Seagate Backup Plus Slim Portable Drive

[stevepaine]

I have just installed the above drive. Unfortunately it seems I ignored the chance to use the computers Time Machine with the drive. Unfortunately even if I uninstall the application it won't give me the option to use it. I don't think the drive is able to back up my Mac without using time machine. Could someone help me to rectify this, I just don't think it is installed properly. You can probably tell from this post I am not 'on top' of theses things. I will provide more information if somebody is able to help. Many thanks Steve Paine ( totally drained and confused)

 

[harryb2448]

Steve you say 'installed'. Is the Seagate an internal hard drive? If so suggest you invest in an external caddy and hard drive, connecting via USB3/2 or Firewire 800. Pop the drive in the case, connect, go to Disk Utility and format Mac OS Extended (Journaled), turn Time Machine on and let it do its thing.

The problem backing up to the internal, what if the internal drive fails, and they all do, palliator and SSDs?

Also helps tremendously if you include the model Mac, whatever it may be, and operating system.

 

[pm-r]

Err,, ummm ahem, a Seagate Backup Plus Slim Portable Drive is a USB external portable drive. Maybe connected is a better description word than installed.

It seems to me it may only need to be formatted for Mac use using Disk Utility.

 

[stevepaine]

Seagate Backup plus slimline

Yes I am so sorry for the confusion. The drive in question is external drive. The computer in question is a Macbook pro with retina. The operating system is OS X 10.10.2

Does this help? I note pm-r suggests formatting for mac in disk utility, if this is so could you please guide me the correct way.I have read posts that have not done the job, (or I have not followed the task properly!) many thanks, Steve

 

[RadDave]

Yes I am so sorry for the confusion. The drive in question is external drive. The computer in question is a Macbook pro with retina. The operating system is OS X 10.10.2

Does this help? I note pm-r suggests formatting for mac in disk utility, if this is so could you please guide me the correct way.I have read posts that have not done the job, (or I have not followed the task properly!) many thanks, Steve

Hi Steve - I have plugged in my Seagate external HD which does my Time Machine BU of my MBPro - opened Disk Utility and then selected the volume on the external HD (just has one partition) - see the attached screen capture; select 'Erase' at the top menu which should show the format of the drive or volume - noticed mine is 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' - if yours is labeled FAT32, then hit the drop down box (blue arrow) and reformat your HD the same as mine - Time Machine (TM) can only work w/ a Mac formatted HD - once done, you can open TM and should be asked whether to use your Seagate drive for the BU. Let us know if this helps - Dave

.

 

[pm-r]

You may want to select the root level name of that Seagate drive and also make sure it's formatted using the GUID format, often hidden in the Option section.

 

[alexgiorgio]

I dont want to hijack the thread but have tried everything to make my HD viewable but have had no luck.

I can find it in disk utility, verify it (it says its ok) Repair it (says its ok) yet it will not let me mount it. I have tried to show it using finder's preferances of course, I used onyx to show it and that didnt work either. My seagate desktop manager says its its full but there is no way that is possible. I have also tried resetting the PRAM and SMC and still have not been able to find it.
I attached a picture of my disk utility but i am at my wits end of what I can possibly try next. Is my HD dead?

**in the partition, under the erase tab the format is changed from Mac os extend(journaled) to just mac os extended and will not allow me to change it back to (journaled)

thanks for the help

A

 

[chscag]

I attached a picture of my disk utility but i am at my wits end of what I can possibly try next. Is my HD dead?

How old is the drive and is it still covered by the Seagate warranty? If it won't mount, it has problems and likely can't be trusted for use, especially as a backup drive. If it's under warranty, notify Seagate, obtain a RMA, and have them send you a new drive. Or, if you just bought it, return it to the store.

 

[pm-r]

There's sure lots wrong in that screen shot and the lack of details and info on the selected volume that should be showing on the bottom.

 

[alexgiorgio]

How old is the drive and is it still covered by the Seagate warranty? If it won't mount, it has problems and likely can't be trusted for use, especially as a backup drive. If it's under warranty, notify Seagate, obtain a RMA, and have them send you a new drive. Or, if you just bought it, return it to the store.

There's sure lots wrong in that screen shot and the lack of details and info on the selected volume that should be showing on the bottom.

chscag: The drive is only about a month old and has been working fine, yesterday was the first day I encountered issues with it and I couldn't figure out why, Thanks for your response I have contacted seagate and am just going to get a new drive. I just hope it doesn't take to long because finals are approaching.

pm-r : I figured that wasn't normal at all. is it worth erasing the partition and just starting a new one? The files on the drive are mainly from my laptop and can be replaced more or less, although I would like to retrieve some of them that aren't stored on my laptop.

 

[pm-r]

…
… … ...
pm-r : I figured that wasn't normal at all. is it worth erasing the partition and just starting a new one? The files on the drive are mainly from my laptop and can be replaced more or less, although I would like to retrieve some of them that aren't stored on my laptop.

What I can't understand is why DU says everything is OK when obviously it's not, and what on earth was it checking when it says there aren't even any files or folders for Heaven's sake.

If if won't mount and there are no files, I'd say you're at a dead end with it and nothing to recover, and I'd just nuke it with Disk Utility and do a partition and format, double checking the option to do a GUID format, and I'd also take the extra step and zero-out, or one pass secure erase the drive.

 

[harryb2448]

Installed means inside and that is what I thought. Personally I think you are paying the price for having anything Seagate.

 

[RadDave]

Installed means inside and that is what I thought. Personally I think you are paying the price for having anything Seagate.

Harry & Others - when I switched to Apple, now about 2 years ago (MBPro & iMac), I bought 2 Seagate external HDs for Time Machine (TM) on each machine; since then I've added additional non-Seagate drives for an additional TM backup and also am doing CCC on other drives (OWC & WD).

Now, I've posted here a number of times w/ charts showing that the Seagate HDs do seem to 'die' early at a higher rate than the WDs. SO, what may be the best method if I bought several new non-Seagate HDs to exactly duplicate the information from the old Seagates to the new ones? For example, could I use CCC w/ two external HDs attached? Dave

 

[pm-r]

Yes, you can use CCC to clone or whatever you set it up to do, to any number of drives or volumes and brand sure doesn't matter, as CCC uses the drive's Unique Identifier of each drive and/or volume for each "schedule".

 

[RadDave]

Yes, you can use CCC to clone or whatever you set it up to do, to any number of drives or volumes and brand sure doesn't matter, as CCC uses the drive's Unique Identifier of each drive and/or volume for each "schedule".

Thanks for your quick response - so, if I clone the old Seagate HD to the 'new' HD (whatever brand I decide to buy; of course, formatted as Mac OS Extended) and then continue to use Time Machine on the 'new' HD, then TM will not even notice a difference? Dave

 

[pm-r]

I don't know what Time Machine would do as I don't bother using it as my CCC clones suit me.

But I think that Time Machine also uses the Unique Identifier of the appointed drive, so I'm guessing it may just start over. But I'm not sure, and maybe a Time Machine guru can chime in and provide the correct answer.

PS: CCC has the ability to archive your data with a backup in case you're afraid of Trashing something accidentally.