Other External products

[Immer]

So it seems this is a known issue... although I cannot believe that it has not been corrected by MS yet.

The standard sector size for the Expansion 3TB (like other drives) is 4096. BUT, Windows 7 cannot use that big for the native backup tool.

I have read that many people are tricking Windows by using something called 512e. Basically making Windows think the sector size is only 512 not 4096.

I see how people with WesternDigital externak drive use their proprietary software to reformat the drive and set this 512e option. My question is... how is it done on my new Seagate Expansion 3TB?

There is another fix (not an option for me) that states you must create partitions 2.2TB or less and it will work with Windows Backup.

I hope this is an easy fix with Seagate Format software so I don't have to buy a third party backup program.

Just Built: i7 3.2, 24GB DDR3 1600, 120GB SSD (for OS), 2 1TB in RAID 0

[Immer]

This was found to work for WD drives (See Screenshot). I hope there is an option for Seagate Drives.

[Immer]

So I think I figured this out... I formated the drive as exFAT and was able to set the 512 sector.

Windows Backup works great now!

Would love to hear if this works for others. Again, this is for the Seagate 3TB Expansion USB 3.0 External drive.

[RudeBoySes]

this is absolutely unacceptable!

FAT32 for a 3TB drive defeats the purpose of having such a large drive!

not only is FAT32 unacceptable, but exFAT is only an emulation.

i am soooo dissappointed in Seagate.

i had an HP Simple Save 1TB drive, that worked flawlessly with Windows 7 Backup & Restore.

naively, i thought.. well.. since 1TB is working so flawleslly.. why not go for the biggest one and

get the most bang for my buck..

how wrong of a decision that was.. (yesterday)

after a full day's worth of hair pulling, endless rabbit holes, cross-eyed reading from endless documents,

i've realized Seagate is either unwilling, unconcerned, or do not have the technical know-how to release

a fix.

Im no fan of WD, as the HP SimpleSave had a WD 1TB drive inside.

and it ran like crud, and finally crapped out a few days ago.

i've had other WD HDs, all ending in abismall ends... no warning. .. no sign of trouble..

just one day.. it stops working.

This is why i wanted to try Seagate.

And i must say.. this is a horrible first impression of this company.

They should print on the box, warning customers about this incompatibility.

I've been told to use 3rd party software.

But it's worthless.

Im running Windows 7 Ultimate, and there are so many benefits of using Windows Backup & Restore.

Windows Backup & Restore utilizes vmd technology, thus im able to mount my backups,

and retrieve files in Windows Enviornment. In addition, i do not have to install additional software.

It's quick, fast, works, and i've been using it since Windows 7 was released.

Seagate ... im returning this 3TB HD today at 10.

I will exchange it for a 2TB.

From what i hear.. the incompatibility is with drives that are 2.5TB or larger.

I hope this is accurate.

Otherwise.. if i have to return a 2nd time..

im completely done with Seagate. 

[silence711]

Seagate doesn't guarantee the drive will work with ALL 3rd party backup utilities. 

They make sure it works with their software, which they support. Windows backup utility is 3rd party and they won't guarantee it to work.

It's a problem with windows, not the drive and I'm pretty sure windows is aware of the problem but aren't planning on making a fix for it...Yay windows on that one, imo. 

Don't harp on Seagate for not making sure tons and tons of 3rd party software doesn't work with their drives...jeez...lol

Go complain to windows about the problems with THEIR software that won't work with your drive...

[spinningwheel]

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Immer wrote:

So I think I figured this out... I formated the drive as exFAT and was able to set the 512 sector.

Windows Backup works great now!

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It may have worked with exFAT because Windows Backup by default omits an image backup for non-NTFS destinations. (Source: How does Windows choose which files to back up?)

[andyabel]

> They make sure it works with their software, which they support.

The Seagate Expansion 3 Tb drive doesn't come with any Seagate backup software! It it did I'd be happy to use it!

[vcruzmed]

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andyabel wrote:

> They make sure it works with their software, which they support.

The Seagate Expansion 3 Tb drive doesn't come with any Seagate backup software! It it did I'd be happy to use it!

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Seagate provides the DiscWizard utility that you can use to make backups. It is available from the downloads section of the website. There are also other free backup utilities that work without problems with the 3 TB disk like EaseUS Todo Backup or Macrium Reflect.

[vcruzmed]

I´m also trying to find a solution to this problem. Unfortunately it is too late for me to return the drive. Also, I think that the exFAT solution is not acceptable.

There is something about this drive that I quite don't understand. According to the information I've read on the Seagate and Microsoft websites MBR partitioned disks are limited to 2.2 TB and any extra capacity must be accessed as an extended disk. However the 3 TB Expansion is using MBR but the size reported by windows is 2.7 TB on a single partition. How is this possible ?

[spinningwheel]

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vcruzmed wrote:

There is something about this drive that I quite don't understand. According to the information I've read on the Seagate and Microsoft websites MBR partitioned disks are limited to 2.2 TB and any extra capacity must be accessed as an extended disk. However the 3 TB Expansion is using MBR but the size reported by windows is 2.7 TB on a single partition. How is this possible ?

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MBR is limited to 32bit values (0 ... 2^32 -1). These values usually address 0.5kb sized blocks, thus the limit of 2^32 * 0.5 kb = 2^31 kb (or 2TB). If now block size is 4kb instead of the usual 0.5kb, or 8 times the size, then the addressable disk space is 8 times the size as well.