Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Light Blinking but Not Working/Detectable Error

Summary

Many users have encountered the issue that their Seagate external hard drive is not working or being detected, either with the light blinking or not. If you are troubled by the very same issue, you will get the most potential solutions here. The way to recover data from your external hard drive with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is also provided in case you need.

Part 1. Seagate External Hard Drive Light Blinking But Not Working

It's no longer a new case that storage devices such as USB drive or external hard drive suddenly become undetectable by PC due to unknown reasons. Seagate external hard drive not working on PC with light blinking is one of the problems, which is still a troublesome case for many users. The issue "Seagate external hard drive light blinking but not being deleted" may result from the problems on the hard drive itself or from other non-device errors. To help you fix the matter, we will present you six effective methods to repair and fix Seagate external hard drive not working error.

Never mind trying the three quick fixes first since minor issues can also result in a problematic external hard drive.

Fix 1. Change USB Port

Your very first move is to change the USB port and connect not working Seagate external hard drive with another new USB port to check out whether the problem exists. You can also change the USB cable or connect the device to another computer if possible to have a try.

Fix 2. Turn On USB Root Hub

Step 1. Click "Start" and type devmgmt.msc.

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

Step 3. Right-click "USB Root Hub", click "Properties", and then select "Power Management".

Step 4. Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

Repeat this process for each USB Root Hub in the list and reboot PC to see Seagate external hard drive on your PC then.

Fix 3. Clean Up Virus

If your computer or Seagate external hard drive is infected by a virus, it may cause the drive not detectable or unreadable. In this case, the best solution for this issue is to use virus cleaning software to wipe out and clean up the virus on your drive and PC. Then you can reboot PC and retry to access the Seagate external hard drive.

If these simple tips fail to help you solve the issue "Seagate external hard drive light blinking but not working", don't get frustrated. There are three more advanced solutions for you to apply.

Fix 4. Make Seagate External Hard Drive Show Up in PC by Showing All Hidden Devices

Step 1. Click on "Start", type devmgmt.msc, and select "Device Manager".

Step 2. Click "View" in the menu bar, then select "Show hidden devices".

Step 3. Expand all notes by clicking on the "+" icon.

Step 4. If there are any greyed entries, right-click on it and select "Uninstall".

Step 5. Reboot your computer and try again.

Fix 5. Update Hard Drive Driver to Fix Seagate External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Error

Step 1. Click on "Start" and type devmgmt.msc to open "Device Manager".

Step 2. Expand "Disk drives", right-click your Seagate external hard drive and select "Uninstall".

Step 3. Then check out whether any device shows up as unrecognized or not.

• If the Seagate external hard drive shows unrecognized, go to the drivers tab and delete/uninstall the driver
• Then check out whether the external hard drive shows up in "My Computer/This PC" or not
• If it doesn't show up, reboot or restart PC
• If it shows up but disappear later, repeat above steps and go to Disk Management, change the drive letter of your Toshiba external hard drive and reconnect it to PC to let PC detect it again

Fix 6. Make Seagate External Hard Drive Detected and Work Again by Changing the Registry

Step 1. Click on "Start", type regedt32 and click "regedt32" to run "Registry Editor".

Step 2. Back up your registry by going to "File" and click "Export".

Step 3. On the left side, go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318};

Step 4. If you see any "UpperFilter" or "LowerFilters" on the right side, delete it.

Step 5. Then retry your external hard drive again.

Part 2. Seagate External Hard Drive Light Not Blinking

If your Seagate external hard drive is not working and not blinking at the same time, it may be caused by power supply issues or failed HDD. How to deal with a Seagate external hard drive that is not blinking:

Method 1. Check the Power Supply

If there is a power supply issue, your external hard drive won't blink at all when you connect it to your computer. To check the power supply, you can:

• Change the USB cable
• Change the USB port
• Connect your external hard drive to another computer if possible

Method 2. Take the External Hard Drive Out of Its Enclosure Case

The external hard drive you are using actually contains your external hard drive itself and its enclosure. To exclude the issues caused by the enclosure, take your external hard drive out of the disk enclosure and connect your HDD to your computer directly. If the Seagate external hard drive still won't power up, try one of the two methods below.

Method 3. Ask for a Replacement

If the two tips above don't work, it's highly likely that your hard drive is dead. In this case, if your Seagate external hard drive is still under warranty, go to get a replacement from where you have bought it.

Method 4. Get Manual Data Recovery Service

If your HDD is dead and out of warranty, the best way to recover your precious data on the device is to ask for manual data recovery services. Any existing data recovery software cannot restore files from an external hard drive that has crashed or damaged since it can't be detected by the computer, not to mention perform data recovery on it. (You may be interested in hard drive recovery cost in 2019.)

Part 3. Restore Data from Seagate External Hard Drive

After fixing the Seagate external hard drive not working issue, you may now try to open Seagate external hard drive to check your precious data. If nothing is found or there is data loss on your hard drive, don't worry. Powerful hard drive recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will help you get lost data back. It's 100% working to retrieve lost data on storage devices as long as your HDD can be detected by your computer and the data is not overwritten by new content. Follow to recover data from your external hard drive with a few simple clicks:

By going through three short stages, you can easily find lost data on a Seagate external hard drive. 

Step 1. Under the "External Devices", you should see the Seagate external hard drive showing up after it's correctly connected to your computer. Select the drive and click the Scan button.

Step 2. Soon, the software will find more and more data and display the data in the scan results.

Step 3. You can use the Filter feature to quickly locate some specific file types in the results. Select the target files and click the Recover button. 

Part 4. Back Up Seagate External Hard Drive

Don't realize the importance of backing up your storage devices regularly until you get your data lost. To reduce the risk of losing data, it's necessary to back up your devices or files and get a powerful data recovery tool like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. To make a backup of your precious data, you can use free backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup. It supports the backup of your computer hard drives, external hard drives, USB, memory card, and other conventional storage devices. Whether you want to back up your device or selectively back up the files on it, you can get things done with the software.

As long as you have a backup available, you will feel less annoyed and more relieved the next time you come across an issue like "Seagate external hard drive light blinking but not working". Don't hesitate to give it a try.

You can also apply the fixes introduced to Toshiba, SanDisk or Samsung external hard drive that has the error "external hard drive not working but light on" or "external hard drive not working and light not blinking".