Summary
Click the download button to get the Seagate file recovery for Windows or Mac software. It’s fully compatible with all the OS. It’s a safe tool, feel free to download it and perform hard disk rescue. Choose File Types to Scan. Connect your Seagate hard drive with your PC, making sure it appears like a USB drive on your computer.
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When your Seagate hard drive not working, it is usually about external hard disk not detected, not recognized, or not showing up. This article has the most comprehensive solutions to Seagate internal and external hard drive not working problems on both Windows and Mac. In the final part, you can learn how to recover data from a Seagate (external) hard drive which is not detecting by EaseUS hard drive recovery software.
- Symptoms - Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working
- Reasons - Why Is Seagate Hard Drive Not Detected, Recognized or Showing Up
- 10 Solutions - How to Fix Seagate Hard Drive Not Working Problems on Windows & Mac
- Data Recovery - How to Recover Data from Seagate Drive When It Is Not Detecting
My 1TB Seagate external hard drive cannot be detected by my computer but the light is blinking, what can I do to fix this? I need to get my data back. I use it at as a backup so pretty much all of my personal and work files are stored in the drive. Please help me out.
There are a variety of reasons why an external hard drive can become undetectable. Luckily, this is a well-documented issue and there are a number of fixes to get your external hard drive working again. First, we'll discuss the symptoms and reasons why your Seagate external hard drive cannot be detected by a computer, then we'll provide you with the most effective solutions.
Symptoms - Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working
Under normal circumstances, the external hard drive should be detected by your operating system, without the need of drivers, software, or firmware updates. However, each drive has its own issues after long-term use or possibly improper use.
The 'not working' is a general term to express a hard disk or external one which starts malfunctioning. For example, it may not be accessible or detected after connecting it to your computer. Or, even you correctly connect it to a computer, it's not showing up in the drives list or Windows/macOS cannot recognize it.
Why Is Seagate Hard Drive Not Detected, Recognized or Showing Up?
Both software and hardware issues will cause a hard drive not working as usual. The commonly explored reasons related to the software include:
- Incompatible file system
- File system corruption
- Invalid file system, RAW
- The drive turns to unallocated
- Hard drive driver is corrupted or out of date
Other hardware issues are generally about:
- The hard drive has too many bad sectors
- The hard drive is broken, dead, not spinning up
For an efficient repair of Seagate hard drive becoming not detected by a computer, we usually recommend people try some basic hardware troubleshooting by themselves. This is an essential step that will greatly save time and improve the chance of successful hard drive repair in the shortest time.
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For advanced troubleshooting solutions, select your operating system:
10 Solutions - How to Fix Seagate Hard Drive Not Working on Windows & Mac
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So, how do you fix these problems when your hard drive, such as Seagate external hard drive, becomes undetected or unrecognized? There can be a number of underlying causes, so these solutions try to cover every circumstance.
Windows Troubleshooting Part →
Fix 1. Try a different USB port
If the Seagate external hard drive is blinking but not detected on your PC, then you can try to unplug and plug it into a different USB port. Also, you can reboot your PC and try to connect your Seagate external hard drive to the computer again.
If this simple fix works, then your problem with the Seagate 'external hard drive not detected' error is solved. If not, move on to the other solutions offered here.
Fix 2. Format RAW Seagate Hard Drive
When a hard drive's file system turns to RAW, it won't show up in my computer. You need to format the RAW drive to a file system that Windows recognizes, such as NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT. Since formatting will completely erase data, if you need the data, consider data recovery before the formatting steps.
* EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the capable Seagate hard drive recovery software that helps recover data from a RAW, not formatted or inaccessible Seagate HDD, external hard disk and USB flash drive, etc. Download and try to recover data from the RAW Seagate hard drive in advance.
Step 1: Go to the Windows Disk Management and confirm whether your Seagate drive shows up as RAW.
Step 2: Right-click on the drive and select Format.
Step 3: Enter a volume label, choose a file system among NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT and leave the allocation unit size default. Click OK.
Fix 3. Create a New Partition on Unallocated
In the same way, check your Seagate drive's status, does it show as unallocated like this? To make your unallocated Seagate drive show up and recognized again, try to create a new partition on the unallocated space.
Step 1: In Windows Disk Management, right-click on the unallocated partition and choose New Simple Volume..
Step 2: Follow the wizard to set partition size, drive letter and file system (NTFS), etc. Click Finish to complete the process.
Fix 4. Uninstall Hard Drive Driver
By carefully performing the four steps, you should be able to resolve the unrecognition problem of the Seagate external hard drive.
Step 1: Click on Start > Type: devmgmt.msc and hit Enter.
Step 2: Open Device manager > Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers > check whether any device shows up as unrecognized.
Step 3: If it displays as unrecognized, go to the Drivers tab and Choose Uninstall Driver. Then check whether the external hard drive shows up in My Computer/My PC or not.
Step 4: If it doesn't show up, reboot, or restart the PC. If it shows up but disappears later, repeat the above steps and go to Disk Management > Change drive letter of your external hard drive only > Select one new drive letter to replace the old one by clicking Change, and click OK to confirm.
Fix 5. Turn on USB Root Hub
USB external hard drive devices may stop functioning correctly when multiple devices connected to the same USB hub go into selective suspend. Enable the USB root hub lets the controllers recover the USB port from its unresponsive condition.
Step 1: Click Start > Type: devmgmt.msc and hit Enter.
Step 2: Open Device Manager > Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
Step 3: Right-click USB Root Hub > Click Properties > Power Management.
Step 4: Uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
Fix 6. Show All Hidden Devices
Sometimes it's because the connected drive is hidden, not showing up in my computer. You need to unhide the device in the Windows Device Manager.
Step 1: Ba ii plus online calculator download mac. Click on Start > Type: devmgmt.msc and hit Enter.
Step 2: Click View > Select Show hidden devices.
Step 3: Expand all notes by clicking on the + (plus) symbol.
Step 4: If there are any grayed-out entries, right-click them, and select Uninstall.
Step 5: Reboot and try again.
Fix 7. Make Changes in Registry
- Warning
- Please follow the below tips carefully while deleting Registry keys from your computer so as to make the Seagate external hard drive recognizable again. Any false operations such as deleting wrong keys in Registry may result in program failure, system crash, or even data loss error.
Step 1: Click on Start > Type: regedt32 and click OK.
Step 2: Back up your registry by going to File > export.
Step 3: On the left side, go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
Step 4: If you see any upperfilter or lowerfilters at the right side, delete them.
Step 5: Then try accessing your external hard drive again.
- Tip
- If you've exported the Registry as a backup by following the above steps, you can refer to the next steps for a guide to restore Registry manually.
How to Import/Restore Registry from A Manual Backup:
Step 1: Type: regedit.ext in Search and hit Enter.
Step 2: In the Registry Editor, click File > Import.
Step 3: In the Import Registry File dialog box, select the location where you saved the backup copy, select the backup file, and click Open.
Step 4: After this, restart your PC.
Fix 8. Run a Virus Cleaner Software
If it is a virus that caused your external hard drive to be undetectable or unrecognized, you can try a virus cleaner software to wipe out and remove any viruses from your PC and hard drive. Afterward, you can format the hard drive to make it readable again, but formatting will delete any software on the drive.
Mac Troubleshooting Part →
Before going further troubleshooting, have some basic check in Disk Utility or System Information/Profiler section. Here's what you can do:
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- If the drive is not showing on your desktop or within Finder check Disk Utility: go and open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
- If the drive is not detected in Disk Utility then see the System Information/System Profiler section.
- If you are using macOS 10.13 or higher then click view in the upper left and select 'Show All Devices' which allows you to see both the disk as well as volumes.
If all the attempts failed to display the Seagate drive on your Mac, go on with the two solutions.
Fix 1. Repair Seagate External Hard Drive in First Aid
If the Seagate drive is unmountable or the Mount icon is greyed out, it could be some disk errors that prevent your Mac from recognizing/detecting the drive correctly. You can repair the problematic drive in the built-in First Aid utility.
Step 1: Click on the Launchpad on the Dock and find Other.
Step 2: Locate Disk Utility and open it.
Step 3: Select the unmountable Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar and choose First Aid at the top.
Step 4: Click Run to repair this Seagate hard drive.
Fix 2. Reformatting Unmountable Seagate External Hard Drive
The other assumption that your Seagate hard disk not detected is because the file system has corrupted. In this case, reformatting a corrupted drive is the most instant way to revive it. Again, formatting a disk will erase data, so make sure that you've copied all important data to a safe place, or exported data from a not showing up drive with EaseUS data recovery software for Mac.
Step 1: Go to Applications > Utilities > Double click and open Disk Utility.
Step 2: Select your Seagate external hard drive on the sidebar, choose Erase.
Step 3: Rename the drive, choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT) for Format, Master Boot Record for Scheme. Then click Erase.
Data Recovery - How to Recover Data from Seagate Drive When It Is Not Detecting
After getting your hard drive to be recognized once more, you should check to see whether any files were lost. Files could have been lost due to the drive becoming unreadable, or from fixing this issue.
You can turn to these two methods for help:
- Method 1. If you do have backups on your Seagate external hard drive, you can directly restore those lost files from your backups.
- Method 2. If you have no backups, here the best hard drive recovery software will help you.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will assist you with restoring unlimited data from your Seagate external hard drive in three simple steps. Even if you don't notice any files missing, you can use this tool to scan your entire drive for any lost files that you may have missed. You can download this software and scan your drive completely for free.
If the amount of lost data is less than 2GB, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition will help you restore it all for free. Alternatively, you can purchase the Pro version to recover an unlimited amount of data.
Save your recovered data to another location than the external storage device. It is recommended that you reformat or format this drive to make sure it's secure for storing new data again. To do this, first back up the data on the drive, format, then restore the data.
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By going through three short stages, you can easily find lost data on a Seagate external hard drive.
Step 1. Under the 'External Devices', you should see the Seagate external hard drive showing up after it's correctly connected to your computer. Select the drive and click the Scan button.
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Step 2. Soon, the software will find more and more data and display the data in the scan results.
Seagate Expansion Desktop Drive Software
Step 3. You can use the Filter feature to quickly locate some specific file types in the results. Select the target files and click the Recover button.
Is your Seagate external hard drive not working? This page covers comprehensive solutions to fix Seagate and other brands of external hard drive not working, not detected, or not showing up errors, making your hard drives work again without losing any data.
Quick Tips to Fix Problematic Seagate External Disk:
- 1. Try a different USB port on the computer.
- 2. Switch to a new cable if the current one is damaged.
- 3. Try connecting the drive to a different computer.
- 4. Verify if the drive's light is on. (Light off indicates the power adapter is not connected to power.)
- 5. Try a different power outlet. (Desktop Drives)
After following these tips, if your Seagate external hard drive is still not detected, move on and try the other solutions offered below.
Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not showing up, not detected, external hard drive light blinking but not work, not recognized in Windows 10, USB not showing up, etc.

8 Ways to Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working in Windows & Mac
Follow along and pick the right method to make your Seagate external hard drive work again.
#1. Uninstall/Re-install Seagate Drive Driver...Full steps #2. Format RAW Seagate Hard Drive...Full steps #3. Create New Partition on Unallocated Seagate...Full steps #4. Change Seagate Drive Letter...Full steps #5. Turn on USB Root Hub...Full steps | #1. Repair Seagate External Drive in First Aid...Full steps #2. Format Seagate to macOS Supported Format...Full steps #3. Remount/Reformat Seagate External...Full steps |
Since some of these solutions may cause loss of files, we'd recommend you first restore data from the not working Seagate external hard drive.
Before You Begin: Recover Data after Not Working Seagate External Drive First
Since some effective ways to fix external disk problems will definitely cause data loss, such as disk formatting, we strongly recommend that you restore and back up your data from Seagate external hard disk first.
To effectively recover data from not working Seagate external hard drive, you need to use powerful hard drive data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, which can restore data from inaccessible, corrupted, and RAW external hard drives.
EaseUS data recovery software has the following highlights and features.
Easy External Hard Drive Data Recovery
- Recover documents, photos, videos, audio files, music, and emails effectively.
- Recover files from corrupted USB flash drive, emptied recycle bin, memory card, SD card, digital camera, etc.
- Support external hard drive data recovery for sudden deletion, formatting, drive corruption, virus attack, etc.

Step 1. Locate Seagate drive to scan
- Use the correct USB cable to connect the Seagate external hard drive to your Windows PC.
- Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, it will load the external drive and display it under the Devices section.
- All you need to do here is to select the Seagate external hard drive and then click the Scan button.
Step 2. Check for the scan results
As soon as the scan process starts, the software will find more and more lost data on the selected drive and display the data in the scan results. You can find the desired files by following its original path from the leftside tree-view pane, or filter a specific file type like Pictures, Word/Excel/PDF documents, videos, etc.
Step 3. Preview and recover
A double-click on a file lets you preview its content. If the preview is with no problem, just select the target files and click Recover. To avoid data overwriting, we suggest you save the recovered data to the other drive instead of the original Seagate drive.
Mac users should download the Mac version to restore lost files. To recover Seagate external hard drive data on Mac, follow this link External Hard Drive Data Recovery on Mac.
How to Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working in Windows
First, open Disk Management and check the state of your external hard drive. Then, refer to appropriate solutions given below:
Fix 1. Uninstall and Reinstall Seagate Hard Drive Driver
Risk Level: Low | Difficulty Level: Easy |
If your hard drive is not detected in Device Manager or Disk Management, you need to uninstall and update the Seagate drive driver and try again. Here are the detailed steps to do so:
Step 1. Connect the not working Seagate external hard disk to PC.
Step 2. Type device manager in the search box and click 'Device Manager' on the menu.
Step 3. Expand disk drivers and right-click on your external hard drive, select 'Update Driver'.
Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software' and restart the PC when the process completes.
Fix 2. Format RAW Seagate External Hard Drive to NTFS
Risk Level: High. Data may get lost after formatting. | Difficulty Level: Easy |
- Warning
- Note that formatting will cause DATA LOSS on your hard drive, if you need the data, then data recovery is necessary.
In Device Manager or Disk Management on your computer, if your external hard drive shows as RAW or Unallocated, it means you need to format your hard drive.
Step 1. Connect the Seagate external hard drive to your PC and open Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on the not working RAW drive and select 'Format'.
Step 3. Set volume label, set NTFS as the file system, and tick 'Quick Format'. Click 'OK' to start the formatting.
Fix 3. Restore Partition or Create a New Partition on Unallocated Seagate External Disk
Risk Level: Medium, data may get overwritten by creating a new partition. | Difficulty Level: Easy |
When your external hard drive shows as unallocated in Disk Management, you have two options: 1. Restore the partition, 2. Create a new partition.
#1. Restore Lost Partition and Data from Seagate Unallocated Space
Your first choice is to directly apply the partition recovery software. It will scan and recover all lost partitions and data from the unallocated space.
Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Recovery on your PC.
Select the disk or device where you lost partition(s), click 'Scan' to continue.
Step 2: Wait for the scanning process to complete.
Let the program scan the selected disk and find the lost partition(s).
Step 3: Preview and restore the lost partition(s).
Double-click on the partition which is marked as 'Lost' with 'Good' recoverability.
Preview the content of the lost partition. Click 'OK' and click 'Proceed' to start restoring the lost partition.
Step 4: Click 'Recover Now' to finish the partition recovery process.
Note: If the program warns you that there is a conflict, back up the listed partition with essential data to an external hard drive first. Then execute the final operation to restore your lost partition.
#2. Create a New Partition on Unallocated Seagate External Disk
Note: This method can lead to data loss, remember to recover data first if you want to use this method.
Here is how to use Disk Management to create a new partition:
Step 1. Connect the unallocated Seagate external hard drive to PC and open Windows Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on the unallocated partition and choose 'New Simple Volume...'.
Step 3. Set partition size, drive letter, and file system such as NTFS, etc., click 'OK' to confirm.
Step 4. Click 'Finish' to complete the process.
Fix 4. Change Seagate Drive Letter
Risk Level: Low | Difficulty Level: Easy |
If your external hard drive shares the same drive letter as your disk partition, Windows won't show the drive letter of your external device. It will show as New Volume in Disk Management without a drive letter.
And, this is probably the reason your external hard drive not detected. To fix this issue, you'll need to add a new drive letter to your Seagate disk. Here are the steps to do so:
Step 1. Connect Seagate external to computer and open Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click the partition of not working Seagate disk and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths...'.
Step 3. Set a new drive letter to the Seagate disk and click 'OK' to confirm.
Fix 5. Turn on USB Root Hub
Sometimes, USB external hard drive devices may stop functioning correctly if multiple devices are connected to the same USB hub, which goes into selective suspension.
You can enable the USB root hub letting the controllers recover the USB port from its unresponsive condition to make your device work normally again:
Step 1. Connect not working Seagate external hard disk to PC.
Step 2. Open Device Manager and expand 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'.
Step 3. Right-click USB Root Hub > Click 'Properties' > 'Power Management'.
Step 4. Uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' and restart the PC.
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If you are having a similar issue on your hard drive, try the fixes below.
Are your hard drives, be it new or old, internal or external, not showing up in File Explorer or Disk Management? Follow to learn how to make your hard drive showing up again in Windows 10/8/7 without losing data.
How to Repair Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working/Detected in Mac [3 Methods]
Follow the following methods to repair the Seagate hard drives to work normally again on Mac:
Before you proceed further, try the quick fixes:
- Seagate drive is not showing on desktop: check Disk Utility: open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Seagate disk is not detected in Disk Utility: see the System Information/System Profiler section.
- On macOS 10.13 or higher, click 'View' in the upper left and select 'Show All Devices'.
If all the attempts failed to display your Seagate external hard drive on Mac, try the below 3 methods.
Fix 1. Repair Not Working Seagate External Hard Drive in First Aid
Risk Level: Low | Difficulty Level: Easy |
If the Seagate drive is unmountable or the mount icon is greyed out, it will prevent your Mac from recognizing or detecting the drive correctly. You can repair the problematic drive in the built-in First Aid utility:
Step 1. Open Finder and click 'Applications'.
Step 2. Locate Disk Utility in 'Utilities' and double-click to open it.
Step 3. Select the unmountable Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar and choose 'First Aid' at the top.
Step 4. Click 'Run' to repair this Seagate hard drive and click 'Done' to finish.
If Fix 1 fails to work, you may try to format the Seagate disk in Fix 2 or Fix 3.
Fix 2. Format Seagate Disk to macOS Supported File System
Risk Level: High. data will get lost due to formatting. | Difficulty Level: Easy |
- Warning
- As formatting a disk on Mac will erase data, make sure you turn to reliable data recovery software like EaseUS data recovery software for Mac to restore all files before formatting disk.
If you use an NTFS Seagate external hard drive on a Mac computer, it won't work nor show up on Mac as Mac only supports APFS, FAT32, and exFAT formats.
To fix the Seagate external hard drive not working error, format the drive to FAT32 or exFAT. Here is a step-by-step guide to do so:
Step 1. Connect the Seagate external hard drive to Mac.
Step 2. Go to the Apple menu, click 'Go' and select 'Applications'.
Step 3. Double-click to open Utilities, locate 'Disk Utility' and double-click to open it.
Step 4. Select the Seagate disk, click 'Erase'.
Step 5. On the Format pop-up window, set a new format like 'MS-DOS (FAT)' and click 'Erase'.
Once the formatting process completes, you can view and access the Seagate external disk on your Mac again.
Fix 3. Remount and Reformat Unmounted Seagate External Disk
If the file system on your Seagate hard disk is corrupted and it's not mounted corrected on Mac, it won't work nor be detected. In this case, remounting and reformatting the Seagate drive is the quickest way to revive it.
Carefully follow the steps below to make the Seagate external hard disk work again on Mac:
Step 1. Go to Applications > 'Utilities' > Double click and open 'Disk Utility'.
Step 2. Select the 'Untitled' Seagate drive, and click 'Mount'.
Once the mounting completes, you'll see the Seagate drive shows up on the left pane.
Step 3. Select your Seagate external hard drive on the sidebar, choose 'Erase'.

Step 4. Rename the drive, choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT). Then click 'Erase'.
After trying the aforementioned methods, you should be able to use Seagate external hard drive on both your Windows and Mac computers.
Why Is Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working/Detected
Generally, 'Not Working' is a state that usually describes a malfunctioning hard disk or external hard drive. Seagate external hard drive not working or not detected is a concerning issue among worldwide Seagate users.
So, what causes your Seagate external hard drive to stop working or malfunctioning? Both software and hardware issues may cause a hard drive not to work as usual. Here is a list of common reasons for this issue:
- Incompatible file system
- File system corruption, Invalid file system, RAW
- The drive turns to unallocated
- Disk drive letter conflict
- Hard drive driver is corrupted or out of date
- The hard drive has too many bad sectors
- The hard drive is damaged, dead, or not spinning up
Fixing Not Working Seagate Drive Is Possible, It's Your Turn
In this guide, we offered 8 solutions to repair the not working Seagate external hard drive on both Windows and Mac computers. If some fixes cause file loss, you can retrieve all precious data with the EaseUS file recovery solution.
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Also, we explained why your Seagate external hard drive suddenly doesn't work or is not detected by Windows or Mac computers. As your data matters, creating a regular backup of your external disk data is helpful. Fixing Seagate external hard drive not working error is possible, and follow the above steps to make your drive work again.