Seagate FreeAgent Problems

[lzolnier]

Alright, this is kind of bizzare. I bought the 500GB version of the drive and had absolutely no problems hooking it up and formatting it with fat32. The receiver was down for a few hours so I could not test out the hard drive fully, but it was certainly being detected by the receiver as I could see the USB light flashing on the menu, could go into the usb file list and was able to briefly record a screen image. But a few hours later when i turned on the receiver, it is not detecting the hard drive at all (no usb light and a massage saying "no usb drive detected"). I waited for a few minutes and still nothing. Does anyone know what the the problem could be? Is the drive "sleeping"? If so, how do I "wake" it up and keep it on at all times?

[mountaineer]

Turn on the receiver with the rear switch while the hard drive is already turned on.

[lzolnier]

Originally Posted by mountaineer

Turn on the receiver with the rear switch while the hard drive is already turned on.

Yeah, but what do I do when I want to record an event and I am not present at home at the time? If it goes to sleep then, my event won't be recorded. I dont want this drive to go asleep. Is there any setting to turn the power saving function off on this drive?

[captain]

Go to the Seagate Web site an down load their soft-ware for that HD, you may need you're model an sn #s. then open them an more to the right areas in compt.

now hook HD to compt, an open tools with their program (forget what is called) then start looking for "sleep mode" an turn it off. that will fix you're problem. also another trick to do with any model HD is defrag it, an do it about every month or 2, also should run a defrag after you turn sleep off. an you will have a great working HD recorder.

[s2byus]

That's right, as captain say - the drive is going to sleep.
To disable sleep mode use this:
For Windows:
http://www.seagate.com/support/freeagent/1_5/FreeAgent-DT-WW.exe
For Mac:
http://www.seagate.com/support/freeagent/1_5/FreeAgent-DT-WW.zip

Install it on your PC, then go to Adjusting the Power Settings

[lzolnier]

Originally Posted by s2byus

That's right, as captain say - the drive is going to sleep.
To disable sleep mode use this:
For Windows:
http://www.seagate.com/support/freeagent/1_5/FreeAgent-DT-WW.exe
For Mac:
http://www.seagate.com/support/freeagent/1_5/FreeAgent-DT-WW.zip

Install it on your PC, then go to Adjusting the Power Settings

Alright, this is what I have done. I have turned the power saving feature off (from the default, which was 15 minutes of inactivity) so that it won't go into sleep mode . The only question I have is whether these settings will be saved when it is no longer hooked up to the computer. You see, I also set the amber LED light off (it was bugging me) while in settings. However, when I hooked up the HD to the receiver the amber light came on again. So this LED setting failed to carry over when the HD was hooked up to the receiver. So my question is, will the power saving setting (I turned it off) be saved when it is no longer hooked up to the computer? I will see for myself with time, but was just curious about other people's experiences.

Also, how do you correctly defragment this external drive? Do you simply use the windows defrag application or is there a seperate defrag application thats in the HD software?

[s2byus]

It should keep the setting, although I don't know about the LED.
Anyway, here is a post from other people's experiences:

http://www.abadss.com/forum/942-sv-360-elite-help/63392-working-hard-drives-sv-360-elite-2.html#post489802

About defrag, not shure the STB will like the defrag done by the computer.
You may want to try it with the risk of loosing your recorded files, or first do a backup copy.
The STB boxes are quite primitive with handling hard drives, so I dought they will provide a defrag option.
I also use to format the drive again with box.

[captain]

Originally Posted by lzolnier

Also, how do you correctly defragment this external drive? Do you simply use the windows defrag application or is there a seperate defrag application thats in the HD software?

No you won't louse you're settings when you defrag the HD. an I just use windows, but go a little deeper in the compt.

Now to run a defrag, you will be in "disk management" an this is how you get their.
my compt>>control pannel>>adminastration tools>>comt management>>disk management.

now you see what port you're HD is plug into C, D, E, or what ever then just high lite an defrag it.

you will find out that after you run the HD with out a defrag how the HD works fair to ok. then after you have defrag 1 then run the same HD, you will see right off how much faster it will call up recordings, TS works smother, it just works alot better after a defrag has been ran on it. now I defrag mine 2 here at least once a month, an no problem with all of its settings an recordings that are on it, an alot of my recordings take up alot of space compared to some 1 using it on the Ku-band. like the 2-hours of "dancing with the stars" the other nite, it took up 23gb, wich is about average for a c-band HD recording.

[lzolnier]

Originally Posted by captain

No you won't louse you're settings when you defrag the HD. an I just use windows, but go a little deeper in the compt.

Now to run a defrag, you will be in "disk management" an this is how you get their.
my compt>>control pannel>>adminastration tools>>comt management>>disk management.

now you see what port you're HD is plug into C, D, E, or what ever then just high lite an defrag it.

you will find out that after you run the HD with out a defrag how the HD works fair to ok. then after you have defrag 1 then run the same HD, you will see right off how much faster it will call up recordings, TS works smother, it just works alot better after a defrag has been ran on it. now I defrag mine 2 here at least once a month, an no problem with all of its settings an recordings that are on it, an alot of my recordings take up alot of space compared to some 1 using it on the Ku-band. like the 2-hours of "dancing with the stars" the other nite, it took up 23gb, wich is about average for a c-band HD recording.

Dancing with the Stars, lol.

The power saving setting has carried over to the receiver and it is no longer going into sleep mode. Its good to know that you can safely use the windows defrag on this HD without any problems. I am aware that defrag won't delete any files, but if I do format the drive in the future, won't the power-saving setting revert to the original (15 mins) default? I ask because after hooking the HD to the computer and turning off the sleep mode, it did leave a few small files on the HD. When formatting the drive, those files will be wiped and the sleep settings may revert to default, no?