FreeAgent Products

[JimTacticZ]

Hey I Have just bought my 1.5 TB today and i installed it and everything is working just great but ive been reading alot of fourms saying that people have had problems with the drive and
that there will be a loud clicking sound soon in about under 3 months and im kinda scared that all my data is going to be lost (btw the posts are kinda old) did they fix this problem with the newer models of this Hard Drive or at least do the newer hdds come with a new firmware  because so far mine has been working Wonderful 

[Hamartolos]

That kind of thing is really unpredictable because there might be a lot of forum posts, but are there 500?  There are tens of thousands of these drives on the market.  Anyway, what I mean is that your individual drive could last 20  years or could last 20 minutes.  The most important thing is that you must keep a backup at all times.  Make sure you always have a 2nd copy of your data on some other storage media.  That way, you don't have to worry about it at all.

[niton1000]

I've been facing the same problem. My Seagate drives is almost like dead and yet it's band-new!

[JimTacticZ]

Thanks man well ive had no problems still this is the second day and its brand new still obviously and there are no sounds coming out of it which is wonderful

[adiant]

I would recommend running SeaTools for Windows - Short Generic Test on the drive.  For me, that has generally identified any problems with the drive or drivers.

[JimTacticZ]

yea i am running segate for windows and im running the long and on all repair takes like 3hrs through

[pannieh]

To be truthful, this is just my second day with the FreeAgent Desk 1.5TB drive.   I DID however, read a LOT of online reviews while waiting for it to arrive. And some of them made me nervous!!

READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS FIRST, PLEASE.   It's not that complicated, if you go step by step.

The best advise I saw was:  DO NOT USE THIS DRIVE UNTIL YOU RUN Seagate SeaTools - LONG GENERIC TEST - IN REPAIR-ALL  MODE!  (It took my 1.5TB Drive close to 5 hours to check and repair the drive - although it said there were no errors or "drive passed".

The second best advise was:  Make sure the USB is firmly seated on both ends, the power cord is firmly seated, and on the power cord (where the adapter head is removable) - that it is firmly in place.

That said, Here's the best way to get started...

1.  Set up and install drive and FreeAgent Tools as provided in the Quick Start Guide.  (Now, leave it attached to your computer and forget about it for a few minutes!!!)

2.  Go TO:  www.seagate.co

      Support > Downloads > SeaTools > SeaTools

OR

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SeaTools&vgnextoid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

     Copy & Paste

3.  Download SeaTools  for Windows...   (There are other options, for other systems available.)

     Download SeaTools for Windows now!

     Click "I ACCEPT"   for the User Agreement

     Click "Download Now" bar

     Click "Save File"  Choose where to save to...  "SAVE"

4. IF you want a pdf file of instructions, Right Click on

     Learn more about SeaTools for Windows.

     Click on "Save Link As"  

     Save to desktop or folder

 5. Installation - Double Click -  seatoolsforwindowssetup.exe  - It may take a minute to get started, but will bring you to the Installation Wizard.  Follow the instructions...

6.  Double Click on the desktop icon...  It searches for all Supported Drives.  (It's a small green screen that first pops up.)

7. The "SeaTools For Windows" opens and you can check your drives here.  It's REALLY great because it will list all drives in or attached to your computer.   You can play with the other drives after you get the FreeAgent started.

 8.  Under USB-1394 - you will see the Serial Number of your SeaGate FreeAgent Drive

      Put a check mark in the box to the left.

      Point to Basic Tests - and a drop down menu will appear.

      Click on "Long Generic"    It's window opens up

      READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!!  BEFORE deciding whether to REPAIR or NOT. 

         BACK UP TO ANOTHER DRIVE IF ANYTHING MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL TOOLS ARE ON IT!!

      8a.  If this is a    NEW DRIVE with only the original Seagate tools on it,  Under the "Repair" box you can Click "ALL".   This test will check and repair the drive sectors.

(It took my 1.5TB Drive over 5 HOURS to complete.  (But, it's clean!  It's been running for more than 27 hours straight so far.  I've transferred all my laptop files to it  (300GB).  Now for the desktop - 1000GB.)

      8b.  Click OK and get 'er done!!

      8c.   If it PASSES,  start filling it up...

************************************************************************************************************************************

      9a.  If this drive already has your files on it, Back them up FIRST...  (If they're not still on your other drives.) 

             Then Under the "Repair" box click "None" if it isn't already ticked. 

             (I ran Repair-None on my other seagate and non-seagate drives, and it took about and hour for a "filled up 440GB" Drive to fully test.)

      9b.  Click OK and get 'er done!! 

This Process - Repair-None - doesn't take anywhere near as long as the - Repair-All - but will let you know if the drive Passes or Fails. 

      9c.  If it PASSES,  start filling it up...

If the drive FAILS in REPAIR-ALL - Call Seagate to get an exchange.

If the drive FAILS in  REPAIR-NONE,  you'll want to get all of your files off it FIRST.   Then you can run it in REPAIR-ALL to see if SeaTools can repair it.  

If it STILL FAILS - Call Seagate to get an exchange.