Seagate Backup drive not recognized

Not sure but must have unplugged Seagate 2TB Backup Plus in error while it was working and you know the rest of the story. Doesn't work at all, is not recognized etc. Do I restore? Erase? I downloaded NTFS drivers from Seagate, this did not work. I am running Sierra 10.12.16

Is this a repairable event? I cannot "mount" the drive either.

Welcome to our forums.

How was the Seagate drive formatted? I suspect like other Seagate drives out of the box, it was formatted as NTFS. Try running Disk Utility (Applications, Utilities, Disk Utility) with the Seagate attached. Does Disk Utility see the drive? If it does, do not erase it as that will destroy all the data on the drive.

chscag said:

Welcome to our forums.

How was the Seagate drive formatted? I suspect like other Seagate drives out of the box, it was formatted as NTFS. Try running Disk Utility (Applications, Utilities, Disk Utility) with the Seagate attached. Does Disk Utility see the drive? If it does, do not erase it as that will destroy all the data on the drive.

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I have had this drive for about a year. Yes Disk Utility does see it but I cannot "mount" it from there.

I also tried the NTFS download from Seagate as I mentioned. I also just tried to run EASEUS and it just ran forever and never finished so I ended it and it found 0 files after about 15 minutes.

I am burnt out, I will have to check back tomorrow. Thank you chscag, I WILL check in tomorrow.

I think the most important question here is are you prepared to loose all the data on your backup. If so the problem can probably be fixed by reformatting the Seagate drive.
What application were you using for backups, eg. Time Machine or were you just saving files manually?
If manually and you have no other copies of the contents you may have luck mounting the drive on a Windows PC. Using that method you could then erase and reformat on the PC making it mountable on the Mac. Then you could erase and reformat it again to Mac OS Extended (Journalled) which I hate to say you probably should have done in the beginning. Mind you that may not have prevented the problem but it would have increased your chances of repairing it on the Mac.

The good news is I still have all files on my computer and secondly I have a separate external drive for photos. I should probably just erase the drive. I decided to do a backup to an older drive I have around here and received a message that says backup from encrypted (computer) to unencrypted (external drive). Is this going to be ok? should I have done something else first? This is my old backup and it also said latest backup 0 and last backup 0 which makes me wonder about this drive as well! Rod Sprague. Any recommendations appreciated.

So your computer is encrypted, yes? Generally, and I think I am representative of the community on this forum, when I say, we do not advise the use of Apple's encryption option, unless you are a spy or engaged in industrial espionage of some sort. It really is unnecessary if you take reasonable precautions to protect your data. On the other hand it can complicate the retrieval of data in the case of file corruption or breakdown of your device.
Of course it is entirely up to you.
I take it from your answer that erasing the Seagate drive would not pose a problem. In that case I would be inclined to use Disk Utility to Erase, Name and format the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journalled) and perform a full backup using the Apple Native Time Machine app. This will take some tine dependant on the amount of storage on your computer and offer you the option to encrypt your backup (if you must) see; http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/displa...ime+Machine+backup+drives+on+OS+X+10.9+and+up
My personal choice though would be to unencrypte the Mac HD then create a Bootable clone.
This has a few advantages over the Time Machine backup in that it can boot if your HD crashes and run just like your internal HD until repairs can be made. Also it's format is easily read on any Mac .

I went and bought a new external drive and backed up my computer. So many bad reviews for Seagate so I bought another WD which is what I had some time ago. I will go to the genius bar tomorrow and see if they can help recover anything, I bought the drive at the Apple store. If not then I will just wipe it out. Thank you! I feel like to unencrypt my drive etc would be over my head so I will probably just leave it alone for now. Thanks again!

As about this at the Apple store while you're there. It a very simple action in Security Settings in System Preferences. As you may have read Time Machine does not encrypt a backup from an encrypted drive by default so you can do a complete backup with TM before unencrypting your device. Just incase it goes awry.