Problem with Seagate 4tb external Hard drive

[polaxgr]

Hello guys. I got a seagate 4tb external hard drive that was recognisable read/write by my iMac. At some point ( i have windows 10 installed via bootcamp ), i used it to copy some things from my windows partition to the disk, then some days later i started up my iMac ( in sierra enviroment ) and the external hard drive was not showing up ( in windows partition it shows up , read and write also ). Went back again to sierra, disk utility > First Aid, told me to Cmd+r to repair it from recovery mode, did that nothing happend. What to do ? i dont want to get in trouble to erase my hard drive, there are 2tb in there..lots of times.. Any help?!

 

[Slydude]

How was the drive formatted? Was it NTFS/Windows or HFS+/Mac?

 

[polaxgr]

NTFS. Also got paragon so that’s not problem. Even that I didn’t have paragon or w/e program, it doesn’t make sense that one day it was showing and the next not. Also in windows it’s working perfectly

 

[chscag]

The drive is probably confused. Try keeping the drive attached and reboot your iMac to see if it then appears on the desktop. Also make sure you have the latest version of Paragon NTFS that works with Sierra. Paragon has issued updates for Sierra and now High Sierra.

 

[polaxgr]

was on sierra, still on sierra. Didnt make any changes to OS, one day working next day not...thats the confusing part...THEN did transfer files from the windows partition to the hard drive and now i cant access the hard drive WHILE on Mac OS. tried it many times with restart. Nothing...

 

[apuokas]

I had similar problem. Have 500Gb WD external drive formatted as NTFS. Was using it from Win, then migrated to mac Sierra. Installed paragon, was all right fore some time transferring files from Sierra. then one day just couldn't. Fine from Win. Did some digging, main thing is, that NTFS is not supported in macos natively. As good third party software is, it's still not 100% reliable. Only good solution I could come to was use NTFS from Win and HFS+ from mac. There are no easy/convenient ways to accesses file systems other way round. Closest would be NAS (which I started having problems with, while accessing from sierra as well).
Edit: The only file system supported by both OS's is FAT32, if 4Gb file size limitation isn't bother you.

 

[chscag]

I have to disagree. Paragon NTFS is rock solid and works. As I advised above, Paragon made some changes and updates in order to support Sierra and now High Sierra. I can't say for certain what's wrong with his 4 TB Seagate, but if it works from Windows 10 using native NTFS, then it should work from macOS with the latest Paragon. He should first try a PRAM reset and maybe even a SMC reset before giving up on the drive.

I personally am not in favor of writing to a NTFS formatted drive using both Windows and macOS. It's best to partition the drive and format it accordingly for each file system. However, Paragon should work.

 

[apuokas]

I'm not arguing that Paragon isn't solid, it's just there are extra steps involved as oppose to native support, hence more possibilities to go something wrong.

I personally am not in favour of writing to a NTFS formatted drive using both Windows and macOS. It's best to partition the drive and format it accordingly for each file system.

That's what I was trying to say, and do my self lately.

 

[polaxgr]

UPDATE : i connected my 4TB to my macbook, with sierra - paragon - same setup versions etc and i can see my external hard drive as normal. on my iMac it doesnt appear. Only in Disk utility. What do i do ?

 

[chscag]

If the Seagate works normally with your MacBook and not your iMac, then what's going on that's different between them? Is your MacBook running Sierra same as your iMac? Also, we are assuming the 4TB Seagate drive is USB 3? Have you tried using a different USB 3 cable? I'm beginning to suspect that the drive is not getting enough power to appear on the desktop but does show up in Disk Utility. That would be odd since it seems to be getting enough power when you're in Windows 10. But, I've seen stranger things happen with external hard drives.

 

[harryb2448]

On the iMac go into Finder >Preferences and make sure the show external drives box is selected.

 

[polaxgr]

If the Seagate works normally with your MacBook and not your iMac, then what's going on that's different between them? Is your MacBook running Sierra same as your iMac? Also, we are assuming the 4TB Seagate drive is USB 3? Have you tried using a different USB 3 cable? I'm beginning to suspect that the drive is not getting enough power to appear on the desktop but does show up in Disk Utility. That would be odd since it seems to be getting enough power when you're in Windows 10. But, I've seen stranger things happen with external hard drives.

same OS same version of paragon ( but still you only need paragon to write stuff to the external, not read ). As i mentioned earlier i didnt do any updates to my iMac and it was working, then i transferred some videos/photos from windows to my external and then it didnt show on my iMac. Yes usb 3. It is true that i have tried different cable to try it on my macbook. I will try that. But i dont think thats it. Also while i have the external connected to the macbook, i ran Disk Utility and it also said that it needs fix from recovery mode, did that - went into recovery mode, told me the same thing while i was in recovery mode (cmd-r), to fix it in recovery mode (?!). I can read/write as normal while i have it with my macbook

 

[polaxgr]

On the iMac go into Finder >Preferences and make sure the show external drives box is selected.

Dont think thats the issue but ok..i will check it out soon

 

[ferrarr]

Try NVRAM and SMC resets?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

 

[polaxgr]

update no.2:

Ok so i ve tried another external hardrive ( a seagate 1.5T ) with both cables doesnt work with iMac. Tried it with macbook and macbook air, and it works. Also my 4Tb with both cables work to both laptops. The 1.5T seagate had no transfer from Windows , so i guess its not the windows-transfer thing i did. Neither the cables. Its my Imac's problem.. Any ideas? I ll try the NVRAM and SMC reset i guess...

 

[MacInWin]

Do you know that the USB port on the iMac works? Have you tried other USB devices there and they function? Are these drives powered by the USB port, or do they have their own power supply? It's possible that the USB ports on the iMac have either died, or cannot provide the power required by the drives.

 

[polaxgr]

They have power supply by USB ports. They work just fine with my usb sticks. But they work on my windows partition on the iMac. it doesnt make any sense. I also did SMC and PRAM reset. Someone suggested i buy a powered usb hub. But that doesnt solve my question to why it works only on Windows, it means they got enough power...meaning i dont need powered usb hub, meaning there is a normal solution to this--i guess

 

[polaxgr]

update: my usb stick with usb 3 has same problem as my external hard drives. my usb stick with usb 2 has no problem and it shows as normal....

 

[chscag]

update: my usb stick with usb 3 has same problem as my external hard drives. my usb stick with usb 2 has no problem and it shows as normal....

I just noticed that you have never told us throughout this thread which iMac you have? Year and model? Also based on the fact that Windows can see and R/W from the drive.... I wonder if that drive is in fact running at USB 2 speeds and not USB 3?

And since your USB 3 flash drive has the same problem as the hard drive, it seems like it's a hardware problem with your iMac, which is why we really need to know the year and model. And are you sure your iMac has USB 3 ports?

 

[polaxgr]

I just noticed that you have never told us throughout this thread which iMac you have? Year and model? Also based on the fact that Windows can see and R/W from the drive.... I wonder if that drive is in fact running at USB 2 speeds and not USB 3?

And since your USB 3 flash drive has the same problem as the hard drive, it seems like it's a hardware problem with your iMac, which is why we really need to know the year and model. And are you sure your iMac has USB 3 ports?

its an iMac late 2012 27inch 3,2ghz 1tb fusion. I dont know if it has usb 3 ports, but all my usbs all my external hard drives were working fine until this problem started. Also as i said before, still all my usbs and all my external hard drives work in windows partition which use -obviously- the same usb ports because its the same machine.