Seagate External Drive Problem

Bosh

Bought a Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 2TB external drive a while back & connected to system.

Drive was erratic from word go, sometimes not showing at all on startup or showing but not accessible. Disconnect/reconnect would solve the problem, but not a satisfactory situation.

After much to & fro with Seagate, drive was RMA'd & new one supplied.

Guess what?

Yeah exactly the same.

My wish is to have the drive as an external backup, I've a batch file that runs on shut down to copy files to it. PITA to have to disconnect/reconnect every time I boot.

I'm wondering if it's something in the BIOS or Windows that's not loading the USB 3.0 at startup?

System info:

Win 7 Ultimate 64
i7 860 2.8
Asus P7P55D-E LX
12 gb RAM
Samsung 830 SSD (Boot)
Spinpoint ITB (Data)

Bios American Megatrends Inc. 1602 12/16/2010

Any help greatly appreciated.

riclad

Don t have the drive on all the time, switch it on ,when using it ,doing ,backups etc.
USB 3 is the interface type, as long as the usb drivers are
ok,in device manager, its loaded when windows loads.

Some drives don,t have a low power mode, when they are not being used, eg copying, transfering files.
Do A VIRUS SCAN, try it in another pc.

ED E

First thing to do is to try it in a USB 2.0 Port.

NEC® USB 3.0 controller :
2 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue)
Intel® P55 chipset :
12 x USB 2.0 port(s) (6 at back panel, black, 6 at mid-board)

It sounds like its not spinning up, probably that eco friendly feature.

riclad

as ABOVE, it maybe in low power sleep mode.
turn it on ,after 2minutes plug it in to pc.
See is it detected after 1 minute.
IF the drive platters were spinning all the time ,it would wear out alot faster.

i only turn on my drive when ,i m doing backups.

whizbang

USB 3 seems to need some software (intel) running on my laptop to detect , but should work at ver2 level without software.

Bosh

Apologies for delay in getting back to this.

Updated to latest USB3 drivers, no difference.

I can't find any sleep/hibernating settings.

The strange thing is that on boot boot the drive is either not detected at all or is detected but not properly connected; i.e. you can see the drive & folders on it but folders show empty

I appreciate the points about not connecting it until I need to do a back up, but I do one on every shut down so if I have to constantly plug/unplug the drive every time it will obviously lead to damaged connectors over time.

Sits here scratching head.... :P

riclad

Some drives have a low power mode, its built into the drive firmware , not part of windows settings.
I read an article it says cheap external drives don,t have low power mode,
set power save on laptop off.
if left on ,they ,ll stop working after maybe a year.
i dont think you could wear out a usb connector by plugging it in once or twice per day,

DOWNLOAD, mint 7 linux, run it from cd,
see does it connect to the drive ,3 or 4 times in a row.
IF THIS was a laptop ,not a pc, i,d say the laptop maybe in power saving mode.
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=38

burn iso to cdr, use IMgburn free program ,
burn image at 2x .

You can install linux on drive c, takes about 5gig space,
but it makes a startup menu on the pc,at bootup.
load mint7 ,

load windows .

OR just run mint from cdr, no install needed.
it always detects my external drives ,i tried it on 5 different drives .
usb 2 drives.

by the time you need a new connector,
You ,ll need a new pc.

I mean try linux, if it connects to drive flawlessy when mint is loaded from cd ,then its likely an os windows problem.

riclad

i have a pc,and 2 laptops, windows 7, i switch on ,pc or laptop,

Then i plug in external drive, eg power up drive,

wait 3 seconds ,plug in usb cable after when pc is on windows 7 fully loaded.
it comes up icon, system tray,
external device detected.

on some drives it may even install device driver ,takes 10 seconds,
say ,ok,
drive is ready to use ,driver installed,
it may take 12-20 seconds to detect external drive, box comes up ,play video file, open folders.


when finished with a drive,

i click,,remove external drive,e,
wait 2 minutes,
Till i see icon message,
its not safe to remove external drive e;click remove drive icon in system tray,green icon,
Then i remove the usb cable,
Switch off drive after 2minutes,

eg give it time to spin down platters before switching it off.

eg like my ipod ,i turn on ipod, turn on pc,


wait 2 minutes,plug in the ipod cable into usb port.

if i plug in drive before i bootup laptops,
IT tries to boot up from external drive, so i get black screen,cursor,

then i have to knock off pc.

so NOW I never PLUG IN any drive before i boot UP THE PC.

i usually plug in a drive maybe twice in one week period.

I think windows works like, it does,nt like to powerup,
with a external drive plugged in.

turn on pc,

wait 1 minute,
plug in the drive usb cable,after windows os is fully loaded

eg turn on drive ,FIRST
then turn on pc .