Need help with a Seagate FreeAgent GO external drive
Melba's Jammin'
I just bought this Seagate 320GB portable drive; it is NOT Mac specific,
and comes with a couple apps for Windows on it.
When I try to move the contents of my smaller LaCie drive to the new
Seagate, I get this message: "The item "LACIE 40GB" could not be moved
because "FreeAgent drive" cannot be modified." WTF?
I bought the Seagate at Sam's and was assured that my Mac would see the
drive and treat it as another drive and I should be go to go�swell.
What am I missing here? This Seagate is connected directly to my iBook
with the USB cable supplied; the LaCie is connected to a 1TB Seagate
FreeAgent Desk drive, which is connected to my iBook by Firewire.
Do I need to take the Seagate 320GB back to Sam's and order a
Mac-specific one from Seagate? I'm willing to consider other
manufacturers and have NOT checked to see what my local Apple store has
IN stock; I know they don't have any Seagates right now.
Thanks for your consideration. I appreciate your patience and advice
for an old lady. (Well, not THAT old, but I try to grovel.)
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://web.me.com/barbschaller - Who Said Chickens Have Fingers?
10-30-2009
nospam
Melba's Jammin' <barbsc...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> I just bought this Seagate 320GB portable drive; it is NOT Mac specific,
> and comes with a couple apps for Windows on it.
it doesn't need to be mac specific. hard drives are hard drives.
> When I try to move the contents of my smaller LaCie drive to the new
> Seagate, I get this message: "The item "LACIE 40GB" could not be moved
> because "FreeAgent drive" cannot be modified." WTF?
it's formatted ntfs for windows, which is read-only on a mac. launch
disk utility and reformat it for mac os extended journaled.
in the unlikely event you want any of the windows apps, copy them off
before you reformat. they're probably crapware, and personally i
wouldn't bother.
Jolly Roger
Melba's Jammin' <barbsc...@earthlink.net> wrote:
I bet it's formatted with NTFS for Windows. When you do a Get Info on
the mounted drive volume in the Finder, what is the Format?
Do you plan to use it with Windows? If not, if it's not Mac OS Extended
(Journaled), you will probably want to use Disk Utility to erase it and
format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (HFS+).
BTW, if this is the USB-powered drive, I highly advise you to either
purchase a power adapter for it, or return it and get your money back.
I've learned the hard way that USB can't reliably deliver the power
needed by some hard drives, which can cause them to spin down at
critical times, which, in turn, can easily cause data loss and
corruption! There's a reason they give you a cable to plug it into
*two* USB ports - because one USB port can't deliver the power required.
What they don't tell you is there are cases where two isn't enough as
well!
Through my employer, I purchased a FreeAgent Go USB with a MacBook Pro.
I used it for months as a Time Machine volume, thinking it was backing
up everything without issue, only to find one day when I needed it most
(the internal hard drive in my MacBook Pro bit the dust) that it
corrupted data stored on it!! I believe this was due to USB voltage
drops encountered while plugged into the USB port on my MacBook Pro.
Firewire provides much more power, and is much more reliable than USB
for this sort of thing. I ended up disassembling mine and purchasing a
much better Firewire enclosure to put the drive into instead:
OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro (Firewire 400):
<http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MSTG400U2/>
OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro (Firewire 800):
<http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MSTG800U2K/>
I have two of these (FW800 models), and they have been rock solid and
very fast in comparison. Highly recommended. Take it from someone who
has learned the hard way. You don't want to find out the data on your
drive is corrupt when you need it most! ; )
--
Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me.
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM
filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting
messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google
Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts.
JR
Melba's Jammin'
Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
Thanks for your comments, Jolly Roger. I returned the drive to Sam's
and ordered a 250GB FreeAgent GO for Mac from Tiger Direct; it will
arrive today. It has cables and connections for FireWire and USB; my
plan is to connect it to my big FreeAgent Desk drive.
Melba's Jammin'
Melba's Jammin' <barbsc...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> iBook G4, OS 10.4.11
>
> I just bought this Seagate 320GB portable drive; it is NOT Mac specific,
> and comes with a couple apps for Windows on it.
>
> When I try to move the contents of my smaller LaCie drive to the new
> Seagate, I get this message: "The item "LACIE 40GB" could not be moved
> because "FreeAgent drive" cannot be modified." WTF?
(snip)
Rather that reformat the drive, I bought a Seagate FreeAgent GO for Mac,
250MB FW/USB drive with dock from Tiger Direct for $93 to my door in two
days. I am very happy. My LaCie had been making clicking noises for
a very long time which bothered my son more than me because I'd never
had a problem with it. . . . but I guess clicking noises are a warning
of things to come?
Anyway. . . thank you again for your comments, advice, and patience with
my questions.
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://web.me.com/barbschaller - 10-31-2009
David
> for this sort of thing. I ended up disassembling mine and purchasing a
> much better Firewire enclosure to put the drive into instead:
>
secure your data will be if your Mac gives up the ghost, and you have to
buy a new one.
From what I have been reading it seems that FW is on the way out, and
USB is taking over - especially with the forthcoming USB3 in sight.
So, might it happen that your Mac is trashed and when you buy a new Mac
is wont have Firewire, just USB?
I might add that I have been using USB drives for ages for backups and
archiving, and apart from a power supply going AWOL have had no problems.
David
Jolly Roger
David <post...@REMOVE-TO-REPLYconfidential-counselling.com> wrote:
> In article <jollyroger-CAC3F...@news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> >
> > Firewire provides much more power, and is much more reliable than USB
> > for this sort of thing. I ended up disassembling mine and purchasing a
> > much better Firewire enclosure to put the drive into instead:
> >
> While I would agree with you re firewire being vgood, I wonder about how
> secure your data will be if your Mac gives up the ghost, and you have to
> buy a new one.
>
> From what I have been reading it seems that FW is on the way out, and
> USB is taking over - especially with the forthcoming USB3 in sight.
Firewire isn't "on the way out". It's simply not as cheap to implement,
so when price matters, USB winds out. The adage "you get what you pay
for" applies just the same.
> So, might it happen that your Mac is trashed and when you buy a new Mac
> is wont have Firewire, just USB?
The data is still just as secure. You simply need to connect the drive
to a Firewire interface to *access* the data.
> I might add that I have been using USB drives for ages for backups and
> archiving, and apart from a power supply going AWOL have had no problems.
We're not talking about typical desktop USB drives with built-in power
supplies in this thread. We're talking about USB drives that derive
their power from USB ports rather than their own power supply.
nospam
Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> > From what I have been reading it seems that FW is on the way out, and
> > USB is taking over - especially with the forthcoming USB3 in sight.
>
> Firewire isn't "on the way out". It's simply not as cheap to implement,
> so when price matters, USB winds out. The adage "you get what you pay
> for" applies just the same.
maybe not this year, but once usb 3 is widespread, there will be no
reason for firewire anymore, as usb 3 will be faster, cheaper and
better.
Jolly Roger
nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
I seriously doubt USB 3 will be better than Firewire. : )
For instance, will USB 3 still require software drivers to do all
scheduling and data flow? If so, then USB will still incur much more
CPU overhead for transfers, whereas Firewire will not.
nospam
Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> > > > From what I have been reading it seems that FW is on the way out, and
> > > > USB is taking over - especially with the forthcoming USB3 in sight.
> > >
> > > Firewire isn't "on the way out". It's simply not as cheap to implement,
> > > so when price matters, USB winds out. The adage "you get what you pay
> > > for" applies just the same.
> >
> > maybe not this year, but once usb 3 is widespread, there will be no
> > reason for firewire anymore, as usb 3 will be faster, cheaper and
> > better.
>
> I seriously doubt USB 3 will be better than Firewire. : )
then you're in for a surprise.
> For instance, will USB 3 still require software drivers to do all
> scheduling and data flow? If so, then USB will still incur much more
> CPU overhead for transfers, whereas Firewire will not.
i'm not sure what the exact overhead is, but it's lower than with usb
2. at 4.8 gb/s, it's much faster than firewire 800 and it also has a
higher power budget so bus powered drives will work without any hacks.
David
Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> In article <141120090012574738%nos...@nospam.invalid>,
> nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>
> > In article <jollyroger-5F7A4...@news.individual.net>,
> > Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> >
> > > > From what I have been reading it seems that FW is on the way out, and
> > > > USB is taking over - especially with the forthcoming USB3 in sight.
> > >
> > > Firewire isn't "on the way out". It's simply not as cheap to implement,
> > > so when price matters, USB winds out. The adage "you get what you pay
> > > for" applies just the same.
Well, my statement was not reliant on what the crappy Windows boxes had,
but what Apple might choose not to include on their new models in the
future
> >
> > maybe not this year, but once usb 3 is widespread, there will be no
> > reason for firewire anymore, as usb 3 will be faster, cheaper and
> > better.
>
> I seriously doubt USB 3 will be better than Firewire. : )
But the issue I raised is not about which is better, but about what may
be available in the future - I was one of those that chose a Beta video
over VHS
>
> For instance, will USB 3 still require software drivers to do all
> scheduling and data flow? If so, then USB will still incur much more
> CPU overhead for transfers, whereas Firewire will not.
Again you are trying to turn the discussion into a technical one, rather
than the marketing issue that I raised.
My choice of USB drives was/is based on economics - USB drives and
enclosures are cheaper, I am not suggesting they are better technically.
David