How to Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Working in Windows & macOS

The Seagate external hard drive not working error is also known as Seagate hard drive not detected, not recognized, or not showing up. In this guide, you have 8 solutions to fix the Seagate external hard drive not working problem on both Windows and Mac. If files are lost, use EaseUS file recovery software to recover files from external hard drive efficiently.

Applies to: Fix Seagate external hard drive not showing up, not detected, hard disk light blinking but not working, not recognized in Windows 10, USB drive not showing up, etc.

Is your Seagate external hard disk not detected? This page covers comprehensive solutions to fix Seagate and other brands of external hard drives not working, not detecting, or not showing up errors, making your hard drives work again without losing any data. You can check all the methods in the following table:

Supported OS	Methods	Review	Difficulty
Windows & macOS	👩‍🔧Data Recovery Services	Fix tricky disk issues without losing data.	Normal
Windows	🖥️Uninstall and Reinstall Seagate Hard Drive Driver	Can help you quickly fix the Seagate disk detection issues.	Easy
	💽Format RAW Seagate External Hard Drive to NTFS	Data loss is unavoidable, and you'd better back up data first.	Easy
	⚡Restore Partition or Create a New Partition	It's better to choose professional disk management software to do that.	Easy
	✅Change Seagate Drive Letter	Do not choose the same drive letter as your other disks to assign the Seagate external hard drive.	Easy
	💡Turn on the USB Root Hub	Avoid connecting multiple devices to the same USB hub may help.	Easy
macOS	💻Use First Aid	Use the Mac built-in disk repair utility to repair the Seagate external hard disk.	Easy
	⭐Format Seagate Disk	Back up your Seagate external hard drive before formatting it is necessary.	Easy
	🗃️Remount and Reformat	You'll need to mount the new Seagate external hard drive before using it.	Medium

Recover Data from Not Detected 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 restoring and backing up your data from Seagate's external hard disk first.

To effectively recover data from not working Seagate external hard drives, 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.

• 💽Recover data from external hard drives, including documents, photos, videos, audio files, music, and emails.
• 📸Recover corrupted USB drives, emptied Recycle Bin, memory cards, SD cards, digital cameras, etc.
• 🖥️Support external hard drive data recovery for sudden deletion, formatting, drive corruption, virus attack, etc.

How to recover data from your functional external hard disk with EaseUS Data Recovery? Here's a detailed tutorial:

Step 1. Ensure your Seagate external hard drive is correctly connected, and scan it with EaseUS data recovery software.

Step 2. All the lost data will appear after the scanning, and you can also filter the files during the scan process. You are able to preview the lost files on the Seagate external hard drive.

Step 3. Select all the files you want to recover from the Seagate external hard drive, click "Recover", and choose a new location to save them.

Here's a video that can help you learn more information about external hard drive data recovery. You can download the software mentioned in this video for free, and we guarantee the software's safety.

• 00:00 External hard drive data loss overview
• 01:00 Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
• 01:19 How to recover data with EaseUS

Don't forget to share this helpful Seagate external hard drive data recovery method with more readers!

Mac users should download the Mac version to restore lost files. To recover Seagate external hard drive data on Mac, follow this link:

Seagate External Hard Drive Repair Services (Recommended)

Before starting to use some complex methods, you can try some quick solutions to fix the Seagate external hard disk is not working issues:

• 💻Try a different USB port on the computer.
• 💽Switch to a new cable if the current one is damaged.
• 👩‍🔧Try connecting the drive to a different computer.
• 💡Verify if the drive's light is on. (Light off indicates the power adapter is not connected to power.)
• 🖥️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 further solutions offered below. If you prefer a professional data recovery and external hard drive repair service, EaseUS data recovery services is highly recommended. Our experts can easily repair crashed, mechanically failed, and physically damaged hard drives, USBs, and SSDs. Contact the experts and repair the Seagate external hard drive now.

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 the appropriate solutions given below.

Fix 1. Uninstall and Reinstall Seagate Hard Drive Driver

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 the PC.

Step 2. Type device manager in the search box and click "Device Manager" on the menu.

Step 3. Expand disk drivers, right-click on your external hard drive, then select "Update Driver".

Step 4. Select "Search automatically for updated driver software" and restart the PC when the process completes.

If this method successfully solves the Seagate external hard drive's issues, don't hesitate to share it.

Fix 2. Format RAW Seagate External Hard Drive to NTFS

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 the volume label, set NTFS as the file system, and tick "Quick Format". Click "OK" to start the formatting.

You can check the following passage to learn more methods to convert RAW drive to NTFS:

Fix 3. Restore Partition or Create a New Partition on Unallocated Seagate External Disk

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 the 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., and click "OK" to confirm.

Step 4. Click "Finish" to complete the process.

Fix 4. Change Seagate Drive Letter

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 is 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 the 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 the 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 the 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.

All the Windows methods have been introduced, and you can share these methods with your friends to help!

How to Repair Seagate External Hard Drive Not Detected on Mac

Follow the following methods to repair the Seagate hard drives to work normally again on Mac:

1. Fix 1. Repair Seagate External Hard Drive in First Aid
2. Fix 2. Format Seagate Disk to macOS Supported File System
3. Fix 3. Remount and Reformat Unmountable Seagate External Hard Drive

Before you proceed further, try the quick fixes:

• Seagate drive is not showing on the 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

If the Seagate drive is unmountable or the mount icon is greyed out, it will prevent your Mac from correctly recognizing or detecting the drive. 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

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 disk 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, and 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 correctly 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, and choose "Erase".

Step 4. Rename the drive, and choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT). Then click "Erase".

After trying the aforementioned methods, you should be able to use Seagate external hard drives on both your Windows and Mac computers.

Why Is Seagate External Hard Disk Not Working

Generally, "Not Working" is a state that usually describes a malfunctioning hard disk or external hard drive. Seagate 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
• External hard drive unallocated
• Disk drive letter conflict
• The hard drive driver is corrupted or out of date
• The USB port is not working
• 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

This guide 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 external hard drive recovery solution.

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 hard drive not working error is possible, and follow the above steps to make your drive work again.

Seagate Hard Disk Not Detecting FAQs

The following are the top topics related to Seagate hard disk not detected. Check the brief answers for these problems.

How do I fix my Seagate external hard drive not responding?

Try these basic troubleshooting tips:

• Connect your external hard drive to a different port on the computer
• Try using a different cable or USB port
• Try another power outlet
• Change the drive letter if the external hard disk
• The Seagate portable hard drive is hidden

Why has my external hard drive stopped working?

• The USB port is faulty
• The USB port is loose
• Connection issue with the USB cable
• Outdated drive driver of your external hard drive
• The file system of the Seagate external hard drive is corrupted
• The drive letter of the Seagate disk is conflicted

How do I fix my Seagate external hard drive not working with no light?

• Change another USB port, cable, or PC
• Change the drive letter of your Seagate external hard drive
• Repair the corrupted file system of the external hard drive
• Format RAW Seagate hard drive
• Uninstall or reinstall disk drivers