My Seagate Backup Plus drive stopped showing files on my Mac, and I’m worried about losing important photos and documents. I need help figuring out the safest way to recover data from a Seagate Backup Plus on macOS without making the drive worse.
First thing: stop using the Seagate drive for now. Don’t format it, initialize it, run “repair” tools, or copy anything onto it. If the files disappeared because the file system or partition got messed up, the data may still be sitting there. Writing anything new to the drive can make recovery harder or overwrite files that were still recoverable.
Do a quick hardware check before trying software. Plug it in only briefly and listen. If it’s clicking, grinding, beeping, spinning up over and over, or making any sound that seems wrong, don’t keep scanning it at home. A failing drive can get worse every time it powers on. In that situation, check Seagate’s Rescue Data Recovery Services, especially if this is a Backup Plus model that may have included Rescue coverage for a limited period. It’s worth checking the serial number before assuming professional recovery is out of reach.
If the drive sounds normal but shows up empty, asks to be formatted, appears as RAW or unreadable, or shows the wrong file system, that’s a different story. That often points to a damaged partition or file system rather than the actual files being gone.
For a DIY attempt, recovery software is usually the practical route. Disk Drill is one option for Seagate external drives since it can scan lost partitions, unreadable or RAW drives, deleted files, and drives that were unplugged without being safely ejected.
A safer way to approach it:
Install the recovery software on your computer’s internal drive or some other storage device. Do not install it on the Seagate drive you’re trying to recover.
If the drive seems flaky, make a byte-to-byte backup first. Disk Drill can create a full disk image of the Seagate drive, then you can scan that image instead of repeatedly scanning the original drive. That puts less stress on the actual hardware.
Also check the simple stuff. Try another USB cable, port, or adapter if detection is inconsistent. Portable drives can look “dead” or corrupted when the real issue is just a bad cable or weak connection.
Once the drive or disk image is detected, run the scan and preview the important files before recovering them. If photos, videos, documents, or archives preview correctly, that’s usually a good sign they can be restored.
Save recovered files somewhere else. Don’t recover them back onto the same Seagate drive, because that can overwrite other data you haven’t recovered yet.
If the drive doesn’t show up in your normal file browser, check the system disk tools instead. On Windows, open Disk Management. On macOS, use Disk Utility. On Linux, check your disk utility or command-line disk tools. If the drive appears there with the correct capacity, recovery software may still be able to scan it even if the OS can’t open it normally.
After you get your files back, don’t just put the drive back into regular use. Run a full test with Seagate SeaTools or another trusted diagnostic tool. If it fails, replace the drive. If it passes, you can reformat and reuse it, but I’d still keep another backup going forward.
Big external drives can take a long time to scan, so don’t assume it’s stuck right away. If the drive powers on, sounds normal, and shows the correct capacity, there’s still a decent chance the files can be recovered.
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Don’t assume “not showing files in Finder” means the drive is blank. Check Disk Utility first and see whether the actual volume is mounted, grayed out, encrypted, or just not mounting automatically.
If it asks for a password or shows as APFS/Time Machine, deal with that before scanning, because recovery apps like Disk Drill won’t magically bypass encryption.
First Aid is not a recovery step, it’s a repair step, and I wouldn’t make it your first move. If the Seagate shows in Disk Utility with the right size, try mounting it read-only or at least avoid changing anything, then check whether the files are simply hidden with Command + Shift + period in Finder. If it was used for Time Machine, don’t browse it like a normal folder and start deleting/moving things around, because the structure can look weird. If the files still don’t appear, scan the drive or an image of it and recover to a different disk. Disk Drill can be fine for that, but preview before paying or recovering anything, since file names and folder structure may be messy if the directory is damaged.
