How to Reformat Seagate External Hard Drive? Step 1: First of all, as I said before, reformating will erase all your data that stored on the hard drive permanently. So the first step you must do is move all of your important data to your PC/Mac, or to cloud storage service. Remember, once the data is gone, there’s no way to recover it. No matter what caused Seagate Backup Plus not mounting, working or readable issue on Mac, such as logical problems and physical damages, the most important thing is to back up important data or recover data with free Mac data recovery software. IBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is a powerful and reliable data recovery tool on macOS which supports. This driver provides write access for Seagate external drives in Mac OS without having to reformat.
Summary: When plugging your Seagate Backup Plus into a Mac computer, you may find the drive stops working and is unmountable in Disk Utility. Have you been troubled by the issue? This post will give you 4 workable solutions to fix Seagate Backup Plus drive not mounting/working issue on Mac.
- Original software for MacOS that was loaded on the GoFlex for Mac, GoFlex Desk for Mac, or GoFlex Pro for Mac drive, including the driver for the capacity lights (for GoFlex Desk for Mac only) and Seagate Diagnostics.
- Sep 30, 2019 The Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch comes with a USB-C adaptor plug. This means that you’ll be able to plug it into an earlier or later Mac and use the adaptor if you need too. When you’ve connected your Seagate Backup Plus Slim, Ultra Touch or Portable.
A large number of users reported that they were unable to mount Seagate Backup Plus drive on Mac computers, orSeagate Backup Plus couldn't work on Mac after plugged in. Here is a real example:
'I really need your help. My Seagate Backup plus just stopped getting detected (led not working anymore) with my MacBook Pro 2016 model (with USB Type C to USB 3 connector) suddenly. It was working fine 1 month before. I tried this backup disk with a Windows computer and the LED light is working in that case but I am not able to get it work with my MacBook Pro anymore. Any idea guys?'
In fact, this issue is very common, especially for those who frequently share the same drive between different computers. Now, let's walk you through the solutions to fix the Seagate Backup Plus not mounting/not working issue on Mac.
6 solutions to fix Seagate Backup Plus not mounting, not working on Mac
Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive is often used to back up important files. If the Seagate external hard drive is not recognized or detected by your Mac, you can't mount it in Disk Utility and access the data stored on it. So it's very urgent to fix the problem to make it work again. Now follow the solutions as below.
Solution 1: Have some basic checks
Sometimes, the Seagate Backup Plus drive could not be mounted on Mac is due to the bad USB port or cable. Thus, once the Seagate Backup Plus drive stops working, you can first do some routine checks as below.
- Check if the cable of the Seagate Backup Plus drive is connected properly to your Mac. If the drive isn't properly plugged in, it will fails to mount as it doesn't received enough power.
- Make sure it's the USB cable at fault. Try using a different USB cable to see if that fixes the problem.
- Check if the USB port is damaged. Plug the Seagate Backup Plus into another USB port if you have another one. Otherwise, insert another external storage device in this USB port.
- Check whether the Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive is powered properly. In general, the current of USB port 2.3 and 3.0 are enough for the most external portable hard drives. But sometimes this amount of current may be insufficient while the drive is spinning up. In this situation, you can try to connect the Seagate Backup Plus with a USB Y cable if you have one.
- Access the drive on other Macs. Connect the Seagate Backup Plus drive to another Mac computer to see whether it works on that one or not. If the drive works on another Mac computer, there is something wrong with your Mac computer rather than the drive. What you should do is to ask for help from Apple support.
- Check if the format of Seagate hard drive is supported by macOS. For example, if the drive is a Windows BitLocker encrypted drive, your Mac computer is not able to recognize it. To fix the problem, you can plug the Seagate Backup Plus into a PC and decrypt the drive on a PC.
Solution 2: Check whether the Seagate Backup Plus is showing up in Disk Utility
Open the Utilities folder in your Applications folder. After you launch Disk Utility, if the Seagate Backup Plus is not showing up on the left pane, the drive has been physically damaged. In that case, you should send the drive to the local repair shop. Otherwise, you should move to the next solution.
Solution 3: Check if the Seagate Backup Plus drive is mounted in Disk Utility
If the Seagate Backup Plus is mounted in Disk Utility, you can leave out the problem with the device. Instead, you should blame the computer settings or outdated computer. Fortunately, it's easy to fix these issues. Just try solution 4 and solution 5. If the external hard drive is greyed out in Disk Utility, it's not mounted. You can try right-clicking the Seagate Backup Plus and choose the 'Mount' button. If that doesn't work, the drive has some file system problems. Please follow the solution 6 to repair the problem.
Solution 4: Show the Seagate Backup Plus on the desktop
If the Seagate external hard drive is mounted in Disk Utility, but it still doesn't show up or work on Mac. First of all, you should make sure the settings in Finder display drive icons on the desktop.
Step 1: Go to Finder > Preferences > General tab.
Step 2: Select 'External disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' and then our connected external hard drive will appear on the desktop.
Solution 5: Update the software on Mac
Software updates keep your computer and programs secure, deal with quite a few bugs and provide new features. The out-of-date software can cause a variety of issues. It's possible that the operating system will become sluggish and the connected device may not function properly. Fortunately, you can easily update the software on Mac.
1. Update the software on macOS Mojave. If you upgrade to macOS Mojave, you should choose 'System Preferences' from the Apple menu, then click 'Software Update' to check for updates. If any updates are available, click 'Update Now' to install them.
2. Update the software on earlier macOS versions. Just launch the Mac App Store, click the 'Update' tab on the top and then choose the 'Update All'.
Solution 6: Repair Seagate Backup Plus drive via First Aid
Seagate Backup Plus not mounting issue on Mac can be caused by file system problems. Disk Utility's First Aid is a built-in tool on Mac to deal with errors related to disks, such as file system corruption. So you can try to fix the unmountable/corrupted Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive in Disk Utility by following the steps as below.
Step 1: Go to Utilities > Disk Utility.
Step 2: Click 'View' in the top menu bar (Or click 'View' on the top window). Then select 'Show All Devices'.
Step 3: Select the Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive from the left sidebar.
Step 4: Click 'First Aid' on the top of the Disk Utility window.
Step 5: Click 'Run' to perform hard disk diagnostics and fix the not mounting/not working Seagate Backup Plus.
Solution 7: Fix the not mounting or working Seagate Backup Plus drive by reformatting
If First Aid failed on the external hard drive, it might have some serious errors that are beyond its reparation capability. In that case, you need to recover data from the not working Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive as soon as possible.
1. Recover data from the unmountable/corrupted Seagate Back Plus
iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is free external hard drive data recovery software that canrecover deleted photos, recover data from formatted drives, recover data from unmountable drives, recover data from corrupted drives,recover deleted/lost partitions, etc. It's compatible withmacOS 10.14/10.13/10.12/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
1. Download and install iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery on Mac.
2. Launch iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.
3. Select the Seagate Backup Plus and click the 'Next' button to scan for all lost data.
4. Preview the searching results, choose files you want to get back, and click 'Recover' button.
Here is a short video tutorial which shows you how to recover data from unmountable/corrupted external hard drives:
Step 2: Reformat the Seagate Backup Plus
After recovering data from the unmounted Seagate Backup Plus, you can now go to Disk Utility and reformat it without worrying about data loss.
1. Launch Disk Utility from Utilities and click 'View' in the top menu bar. Then make sure the 'Show All Devices' is ticked.
2. Select the unmounted Seagate Backup Plus. Click Erase on the top of the window, and follow the on-screen steps to reformat it.
If unfortunately, you can't reformat the Seagate Backup Plus drive, it must have physical issues. In this case, you have to look for help from a local data recovery company.
Conclusion
No matter what caused Seagate Backup Plus not mounting, working or readable issue on Mac, such as logical problems and physical damages, the most important thing is to back up important data or recover data with free Mac data recovery software. iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is a powerful and reliable data recovery tool on macOS which supports various external drives, including external hard drives, SD cards, USB flash drives, etc.
If you have any suggestion to solve this issue or experience some question when using iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery, please feel free to let us know.
Summary: Here is how to fix Seagate Backup Plus drive not recognized/detected/showing up on Mac computewer and how to recover data from unrecognizable Seagate Backup Plus drive with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.
By Katrina | Posted to Mac Data Recovery, updated on March 15th, 2019 |
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 (may be 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
Seagate Backup Plus drive is a popular external hard drive that has many cool features. However, there are times when you plug in Seagate Backup Plus drive but it isn't showing up on your Mac computer or you can't access data on it at all. Actually, it's a common issue that people discussed in Apple Community – 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 could be various and this page will illustrate the possible causes behind this problem briefly along with the solutions.
The causes for Seagate Backup Plus Portable drive not detected issue could be:
• A recent macOS update
• Faulty connection such as wobbly USB port and broken cable
• File system corruption in this Seagate Backup Plus drive
• Virus infection
• External drive hardware errors
• Other unknown reasons
• A recent macOS update
• Faulty connection such as wobbly USB port and broken cable
• File system corruption in this Seagate Backup Plus drive
• Virus infection
• External drive hardware errors
• Other unknown reasons
![Seagate For Mac Seagate For Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126355948/223418412.jpg)
Then how can you fix the problem that Seagate Backup Plus Drive is recognized/detected/showing up on Mac?
- Table of contents
- 1. Have some basic checks
- 2. Show Seagate Backup Plus drive in Finder or on desktop
- 3. Check whether Seagate Backup Plus drive can be found in Disk Utility
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.
1. Re-plug the Seagate Backup Plus drive and check if it is connected properly.
2. Try a different USB port or cable to see whether the USB port or cable is bad.
3. Connect Seagate Backup Plus drive to another Mac or PC and see if it is compatible with.
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 or on 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 the desktop. In this case, you can try to show your external drives 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.
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 the desktop.
Check whether Seagate Backup Plus drive can be found 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 maybe need to check whether the Seagate Backup Plus drive can be found in Disk Utility because it really means a lot.
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. We 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.
Seagate For Mac Download
c. Reformat Seagate Backup Plus drive
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 for you and you don't have any backup, you'd better recover data from the unrecognizable Seagate Backup Plus drive at first with Mac data recovery software, like iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.
![Seagate for mac on windows Seagate for mac on windows](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126355948/399400385.jpg)
Step 1: Recover data from Seagate Backup Plus drive
iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is afree Mac data recovery software that can recover deleted files from emptied Mac trash, recover data from formatted, inaccessible, corrupted, unmountable, unreadable drive, etc. in macOS 10.15/10.14 Mojave/10.13 High Sierra/10.12 Sierra and Mac OS X 10.11/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Tutorial to recover data from Seagate Backup Plus drive drive with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery
1. Download and install iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery on Mac.
2. Launch iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.
3. Select the drive you want to recover data from and click 'Next' 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.
Seagate Driver For Mac
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 can't show up in Disk Utility
Seagate For Mac Os
If Seagate Backup Plus drive can't show up in Disk Utility, unfortunately, your Seagate Backup Plus drive may have some physical problems.
a. Try iBoysoft Data Recovery
In some situations, Disk Utility fails to recognize Seagate Backup Plus drive, but it can be recognized by some data recovery software.
b. Send it to a local technician for help
If unfortunately, iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery cannot detect your Seagate Backup Plus drive either, in this case, you'd better send the drive to a local data recovery service and see if they could help.
Still have questions?