Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk frustration

If you use Keep Drive Spinning it all works automatically. All you have to do is give it the name for your drive.

If you are creating your own script and daemon, then presumably you are expert enough to work out everything for yourself.

The daemon (or the KDS program) oes keep the drive spinning all the time, it will never go to sleep. If you want to stop the drive you would have to unmount it. For me that wasn't an issue, as I was always working on the drive if I had it mounted.

I believe that technically what Keep Drive Spinning does is create an invisible file of zero size and access ('touch') the file once a minute.

I have a 2TB seagate goflex drive. It is USB connected to my Lion iMac, and I use it as my iTunes library. My iMac never sleeps since the AppleTVs need access to iTunes. The drive was powering down into sleep mode which I couldnt have for iTunes. I went to System Preferences> Energy Saver and unselected (removed check mark) "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible". I have not had the drive go to sleep since and have not had a problem with the drive or iTunes.

Yes that works, but the problem is, all your other drives, including internal on your iMac will not spin down. Thus increasing your meantime to failure rate on the internal drive. Some people are okay with leaving it spinning and running 24 by 7. For me I would rather have that drive spin down when not in use. I would rather have the Seagate in never spin down mode rather than my internal drive.

Glad to see so much discussion about this, even though I returned my drive months ago. I tried most of these tricks that have been mentioned here but didn't want my drive spinning endlessly. I also tried using a Firewire adapter, but the problem persisted, though less often. In the end, it was not worth my time to try and get the drive to work the way it should.

It seems pretty clear that anyone considering buying this drive for a Mac should look elsewhere. No reason to risk all this headache and you shouldn't have to work this hard to make your harddrive work normally.

Also seems clear that anyone experiencing these problems who can still return their drive should do so. That is what I did and am happy with the cheaper 2TB Fantom drive I replaced it with.

Otherwise, PC users may be happy with this drive or Mac users who are either lucky or techy.

Does that wrap it up succinctly?

RJ

After all is said and done, I am struggling with all these different opinions.

My question is why would the apple tech support team suggesting uncheck the item "put the had disk to sleep, etc" if it is bad for your computer or the life of the hard drive!

Paul_31 Midi-Pyrénées, SW France

Here is another post for a different problem suggesting that you do the same thing to correct another problem with the same fix!

To fix the freezing when sleeping problem go to System Preferences>Energy Saver and set 'Computer Sleep' to 'Never'. It seems there is a problem for some with Bluetooth failing to wake after sleep. This fixes it 100% for me and many others on here, until Apple issue a software update to address it.

Not sure what to suggest on the internet problem. I assume you are connected and receive and send emails OK.

Edit: To try to troubleshoot the internet issue maybe try turning the Firewall off: System Preferences>Security & Privacy>Firewall tab.

Who says it is bad for your harddrive or computer. Powering and spinning your hard drive down and up is harder on it than just spinning. There is a trade off between how often it is spinning up versus spinning continuously. I can't be bothered worrying about it. I have backups and the cost of a new harddrive is lot less than my time to worry over it. It is up to you and I to decide what we do.

I like my iMac and harddrives running 24/7, because my iMac and iTunes serves our TV and music. It works for me but I am not going to tell anyone else what to do. I shut it down when everyone is away from the house more than a day.

By the way this " uncheck put the harddisk to sleep" was not just for my goflex drive. I have 3 external drives mounted, goflex, MyBook, and a generic hardrive in a powered usb caddie that is my Time Machine backup drive. I also have several laptop hardrives in usb caddies that I can mount when needed. They all had the same problem, sleeping on me. I had to use " uncheck put the harddisk to sleep" for them all.

I have spoken to a number of tech guys and they have each confirmed that there is an issue with Apple and USB 3.0 For some reason, when iMacs or MacBooks go to sleep, the USB port loses just a veryvery slight bit of power and if the disk is connected via USB 3.0, it will undock. I've been told this a number of times...from Apple reps (in secret) to Seagate reps. This is a known problem....and it is really that simple. I fought with this over and over...many phone calls to tech support at Seagate and Apple. My fix? --- I was able to get Seagate to exchange my GoDesk for a GoDesk for Apple, which came with the Firewire. Plugged it in and I haven't had any...and I really do me ANY, problems since.

Trust me...I did the whole run around...download this, install that, change your computer settings, delete this file so it works....yadda, yadda, yadda. It is NOT GOING TO HELP. It is a USB 3.0 issue....

KLansford, THANK YOU THANK YOU! for the informtion, I just got off the phone with Seagate tech support, and they are replacing my drive wiwth the GoFlexDesk Drive for Apple, it really wasn't a problem.

Again thanks for the help and information.

What a great help!

george

KLansford wrote:

I have spoken to a number of tech guys and they have each confirmed that there is an issue with Apple and USB 3.0

Trust me...I did the whole run around...download this, install that, change your computer settings, delete this file so it works....yadda, yadda, yadda. It is NOT GOING TO HELP. It is a USB 3.0 issue....

You seem to have discovered the cause of a problem for many people. It is an important discovery.

But it is NOT the only issue. I had a drive with USB2 and Firewire 800 and 400, and its own power supply. I am almost sure (some time since I used the drive) that it was connected by Firewire. I can't at the moment recall if I only had problems after my Mac woke from sleep, but I have a recollection that I could see the drive going to sleep while the Mac was awake, and that the drive would not wake up.

Of course that was a different drive.

I did what you have done also. Apparently the units sold as GoFlex Desk is not Mac compatible. Despite the labeling on the box for PC & Mac, it is not compatible at all. I am getting a replecment for the "GoFlex Desk Drive for Mac" authorization. Send this one back and get the new one that really works for the Mac in return. Too bad I have to pay for shipping charges to send it back. Hopefully the new one that is labled specifically for Mac will work.

Hopefully this will close this problem.

Seagate is sending my replacement out with a pre-paid shipping label for the returnn of the old disk.

I guess the reason they are prepaying the return is that I just received thiws drive on January 4.

Anyway, a great big thank you should go out to KLansford for his assistance.

Yes your right. For some units, the Mac does't even have to go to sleep. Apple implimentation or compatabiity with USB 3.0 is faulty. Macs are just not USB 3.0 ready, even with USB 3.0 devices that are backward compatible with USB 2.0 will just not work right with Macs.

KLansford (or anyone else) -

I am contemplating buying the GoFlex for Mac Desk 2TB, model STBC2000100. It comes with a base that has both USB 2.0 and Firewire 800. I'm on a mid 2011 mini with Lion 10.7.2.

Based on all the discussion I have seen I called Seagate pre-purchase to ask a couple of questions. They told me that the drive is NOT bootable. The rep I spoke to sounded like he really didn't know what he was talking about, but now I am even more leery. Has anyone tried a GoFlex for Mac Desk drive as an exetrnal bootable (not on USB 3.0)? I had planned to partition the drive and have one partition as a back up of my internal HD as an emergency boot if (when?) my internal fails (using Carbon Copy Cloner).

I was planning using Firewire 800 initially and switching to Thunderbolt when the new adapter base comes out (supposedly in about a month). The only other currently availabe alternative Thunderbolt drives I can find are all WAY more expensive, <$500 at the least. I don't see any others that are upgradable / switchable from Firewire 800 to Thunderbolt, either.

Does anyone have an experience returning one of these drives to Best Buy if it doesn't work correctly (won't sleep, or disconnects, or freezes, etc)?

Thanks! - Randy

I would never buy another Seagate ever. They are just crap. This thread alone or the forum on their site should be enough of a warning for Mac users to avoid them. They are not Mac knowledgeable and prduce products that cater to Windows first Mac 3rd.