Time Machine cannot backup to external HD

[benorubin]

I have a Seagate FreeAgent FW HD connected to my Airport Extreme. It seems that once the HD goes to sleep (there is no on/off switch) Time Machine cannot wake it up to run the backup. If I unplug the power supply to the HD and reconnect, I still need to manually connect to the HD (using Finder/Go/Connect to Server) before Time Machine will do a backup. Did I miss something when I set it up. Other computer in the house cannot see the HD until you reset the power and do a manual connection. HELP!!

[MYmacROX]

Was there any applications/software that came with the Seagate? Might be a program with preferences in there that you can fiddle with and set it to "always on" or something along those lines.

[benorubin]

I have the Seagate software but it will not recognize the drive unless it directly connected the computer via USB or Firewire. I will try to connect it using one of those methods and see if the settings remain when I switch it back to the Airport Extreme.

[Libba]

Was there any applications/software that came with the Seagate? Might be a program with preferences in there that you can fiddle with and set it to "always on" or something along those lines.

I have the same type of Seagate drive and am having the same problem. In case it was the Seagate software, in desperation I re-partitioned and reformatted the drive and it seemed to work and ran a backup but then failed to be recognized after the iMac woke after a sleep.