Seagate Freeangent 500GB ext hard drive

Dang, title should say FreeAgent


Does anyone here use this external hard drive?

If so, when you loaded to "Device Manager" software onto your PC, did it cause a problem with some of your other USB devices?

And, how many of you formatted the drive and removed the software completely before using the drive?

I'm a computer 'dumbAss' and I'm trying to see if it's just me.......

[heliphoto]

I just got a smaller freeagent drive, but I use it with a mac so I didn't get a chance to look at the software that came with it. However, I'm a recovering computer geek, and I still know a thing or two...

Did you install seagate's software, and feel that it messed up your system? If so, I'd recommend you uninstall the software, and see if that fixes it. The drive should still work as an external drive without that additional software (I think). I believe that stuff was just there to help with automating backups, and/or using a portable drive to take your personal settings from one computer to another.

Windows ought to be able to use the drive without any of that stuff installed, so if you just want a plain drive, it should be no problem. That's what I'd do.

If you want to remove the software from the drive, you can reformat, but I think just erasing it (drop it in the recycle bin and empty the bin) would be fine, as you don't really need to write a new partition table etc.

[rfortson]

Hi Ed,

I use a bunch of external drives. They're the cheapest storage option out there. As for your Free Agent, I suspect that's some sort of autobackup software. I generally never use that. I also never install any software on my computer. The drive should work automagically when you plug it in. If it doesn't, it's because the drive tried to install some "gee whiz" auto software that your computer doesn't need.

Assuming you just want a place to store files with no bells and whistles, I'd suggest the following steps:
1) Unplug the drive from your computer
2) Uninstall (via the Add/Remove program step in you Control Panel) any software that the hard drive caused you to install
3) Reboot
4) Plug the hard drive in and see what happens
5) If it asks to install something, tell it No
6) Look to see if you can still "see"/use the drive. If so, just go with it as is. If not, then format the drive as just a standalone harddrive and use as is.

Hope this helps. Shoot me a PM if you have specific questions.

Thank Josh and Russ,

Yes, I did let it download its software onto my computer and that's when the trouble started.

I think that I'll un-install through the control panel and, once their software is off, Format the drive.

I'll do all of that when I get home this evening. I'll post the outcome.

Thanks again.

Ed

I'm trying to use it as part of my workflow for processing RAW files. I wan't to keep them there as the electronic negative and copy them to PSE if I ever need to re-do anything from scratch.



if I wasn't so much of a computer DA, I probably wouldn't have let it load the software.

[Frank Fletcher]

I have a smaller version. And no, I didn't use the software it came with.

I use mine with both windows and linux - along with about 6 other usb peripherals at the same time. No problems here.

I think you've got the right idea. Ed. Uninstall, reformat, try again.

[borno]

I've got the same deal Ed, the freeagent pro or whatever came with some backup software and it wound up irritating me so I turned off the backup options. I have a simple seagate freeagent without the extra and it works just like a flash drive, while the newer one I got makes me search through the folders to find where to save my files. I would reformat but now I've got a bunch of files on it. Live and learn I guess

[Arpe]

I got one. Didn't use software that came with it. Goes fine. Cool light!

[CaymanImaging]

I've had a Freeagent 500 for well over a year and no problems. It didn't come with any backup programs.

I just bought a Maxtor One Touch (made by Seagate) and it had the auto back program on it, which I installed and it screwed EVERYTHING up on my cpu. Messed up Outlook, Spyder 3, CS3 and caused it to crash several times a day.

I highly suggest not to install the auto backup, just do it yourself. Once I fixed everything, the drive works just fine, just like my Freeagent.

[CaymanImaging]

Just an update...bought a new computer. Both HDs work great. Even after I loaded the auto backup program from Maxtor. So clearly, it was my old computer, not the HDs. I'd recommend them anyone.