Problems with seagate external hardrive

[CoyoteUK5]

Hello
I hope someone can help me.
I know this may sound like an idiot but I think a bit of history first.

I only had mint 10 on my computer b ut when I tried upgradfing it to the later versions it seems my machine was not powerful enoiugh that is untill I tried mayaxfce version. It works great.
I would still say I am a novice, I only know a few commands with using the terminal but I do love linux the only other versions apart from mint I have tried is xubuntu but I keep coming back to mint.
Now for my problem, I have an external seagate freeagent 1tb hardrive, I use it to keep mainly the torrents I download.
Now as my search has found out seagate dont support linux. Now I have had this device for 3 years and there is some valuable stuff I have there.
In the last month of so occasinally the computer does not recognise the drive the light is on but at first I unhooked it comepletely even took the power cable out. I woud leave it for a few hours and rehook everything. Then amazingly it woud appear and I can get to everything.
But I also have times when it is not even recognised.
THis is frustrating as I in the last few days I was trying to burn everything. Last night I was trying to burn a series of tv shows I got and midway the drive dissapeared..
Another thing that might be of interest is that it also depends which usb port I use.
If anyone has a suggestion of what I can do I woud be extremely grateful.
Regards

Coyote

[wyrdoak]

I have a Seagate Freeagent Go 500gbs been having the same problem with my front USB port on the Xfce desktop, works well on the Xfce laptop like this using 1 USB port[connected directly to the USB port] but not the desktop. I found a dock for it that uses 2 USB ports works only if both are directly connected to the back computer USB ports or laptop, goes buggy back to the way you described if one or both connections is connected to a USB hub. Only thing I can think of is a conductivity problem on some USB ports but doesn't seem to play well at all with any USB hubs[with their own power supply or not ] I've found. Hardware and drivers change too quickly for me to keep up with to understand why it will work on one and not the other using the same OS, and then sometime doesn't work at all.

I would like for someone to help me to understand it too.

[martywd]

Hello
...

Now for my problem, I have an external seagate freeagent 1tb hardrive, ...
Now as my search has found out seagate dont support linux. ...
...

While I can't speak to the issue of whether the FreeAgent hardware is supported under Linux...

My son (windows user) had his 500 GB 'FreeAgent' external drive (SATA) seemingly fail a while back. His windows machine would sometimes recognize the FreeAgent drive, other times not. Since it was out of warranty I had him crack the FreeAgent's case and remove the drive. Once remove, I installed the bare hard drive into a USB Docking Station I had ==> https://duckduckgo.com/?q=usb+hard+drive+docking+station connected to a LinuxMint (flavor of Mint should not matter) machine.

it was the FreeAgent's circuitry that was failing. The drive worked fine in the docking station (both in Linux and windows) and has been used for backups since then in a USB Docking Station (using different backup software since the FreeAgent software only works if the drive is installed in the FreeAgent case!)

Bottomline. You might want to consider stripping that drive out of the FreeAgent case, if you are comfortable with 'case cracking'? The failure point here might be with the FreeAgent's hardware and _not_ the hard drive?
.

[DrHu]

There is a usb bridge problem , since that drive is usb connected, however I don't know that there is a good solution other than testing the usb connection for the drive: software tools or troubleshooting..
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartm ... ticket/131
--you might try directly connecting the drive to an internal usb connection on your computer rather than through the Seagate bridge: just to see if the drive is visible and accessible..

Various problems with Seagate 1TB flexdrive USB connected..
http://www.linuxine.com/story/ubuntu-ex ... g-problems
http://www.linuxine.com/story/seagate-f ... x-desk-3tb

[CoyoteUK5]

Sorry I took so long in getting back but now I think I agree with marty it must be something to do with the seagate connection as this problem is an intermittent once.
So I think the only way is to crack the case.
as I have never done this before can someone tel me what I need and how to do it.
Also I see it was suggested an internal usb port I have never heard of this so what is the difference and do all machines have internal usb ports or do you have to attach it yourself.
Thanks again

Coyote

[DrHu]

The oldest mainboards will not have usb ports (ide drives, floppies and serial (com) and parallel printer connections..)
Recent mainboards usually have usb ports: you can search the motherboard name for its specs if you no longer have the manual for it.
--sometimes on older versions it will be usb 1 or usb2, the most modern mainboards (motherboards) will have usb 3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB

The difference is speed of transmissions, naturally usb 1 (first version) is the slowest speed

--but they should be backwards compatible (at least usb 2 can support usb 1 (legacy usb devices), not so sure on usb3 latest and fastest spec available (current mainboards)[/list]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Compa ... connectors

Power
The USB 1.x and 2.0 specifications provide a 5 V supply on a single wire from which connected USB devices may draw power. The specification provides for no more than 5.25 V and no less than 4.75 V (5 V±5%) between the positive and negative bus power lines. For USB 3.0, the voltage supplied by low-powered hub ports is 4.45–5.25 V.[40]

A unit load is defined as 100 mA in USB 2.0, and 150 mA in USB 3.0. A device may draw a maximum of 5 unit loads (500 mA) from a port in USB 2.0; 6 (900 mA) in USB 3.0. There are two types of devices: low-power and high-power. A low-power device draws at most 1 unit load, with minimum operating voltage of 4.4 V in USB 2.0, and 4 V in USB

There is sometimes an issue of the power drawn by the attached usb device, so if possible use only one if you suspect a power issue (eg usb device does not connect!); however even with a single usb device at high power, it may be too much for the port and its mainboard connections (that should never be the case , of course)

[jjaythomas]

I also have a external drive (500GB only)
It's normally hooked into a router by USB, but even if pluged into computer directly sometime shows sometimes not.
I have used 'gigolo' program to sometimes see it when the file manager (Thunar) doesn't. This when USB direct into laptop!

J.Jay

Edit P.S. I was under the inpression 'USB v1 draws power eratically Thats why USB players ect work but without a external power supply the run the risk of dying prematurlly.

[CoyoteUK5]

Thaks J.Jay I was steeling myself up to crack the case, I had done all my research then I saw your post adn thoght I would try it.
What a a difference, it has been connect ed for almost two days and none the problems.
I think it has must have something ot do with xfce file manager.

But thank you all

[jjaythomas]

Glad it worked for you

J.Jay

Edit a nuance not having in thunar Butcan have gigolo run in 'notificaton area' then click to conect.