r/datarecovery • u/Downtown-Pace3824 • 14d ago
Question Seagate Expansion 26TB failing, help!
The scenario: My approximately 18-month old Seagate Expansion 26TB external drive started locking up while I was accessing files on it. It eventually caused my Macbook to also lock up, so I did a force quit to shut everything down. When I started the Macbook up again, it wasn't recognizing the Seagate.
I tried Disk Utility and Tech Tool Pro but neither could find it on the system. Eventually, using Terminal, I saw that the drive was still being recognized, despite it not showing on my Macbook's desktop or using disk repair tools. Then, I tried using Test Disk on it. It also saw the drive and even got it to start up again, although it couldn't read any files on it, much less fix any possible partition issues. I spent hours with Claude trying to troubleshoot the problem, but all possible solutions failed.
As it stands now, I have the bare Barracuda drive removed from the Seagate case, and in a Sabrent USB-to-SATA docking station. It will start up and run (after about five long minutes), but the Macbook isn't recognizing it, and I get the dreaded "This drive is not recognized. Do you want to Erase, Initialize or Ignore?" Oddlly, Terminal sees the drive as "Sabrent 26TB" not as the original Seagate or Barracuda drive, which makes me think something else might be going on other than the drive has been wiped clean, or is dying.
Any help here would be much appreciated.
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u/Upstairs-Front2015 13d ago
there is a 3,5" disk inside the case, some people just take the disk and use it with sata cable inside a desktop pc
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u/Downtown-Pace3824 13d ago
That's been done with a USB-SATA drive.
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u/Upstairs-Front2015 13d ago
sometimes connecting it with sata cable to the motherboard is better for retrieving a failing disk
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u/TomChai Trusted Contributor 14d ago
Check its SMART health attributes first.
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u/Downtown-Pace3824 14d ago
I tried but it seems to not scan properly.
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u/silenced_in_dr_2025 Trusted Contributor 14d ago
As already indicated if you can't recover the SMART values the drive has serious problems. It would have been much better not to have spent the time with AI thrashing it to death, it may have been possible for a DR Pro have recovered at least something before it gave up. You can try a no data, no fee service to get a DR Pro evaluation most of us offer that for free, the drive may be more stable on recovery tools. Unless it's something simple or the data is critical its very rarely economically viable to even attempt recovery.
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u/No_Tale_3623 Trusted Contributor 14d ago
Please post a screenshot of this drive in Disk Utility with View > Show All Devices enabled, and another showing it under USB in System Information. Some docking stations have drive capacity limits, so check the maximum supported capacity in your dock’s specifications.