Solving the Issue of Seagate External Hard Drive Light Flashing but Not Working/Showing Error

This page has solutions in two parts: Seagate external hard drive light blinking but not working/detected, and the light not blinking at all. Skip to the relevant section based on your situation for the fix:

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Part 1: Seagate External Hard Drive Light Flashes But Not Working

It's no longer uncommon for storage devices like USB drives or external hard disk drives to suddenly become undetectable by PCs due to unknown reasons. The Seagate external hard drive light blinking but not working or detectable on PC is one such issue that still gives many users a tough time. The “Seagate external hard drive light blinking but not detected” problem could be due to an issue with the hard drive itself or some other non-device error. To help you fix this, we provide you with six effective methods to resolve the Seagate external hard drive not working error.

Before trying any of these quick solutions, keep in mind that a small issue can cause an external hard drive to fail.

Solution 1: Change the USB port and restart your computer

Often, the issue of a Seagate external hard drive blinking but not being detected can be easily resolved by simply changing the USB port and restarting your computer. To do this, disconnect the external hard drive from your PC. Now, turn off your computer for at least one minute. After that, reconnect the external hard drive to another USB port and power on your computer. If possible, try connecting the device to another computer as well.

Fix 2: Enable USB Root Hub

Connect your Seagate external hard drive to your computer and proceed with the following:

Step 1: Click Start, and type devmgmt.msc.

Step 2: Open the Device Manager and expand the "Universal Serial Bus controllers" section.

Step 3: Right-click on “USB Root Hub” and select “Properties,” then “Power Management.”

Step 4: Clear the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power check box.

Step 5: Repeat this process for each USB root hub in the list, and then restart your PC.

After this, your Seagate external hard drive should show up as detected by your computer.

Fix 3: Remove the virus

If your computer or Seagate external hard drive is infected with a virus, it might result in the drive not being detected or readable. In such a scenario, the best approach to resolve this issue is to use anti-virus software to scan and remove viruses from both the drive and the computer. After that, restart your computer and try accessing the Seagate external hard drive.

If the above simple fixes don't resolve the issue of “Seagate external hard drive light flashing but not working,” don't be discouraged. There are three more advanced solutions for you to try.

Fix 4: Show Hidden Devices to Get Seagate External Hard Drive Detected on PC

Step 1: Click on “Start,” type devmgmt.msc, and select “Device Manager.”

2. Click "View" in the menu bar, then choose "Show Hidden Devices."

Step 3: Tap the “+” icon to expand all notes.

< strong > Step 4. If you have any grayed out entries, right-click on them and select "Uninstall."

Step 5: Restart your computer and try again.

Fix 5: Update the hard drive driver to resolve the Seagate external hard drive not detected error

Step 1: Click the "Start" button, and type devmgmt.msc to open Device Manager.

Step 2: Expand “Disk Drives,” right-click on your Seagate external hard drive, and select “Update Driver.”

Step 3: Next, check if any devices are listed as Unknown.

- If your Seagate external hard drive is not recognized, go to the "Driver" tab and uninstall/remove the driver. - Check if the external hard drive appears in "My Computer/This PC." - If it doesn't, restart or reboot your computer. - If the drive shows up but then disappears, repeat the process, go to Disk Management, change the drive letter of the Seagate external hard drive, and reconnect it to your computer for detection.

Fix 6: Delete Registry Keys to Get Seagate External Hard Drive Detected and Working Normally

Please note that incorrect usage of the Registry Editor can lead to serious issues. As you proceed with caution to delete the registry entries so that your Seagate external hard drive is recognized and starts working again, you should be very careful.

Step 1: Click “Start,” type regedt32 in the box, and then click “regedt32” to run the “Registry Editor.”

2. Back up the Registry by clicking "File" and selecting "Export." Save the Registry key to your computer.

Step 3: Enter "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}".

Step 4: If you see any “UpperFilters” or “LowerFilters” on the right, right-click each one and select Delete.

Step 5: Close the Registry Editor, restart your computer, and try to access your external hard drive again.

Part 2: Seagate External Hard Drive Light Not Flashing

If your Seagate external hard drive isn't working, isn't being detected, and the LED isn't blinking, it could be due to a power issue or a faulty drive. Here are four methods to handle a non-blinking Seagate external hard drive:

Method 1: Check the Power

If the power supply is faulty, the light on your external hard drive won't illuminate at all when you connect it to your computer. You can test the power supply by:

Step 1: Try a different USB cable.

Step 2: Try another USB port.

Step 3. If possible, connect the external drive to another computer.

Method 2: Remove the Hard Drive from its Enclosure

An external hard drive is actually made up of the hard drive itself and an external enclosure. To troubleshoot issues with the enclosure, you can remove the hard drive from the enclosure and connect it directly to your computer.

If your Seagate external hard drive still won't turn on, try one of the two methods below.

Method 3: Requesting a Replacement

If both of the above methods don't work, your hard drive might be damaged. In this case, if your Seagate portable hard drive is still under warranty, you can get a new one from where you purchased it.

Method 4: Get a Manual Data Recovery Service

If your HDD is damaged and out of warranty, your best bet for data recovery is to seek professional manual data retrieval services. No data recovery software can retrieve files from a physically failed or damaged external hard drive that your computer can't even detect, much less perform data recovery on it. (You might also be interested in the cost of Hard Drive Recovery in 2020.)

Part 3: Recover Data from Seagate External Hard Drive

After resolving the issue of Seagate external hard drive not working or not being detected, you can try to access the Seagate external hard drive to check your valuable data.

If you can't find any content on the hard drive or have experienced data loss, there's no need to worry. The powerful Data Recovery Wizard tool will help you get your lost data back. As long as your external hard drive is detected by your computer and the data hasn't been overwritten, it can recover all your lost data.

Tool Data Recovery software allows you to:

• Recover deleted files from the recycle bin, formatted hard drive, damaged or corrupted storage drives, and more
• Restore lost or deleted files from HDD, SSD, USB, flash drives, SD cards, external hard drives, and more
• Automatically fix corrupted files while recovering data on Windows 11/10/8/7

With just a few simple steps, you can recover data from an external hard drive by following the methods below.

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Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to the computer with the right USB cable. Run the Data Recovery Wizard, and you will see your external disk under "External Devices". This software supports all popular external hard drive brands, including WD, Seagate, Toshiba, LaCie, SanDisk, Samsung, etc.

Select your external hard drive, then click the “Scan” button.

Select your Seagate external hard drive and click Scan.

Step 2: As the scan progresses, the software will find more and more of your lost and deleted data, displaying it in the scan results. The recovered data is well organized. You can quickly locate your target file/folder by file type, or search for it by entering its exact name in the search box.

Step 3. You can preview the files found by the scanning algorithm of the Data Recovery Wizard. Then, select the files and click “Recover”. To avoid overwriting your data, we recommend saving the recovered data to a different drive than your original Seagate drive.

Select the files and click on “Recover”

Part 4: Backup Seagate External Hard Drive

Aside from using powerful data recovery tools like the tools Data Recovery Wizard, it's also necessary to back up your devices or files to minimize the risk of data loss on Seagate external hard drives and other devices.

To back up valuable data, you can use a free backup software - Todo Backup tool. It supports backing up computer hard drives, external hard drives, USB devices, memory cards, and other regular storage devices. Whether you want to back up the entire device or selectively back up files on it, this software can help you get the job done.

Step 1. When you first use Todo Backup to back up files, click Create Backup on the main interface, and then click the big question mark button to select backup content.

Step 2. Since you want to back up files and folders on your computer, choose the "Files" backup mode. Under this mode, you can select photos, videos, documents, and other types of files for backup.

Step 3: Browse to find the files, folders, or directories you want to back up, select them all, and click "OK".

Step 4. You will now need to select a location to save your backup.

Step 5. Todo Backup allows users to save backup files to any convenient device, such as a local hard drive, external USB drive, SD card, network drive, or NAS drive, as well as to the brand's cloud drive. We recommend saving important backups to a cloud drive first, as it provides easier access, more flexibility, and increased security.

To use Tool Cloud, you just need to register and log in to an account with your email.

Step 6: If you wish to set an automatic and intelligent backup schedule for your next file backup task, proceed to the "Options" panel. Here, you can encrypt your sensitive file backups, compress backup image size, or customize a backup scheme to tell the software when to start the backup next time.

Create an advanced and automated backup task right here:

Click "Backup Now" to start the backup process. When finished, the backup file will appear as a card in the left pane.

With a backup, you will not be so annoyed by issues like “Seagate external hard drive light flashing but not working”, instead, you will feel relieved. Don't hesitate, have a try.

Conclusions

This article covers 10 solutions to help fix the issue of Seagate external hard drive not working/detected, along with its blinking or non-responsive light problem.

• For issues where Seagate external hard drive light is blinking but not detected, users can refer to Part 1 and choose any method for assistance.
• If the Seagate external hard drive is not working and not blinking, consult Part 2, where provided solutions might be helpful.
• For data loss and data protection concerns on storage devices, you can always utilize data recovery software tools and backup software for assistance.

These fixes also apply to Toshiba, SanDisk, or Samsung external hard drives with the same “external hard drive not working/not detected, but light is on” or “external hard drive not working and light not blinking” error.

People also ask

This page addresses the issue of "How to fix Seagate external hard drive not detected," offering multiple practical solutions such as changing USB ports, enabling USB hub power, updating device drivers, and deleting registry keys. However, many users still have queries regarding external hard drives not showing up.

If you're one of these people, check out some of the common questions people ask about Google on Google, along with our responses. You may find what you're looking for there.

How do I fix a flickering external hard drive?

通常，如果外部硬盘闪烁但未被识别，问题可能出在设备连接不当或电源供应上。首先，你可以尝试调整USB集线器的电源设置：

1). Click "Start," type devmgmt.msc, and press "Enter." 2). Click "Device Manager," then expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers." 3). Right-click "USB Root Hub," select "Properties," then click "Power Management." 4). Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." 5). Repeat this process for every USB Root Hub, then restart your computer.

Next, update the drivers for your external hard drive to ensure that the device drivers are up-to-date.

2. What do the hard drive activity lights indicate?

It's completely normal for the activity light on a healthy external hard drive or USB flash drive to blink on and off consistently throughout the day. A persistently blinking indicator light means that the disk is being read from and written to, such as when transferring files or running programs.

Windows tends to perform certain tasks when the computer is idle, which is why you might see the hard drive activity light flashing even when you're not doing anything.

3. Why isn't my external hard drive showing up?

There can be numerous reasons why an external hard drive is not showing up. Here's a list of primary causes that might lead to the device being invisible:

Here are some common issues that you may encounter with an external hard drive: 1). Partition Loss: External hard drive shows as unallocated space. 2). Drive Letter Conflict. 3). Outdated external hard drive driver. 4). Connection issues, such as damaged USB ports or cables. 5). Physical damage to the external hard drive.

For a comprehensive solution, you may refer to the "Hard Drive Not Showing Up or Recognized" article for assistance. These solutions apply to both internal and external hard drives.