GoFlex, GoFlex Desk, GoFlex Pro, GoFlex Slim, & GoFlex Turbo

[AskTheLeaf]

Your troubleshooting and explanation about the power going to the drive are right. Thank you for sharing this on here, others will be able to benefit from this as well  

As a remind, please remember that this is an online community where many of the responses come from other users, such as yourself. The forum is not a replacement for Customer Service. Seagate representative do from time to time come to lend a hand answering posts but not necessarily on a continual or frequent basis. If you have immediate needs, your best bet is to contact Customer Service directly whether by phone, email, or chat.
Thanks.

-AskTheLeaf
Moderator

[Elmue]

Hello

The last time (when I posted here before) I still could read and write data using the shorter USB cable.
But this has become completely impossible now.
Today I cannot read/write big files anymore.

 
It seems that the drive is dying slowly.
Now I can try any cable and any USB slot on the SAME computer and there is no chance anymore.
I see the directory listing of the disk but if I try to read or write  a bigger file (some gigabyte) it beeps and the USB drive disappears.

 
The stange thing is that I use this drive as a backup drive that is nearly never in use.
After letting it without usage for a month the next time the dying process has advanced and it behaves worse each time I connect it.
 

Today I still can see the directoy listing of the disk.
If I wait one month more I will probably not even be able to see the files anymore.
And in 2 months more I will probably not even see the USB device anymore.....


But now comes the strangest thing:
Connecting it to another computer it works without problems.

So if it is really a power related problem, then this means that the drive needs more and more current as it gets older.

STRANGE!

What produces such a slow process ???
I have no explanation for that.
 

When I bought the drive I never had problems.
Then it started having problems with the long USB cable.
Now it has problems even with the short USB cable.


P.S.
For these reasons don't use harddisks for data backups!

 
Did you hear about Milleniata Disk ?
This could be an interesting alternative for long time data storage:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/company-creates-dvd-format-made-to-last-1000-years/

The LG Bluray brurner "Super Multi Blue" can write M-Disks.


Elmü

[Elmue]

Hello

I suppose that this is my last posting in this thread.
Now I found the root cause of the problem and eliminated it.

The Seagate drive is NOT GUILTY.

I found that the power connector of my ATX power supply had 4 contacts that turned black inside due to contact problems. All the 4 pins were connected to a red cable. (5V)

See the attached image!

That means that all 5V cables coming from the power supply were suffering from a bad contact.
The transparent plastic of the connector showed all 4 contacts black inside which means that they were getting hot because probably little sparks were jumping over.

The strange thing is that my PC worked a very long time without any problem although the 5 V supply is having problems since at least some weeks or even months.

All worked fine (mainboard, built in harddisk, DVD burner, Bluray burner, other USB devices,...)

ONLY the Seagate USB drive had a problem that was increasing with the contact problems.

When I found the cause today (see attached image) I replaced the power unit.

Now my Goflex drive works like a charm.

Even with the long USB cable.

Absolutely seamlessly.

I can copy a 6 GB file several times and there is no beeping and no aborting anymore.

So what do we learn from this:
1.)
Seagate drives start beeping when they get an insufficient or dirty 5V supply.

2.)
Seagate drives are much more sensible to power problems than any other device in the PC or on the USB bus.

Due to the fact that Seagate USB drives are much more sensible, I think Seagate should sell this device with an USB cable that has two plugs on the PC side so the double current of two USB slots becomes available.

Additionally the drive lacks a better power stabilization inside.

Elmü

[pmack]

 I bought my Go Flex 2 TB drive 1.5 years ago in the United States for a backup, now living in the Philippines and my Go Flex just did the nasty beeping sound and wont be accessed by my computer.  The last company I ever thought I would have problems with their hard drives was Seagate that's why I bought this backup.  After 15+ years of buying their hardrives I doubt I will ever buy another product of Seagate again after this messup.   With 1/3 of my drive backedup with data and not working I am up a creek without a paddle.  I will try and have a electrician / computer tech that can look at this and hope to gosh this is just a power supply issue.  None the less this is still a seagate product and the fault lies with them.  

[pmack]

Seagate is now politically correct also I just noticed I typed I hope to G O D in my reply and it was automatically changed to gosh when I posted it.  Interesting they are so pc now with the inferior products

[tawsplus]

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your solution. I do have a question however, when you tested the voltage on your power cord, did it come out to be 12 volts for 2 amp and still not work? Because when I tested mine, it came out to be around 12.4 volts, and my external drive was still beeping. Any help or support would be greatly appreciated.  

Thank you!

[The Wiki]

We purchased 14 of these drives for our company. Twelve worked fine and I was able to format them. Two of them would light up, but just beep faintly. Windows 7 did not find those 2 drives. I tried plugging them in to other ports and even other laptops to no avail. On the Seagate website, many people seem to be reporting the same experience. Seagate's standard response is that this MAY be a power problem. However, I plugged the beeping drives into the same ports that other GoFlex FreeAgent drives from the same order work in. I don't believe it is a power issue. I believe the drives are defective. A 14% failure rate seems like very poor quality control.

[Shubham5]

U can see that i have 2 hdd So the one is with base adapter is working fine .....But  when i put the second one on that base is got beep sound...... how how can is it power supply problem when my 1st hdd is working fine

[AskTheLeaf]

Have you tried directly connecting the beeping drive module to your computer's internal SATA connector? Can you access your data at that point?