SeaGate FreeAgent GoFlex no longer recognized by MBA

I put my iTunes library on the SeaGate FreeAgent external drive to free up space on my Mac. I've been using it with no problems until today. Normally, when I open iTunes, a message tells me the iTunes library cannot be found, so I point to it on my external drive. No problem. But today, after plugging in the GoFlex, it sits and spins, beeping every 15 seconds. My Mac Book Air no longer recognizes it as being attached. So I can no longer open my iTunes.

Can anyone help me with this issue?

I suppose you've tried Finder to try to see if the drive is attache. And Drive Utility to see if the drive can be seen by OSX at all? And oh, by the way, what OSX version, which MBA, and what, if any, messages is iTunes or OSX sending you. At this point the most likely answer, given the sparse information provided, is that the Seagate drive has failed, or is failing.

Thanks Jake. I went into Disk Utility and it does recognize the Seagate:

Name : Seagate USB 3.0 Cable Media
Type : Disk

Partition Map Scheme : Unformatted
Disk Identifier : disk1
Media Name : Seagate USB 3.0 Cable Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : USB
USB Serial Number : NA0CGYE3
Device Tree : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/EHC1@1D,7
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Location : External
Total Capacity : 1.5 TB (1,500,301,909,504 Bytes)
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 0
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
I am using a 2012 Mac Book Air with OS X version 10.8.5

I have about 9000 songs in my iTunes library on this drive, although it looks like it's not formatted now. Before using it, 18 months ago, I formatted it for use on both Mac and Windows (since I converted from windows at that time).

When I open iTunes, it asks for me to find my library.When I search for it, the external drive does not show up as an option.

The SeaGate does not show up in Finder either.

At this point, I hope you have a backup of the iTunes stuff...

About the only suggestion I can make at this point is to unmount and try remounting the drive again and hope that this time the formatting is found. If it's formatted NTFS or FAT for both Windows and Mac, and if you have a PC handy, you might see if it can be seen by the PC, then back up the drive to the PC, bring it back to the Mac and see if it can be mounted/formatted so that the tracks can be put back on it.

You might also look for Paragon NTFS to help in writing to NTSF formatted drives. Natively, the Mac can read, but not write, to NTFS. OSX can read and write to FAT formatted drives.

Your drive has crashed. You are experiencing exactly what I did with my Seagate GoFlex. In my case, I was able to confirm the crash using TechTool Pro to do a surface scan. But the signs of the crash began when one day it'd mount, then suddenly "disappear" and get errors that it wasn't formatted. Then suddenly it'd mount, and on and on.