External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

[fzr10000_2000]

Free Agent probs fixed

Did the FreeAgent fix described in this thread, that seems to have resolved all of my issues similar to the ones described here.

BTW don't freak out about the C: label changing to FreeAgent, it's just a label. The dumb Seagate software does some crazy Drive label renaming. Same thing happpened to me, but it recognized the drive and let me change the sleep setting. Just change the label of your hard drive back after you finish changing the parameters

I did notice some weird ghosting issues of a movie during playback from the drive last night. Looked like a sepia picture for a second a bunch of times during playback. Weird, not sure if it is still doing it.

 

[adavis720]

There we go again. Everything except for this one program will transfer. I am going to re-recorded it the next time it comes on and try again. Maybe something got weird when it first recorded. I've watched 75% of it and it seems fine. I will report back.

Re-recorded the program in question today and transferred it over with no issues. As I did then, I still suspect it was some weird issue with the recorded itself.

 

[shodobe]

It seems most people want to keep their Ext HD on 24/7. My question is, if you only want to transfer periodically wouldn't it be better to just turn it on when needed? I just bought a WD My Book 500gb and only want to use it to archive movies and only once in awhile. I really don't want to run it all the time and just turn it on at the time of transfer. Better to leave on all the time or tun on when needed? Thanks

 

[KAB]

Better to leave on all the time or tun on when needed? Thanks

That should be a no brainer. Turn if off.

 

[patmurphey]

If you have a Seagate FreeAgent turn off sleep and just leave the drive on. No brainer - you have a 5 year warranty for a reason.

 

[n0qcu]

A warranty really isn't worth much if you lose all of your recordings that you wanted to save.

 

[Dirtydan]

This might help some people who are having problems with audio drops and video stuttering when playing recordings from EHD, also fixed the long long recording times.
After connecting my LaCie 500g for the second time I was unable to get it to turn on with it's switch, it seems that the power plug that connects to the drive was not making good enough contact. I pushed it in more firmly and now all works well, even previously recorded things played without problems. For what it's worth, the plug looks much like an S-Video male connector.

 

[KAB]

A warranty really isn't worth much if you lose all of your recordings that you wanted to save.

Exactly. They were never designed or intended to be used 24/7.
If people want that, there are other ways to go...but NOT with the pre-built external. But, why would you want that for archiving purposes?

 

[patmurphey]

The point of the "warranty" issue is that Seagate is willing to back their drives for 5 years (and no restrictions on sleep mode settings). Why would they do that? I'll bet there is a reason. I'll bet there is also a reason why most other external drive makers only back their drives for a year. I'd be more worried that USB 2.0 will be out of date and no longer widely supported in 5 years. Technology marches on - in no way are these archives going to be permanent - just enjoy the current system while you can.

 

[long_time_DNC]

The nice thing about this situation though is that HD recordings you really want to keep, you can transfer back to the internal drive and then archive it back out to a different drive that may not be connected unless you want to watch a movie/program that's on that drive.

It's true, technology isn't going to stand still...when has it? USB 2.0 will be something else (faster) in probably a year or less, but I'm sure it'll be backward compatible too.

 

[cloudy]

Has anybody else done this??
I go to archive something. Then I decide to "view". No problems. Then I wonder how the archiving is going, so I go into "Manage drive" to see how much time is left. When I see there is time left, BY Pure Habit, I hit the "cancel" button on my remote, the same way I would to get out of any screen. Unfortunately, that cancels the archive. So then I have to start over again. And the worst part is, it starts from the beginnning, not from where it left off. I sure hope that isn't leaving a bunch of huge corrupted files taking up space on the ext HD.
This is comething Dish "Should" be able to fix. Or I can just get "out of the habit" of using that button.

 

[KAB]

This is comething Dish "Should" be able to fix. Or I can just get "out of the habit" of using that button.

Now Dish has to be responsible for Pilot Error?

 

[cloudy]

Sorry if I offended you. I thought this was a thread where we could discuss our issues/bugs. I didn't realize this was a "smackdown against the user" thread.
There is something that good company's are good at.
It's called "user friendly" interactivity. When a new addition to the equipment can cause over 370 posts is less than a month, in a thread dedicated to problems with the new addition, I would say there is something not quite "user friendly" about it.
I am happy to have finally found a way to make recordings work (unplug the power to the EXT, hit ok when prompted, then plug it back in).
Unfortunately, on my drive, it only works with new recordings. I can not archive anything that is not new.

 

[KAB]

Unfortunately, on my drive, it only works with new recordings. I can not archive anything that is not new.

Well, that's a new one!!!

 

[8bitbytes]

There is something that good company's are good at. It's called "user friendly" interactivity. When a new addition to the equipment can cause over 370 posts is less than a month, in a thread dedicated to problems with the new addition, I would say there is something not quite "user friendly" about it.

A lot of those "good" companies have products out there with clocks on them and most of them are blinking 12:00 - is this a user friendly problem? You decide.

Do you only turn your EHD on when you need to archive and then turn it off when you are done? What do you mean when you say only new programs will archive?

Careful about the use of the word Smackdown, I think it's copyrighted.

 

[cloudy]

Do you only turn your EHD on when you need to archive and then turn it off when you are done? What do you mean when you say only new programs will archive?.

Well, my problems developed over time.
At first, the only thing I had to deal with was the pop up that said I had to call Dish (because the EHD had not started to spin up yet). I would just cancel out, and go back in and it would be fine.
I never have been able to do more than one transfer at a time.
I have a feeling that some of these failed transfers have caused my EHD to contain some corrupted files that the 622 doesn't recognize. I never used to disconnect my ext. As long as I only did one movie at a time, everything was fine. But now, it only works if I disconnect the power to the EHD, hit ok, then plug it in right away and it works (for just one transfer). But for whatever reason, I can't seem to transfer anything unless it's at the top of my list. This whole problem started Sunday when I recorded all 3 "Back to the future" movies. The transfer of part 3 failed (can't find it on EHD or IHD anymore). Then I tried part 2, and it failed with less than a minute to go. Then I couldn't get anything to work unless I did the "Unplug/plug back" in method. That is when I started to notice that it won't transfer anything that was recorded before the back to the future movies. I recorded 3 minutes of ESPN HD just to see if it'll transfer. Well, that worked. But then I did the unplug thing, and none of my older recordings would transfer.
I'll try again tonight. Maybe my system just needs to be down for a while. All I really want on my EHD are HD movies anyway, of which I am only now starting to record in HD. So, as long as the new recordings work, no biggy. Just wierd.

 

[allanr]

When viewing archived shows picture freezes

I just set up a WD 750gb EHD this weekend. Transferred over 5 movies which worked perfectly. But, when I go to watch any of them they will freeze up for 4-5 minutes. Sometimes they then start up again and other times I get a message saying an unsupported USB device is attached and when I say ok or cancel it then asks me if I want to manage my device. If I do I can then go back in and start the movie again, but it will freeze up again at some point. Haven't seen this issue in this thread. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[8bitbytes]

I'll try again tonight. Maybe my system just needs to be down for a while. All I really want on my EHD are HD movies anyway, of which I am only now starting to record in HD. So, as long as the new recordings work, no biggy. Just wierd.

Do a hard reboot of your 622 when your EHD is disconnected. Then connect it and see what you have. Make sure your connections are good and maybe use a different USB cable if possible.

As you said, you may have some corruption from the failed transfers. You may have to reformat your EHD and then let the 622 format it again.

 

[RandallA]

I just activated the EHD feature today so I started transferring some shows tonight. I turned off the receiver to let it transfer while I was upstairs with my daughter, I came back to turn on the 622 and it wouldn't turn on. The EHD was flashing like it was still copying data but I couldn't turn on the receiver. I tried TV2 upstairs, same thing receiver wouldn't turn on.

I had to turn off the hard drive and then reboot the receiver to get it back. I don't know if the shows transferred but I'll check later tonight. I haven't read the whole thread but I hope it's not a bug.

 

[perUano]

Here are the instructions again with a valid download link to the utility. For some reason I am unable to edit my original post.
______________________________________________

This is from memory, so I apologize if the wording is not exact.

For Seagate FreeAgent Drives: To change or disable Sleep Mode or Drive Lights.

1. Download the utility from http://www.seagate.com/support/freeagent/mobile-recovery-efigs.zip
2. Unzip - Specify a folder <I just created one on my desktop>
3. After unzipping run the setup, extract it to your local drive <Choose or create a folder you can easily find>.
4. Go to the folder you extracted to and execute the installation program
5. End the install when it gets to the "backup software" part.
6. At this point you will have a desktop icon.
7. Plug the drive in, let Windows recognize it
8. Double click on the icon
9. Let the software find the drive
10. Select Utilities and set the Sleep Interval to the desired time (You can also adjust the drive lights here.)
11. Select Apply.
12. Exit program

NightRyder

I tried following these instruction but the program will just not install, right about before it finishes instalatio I get this message: " An error was encountered while configuring Ceedo, a log has been created at this location: C:\log/freeagent.log And the log says this: "C:\Users\Jose y Mary\AppData\Local\Temp\{23B7EF41-2118-4168-A7A0-2CA003B61FAC}\{F9B94010-53FC-42BF-B69B-F80553DBF98D}\setceedoperms.bat" started Wed 09/05/2007 0:30:26.73
Params : -d C: -l C:\Users\JOSEYM~1\AppData\Local\Temp\freeagent.log -s

ERROR:: Permissions will not be changed on the C drive
Does anyboody have any idea on what this means or how to fix it? I really want to turn off sleep mode on my seagate drive to see if it works that way.
Thanks!
Jose