I feel like I've been to heck and back and have finally found the promised land. I was having so many problems with my Seagate Freeagent external desktop hard drive that I was ready to go fork out another $150. But I was determined to fix this one as it wasn't used much:
SEAGATE FREEAGENT Desktop External Hard drive (Silver)
P/N: 9ZC2A8-501
S/N: [Edited: Removed personal information per the community rules and regulations.]
Connected to a Dell/Alienware laptop/Windows 7 Home Edition/PC Tools virus protector
I backed up to Freeagent very rarely, when adding new photos/music. Always worked like a charm, no complaints. One day I noticed the little Green Seagate Status Icon that sits in the tray was gone.
Yet I had been backing up to the external ..or so I thought. The log showed it ran, but never finished. No backup for 6 months! Yet it never gave me a message. I immediately tried to do a backup, but my Freeagent external hard drive wasn't showing in the Seagate Manager window at all, yet I could see it my Computer and access the files...albiet they were 6 months old.
So I bypassed Seagate Manager and tried to back up manually using Windows Backup, I got every message possible:
- Could not find the drive
- You do not have access
- Access Denied
- You are not authorized
- Drive not found
- Your Backup did not complete as it skipped files/hardrives/etc
- NTSF errors
I checked the obvious: Cables/power cord/different USB cord and ports. But here is an important one to try first, make sure the external drive is connected, go to Computer/Uninstall or change a program. Click on the Seagate program but choose to REPAIR the software instead of installing and let it do it’s thing.
If that doesn’t work, then you may spend 20 hours over a weeked like I did troubleshooting. This site has great step-by-step instruction on how to check your drives/partition/udate software...and last resort format the external hardrive. I did it ALL with no result until I repaired the Seagate software. Ironically, it never told me to try that easy fix first.
You can also try uninstalling/reinstalling the software if nothing else is working.
I would highly advise NOT using the Windows Backup program to try and workaround the Seagate Manager. It ate up so much time, many error messages. After I reformatted Freeagent, Windows Backup spent over 5 hours preparing/backing up only to say at the VERY END…it didn't’ complete. Talk about a psyche!
I could also work around the backup failing by copying the files I wanted and pasting them directly into the external via Computer as I could see the drive there. But this was not acceptable as a long term fix.
Just try repairing the Seagate software before and after any fixes you apply. And try the step-by-step instructions by Seagate. Don't give up unless you know the hard drive is totally dead.
I still don’t know what caused Freeagent to suddenly stop working. I suspect it may have been a USB issue as I have a camera, phone, ipod, flash drive that were changing the drive letters and I think Freeagent got confused along the way.
It may also have been Norton 360 virus protection upgrade I did about the time, I dumped that "protection" when I got a virus using Norton on another computer. I also ran all fixes with my virus protection and firewalls off, I did disconnect WIFI and Ethernet while doing this.
I also made sure that I chose myself as the Administrator with full access, got rid of other user's/guests etc that I somehow added and that got rid of many access denied conflicts. I'm so relieved this is all over.
Another piece of advice? Stay on Seagate website for support, updates etc. There are many bogus sites out there that just sent me on a wild goose chase, or wanted to run a 'free test', or had pop up's/advertisments/false fixes or people giving questionable advice. Most of what you need to you can find on this site.
Good luck to anyone else having to spend their weekend doing this! I am not very computer savvy, neither is my hubby and maybe why it took me so long!
