Spotlight not reindexing hard drive after many attempts

[hone23]

Hi everyone,
I recently got a Seagate 2tb for my macbook pro 2011 and decided to set it as the backup for Time Machine. This changed the hdd icon to the green Time machine icon and i was unable to access it. I changed my mind, canceled the backup, and removed the hdd from Time machine. After this, my finder hasn't been indexing the hdd.

I tried system pref > spotlight > add/remove,
sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/"drive",
sudo mdutil -i on /

but these only help momentarily then I cant search anything on the hdd until I do it again. It also doesnt show any re-index time.
Is time machine causing this?

 

[honestone]

I don't use Time Machine, as I prefer SuperDuper!, which makes a bootable backup/clone. But, maybe you could launch Disk Utility and have it Erase and Format your drive.

By the way, when you first got your drive, was it already formatted for use with a Mac? Typically they are not.

 

[hone23]

It wasnt but is there a way to change a setting to make it search it again?

 

[honestone]

It wasnt but is there a way to change a setting to make it search it again?

So, the drive was not formatted for a Mac when you got it, correct? Did you then use Disk Utility to Erase and Format it for a Mac?

 

[hone23]

Yes correct

 

[hone23]

So, the drive was not formatted for a Mac when you got it, correct? Did you then use Disk Utility to Erase and Format it for a Mac?

Formatted to journaled. Did turning time machine on/off for the hdd force it to be reformatted?

 

[hone23]

Bump

 

[honestone]

Have you ran Disk Utility again to Erase and Format the drive as Journaled, along with GUID Partition Map?

 

[hone23]

Have you ran Disk Utility again to Erase and Format the drive as Journaled, along with GUID Partition Map?

Will this erase data on the external hdd? Is there any other way without losing data?

 

[honestone]

Will this erase data on the external hdd? Is there any other way without losing data?

Yes, it will erase everything on the external drive.

What Mac OS are you running? Also, what exact Mac model do you have?

Does the external drive appear on the desktop?

 

[hone23]

Yosemite one 10.10.5. Macbook pro late -2011 13"
The Ext hdd does show up on desktop

 

[honestone]

OK, so I assume you can access anything you want on the drive, correct? The issue seems to be that Spotlight cannot index the drive. Other than that, the drive functions as expected, correct?

I don't use Spotlight for my searches, preferring the excellent (and free!) program EasyFind. And as I mentioned above, I use SuperDuper! for my backups. So, our tool "mixture" is different.

Is there anything on your external drive that is not on your internal drive that you need? If not, you could then use Disk Utility to Erase and Format the external drive. Next, drag and drop some files onto the external drive (assuming you don't want to use Time Machine). Then, run Spotlight to index the external drive. If it works, then maybe there is/was an issue with "turning on and then turning off" Time Machine. If all of that checks out, then you might want to consider using another program for backups, like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. Both of them will make bootable backup/clones of your system. Once such a backup completes, you can actually boot your Mac from such a backup. It makes recovery (and going through an upgrade to a new Mac OS) much easier, and less time consuming. Here are links for those programs:

SuperDuper!: http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Carbon Copy Cloner; https://bombich.com/

You can't go wrong with either one. I believe both of them can be used in demo mode, although most of each one's advances features are turned off. Note the price difference: DSuperDuper! costs %27.95, whereas Carbon Copy Cloner costs $39.95. The main difference between the two of them is that Carbon Copy Cloner backs up the (hidden) Recovery HD partition, whereas SuperDuper! does not. That is not an issue for me, as 1) I have Tech Tool Pro for repair needs (I'll explain below one of its neat features), and 2) I can boot my Mac from the backup. Also, that Recovery HD partition gets created anyway on a fresh, clean installation of the OS. Also, there are ways of re-creating it. Again, though, for me, I really do not need it.