MBP no longer recognizing Seagate expansion drive after 10.9.5 Mavericks update

[BreakingKayfabe]

I updated to 10.9.5 yesterday. The day before is the last time I had my expansion drive hooked up to my MBP and it worked as it should. This morning I connected it to all USB ports and the computer doesn't even recognize it as something being plugged in. I tried other flash drives and they work fine. I hooked up the expansion drive to a Windows machine and it worked just fine.

Any solutions? I really need the expansion on this

 

[UJ95x]

Hmm...I have that same drive and I just updated to 10.9.5
I'll test it out later to see if it's working for me.

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

Ill update the post with the exact model I have also once I get back to the drive.

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

This is the model I have. View attachment 66234

 

[UJ95x]

I have the 2TB model. Just connected it and it works fine. Recognized it instantly and all my files are showing correctly.

Are you having any other issues on the Macbook since the update? Mine periodically disconnects from my home and school WiFi. I get an error saying that I should run diagnostics on it. Works fine on all other devices in the house.

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[BreakingKayfabe]

Thanks for checking. I haven't had any other issues since the update.

The issue of the WiFi periodicially disconnecting from time to time has been an issue for me since the day I bought it. I got this one sometime in March of this year. I've read a few accounts of the WiFi issue in Google searches in the past. I haven't had any popups suggesting to run a diagnostics test though.

 

[UJ95x]

Thanks for checking. I haven't had any other issues since the update.

The issue of the WiFi periodicially disconnecting from time to time has been an issue for me since the day I bought it. I got this one sometime in March of this year. I've read a few accounts of the WiFi issue in Google searches in the past. I haven't had any popups suggesting to run a diagnostics test though.

It only pops up after a failed attempt to reconnect. I open the laptop, see that the WiFi is no longer connected to a network then try to connect again. If it fails, that's when I see the message. I have tried both my 2.4 and 5GHz connections.

I'm getting a new router within the next week. I hasn't had this issue before the update, so if the new router doesn't fix it I'll probably get on Apple chat to see if they have any suggestions.

Anyway...what happens when you try to connect the external drive? Nothing at all?

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[BreakingKayfabe]

Absolutely nothing. Not even showing up in the disk utility. It's 3TB but at the moment there isn't more than about 60GB worth of files on there. So it's not like there is much to scan on there before it shows up. When I connected it to a Windows machine it showed up within a matter of seconds. Not even getting the blinking blue light on the Seagate that you get when connecting it. Just stays lit blue.

If it continues I guess I'm just going to make a Genius Bar appointment. It literally connected with no issue the day before I updated to 10.9.5 so my assumption is that it is attributed to the update. I even first formatted the drive on this Mac as well.

 

[UJ95x]

Absolutely nothing. Not even showing up in the disk utility. It's 3TB but at the moment there isn't more than about 60GB worth of files on there. So it's not like there is much to scan on there before it shows up. When I connected it to a Windows machine it showed up within a matter of seconds. Not even getting the blinking blue light on the Seagate that you get when connecting it. Just stays lit blue.

If it continues I guess I'm just going to make a Genius Bar appointment. It literally connected with no issue the day before I updated to 10.9.5 so my assumption is that it is attributed to the update. I even first formatted the drive on this Mac as well.

What format is the drive in?
Have you tried different ones?

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[BreakingKayfabe]

What format is the drive in?
Have you tried different ones?

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I've tried different USB flash drives and they work fine. I don't have another expansion drive to try.

The format, I'm not sure. I remember when I first got it I did have to format in some OS X type-format. I remember thinking that meant I probably couldn't use it on a Windows machine until i reformatted it. I was surprised it worked on the Windows machine and I was able to explore it, copy, and move files in and out.

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

That's definitely strange that your usb ports can read other drives but not that particular one. If you could read/write it on Mac and Windows PCs, then it must have been formatted as FAT or FAT32. NTFS is the other common Windows drive format and Macs can read it, but not write to it natively. However you can get third party read/write drivers for NTFS on the Mac. If you had installed one of those and formatted the drive with NTFS, then maybe the update to this version of Mavericks broke the driver.

Yeah. I'm thinking the driver has been broken since it won't even show up whatsoever in the disk utility. I need to setup a Genius appointment next week and see if they can help me revert back. I'm not as well versed in OS X as I am iOS to try it on my own.

The sigh of relief here is that my content is still on the drive. So that's the blessing in disguise.

 

[UJ95x]

I've tried different USB flash drives and they work fine. I don't have another expansion drive to try.

The format, I'm not sure. I remember when I first got it I did have to format in some OS X type-format. I remember thinking that meant I probably couldn't use it on a Windows machine until i reformatted it. I was surprised it worked on the Windows machine and I was able to explore it, copy, and move files in and out.

I meant if you had tried other formats for the drive. Not other drives
At least the content is on there so that's good. I'd move it onto a desktop if you have the space and then format the drive, but if you're going to the Genius Bar anyway it probably isn't worth the trouble.

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[BreakingKayfabe]

I meant if you had tried other formats for the drive. Not other drives
At least the content is on there so that's good. I'd move it onto a desktop if you have the space and then format the drive, but if you're going to the Genius Bar anyway it probably isn't worth the trouble.

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Yeah. Even if I tried to format it again (on the Mac), it won't let me.

 

[UJ95x]

Yeah. Even if I tried to format it again (on the Mac), it won't let me.

But you can do it on the Windows computer can't you? Or was that not yours?

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[BreakingKayfabe]

But you can do it on the Windows computer can't you? Or was that not yours?

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It's my GF's but I could probably reformat it. Just that reformatting will erase everything so I'd need a place to place the 60GB worth of data. I can't on my Mac which is what caused me to buy it in the first place lol

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

I have a Genius appointment for Thursday so I'll report back with whatever feedback I get there.

 

[UJ95x]

I have a Genius appointment for Thursday so I'll report back with whatever feedback I get there.

Cool
If it is an issue with the software update you can always downgrade.

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

So I contacted Seagate support and got the driver for MAC OS but it still didn't work. I just canceled my Genius appointment because I already know what I'm going to be told.

For now just going to keep the drive connected to my Windows PC in my office and see if it hopefully will connect to my Mac once Yosemite is out. If not, screw it. I'll just keep it in the office. Kind of tired of dealing with customer support.

 

[UJ95x]

So I contacted Seagate support and got the driver for MAC OS but it still didn't work. I just canceled my Genius appointment because I already know what I'm going to be told.

For now just going to keep the drive connected to my Windows PC in my office and see if it hopefully will connect to my Mac once Yosemite is out. If not, screw it. I'll just keep it in the office. Kind of tired of dealing with customer support.

That sucks. Apple would probably be more helpful, but they'd probably end up telling you to downgrade to 10.9.4
Have you tested out the drive in the Yosemite beta?

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

That sucks. Apple would probably be more helpful, but they'd probably end up telling you to downgrade to 10.9.4
Have you tested out the drive in the Yosemite beta?

Yeah, that's why I figured I'm better off just downgrading on my own. I'll test out the drive once Yosemite is out. I haven't loaded any of the Yosemite betas nor the GM that just dropped. Even if it doesn't work, it seems that the drive is having much better use on my office computer. So blessing in disguise lol.

I have a 64GB flash drive USB 3.0 drive on the way that I picked up for like $30 so saving my movies will be just as easy anyway.