up vote 1 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I accidentally unplugged (without ejecting) my formatted external Seagate HDD I've been using happily as a Time Machine on my Mac. Now the disk itself isn't recognised by the computer, and the light on the drive just pulsates.

Any ideas how to get it hooked up again?

link|improve this question
Stupid question: did you turn the drive off and on again? Did you reboot the Mac? – Randolph West Nov 26 '09 at 14:00
I've done all the usual thing: restart Mac, unconnect/reconnect HDD, power on/off everything etc. – CannonGod Nov 26 '09 at 20:55
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Usually, when disconnecting a drive without ejecting it, the drive's integrity is checked upon the next connection. If there are many files on the disk, or the disk is large, this can take some time.

Just leave the drive connected overnight, most likely it will resolve itself.

link|improve this answer
Well it has many GB of data from my Time Machine back-up, so that could be a reason. However the icon for the drive doesn't show up on the desktop like any other HDD I connect. Should it matter? Even so I'll leave it for a while and see what happens :) – CannonGod Nov 26 '09 at 20:57
Yes, for me it sometimes takes more than 30 Minutes for the icon to show up on the Desktop. It shows up in the Disk Utility Program, however. – brandstaetter Nov 27 '09 at 7:26
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

You may have screwed up the directory structure of the drive by not ejecting it. If Disk Utility can't repair it I would suggest trying DiskWarrior.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.