Seagate external drive does not work on Vista 64-bit

M

madriver

New Member
Hi all: Brand new Freeagent USB 1TB drive for Windows Home Premium on an ACER desktop.

After installing the Seagate Manager software, it tells me that I need a 32-bit OS and will not install.

The result is that there is a letter assigned to the drive but no hard drive icon. And the drive just stops working after a while. Unplugging it and plugging it back in makes it work again. Then my files vanish and it dies again. And so forth.

In post after post on this forum and others I've seen about this issue, everyone seems to offer a lot of assurances that external drives will work automatically on 64-bit.

But they don't.

From the Seagate website in the downloads section:

FreeAgent Family Software
File Version: FreeAgentCN.EXE
File Size for Windows.EXE: 63 MB
Supported Operating Systems: Windows Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, Windows XP Home, XP Professional, XP Media Center Edition
32-bit Operating Systems ONLY

So should I get a new drive designed for this OS, and if so, which ones are they?
 

My Computer

System One

madriver said:
Hi all: Brand new Freeagent USB 1TB drive for Windows Home Premium on an ACER desktop.

After installing the Seagate Manager software, it tells me that I need a 32-bit OS and will not install.

The result is that there is a letter assigned to the drive but no hard drive icon. And the drive just stops working after a while. Unplugging it and plugging it back in makes it work again. Then my files vanish and it dies again. And so forth.

In post after post on this forum and others I've seen about this issue, everyone seems to offer a lot of assurances that external drives will work automatically on 64-bit.

But they don't.

From the Seagate website in the downloads section:

FreeAgent Family Software
File Version: FreeAgentCN.EXE
File Size for Windows.EXE: 63 MB
Supported Operating Systems: Windows Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, Windows XP Home, XP Professional, XP Media Center Edition
32-bit Operating Systems ONLY

So should I get a new drive designed for this OS, and if so, which ones are they?
Click to expand...

Uninstall these 32bit drivers and reboot. Plug in the usb or esata from the external device and let Vista first install all the necessary drivers for the device. It might take a couple minutes but later the C: will acknowledge the changes. You should use the safely remove hardware device for unplugging as continuous random unplugging might damage the interface of the hard drive. Reboot, plug in the drive and it should work.
Bottom line, you will need to find 64bit drivers for your drive but I've never heard of anyone doing that even for the newest 1TB's.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    i7 965
    Motherboard
    Asus Rampage II Extreme
    Memory
    Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 x 2
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX295 SLI
    Sound Card
    SB X-Fi MB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung Syncmaster T240
    Screen Resolution
    1900x1200
    Hard Drives
    2x1TB Western Digital Black (Raid 0), 150GB WD Raptor
    PSU
    1200W Thermaltake Toughpower
    Case
    Lian Li PC80P
    Cooling
    Chassis - 3 Front 140mm, Top 140mm, Rear 140mm
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Revolution
    Other Info
    Fold up beast by me :-)
I agree with GNYS on this one. If that does not work, then you should take the drive back and exchange it for one with 64 bit support. However, I have never heard of an eHDD not working on 64bit...

~Lordbob
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5QC
    Memory
    2x2GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9500GT 1Gb
    Sound Card
    Mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SyncMaster 206bw
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SP2514N ATA 250Gb 7200RPM
    Samsung [Model] 1Tb 7200RPM SATA2
    PSU
    Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750W
    Keyboard
    Razer Tarantula
    Mouse
    Razer Lachesis
    Internet Speed
    not fast enough
My $.02 worth. Between myself, my backup clients, and family, I have bought literally dozens of secondary drives, ext drives, USB drives, eSATA drives, etc.

I have never installed the software that comes with the drive, and if it has any of their junk already on it, I format and begin with the drive clean.

Never had a problem with any OS finding the drive.

But that's me.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Asus G50Vt plus two XP shop machines used for trouble-shooting client problems
The 32bit requirement appears to only apply to the manufacturer's software, which is almost always unnecessary and/or insufficient for what you want it to do.

The drive itself should function fine without any special downloads. You might check Seagate for an updated firmware, but that is about it.

Try this to remove any drivers that may or may not have been correctly installed by the Seagate software package:

  1. With the drive not connected, open an admin command prompt (start -> type cmd -> right click the cmd.exe and select 'run as admin')
  2. In the command window type: set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
  3. then type: devmgmt.msc
This will open device manager. Go to View-> Show Hidden Devices. Now go down to the Disk drives section and you should see a grayed out entry for your USB drive (it may just say USB Device, or something generic.) Feel free to uninstall all these grayed out entries (and for good measure go down to the USB controllers section and do the same.)

If you have other USB devices connected, like a thumb drive, they will NOT be grayed out, so as long as you only uninstall the grayed out entries you should be good.

Then reboot and plug in your drive, let the OS install drivers, and maybe do a Windows Update. But don't bother with the Seagate software.

You may want to do a fresh format of the drive as well.

If you still have issues with your drive after that then it may be damaged or defective.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Falcon NW Mach V (2006)
    CPU
    Athlon 64 FX-60
    Motherboard
    ASUS A8N32SLI-Deluxe
    Memory
    4 GB Corsair
    Graphics Card(s)
    2 x Nvidia 8800 GTX
    Sound Card
    Creative Titanium PCI-E
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24" Syncmaster 244T
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    4 x 150GB Raptors (2 x RAID 0s)
    PSU
    850w Thermaltake Toughpower
    Cooling
    Generic CPU watercooling
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15
    Mouse
    Microsoft Sidewinder
    Internet Speed
    10 MBits
balthazor said:
The 32bit requirement appears to only apply to the manufacturer's software, which is almost always unnecessary and/or insufficient for what you want it to do.

The drive itself should function fine without any special downloads. You might check Seagate for an updated firmware, but that is about it.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

~Lordbob
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5QC
    Memory
    2x2GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9500GT 1Gb
    Sound Card
    Mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SyncMaster 206bw
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SP2514N ATA 250Gb 7200RPM
    Samsung [Model] 1Tb 7200RPM SATA2
    PSU
    Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750W
    Keyboard
    Razer Tarantula
    Mouse
    Razer Lachesis
    Internet Speed
    not fast enough
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top