seagate external hard drive question

guyster1973uk

hi folks i bought a seagate 2tb external hard drive yesterday which is mains powered there is no on/off switch on it. it powers up same time as when u turn pc on. however i have noticed when i turn the pc on i can hear the external hard drive powering/spinning up but then halfway thru the pc booting up it powers/spins down then powers/spins up again im thinking its maybe a problem with the usb connection. i have also noticed the hard drive powers/spins down when i reboot the computer then powers/spins back up againat restart. is this normal or sound like a duff external hard drive to anyone?

the external hard drive also has onboard power management built into it so i dunno if thats responsible for the above problems either

diable

Have you read the manual?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Seems normal.. I have 3 TB drives and as yet no problems.. what your hearing is it getting up to speed to be able you to get whatever you want from it in quick time rather then you waiting an age

guyster1973uk

its a 2tb seagate expansion drive. there is no manual in box and no manual online for it. jeff it shouldnt power up then power down then power up again during windows bootup should it? ive noticed as well it powers in windows when the drive is not being used

John_Gray

Is this a 2 TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk drive? If so, they are a complete pain, and there are lots of posts on the Seagate Forums, mostly with little positive response. Mine read:

"System Event Log error ID 57 Ftdisk
10-12-2010 13:17

My 2 TB FlexAgent GoFlex Desk external hard drive running under WIndows XP Pro causes one or more Ftdisk error ID 57 entries
"The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur." in the System Event log, and a bing-bong sound on my speakers, each time it powers down/disconnects (default after 15 minutes of inactivity). After between 5 and 10 seconds, it will power up again/reconnect, giving a bong-bing sound.

The only way I seem to be able to stop this happening is to prevent the drive going into power-saving mode via the Seagate Dashboard.

Surely there must be a better way of doing a power-down? My ancient Maxtor OneTouch II drive hasn't given this problem throughout two or three years, and it also powers down when not in use. "

The only 'solution' I've found is to go into the Seagate Dashboard -> Drive Settings -> Power Settings and change the power-saving field to Never.

Of course if you have a different drive, then I've probably wasted my time!

guyster1973uk

anyone got the link for seagate manager so i can stop the drive spinning down after 10-15 minutes? thanks

John_Gray

You still haven't said which Seagate external disk MODEL you have! If you've the same as me, look for Seagate Dashboard download for that model...

guyster1973uk

it is a 2tb seagate expansion external drive st320005exd101-rk

Richie-from-the-Boro

guyster1973uk wrote: »

it is a 2tb seagate expansion external drive st320005exd101-rk

The drive is and has been for years a pain with the Dashboard implementation of power saving.

The Seagate Dashboard software is specific to your drive and must be downloaded from Seagate with a unique certificate number issued to you.

Workaround - apparently !

Richie-from-the-Boro

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

The drive is and has been for years a pain with the Dashboard implementation of power saving.

The Seagate Dashboard software is specific to your drive and must be downloaded from Seagate with a unique certificate number issued to you.

Workaround - apparently !

NOTE

I've seen a dozen or so over the time since release, and always thought the maker would release a ' firmware ' update, up to this point I've never found one. If anyone discovers a flash update for the EEprom let me know !

guyster1973uk

managed to find the seagate manager software to stop it spinning down . bloody stupid idea it cant be good for life of the drive