Bill Fant1

Q: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk frustration

Hi all,

I recently purchased a 2TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk external hard drive. Unfortunately, there seems to be a conflict with either my hardware or software. The drive seems to go to sleep after a period on non-use and consequently crashes the Finder and various apps when trying to gain access. I can see the icon for the drive... even navigate down some recently used directories, but then I'll go too far, get the beach ball and have to force restart the entire machine. The same will happen if I'm using an app trying to access files on the drive. I can force quit the app and/or Finder, but they will not be available for use until I force quit the entire machine. I've been trying to solve this problem for a couple weeks now without success, so I thought I'd turn to the Mac community here.

* The drive has been reformatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
* I have used Seagate Diagnostics and the drive passes all tests.
* I have disabled drive sleep under Energy Saver.
* I have tested the drive on a MacBook running the same OS as my iMac (10.6.6) without a problem.
* I have disabled Time Machine backup to a TimeCapsule to see if that helps. Does not.
* I have disconnected other drives to see if that helps. Does not.
* I have disabled virus scans, media servers and other apps (that I know of) that sometime run in BG.
* I have tried different USB ports and different wall plugs.

I'm beginning to think there is some sort of compatibility issue with my hardware, but it could still be some sort of software that is conflicting. I simply cannot find the pattern.

I spoke with Seagate support and we got as far as the recommendation to test on another machine. The drive seemed to work fine there, so I'll have to continue troubleshooting with them from that point, but I thought someone here might have some ideas as well.

27" iMac - 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 4GB Ram / ATI Radeon HD 4850

Posted on Feb 9, 2011 8:54 AM

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Q: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk frustration

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  • by Louis Agassiz,

    Louis Agassiz Louis Agassiz Feb 15, 2012 9:44 AM in response to Bill Fant1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 15, 2012 9:44 AM in response to Bill Fant1

    I just want to congratulate and thank all of you on this thread. You have kept an interest going in using these inexpensive, good drives, which unfortunately have flawed drivers, on Macs.

     

    A couple of days ago I bought a 3TB USB 3.0 STAC GoFlexFreeAgentDesk and, recalling problems I had last year with GoFlex drives, directly reformatted it as one partition of MacFSExtJourn. It crashed finder every 10-20 minutes to the point where I had to hard reboot. I could not trust the transfers. I then reloaded and reformatted following all the Seagate files and instructions, but had the same result. Sounds simple now, but was more than one good days work.

     

    I then read this whole thread, and followed the directions for cleaning out the Seagate files, (all except some for Seagate Guage, which I missed). Then I rebooted and reformatted the drive with Disk Utility (GUID) as before.

     

    Since then the drive works perfectly. I backed up 3 100GB chunks, and then ran Time Machine, which backed up my 1/2TB Mac HDD in less than overnight. Previous TM backups have taken up to a day and a half with USB 2.0 GoFlexes, so the faster circuitry on the drive side seems to help the USB2.0 on my iMac. I note that sometimes it goes at under 1MB/s, and sometimes up to 30MB/s (per Activity Monitor), but when the throughput goes down the number of I/Os goes up, so I did not get disturbed when at one point it did not seem to be making any progress.

     

    Anyway, thanks for sticking to it, and finding a robust solution for this drive. And thanks to Seagate for putting their name on all their files, and for making good drives with easily interchangable bases (interfaces). Please work on your integration before putting a Mac sticker on your products.

  • by SuperSizeIt,

    SuperSizeIt SuperSizeIt Feb 15, 2012 9:49 AM in response to Bill Fant1
    Level 3 (579 points)
    Feb 15, 2012 9:49 AM in response to Bill Fant1

    Despite the fact that some of us have been able to resolve the issues with silly workarounds, I will never evey buy another POS Seagate anything again. I will also never recommend this POS company and product to anyone again. For over a year or two, Seagate never fixed the problem and allowed users to deal with the headaches. Seagate also continues to sell these POS drives with the lable PC & Mac compatible.  Thats a load of BS. So thanks to the users for helping us all find a workaround, but no thanks to Seagate for your crappy products and service.

  • by goMD,

    goMD goMD Feb 15, 2012 9:51 AM in response to Louis Agassiz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 15, 2012 9:51 AM in response to Louis Agassiz

    Are you getting the random clicking though? What's interesting for me is when I transferred from my ntfs external to the 3tb seagate I constantly got the 8062 error, whereas with the 1.5tb 2.5 seagate to 3tb seagate (daisy-chained) I got the 36 error, which sounds like a sleeping issue. More annoyingly is the constant clicking from the 3.5 seagate, which sounds like its sleeping and then waking, constantly. I say this because the noise is in no way related to writing or reading from the drive, during which it is practically silent (plus for the seagate there).

     

    If this clicking is normal, then fine, but that, and the issues with sleep/transfer are enough to make me want to exchange it for the 3tb studio from WD, price be damned.

  • by Louis Agassiz,

    Louis Agassiz Louis Agassiz Feb 15, 2012 10:19 AM in response to goMD
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 15, 2012 10:19 AM in response to goMD

    I have noticed neither clicking nor errors.

    One  reason I favor Seagate is that the Barracuda drives my last GoFlexes were built on have been especially silent drives over years (I have not torn this case apart to know).

    In response to SuperSizeIts comment, I agree, any product that requires users to trouble shoot into the Bash Shell on a Mac and delete driver files is not one I would recommend. I am just happy to be able to use it. Taking it back would have been the **rational** thing to do. The other thing you can do is strip down the drive and throw it into a PC or Mac box computer. The last GoFlex I got was so discounted it was cheaper than buying a hard drive.

  • by macfanjay,

    macfanjay macfanjay Feb 15, 2012 11:03 AM in response to Louis Agassiz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 15, 2012 11:03 AM in response to Louis Agassiz

    Well just an update. 6 days and no errors. 1.6TB of MP3's loaded into Itunes just fine. TM partition works fine too. Both the 2TB and 3TB STAC's have had no issue after removing the seagate files. And the 2TB drive is still NTFS partitioned with paragon for NTFS loaded and is working perfectly.

     

    I know for myself saving the $50 for the Seagate over the Western Digitial Caviar Black was the reason I bought the drive, after doing a little research and living the pain I did, I think I agree with many here, Seagate is out for me.

     

    While the WD is more expensive it appears to get little complaints, has a higher MTBF rating, and outperforms the Seagate in every catagory. See here. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/western_digital_caviar_black_2tb (dated but the specs on these drives haven't changed in 2 years, the capacities are just bigger.)

     

    Just glad it's over. Thanks to all who assisted.

  • by Fernwooddad,

    Fernwooddad Fernwooddad Feb 19, 2012 5:54 AM in response to Bill Fant1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2012 5:54 AM in response to Bill Fant1

    OK, I'm not sure what this tells us (I'm having the same frustrating problem with a newly purchased Goflex 3tb and 4tb for backup), but at the suggestion of another discussion I restarted my iMac (mid 2010 running latest version of Lion) in "safe" mode and it hasn't hung up yet.  To start in "safe" mode hold down the shift key when you start the Mac.  Apparently this will bypass Seagate's "management" software that MAY be causing the problem.

     

    The system runs incredibly slow in this mode so it's not a viable solution, but it might help to narrow down the issue...  What a pain!

  • by Fernwooddad,

    Fernwooddad Fernwooddad Feb 20, 2012 1:39 PM in response to Bill Fant1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 1:39 PM in response to Bill Fant1

    It looks like heide-frankfurt is 100% correct. I went out and bought a WD Mac firewire drive and used a seagate firewire adaptor that I borrowed from a friend gor my goflex 4tb and have been able to copy between the two drives with no problems at all.  Right now I'm at 693gb copied and counting with no pauses or problems.  Thus, I'd recomend returning the drive for a firewire (or USB 2.0) drive or get seagate firewire adaptor.  Shame on Seagate for marketing the drive as Mac compatible when it is clearly not!

  • by Peter Honeyman,

    Peter Honeyman Peter Honeyman Feb 20, 2012 2:24 PM in response to Fernwooddad
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 2:24 PM in response to Fernwooddad

    I wrote about this earlier in the thread, and others have confirmed that the problem is the Seagate drivers, not the USB 3 adaptor.  Remove the Seagate drivers and the problems disappear.

  • by SuperSizeIt,

    SuperSizeIt SuperSizeIt Feb 20, 2012 2:30 PM in response to Peter Honeyman
    Level 3 (579 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 2:30 PM in response to Peter Honeyman

    Only with the Goflex Desk for Mac that works. The other Goflex Desk labled Mac & PC on the box failes even after removing all Seagate files. The only way to keep it mounted is to install the keep drive spinning extension and se it to keep it awake every 15 seconds.

     

    The best thing to do is exchange it for the "GoFlex Desk For Mac" version, and remove all drivers.  The drive so far works as it should with either the 800 FW or USB 2 interface.

  • by Peter Honeyman,

    Peter Honeyman Peter Honeyman Feb 20, 2012 4:02 PM in response to SuperSizeIt
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 4:02 PM in response to SuperSizeIt

    Well, that is not my experience.  The drive-spinning trick did not keep the drive spinning (for me), but after removing the Seagate drivers (and rebooting), the drive began (and continues) to perform flawlessly.

     

    Are you sure you removed the Seagate drivers?

  • by SuperSizeIt,

    SuperSizeIt SuperSizeIt Feb 20, 2012 5:24 PM in response to Peter Honeyman
    Level 3 (579 points)
    Feb 20, 2012 5:24 PM in response to Peter Honeyman

    Yes its all gone. Thats why this was such a hard fix to figure out. The drive is so screwed up it has odd behaviour with a variety of Macs and configurations.... The only true real fix is to get the Mac specific drive and delete all the Seagate software. Then the drives behaves just like other brands.

  • by Fernwooddad,

    Fernwooddad Fernwooddad Feb 21, 2012 6:32 AM in response to Peter Honeyman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 21, 2012 6:32 AM in response to Peter Honeyman

    OK,

     

    I took Peter's advice and here's what I did last night.  I used "find file" to find the seagate driver - it was in the system extensions folder and the name was something like "seagate storage driver", a kernel file).  I dragged it to the trash but didn't empty the trash in fear of making a big mistake.  I shutdown my Lion iMac and reconnected the Seagate supplied USB 3.0(2.0 compatible) base to the Goflex drive and restarted.  The mac showed the drive with the orange USB icon rather than the Seagate drive icon (I found this encouraging because it appeared the Mac wanted to use it's system to control the Goflex).

     

    I dragged and dropped a 230gb folder of home video's to the Goflex and kept my fingers crossed.  Good news, after 2 hours the folder copied with no issues!  The drive was even "asleep" this morning and woke without a problem when I opened it.  Also as I've already posted, when I tried my Seagate firewire/USB 2.0 adaptor (using firewire to connect), there were also no issues either.

     

    Thus, my guess is that the Seagate drivers can't handle the USB 3.0 management correctly with a Mac.  By letting the Mac do all the work it's recognizing the drive as a USB 2.0 drive with no issues.  The drivers don't have a problem with firewire as there's no compatibility problems like there are with USB 3.0.

     

    I know every instance may be different so I'm not sure why SuperSizeIt is still having a problem.  It's too bad Seagate couldn't get the driver issue right in the first place.  Better yet, their instructions should say something like "For Mac only use reformat to Mac extended journaled with the disk utility" and forget about their propriatary Mac drivers.

     

    Good luck!

  • by trench2,

    trench2 trench2 Feb 22, 2012 8:12 PM in response to Jubilee Video
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 22, 2012 8:12 PM in response to Jubilee Video

    Hi guys,

     

    I was considering buying one of these Goflex Desk USB3.0 2TB (STAC2000303) drives and getting the Firewire 800 Adaptor. I need the drive for video editing and thought that it would be a decent buy as some sites reported that it was a 7200 RPM. I did notice that the Seagate's site didn't even mention the speed of the drive so I was automatically dubious. Does anyone know for sure what the speed of the drive is? Also if anyone has used it for HiDef video editing via Firewire how has it performed? Obviously if it is indeed a low speed drive it's not really gonna cut it.

     

    I'd much rather purchase the Goflex Desk for Mac FW800/USb 2.0 2TB (STBC2000100) as it's exactly what I'm after but for the life of me I can't find anyone here in Australia that sells it! If I was to purchase it from the US would it be a matter of just converting the plug fitting so it fits into Australian power outlets?.. Is the power rating on the brick 100-240 volts? We're 240 here in Oz.

     

    I was originally going to go for one of those Western Digital FW800/7200 RPM drives but was really won over by Seagate's design in regards to adaptors. I really like the idea of being able to get a Thunderbolt adaptor in the future and retaining the HDD.

     

    If anyone can help out with any of my queries it would be hugely appreciated!

     

    Thanks in advance.

  • by rylandko,

    rylandko rylandko Feb 28, 2012 5:25 AM in response to Bill Fant1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 28, 2012 5:25 AM in response to Bill Fant1

    I can verify, after weeks of frustration and multiple formats and clean installs of Lion 10.7.3 that the drivers are the cause of the issue.  You lose the activity / storage capacity lights, but you gain a perfectly functioning harddrive.  Isn't that the important part, anyways? 

     

    So trash the drivers, and enjoy the harddrive! 

     

    It is possible that your mileage may vary, but this worked perfectly for me and it was REALLY starting to drive me crazy.

     

    Good luck.

  • by trigo26,

    trigo26 trigo26 Mar 9, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Bill Fant1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 9, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Bill Fant1

    i was able to fix my goflex desk with doing away the driver, thanks again for this forum!  and i thought my imac or lightroom is broken!

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