Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive

I bought this drive in December 2017. Today, it seems to have stopped working. When I plug it into the laptop, its light got on, but when I select "Back Up Now," TimeMachine seems to start the process (it goes into "Skip this Backup" mode), but it never backs up.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

After you plug it in, the drive should be visible within Finder. If that's the case, you have a fighting chance of using it for TimeMachine. If you don't see the drive in Finder, then try Disk Utility to see what you see. If you don't see it there either, try different cables and computers. If none of these works, you have a failed drive and will need to ask for a replacement from Seagate based on their warranty.

^^It is visible in the Finder. Also, I can "Enter TimeMachine Now."

I backup every morning, but it doesn't seem to be backing up today.

OK, that's a good start. Does TimeMachine give you any errors? Perhaps it needs to start a new bundle or something?

^^No errors.

What's a bundle?

Have you tried restarting the Mac, with the TM backup drive connected?

Marrk said:

^^No errors.

What's a bundle?

Click to expand...

Do as Bob has suggested, but TimeMachine does it's backup to a Sparse Bundle and I've found that after some time, TM will tell me what it needs to create a new one or something from scratch. I'm just guessing as possible issues.

ferrarr said:

Have you tried restarting the Mac, with the TM backup drive connected?

Click to expand...

Just tried that. No change.

If I'm remembering correctly, the Seagate Backup Plus drive comes with some proprietary software installed which is known to be troublesome. I would completely erase the drive, reformat as HFS+ Journaled GUID, and start over using it for Time Machine. You do not need the Seagate software to make Time Machine backups. Of course you would lose all your previous Time Machine backups you made but that can't be helped.

Have you run Disk Utility > First Aid on the drive?

chscag said:

..completely erase the drive...

Click to expand...

Just go to the Erase function in Disk Utilities, right?

chscag said:

.. reformat as HFS+ Journaled GUID...

Click to expand...

I don't know what this is, and I don't know how to do it. Please advise.

ferrarr said:

Have you run Disk Utility > First Aid on the drive?

Click to expand...

No. I was going to ask you about that. Should I? Do I need to ReStart from Safe Mode first?

No, you can run Repair on an external drive without any problems. You can only do that on the internal drive from the Recovery console since you can't mess with the drive you booted into.

Quote Originally Posted by chscag View Post
.. reformat as HFS+ Journaled GUID...
I don't know what this is, and I don't know how to do it. Please advise.

Click to expand...

Pleased to help, Marrk.

Remember, as our Admin chscag said, this will erase your data, but if you want to use it for Time Machine or other purpose, this is probably the best option.

Attach (Mount) the Seagate to the Mac.

Open Disk Utility (DU) found in Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.

This will open a window. On the left will be listed all Drives including the Seagate.

Click on the Seagate - that's the top one - and Click on Erase.

This is what you should see:



Make sure you choose OS X Extended (Journaled) and GUID Partition Map as shown by the red arrows.

Now exit/cancel and now Click on the Indent underneath the Seagate.

Click on Erase.

This is what you will see:



Give it a name, say, "Time Machine BU". Top red arrow

Make sure OS X Extended (Journaled) is shown - middle red arrow

Then click on Erase - bottom red arrow.

This will erase all data and set up your Seagate ready for use as a Time Machine backup.

Then go into System Preferences > Time Machine and select that Drive for your TM backup as you did in the past - it may still be shown there. Then you are good to go.

Ian

IWT said:

This is what you should see:

View attachment 28114

I don't see this ---> Scheme: GUID Partition Map as shown by the red arrows.

Are you sure you meant this --> Now exit/cancel and

I don't see this ---> the Indent underneath the Seagate.

Click to expand...

^^See my boldface above.^^^

OK - when you use Disk Utility (DU), it will show all the Disks currently mounted.

In the example below, you see Apple SD on the top (red arrow) and the indent below it - yellow arrow - in this case called Macintosh HD.

The top one is the name/manufacturer of the Hard Drive and the indent is the actual space available on that Hard Drive.

All mounted Hard Drives appear in this way (see my examples of my 2 Time Machine Hard Drives).

Your External Hard Drive (EHD) will appear in this way too. What I was asking you to do was Click on the top to decide Format and GUID Partition Map. The name can stay as given by the manufacturer.



Then you Click on the indent which is where you give the Hard Drive a name - I suggested Time Machine Backup - and confirm the Format. Then Erase.

It's really very easy. What you are doing is taking the External Hard Drive made by "Bloggs", using "Erase" to determine the GUID Partition Map by selecting it via the triangles and the Format again by choosing from the triangles.

Then you go to the indent, and again using "Erase" give the EHD a name, confirm the Format and Erase. Simple.

Just follow my screenshots as in this post and above.

Please post back.

Ian

To view all connected drives, select View, in the Menu Bar, make sure Show All Devices is selected.

@ IWT: Thank you for this very clear and patient explanation.

Thanks, also, to everyone who responded in this thread.

I erased the Seagate Drive and performed a new TimeMachine Backup. All appears to be well.

Garcias.

Bravo, Mark.

Ian