Seagate Freeagent Go drive not recognised by Mac

I have a Seagate Freeagent Go 750GB that my Mac won't recognise. I can't afford to lose the contents. The drive was recognised until recently and is still seen by Disk Utility, but won't display a desktop icon to access the contents. I've run Disk Utility many times and it won't fix the problem. I've followed all the steps in the knowledgebase articles. I've tried to use Seagate's diagnostics software, but without success. I've followed all steps in their knowledgebase. Can you help? Purchased 26 May 2008, S/N 5QD375A2 P/N 9NK2A6-51 (though difficult to read as very small)

Try this setting for the Finder

Finder>Preferences>General and click on Hard Drive to show it on the desktop. Also in the Sidebar tab.

If Disk Utility can see it is mounted. My rule of thumb is always format any drive on the machine it will be used on. Thumb drives also.

Many thanks

Many thanks for the suggestions. All of the tickboxes in the finder prefs and sidebar are selected. I tried this when I first had problems (sorry I forgot to mention this) and it made no difference. Disk Utility can see it, but it reports as unmounted. So I am rather at a loss still.

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Do you leave the drive attached all the time? Sometimes it is necessary for external hard drives to be spun down, and then connected. Keep us posted?

Also how is the drive formatted? FAT32, NTFS or OSX format?

Hi,
It's OSX formatted and is sometimes spun down and reconnected. I have found a trial copy of File Salvage that is currently finding the files on the drive (it looks successfully) so hopefully I can then back them up. Seagate's own diagnostics suggest all is well with the drive, but it just won't mount.

Just a heads up. I tried Filesalvage once. It found all my deleted files on a drive but the trial will recover unless you pay them for it.

Many thanks indeed for the heads up. Yes, I am expecting exactly that. At least I will know that the files are recoverable at that stage. I am hoping that Seagate will come up with a simple solution, as I am sure this must be relatively common - no reply as yet, though. If they don't (they are likely in the first instance to refer me to their knowledgebase articles, which I have already scoured), then at least I will have exhausted most possibilities before parting with my $99. It's a shame that Mac's Disk Utility doesn't do the job it should, at least in regards to my case. Many thanks for your helpful reply.