus software is also a key point to protect your data and privacy.
Mac Hard Drive Not Detected
Whenever you encounter data loss issue, always remember to let EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard help.