Question about external hard drive

15 years ago

Hi! I just purchased a FreeAgent Pro external hard drive on E-bay to store my photos on. I got a good deal on it because it was one of those "new but in an open box" items. I was able to install it okay. However, no icon appeared on my desktop and the drive shows up as completely empty--even though the box says "software and electronic documentation pre-loaded on the data-mover drive."

When I queried the seller--who has a good reputation--he said it was supposed to be an empty drive. But shouldn't there at least be a manual on there somewhere? (There was no indication in the ad that anything was missing.)

I was able to find an owner's manual on the Seagate website, but it's a pdf file and those always seem to freeze up for me. I am not a computer expert, so I really need instructions!

I was able to create a new file in the drive and paste my photos to it. But I couldn't see any way of saving the file. And, when I try to remove the hard drive, using the "safely remove hardware" thing, my computer tells me that "Windows can't stop your generic volume device because it is in use." Any advice?

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Comments (7)

fruitjarfla
15 years ago
Here's a little info. The drive should act much the same as your C hard drive. Normally an icon is not place on the desktop. It is accessible via Windows Explorer, for example, in the same manner as files on the C drive. Using WE you can see the files on the new drive. And when you pasted the photo file on the new drive that was, in effect, saving it. There may be a user's manual on the new drive and if so, no need to download from Seagate.
owbist
15 years ago
Your "new but in an open box" might be true but as this was an open box then it might be fair to assume the drive was in fact use briefly and the original owner wiped the drive before returning it. No big deal. There is no software required to use an external drive.

No manual is really needed as you can only plug it in, load or unload files or remove it safely. Done, one manual LOL.

If you created a folder on the external drive and copied photos into that folder they should indeed be there. Are you familiar with Windows Explorer? Plug in the external drive and switch it on. Did you did turn the drive off before attempting to safely remove it? You should switch off before attempting to safely remove it.

Try this
RIGHT click Start
click Explore

Now you have a new window with a left and right pane. Look on the left side and you will see your main hard drive as C:\ and your CD/DVD as D:\ probably. Now there should be an E:\ Click on the E:\ drive to highlight it and the contents will appear on the right side of your screen.

Does that do anything for you?
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stargazzer
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I have an external drive and I received a CD to install Iomega on my PC, but that was years ago. When I use it, I just plug it in, click on my computer and find Iomega in the list and click on it. Then I copy and paste.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
15 years ago
I have a seagate free agent pro, it comes with tools on the drive, there is an actual visual step by step page on the seagate site you can view how to do everything you need to do, there is also the pdf version. When you got this open box did it not have a small pamplet that came with it? It does come with one which gives you the basic instructions and also has the key code for the free backup software that comes with the drive, with out the key code if you plan on using the auto backup feature you will only be getting a trial, if you have the key code you can enter it and get the full version. What size drive is it and what did you pay for the open box?

try these links
FreeAgent Pro Installation Flash Tutorial

Free Agent Pro Product Overview
FreeAgent Pro - Installing FreeAgent Pro Tools on a Windows Windows XP computer

from the seagate site search here are 3 pages of links dealing with installation, should you want to look for other subjects just go up to the search parameters and choose what you want to search for.
Summary
audrey_gw
Original Author
15 years ago
Many thanks, everybody, for your advice! That does help a lot. Yes, my photo files do seem to be saved, as they are still there when I turn the drive off and back on.

Actually, once I turn the drive off the little "safely remove hardware" icon disappears from my computer screen. So I suspect it's only available when the computer can detect extra hardware plugged in. So is it okay to remove the drive from the computer, as long as the drive is turned off, without going through that "safely remove" thing first?

To answer some of your questions, no, there was no pamphlet included with the drive so I didn't get the key code. It is a 500 GB drive and I think it was about 99 dollars that I paid for it. Though, as there was actually only 465 GB free on it, I knew there must be something else on there somewhere--even if it wasn't showing up!

I had looked at the Seagate web site before, and I think I saw something on there which said they would send you the software if you gave them the serial number of the drive and a little other information. Though, at the time, I thought they met the installation software and I didn't think I needed that, as it had installed okay. So maybe I'll look into that--or demand a pamphlet from the seller!
bpgreen
15 years ago
If the drive has been off the whole time, you can remove it without doing the safely remove process, but if it's turned on, you need to safely remove it before turning it off.

The reason for the difference in size between what they tell you it has and what Windows tells you it has could have a couple of causes. For one thing, the formatting of the drive uses up part of the space (but only a small part). A bigger reason is a difference in the way the manufacturer calculates GB compared with the way the OS does.

The manufacturer is using the decimal representation, where giga means 10003 and the OS is using the binary, where giga means 10243. 1,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 * 500 is about 465. If you look at the box, you'll probably see an asterisk next to the 500 GB with small print explaining what they mean by GB.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
15 years ago
the safely remove icon is down there by the clock in the systray, if you do not see it it could be hidden behind the slider, click on the arrow of the slider to show all icons and it should be there. If it disappears completely from your systray there is a fix for that which I posted on another thread here having to do with safely remove icon.

just take a look at those seagate links I gave you they will answer all your questions. The tools should still be on the drive just follow what it tells you on the links

Mine is a 500 gig also and I paid just over a hundred for it on sale at one of the stores here.

Question about external hard drive

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fruitjarfla

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Question about external hard drive

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fruitjarfla

owbist

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