You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Erased external hard drive and now can't find it to back up with time machine

I installed a seagate external hard drive, I attempted to select it as a back up devise for my time machine, it instructed me to erase the drive. It will not recognize the seagate devise and doesn't list it. I found it in the disk utility but it won't let me repair it.

Posted on Sep 22, 2020 7:08 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 29, 2020 8:08 AM

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities stacklie,


We see that you're having an issue with your Mac not recognizing your external storage device. We'd be happy to provide you with some information to help.


Let's have you boot your Mac in to recovery mode, and run first aid with Disk Utility. If the disk is listed but grayed out, you'll need to mount it first.


Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac


Mount a volume that’s been ejected using Disk Utility on Mac


Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 29, 2020 8:08 AM in response to stacklie

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities stacklie,


We see that you're having an issue with your Mac not recognizing your external storage device. We'd be happy to provide you with some information to help.


Let's have you boot your Mac in to recovery mode, and run first aid with Disk Utility. If the disk is listed but grayed out, you'll need to mount it first.


Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac


Mount a volume that’s been ejected using Disk Utility on Mac


Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Erased external hard drive and now can't find it to back up with time machine

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.