Seagate Dashboard Difficulties

[Sturmgewehr_44]

I ordered a Seagate Backup Plus 2TB external drive to backup up my data. It arrived yesterday, and it detects and seems to work fine, but the Dashboard software does not seem to function properly.

When doing a Continuous Backup (I also tested a "Snapshot" backup as well), in both cases, the software halted at 7% backup progress. It would not go any further than this. Even after several tries at cancelling the backup and starting a new one, it still would progress fine until reaching 7%, and then sporadically stop all activity. I received no error message and was not notified that something was wrong whatsoever.

How can I get this to work!!??

 

[snowctrl]

What's your system spec? How are you connecting the Seagate Backup Plus to your computer? What antivirus/antimalware are you running and when did you last do full scans? Are you drivers etc up to date?

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

What's your system spec? How are you connecting the Seagate Backup Plus to your computer? What antivirus/antimalware are you running and when did you last do full scans? Are you drivers etc up to date?

My specs are in my sig below. I do scans regularly with Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials. Nothing malicious has come up in a long time.

Most of my drivers are updated. I simply plugged the drive into one of my case's front USB 3.0 ports. I figured that would work fine.

 

[snowctrl]

Weird.... have you tried running Seatools on the enw drive, just to check it isn't faulty...?

Have you tried just leaving the continuous backup for a looonnnggg time to see if it eventually gets there..?

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

There was a "Test" option in Seagate Dashboard. The drive was tested positively. It didn't say anything important. Drive was functioning.

I reinstalled it, and it still halted at 7%. No errors. Nothing.

I really want to make a backup. Why is it being so difficult with me?

 

[snowctrl]

There was a "Test" option in Seagate Dashboard. The drive was tested positively. It didn't say anything important. Drive was functioning.

I reinstalled it, and it still halted at 7%. No errors. Nothing.

I really want to make a backup. Why is it being so difficult with me?

I don't know. My next step would be to (if possible) try doing the same thing with the drive connected to a different computer - if you get the same problem, then the drive is at isue and you should contact the manufacturer. If you don't then there is a compatibility issue with your computer (or a fault)

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

There was a "Test" option in Seagate Dashboard. The drive was tested positively. It didn't say anything important. Drive was functioning.

I reinstalled it, and it still halted at 7%. No errors. Nothing.

I really want to make a backup. Why is it being so difficult with me?

I don't know. My next step would be to (if possible) try doing the same thing with the drive connected to a different computer - if you get the same problem, then the drive is at isue and you should contact the manufacturer. If you don't then there is a compatibility issue with your computer (or a fault)

There's more to it, however.

I tested the software on each individual drive. It works fine on the SSD (C and actually backs up normally.

However, for my two mechanical drives (both WD Black 1TB and 3TB), they halt at 3% and 6% completion respectively.

If I select all system drives to be backed up (including the 'System Reserved' partition), the backup halts at 7%. It is all very peculiar.

Could it be related to the fact that both mechanical drives are from WD? Maybe Seagate rigged it? Maybe I'm getting too paranoid? Who knows...

 

[snowctrl]

Another thought... you've turned off all other processes before initiating the backup sequence? You don't have antivirus etc running? Might make a difference...

 

[Richard416282]

When doing a Continuous Backup (I also tested a "Snapshot" backup as well), in both cases, the software halted at 7% backup progress.

With USB data paths, if the USB port goes into 'sleep mode', that will stop the data path.

The USB Port(s) will not know if the drive has gone to 'sleep' if it does not have the smarts to listen to that particular port, because of a driver incompatibility. So , even if the drive does send a 'command word' back to the host system, unless it understands, what 'command word' means, it will just ignore it.

So, there are a couple of ways to isolate what is happening, and when, is to confirm the state of the USB port, after the 5-7 minutes have elapsed.

Depending on your perspective, it *may* be the computer side, however, my *guess*, is that it is the Seagate drive that is not set to keep the USB port alive.

My suggestion, is to download the Seagate Hard Drive Utilities, and see if the HDD is configured to go to sleep after 5 minutes.

This would eliminate the "Seagate Dashboard not working as it should" from the problem.

IF after the USB 'sleep' verification is complete, then the next step is the 'power settings' on the USB Port (on the computer), and to determine if the computer is putting the port to 'low power mode', that then tries to save power by shutting down USB ports.

One item of info not presented, is it a laptop on batteries, or a desktop with full power, but screen saver controlling USB power consumption?

If it is typical Front Pane ports, what happens if you switch the drive to a different port ? say the rear panel.

I hope this helps you, or anyone else with this type of problem.

 

[Richard416282]

One other thought was the brand of drive , and the backup software compatibility. In your Sig, there is no metion of the 2TB Bckup Plus, just the WD Caviar drives.

If the Software, (Seagate) is designed to listen for a hex '2f' ** command word, (Seagate's proprietary command for I am going to sleep now, and you are trying to backup to a WD mechanical drive with USB connectivity, and it gets connected to a WD Driver that pumps out a '30' ** as a command word to say "I am going to sleep now", then that will stop the backup process, with no error , from "Seagate Dashboard".

Yes, a flaw in "Dashboard-sort of", but then thats why they are not 100% compatible with each other.

** my 'guess' as to the command word, sent back and fourth between the drive and the usb controller. It cn be anything that the hardware designers configure the hard drive to signal ' sleep mode' to the host.