Seagate

[CleverCat]

Seagate Free Agent Desktop 250 GB external drive is great but...

The backup software is fast but misses whole folders and won't do MS Office files? The forum has plenty complaints but no solution as yet..

I've resorted to MS Sync Toy!

[superboyac]

Get one of the really great synchronization programs out there.  They cost money, but they are really things of beauty.  In order of my preference (and all are included in Zaine's Great Software list):
--Super Flexible File Synchronizer
--DirSync
--SyncBack SE

[CleverCat]

Thanks will have a look...

[CleverCat]

I'm sold on Super Flexible! I especially like the interface.

Took me no time to figure out and it's running great - Synch-Back I couldn't get on with.

Thanks superboyac...

[Carol Haynes]

I have a Free Agent 500 - do you get warnings/errors in your Event Log.

I seem to be getting lots of warnings like:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 51
Date: 11/04/2008
Time: 14:41:32
User: N/A
Computer: LAIRDSWOOD
Description:
An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk3\D during a paging operation.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 04 00 68 00 01 00 b6 00  ..h...¶.
0008: 00 00 00 00 33 00 04 80  ....3..€
0010: 2d 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  -.......
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ........
0020: 00 9e 5b 39 3a 00 00 00  .ž[9:...
0028: 61 a0 4b 00 00 00 00 00  a K.....
0030: ff ff ff ff 03 00 00 00  ÿÿÿÿ....
0038: 40 00 00 84 02 00 00 00  @..„....
0040: 00 20 0a 12 80 01 20 40  . ..€. @
0048: 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00  ........
0050: 00 30 64 87 e0 1a 85 89  .0d‡à.…‰
0058: 00 00 00 00 08 80 0e 8a  .....€.Š
0060: 00 00 00 00 cf ad 1c 1d  ....Ï­..
0068: 2a 00 1d 1c ad cf 00 00  *...­Ï..
0070: 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ........
0078: 70 00 02 00 00 00 00 0a  p.......
0080: 00 00 00 00 04 02 00 00  ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ........

I don't get hundreds (a few a day perhaps) and I have looked up the warning on MSKB and decoded the info block which suggests the problem is a single read or write from the disk which is corrected by a single retry.

Having said that I sometimes get this error referring to other removable drives (such as the built in card read I have) even when it doesn't have a card installed!!!

The errors only happen when I have the Free Agent drive attached to my system.

I have another Seagate USB drive (the one with the button on the front) and don't have any such problem with that one.

Strange.

[pip2kk]

Have you checked the SMART status of the drive....read / write errors usually indicated bad hardware... not necessarily the hard drive. but bad hardware none the less.

Have you tried using different usb ports? if the PC has a bad port, using another one / one on a diff hub might help.
(if you plug it in front, plug it in back...more than likely they don't share the same usb hub)

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/ active smart for windows

ps if you use linux you can use smartmontools

[Carol Haynes]

Trouble is none of the tools give the SMART status of USB drives (not even SeaTools will tell you the SMART status of Seagates own drives if they are USB).

I have run all the tests I can find on the external drives and I can't generate any errors except for the odd warning described above which appears in the System Event Viewer.

I have done large backups using TrueImage and then Validated the images (meaning that the drive is forced to read and write constantly for 2 - 3 hours) and all the backups validate correctly so I don't think there is a problem.

I am just curious to see if CleverCat also picks up these warnings since we are using similar UBS drives.

[pip2kk]

A lot of times with external drives. they are just normal drives tossed into a case that has a usb interface.

THIS WILL MORE THAN LIKELY VOID THE WARRANTY I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY heh...

you could potentially remove the case. remove the drive. if it's compatible with your PC. more than likely it is, it would be ide... plug it up and run smart that way.

i had Google around for usb smart versions and notice what you mean, sorry I've never owned a external drive. usb just seems slow to me. and i always fear things might happen,,, like me dropping the enclosure lol

there's a usb version of the software i pasted a link to, it says specifically maxtor and 2 other drives. I doubt it would work, but might be a last resort type option...

tho honestly if it's still under warranty, might just want to send it back.

[CleverCat]

Yes - I get the same errors! Every day....

But mine are for Hardisk 1 not 0 - my Seagate is location 0? I've only had them since hooking up the external.. 

Just looked - no paging file for my D partition or The Seagate - only C - is that a correct setup?

[CleverCat]

BTW - was on the verge of buying Super Flexible, when I noticed a mention of a discount in one of the threads. I hopped over to the discount section and when I saw the date - a few months ago - my heart sank but....

Turned out it was still valid so I saved over $10 - probably not much to you, but coz of exchange rate I saved +- R90 (ZAR)! Great for me who's on a disability pension.

Moral of story - ALWAYS check the discounts before buying anything!

Thanks DC & superboyac for pointing me to this great programme.. 

[Carol Haynes]

The error message is misleading ... it is nothing to do with the PageFil.SYS on your system it is all to do with reading/writing 'pages' of information to and from the drive during normal usage. If you look it up on MSKB it has a table on how to unpick the numerical block at the bottom.

The drive number can be seen by going to START > RUN and then right click on My Computer and select manager. In the left hand pane select Disk Management and the drives are labelled down the left Disk 0, Disk 1 etc. which is the drive number referred to in the error message.

[CleverCat]

Yikes - Seagate is Disk 1....

But in Device Manager it's 0?

I get error on startup when it's not writing - or is it?

[CleverCat]

Windows help says..

User Action
If these events are logged regularly on a primary system drive, replace the device. Otherwise, no user action is required.

   

I looked at MSKB - a tad above my knowledge - except for bad sector bit.

My drive has 5 year warranty.

[Carol Haynes]

If you look at the values in the data block they tell you if there really is a problem.

Basically if you look at the first two numbers in the data block:

0000: 04 00 68 00 01 00 b6 00  ..h...¶.
0008: 00 00 00 00 33 00 04 80  ....3..€
0010: 2d 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  -.......
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ........
0020: 00 de 3b 39 3a 00 00 00  .Þ;9:...
0028: ca aa 01 00 00 00 00 00  ʪ......
0030: ff ff ff ff 03 00 00 00  ÿÿÿÿ....
0038: 40 00 00 84 02 00 00 00  @..„....
0040: 00 20 0a 12 80 01 20 40  . ..€. @
0048: 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00  ........
0050: 00 f0 fd 86 f0 0a 40 8a  .ðý†ð.@Š
0058: 00 00 00 00 e0 07 07 8a  ....à..Š
0060: 00 00 00 00 ef 9d 1c 1d  ....ï..
0068: 2a 00 1d 1c 9d ef 00 00  *...ï..
0070: 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ........
0078: 70 00 02 00 00 00 00 0a  p.......
0080: 00 00 00 00 04 02 00 00  ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ........


In this example 04 and 00

04 tells you the event occurred when trying to write data tot he disk (03 for reading from the disc)
00 tells you the operation succeeded as there are no retries outstanding

In the line starting 0010 the last four numbers indicate the write will be retried

Finally the whole line 0020 gives the offset to a bad sector. Presumably if it is zero there isn't a bad sector but in the list above it looks like I might have a failing bad sector.

The odd thing is that when this even occurred the drive was sitting idle - in fact it was in power save mode so why it should give a write error or detect a bad sector is beyond me.

The best way to fix any bad sectors is to run CHKDSK D: /R /X /V in a command window (START > RUN > CMD.EXE) where D: is the drive, /X give CHKDSK exclusive access to the drive by dismounting it, /V gives a verbose output and /R specifies fixing the disc problems by doing a complete scan of the file data and empty data on the drive (it actually specifies locate bad sectors and recover any info if possible). Be prepared for it to take a long time on a large disc - though you can use your computer while it is running - just not that drive.

Actually I half wonder whether these warnings are generated because of the power save mode not waking the drive up quickly enough to respond to disc requests from Windows?

[CleverCat]

Thanks for info!

Mine is identical except for -

0020: 00 8e 69 bf 00 00 00 00  .Ži¿....

Will try the CHKDSK.

Maybe unchecking power saving would help, but I set mine to after 30 mins idle so it shouldn't do it on bootup.

[CleverCat]

Just looked, it's not at bootup - it's every 1/2 hour or so!

Maybe it's connected to power saving?

[CleverCat]

I changed power saving to every 15 mins - now error is every 15 or so. 

You might want to look here - we're not alone!

http://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/seagate.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5075

[Carol Haynes]

I disabled power saving and now the warnings seem to have disappeared altogether.

[CleverCat]

Me too! 

Should we tell Seagate - or keep it to ourselves? 

Is it best to put back power saving and ignore errors?