FreeAgent Theater and GoFlexTV

[Kat47]

Every time I disconnect my Seagate Freeagent Go harddrive from the Theatre+ and connect it to my vista computer, I get this error message:

"Do you want to scan and fix Freeagent Drive (H?

There may be a problem with some files on this device or disc. This can happen if you remove the device or disc before all files have been written to it."

I only get this error message after having the drive  connected to the Theatre+. I turn the power off with the remote before disconnecting my drive.

Is anyone else getting this? Is the Theatre+ ejecting the drive correctly?  I've run tests on the drive with Seatools and it has passed. Is it just a stupid vista thing? I just don't want to damage my Freeagent Go 1TB drive. I also noticed that my harddrive was really warm when connected to the Theatre+ even though it was powered off. Is this normal?

[AlanM]

OK, here is what I would do.

1) Make sure the data is completely backed up elsewhere.  

(But this is a minimum - you always always always need a backup, always, on a 2nd storage media.  Always.  For any data you don't want to lose.)

Did I mention always?

2) Connect the drive to the Vista machine and run checkdisk on it.

3) Then run SeaTools for Windows on it. 

Can you let us know what happens there?

[Tinwable]

This is a common problem with both VISTA & Windows 7, it is really nothing to be concerned about unless you notice that your files aren't playing correctly.  This usually happens if you have your PC set for Quick disconnect & you don't Eject (Safely Remove) your drive from your PC before you unplug it.

Vista & W7 both are like over protective mothers & many times they will not let go of external drives so you have to use the Quick disconnect, & they will want you to scan the drive when you plug it in even if there is really nothing wrong with your drive.

[Kat47]

Thanks guys for the quick replies.

Alan - I backed up, then ran checkdisk and seatools before I posted on this forum. Neither found any problems with my drive. which is why I'm confused about this error message. But I was also concerned with my harddrive staying quite warm even when the Theatre+ was switched off. Is that normal?

Tinwable - My drive is on quick disconnect, but I always use safely remove hardware when removing from my pc. I only started getting the message after my harddrive had been connected to the Theatre+ which made me wonder if it was ejecting correctly.

To test it, I connected my harddrive to my pc, disconnected using safely remove hardware, then reconnected it to my pc and I got no error message. Then I disconnected using safely remove hardware, connected it to the Theatre+, played a movie, then switched it off, waited a minute, disconnected it from the Theatre+, reconnected it to my pc and got the error message again. Should I be worried?

[Tinwable]

I wouldn't be to worry about it too much.  As I said, Visat & W7 are really over protective & I have a similar issue with mine, but have never had a problem with my drive.

HERE is a discussion @ VistaForms with someone having the same problem.

Your problem maybe to do with the .Theater folder which is were the FAT+ indexes.  Vista may see a change on the drive from the last time it was plugged in & think that there is something wrong with the drive.  This is most likely just one of those cases were you get a false-positive & shouldn't be no more than a inconvenience.

[bodhi78]

As Tinwable said, it was a false positive. If you want to be sure, connect the Freeagent drive to Windows XP, and run a check (without selecting the options to fix the file system or lost sector). Windows XP always reports that there is no problem with the disk.

The problem is with the dirty bit on the USB drive. A lot of users have reported that Win 7 somehow reads this bit incorrectly and always wants to scan the disk, and after a long time scanning (depending on the capacity of the disk), it ends up reporting there was no problem. It seems Win 7 and Vista have a bad version of the chkdisk utitlity (which is invoked when you scan the disk for error), it almost always reports this possible error whenever the USB drive is unplugged and connected to a different machine and then plugged back in to the PC.

So the bottom line is 1. don't worry, 2. to be sure, check the disk with Windows XP if possible once in a while to give you an assurance that the disk is OK.

[Kat47]

I think you're both right and it's just a Vista thing. I'll check it on my friends xp to be sure. Thanks very much for your help