Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Seagate Free Agent 1TB Drive For Mac - No on off switch -2 Questions ??

We'll my plan is to use a Seagate Free Agent for Mac drive 1 TB and partition this 30/70 for Super Duper / Time Machine backups.

No.1 Is this possible, i.e., will Time Machine only use it's portion of the drive and will not eventually write over the Super Duper part.

No.2 I have read that the Seagate drive does not have a on-off switch and it may go to sleep when the Mac does, and possibly not wake up when the Mac wakes up. It seems that this may be a setting that requires the Seagate drive manager software to be set to never sleep. I don't know if the Seagate Drive Software is compatible with the Mac OS (10.5). Should I get a different drive that may be a better match ? Any recommendations by someone that is more knowledgeable than I.

Thanks.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on Jan 6, 2009 7:30 AM

Reply
8 replies

Jan 6, 2009 3:36 PM in response to Jim Svarz

I have a new Seagate Free Agent Pro 500gb drive, with no on/off switch either.

I trashed all the Seagate software, erased & formatted it with Disk Utility, and it's fine. It appears to run all the time (the light is always on, anyhow, and it's so quiet I'm not sure whether it ever goes to sleep).

But there's no problem with TM finding it when my Mac wakes. Not yet, anyway.
No guarantee yours will work the same, but it seems likely.

Feb 10, 2009 8:19 PM in response to Jim Svarz

Re: No. 1, yep that will be fine.

Time Machine doesn't do anything special on the disk level; it just writes files to the disk like anything else, and consumes space in the normal way.

If the disk fills up and Time Machine doesn't have enough room to run a backup, that backup run will fail and it will pop up a message telling you.

Mar 25, 2009 4:51 AM in response to Jim Svarz

Hi,
i have an 1,5TB Seagate Free Agent connected via Firewire 400 (with a conversion cable to my old MacMini) ther i had always problems that the Free Agent just stopped working (without any error) and Superduper just stopped the copy job.
Now i have the new MacMini and the same problem happens when connected to 800 Firewire with proper cablin ONLY when i let the harddisk go to sleep (System Preferences / Powersaving / let Disk Drives go to sleepp or something like this in english, i have a german installation)
So i try now to set without letting disk go into sleep because it sometimes does not wake up (you see the logo ligt softly flashing) 😟 hope anyone has a solution.

Jun 11, 2009 8:32 AM in response to Bobsax

Bobsax wrote:
I just picked up the Seagate FreeAgent at Costco and just noticed that it's for Windoz.
Is there a way to make this work? Can I dump the back-up software as mentioned and use it with TM?


Almost certainly. Nearly all external disks can be formatted for use with a Mac, but of course most come ready for Windoze.

See item 5 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.

Seagate Free Agent 1TB Drive For Mac - No on off switch -2 Questions ??

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.