GoFlex, GoFlex Desk, GoFlex Pro, GoFlex Slim, & GoFlex Turbo

[WShawn61]

I purchased this 3TB GoFlex Desk (USB 3.0) to back up a striped array on my Mac Pro running OS 10.6.8 (USB 2.0).  I formatted the drive using Disk Utility as one partition, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), GUID Partition Table.  I use LaCie's Silverkeeper utility to make scheduled backups of my critical drives.  I set up a weekly backup of this RAID 0 array to the new GoFlex drive, then manually started a backup to transfer around 2TB to the new drive.  The transfer locked up after around 45 minutes, having transferred only 70-80 GB.  I had to Force Quit Silverkeeper, then the Finder, but the system was totally locked up.  I could not restart so I had to mash on the power button to shut down the computer.

I tried reformatting the drive and running Silverkeeper again; same result.  I ran disk repair from Disk Utility, but no problems were found.  The Seagate Drive Settings software reported no problems either with the GoFlex drive.

I then tried just manually dragging a bunch of folders from the internal array (maybe 400GB) to the GoFlex drive.  Again, it locked up after transferring around 90 GB, having to use the power button to shut down the machine.  The only way I've been able to copy stuff over to the GoFlex is to manually drag over data in smaller chunks, maybe 10-20 GB at a time.

This is rather tedious.

Are these drives unable to handle large, sustained data transfers?

Thanks for reading. 

[WShawn61]

Just tried to copy 5 folders containing 65 GB, mostly Quicktime files.  The transfer locked up the system with 63 GB copied.

Could the drive be overheating?  It doesn't feel that warm.

[johnc94]

Are you running the Seagate software, in particular the Seagate Storage Gauge driver that makes the capacity LEDs operational?

If so, the first thing I'd try is disabling ALL of it.

Any problems I've had with the GoFlex drives I'm using (two 1TB USB 2.0 and 1 2TB USB 3.0) disappeared after removing Seagate's software.

Instructions for removal here:

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/GoFlex-Net-GoFlex-Home/How-to-uninstall-on-Mac/m-p/92100

[johnc94]

One more thing ...

The biggest problem I'd have was when using Photoshop. With the 2TB GoFlex being used as a scratch disk, the app would repeatedly hang and freeze ... most likely when PS was writing large scratch files to it. When I'd force quit the application anc check Activity Monitor, the Seagate Storage Gauge process would be crashed, but would not respond to any attempt to force quit. Restarting was the ONLY way to get things back to normal.

[cngjr]

I am having the exact same problems. The amount it copies before it locks up is variable.

So far, I tried disabling sleep and Disk Sleep on Mac's System Preference.

Time Machine backups lock up much faster than finder copy lock-ups. I have about 1TB to back up and I can never get it done after copying and re-formatting 5 times already.

[WShawn61]

Some updates:

I do have the Seagate Drive Settings software installed.  I can try uninstalling that.

The Energy Saver on my system is NOT set to put hard drives asleep.

I have a 2 TB GoFlex USB 2.0 drive connected to this same workstation.  Connected to the same USB port (as the 3TB drvie) on the front of the tower I had no problem copying over 120 GB of content.

I then moved this new 3 TB drive to my wife's Mac Pro workstation running OS 10.5.8 and without any of the Seagate software installed.  I was able to copy around 120 GB through our network onto this new drive without any hang ups.  I'll continue to copy more data onto it to see if it hangs up on her system.

[danillo]

having exacly the same problem w my 2tb and iMac 27' with usb 2... trying to remove the software now and lets see how it go...

[danillo]

guys i should be abble to use timemachine shoundnt i?

[Marx]

How is the problem solved because i'm trying to Export a video and does the same thing freezing and locking, and right now i'm seriously annoyed.

i have installed this seagate drive setting and it doesnt even do anything, literally, it has my drives, drive test activity lights, is there anything i can do to stop this problem?

[frankie808]

I am having this same lockup problem with the 3TB Seagate Goflex Desk.

Thought it was the drive itself and returned it to Costco and got another one. Same problem. Have formatted the drives with the Seagate software and also by using Mac Disc Utility. Same problem. The drives are partitioned and there seems to be no problem with transfering data folders less than 5gb. Anything larger, the transfer hangs up after about 5 - 12 minutes.

Seagate does not seem to respond to any of these questions. Anyone found a solution or is it a glitch in the hardware itself?

I have two Seagate Goflex desk 2TB hard drives and have had no problems with them.