User profile for user: TosaDeac
TosaDeac Author
User level: Level 1
37 points

Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme Hard Drive

I am in the market for a 2nd external hard drive to compliment my 250GB iMac and 320GB Western Digital MyBook that is connected by firewire 400. I found the FreeAgent Xtreme 1TB hard drive ( http://freeagent.seagate.com/en-us/hard-drive/external-hard-drive/Free-Agent.htm l) at a local retailer for a good price but it does not say it is compatible with Mac OS. There is a "Mac compatible" version ( http://freeagent.seagate.com/en-us/hard-drive/hard-drive-mac/Free-Agent.html) but it costs close to $100 more which seems ridiculous to me. Is there any reason why the Xtreme version wouldn't work if I connect it by firewire and use disk utility to reformat it? Has anyone tried it?

I don't care that it is not a "Mac color scheme" since it is so much cheaper!

I temporarily bought a Western Digital My Passport Studio which has firewire 400 connectivity, but it is only 320GB so it really doesn't allow me enough room to back up both drives (my hard drive and my iTunes catalog on the other drive).

Thanks for any help you guys might lend!

iMac 20in (Intel), Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 29, 2008 3:28 PM

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25 replies
User profile for user: TCK87
TCK87
User level: Level 1
5 points

Dec 29, 2008 6:49 PM in response to TosaDeac

Unboxed one today and had a minor issue with a G5 iMac in that the FireWire 400 wouldn't talk to the hard drive -- I had to use USB 2.0 for that computer iMac. FireWire and USB work fine on my MacBook Pro (Intel). I reformatted the drive using Disk Utility before using it as there's some PC software already on the drive when you purchase it.

Seems to be working fine with the minor workaround.
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User profile for user: TosaDeac
TosaDeac Author
User level: Level 1
37 points

Dec 30, 2008 8:22 PM in response to TCK87

So I went back and purchased the Seagate Free Agent Xtreme. I took it home and connected it to my iMac with the firewire initially and then USB 2.0 sfter reading the above note. Then went to disk utility and tried to erase the drive. I chose the Seagate drive (not the indented one) and changed the format from MS-DOS (FAT) to Mac OS Extended (journaled) and hit erase. I kept getting an error message. SO I tried to find out what was wrong online and found something out about changing the partition to break the formatting. So I changed the partition scheme to 2 partitions and was able to make 2 partitions that are Mac OS extended (journaled). But the main Seagate heading still says it is MS-DOS (FAT) and when I try to erase it I get the same error again. What am I doing wrong?
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User profile for user: TosaDeac
TosaDeac Author
User level: Level 1
37 points

Dec 30, 2008 9:47 PM in response to TosaDeac

Actually I figured it out myself. The first step was to partition the MS-DOS (FAT) initial single partition into 2 seperate ones, click on options, and select GUID Partition, and then Apply. That made two MacOS Extended partitions. Then I could erase the those two partitions and format the whole thing as MacOS extended and get rid of the MS-DOS (FAT) formatting. Since then I have repartitioned the drive into three seperate partitions one for a rebootable drive with SuperDuper, one for all my iTunes Media, and a third that maybe I'd consider trying TIme Machine on again (although that seemed to screw me up on my other external drive).

A little bit of a pain, but a lot cheaper than by the "Mac" version!
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User profile for user: Topher Kessler
Topher Kessler
User level: Level 6
9,935 points

Dec 31, 2008 12:03 AM in response to TosaDeac

The "Mac" version is just formatted to "HFS+", and might have one or two utilities on it. The "Mac Compatible" stickers are just marketing, and any drive that works in a PC should work on a Mac. There are very few cases where one will not work, and most of these times its because of buggy firmware that results in a drive that doesnt work well on the PC either.
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User profile for user: Hennesey
Hennesey
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jan 2, 2009 3:06 AM in response to TosaDeac

Hi Guys,

Please help me.. just got a Freeagent xtreme 1TB disk to use as media disk for movies.. But i can't get it to connect using firewire 400.. im using a mac mini and i have a couple of freeagent pro discs, and i have never had any problems connecting them.. I Have tried to format the disk using the USB cable both as GUID and also Apple partitioning, but no matter what i do i can't get it to eat the firewire cable!! What do i do??

/Hennesey
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User profile for user: Hopefully Lucky Luke
Hopefully Lucky Luke
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jan 2, 2009 12:35 PM in response to Hennesey

Obviously the *partition scheme* has to be chosen *according to your CPU* (PowerPC or Intel-Mac). But besides that I have the same problem and found out that a working FireWire-Driver somehow is missing. The System-Profiler recognizes a device on the FireWire bus but says unknown.
I'd also appreciate any further clues what to do. The Seagate Disk Utility I downloaded from an older but maybe comparable model did not even recognize its drive either. Didn't find a utility for the exact Model FreeAgent XTreme 1.5GB.
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User profile for user: Craigwd_2000
Craigwd_2000
User level: Level 4
1,315 points

Jan 2, 2009 1:05 PM in response to Hopefully Lucky Luke

Actually I just found a Apple Knowledge Base Article that explains how to reset your Mac's FireWire controller when it won't recognize FireWire devices: http://tinyurl.com/84p2re. You can also use this same procedure if your Mac ever has trouble recognizing USB devices too. I also found an Apple Knowledge Base Article that describes how to reset your Intel iMac's SMC/System Management Controller if the other article didn't help: http://tinyurl.com/6u7eqt.
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User profile for user: Topher Kessler
Topher Kessler
User level: Level 6
9,935 points

Jan 2, 2009 3:34 PM in response to Hennesey

I just got the 1.5TB FreeAgent drive, and initially it did not connect via FireWire to either a MacMini or MacBook Pro running both WinXP (Boot Camp) and Leopard. I tested the cable and it worked fine with other devices in all OS's. I found that unplugging the drive and letting it completely spin down, then plugging it back in after a few minutes allowed it to reload properly and give FireWire functionality.

It seems the drive's firewire connections might be a little touchy...perhaps the firmware is not well implemented, but resetting it a few times gets the drive up and running via FireWire. I'd recommend resetting it like this several times until it connects.
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User profile for user: artmat55
artmat55
User level: Level 1
35 points

Jan 31, 2009 5:51 PM in response to zanfona

Hey there!
I too just bought a SEAGATE FREE AGENT/xTREME to be used as a back up for all my movies and had issues with FIREWIRE and FORMATTING as MAC OS EXTENDED. I searched high and low over the web and should have looked it up here in the APPLE forum first.
O was about to pack it up and send it back to BEST BUY - but now it's working...>FIREWIRE and FORMATTED as MAC OS JOURNAL - thanks to you !!!!
Art
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User profile for user: Rickvg
Rickvg
User level: Level 1
4 points

Mar 17, 2009 9:22 PM in response to TosaDeac

I was stuck until the bit about creating TWO partitions with HFS+journaled. Bounced it back to 1 partition and was good to go with "all" 1.5 TB. Hey as large as these HDDs are getting the space lost to partitioning and formatting is actually starting to have a significant impact.

Anyway, I was not having any luck with Firewire pre formatting. But after USB massaging, the drive works fine on Firewire.
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Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme Hard Drive

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