Seagate Freeagent Go 160 Gb Extrenal Hard Drive

[rak sa_ngop]

I have pretty well lost my patience with this drive.

I bought it 3 weeks ago but cannot get the FreeAgent go software to load correctly. After the FreeAgent installation is complete at the point where you have to restart the computer (or proceed with possibly an incomplete installation) the drive did not allow the computer to shut-down. I tried to eject the drive but this did not work, no shut down possible. I tried disconnecting the drive and still not possible to shut-down using the shut-down command. In the end I had to shut-down by switching off the power at the mains.

When I restarted and tried running the FreeAgent Go application an error message always appears.

I contacted Seagate support and downloaded new software. Made no difference.

I tried to reformat the drive as Seagate support suggested but reformat would not work (error message)

I took the drive back to Synnex and it was exchanged (no quibble).

The replacement drive exhibited the same problems.

I went back to Synnex and sat in the tech office at the back and watched as they struggled to power off their computer with the drive connected. Not easily done although after 30 mins they found a way.

They even opened a third new boxed drive, and as I left them this drive had still not been able to start the Ceedo application, just 'loading' away even after 10 mins.

I went back 2 days later and they showed me that my replacement drive was now working, although the FreeAgent software was already up and running on their computer, so I did not see it being installed fresh from the drive.

They suggested installing the Free Agent software from my internal drive after copying the installation file over from the Seagate drive.

I took the drive home and yes, now it ejects cleanly on command and I can power my computer down correctly, but the bl**dy Freeagent Go software still does not install correctly.

I tried installing from my hard drive, Seagate drive disconnected, but still no joy.

Now I am using the Seagate drive for manual back-ups only, but if anybody has any suggestions on what is going wrong with the FreeAgent application I would appreciate it.

Just to add that I have successfully installed several other internet applications since, so my computer 'appears' to be OK.

Thanks

[lopburi3]

I have a free agent 500gb drive that has been running for a few months but no software was included with it so have not had your problems. I find external drive a very poor backup choice due to speed of transfer and much prefer using a second drive in desktop for that (although if laptop not much choice).

Maxtor had a very good free backup (but not automatic) called MaxBlast which is still available for download and works with Seagate drives as well as Maxtor. I use my second drive for backup of primary and takes only 30 minutes to back up 90gb. Just use the external drive for storage/play functions now; and occasional backup.