Previous Thread
Update 2:
Followed the above steps a couple of times. Both times the seagate freeagent seemed to be happy and stay on line for a few days. Then for whatever reason, it becomes inaccessible via Pogoplug.
When I plug it directly into my computer, a message comes up (I'm using window 7) saying the drive has errors - but upon running the suggested scan and fix, no errors are found or fixed.
Meanwhile the thumb drive I plugged into the other port stayed online and accessible the whole time.
Soooooo.... I finally decided the seagate freeagent is waaayyy too unstable for use with Pogoplug and I would certainly recommend looking at alternatives. If you are bent on using one like I was (since I already owned one), then all I can say is good luck.
I finally purchased a Vantec hard drive enclosure and a 1 TB Western Digital Caviar drive for a total cost that was considerably less than the freeagent drive initially was. It has been running for a couple of weeks now with no glitches, seems very solid and certainly is more responsive than the freeagent (not surprisingly). Knock on wood.
Meanwhile, one lightly used Seagate Freeagent Go is up for sale ;-))
Categories: Hard Drives / Storage
I am not having much luck getting my Seagate 1TB Freeagent Go to stay connected to the web using my new Gray Pogoplug (regular Pogo, not the Pro).
It will stay connected for a day or two, and then invariably the drive will drop off the net and the "drive not connected" message will appear in the web interface. When I get home, I will find the drive running non-stop, very warm, and beeping incessantly.
Over the weekend it dropped off again and when I got home the Pogos led was flashing. When I logged on to the web interface, there was a message saying something about an incompatible drive being connected.
So, last night I backed up all my files (not the .cedate folder) and reformatted the drive. Replaced all my files and hooked it back up to Pogo. Once again everything seemed to be working fine for a day - then a few minutes ago, the drive started beeping and dropped off the net.
At this point I'm getting a bit frustrated. Is there any way to get the Freeagent go to work properly with Pogoplug - or is this a lost cause?
I have an HP brand 1 TB drive, and have been having this exact same problem. Not really crazy about replacing the drive, since I have no way of knowing if the new drive I get will work, either, and 1TB drives aren't exactly cheap (though better than they used to be).
I feel your pain - it is more than a little frustrating. I love love love my Pogoplug now that it is up and running - it's what I've wanted to have ever since thumb drives became popular and now it is a reality - my own giant thumb drive in the sky accessible from anywhere (!!) and I will sing the praises of Pogo throughout the land... HOWEVER...
...HOWEVER - I am VERY disappointed in Pogoplug for not being right up front about the fact that some drives are not so compatible. Rather than a useful list of what hardware is going to work or a list of hardware that has known problems, we find the following in the published Pogoplug FAQs:
"Pogoplug is compatible with any external USB 2.0 hard drive or memory stick. The only thing you can't plug into your Pogoplug is a 3.5" floppy disk!".
Shame on you Pogoplug. This is a huge disservice to your customers.
I have had no problems with the Seagate Flex Net device (holds two Flex drives AND a USB drive). I use a 1.5 TB drive plugged in, and an external USB drive.
One of the "features" of the seagate drive (and probably others) is a "sleep timer"
You need to bring up the drive on a computer (not a pogoplug device) and run the seagate program that identifies the drive and lets you change settings. Then find the sleep timer and turn it off completely.
On computers themselves, people often have to turn off "native USB support" in the BIOS and let windows handle the attached drives to avoid other problems.
TO review:
1. Turn off the sleep timer. It might default to 15 minutes of inactivity, so set it to never power down.
2. On the PC, in BIOS, turn off the native USB drive support.
I use a MacBook pro as well, and run MacFuse and NTFS 3G to give me NTFS read AND write support so I don't have to format the drive to Apple format.
If this helps, great, if not, well, what can I say <>
Jeff
rth98122 said: FAQs: "Pogoplug is compatible with any external USB 2.0 hard drive or memory stick. The only thing you can't plug into your Pogoplug is a 3.5" floppy disk!". Shame on you Pogoplug. This is a huge disservice to your customers.
Huh? Okay, what if the drive is defective, would Pogoplug still work with it?
Suppose the drive had a built-in sleep timer, and it went to sleep, is that a Pogoplug issue?
So far, I've plugged a few different devices, including a memory stick, into a pogoplug-like device (seagate Flex net) and it works every time. It takes time to build its index files on a large drive, but eventually it's ready to go.
Having written software myself, and microcode for dedicated controllers, I can assure you that even the most reliable software and devices are subject to failure whenever a user is involved in the setup of the system. I would not use words like "shame on you" about anyone who provides a product that hasn't anticipated every conceivable incarnation of user introduced or 3rd party hardware issues.
I think this is an excellent service, and others who use it are having great success.
Lighten up.
Jeff
Thanks for posting Jeff.
Not sure we're comparing apples to apples here - newer seagate goflex drives plugged into a seagate flex net device versus a seagate freeagent go (classic) plugged directly into Pogoplug.
At any rate, I will definitely see if I am able to monkey with the sleep timer once seagate support sends me a download link to the software (i erased without copying - and apparently it's restricted distribution due to encryption functions included). Will post the results of that experiment here for posterity.
Not too clear about the purpose of your suggestion to turn off native usb support on the PC?? How would this affect the Pogoplug (which is separated from the PC by a router and connected via ethernet)?
And no I do not by any means expect Pogoplug to be able anticipate everything that is thrown at their device by 3rd party hardware or the intellectual inferiors you condescendingly refer to as "users". However they are specifically marketing these devices to such incompetents and specifically telling us that they WILL handle any 3rd party hardware you throw at them.
As I mentioned at the top of my post, the Pogo is a dream come true and I wish nothing more than to see this service succeed for the long run. But I gotta ask - what is going to interfere with that success more... Admitting up front that there is a list of items that might not play too well with the system? Or telling folks that EVERYTHING works and letting the scathing one-star reviews build up on Amazon and Newegg et al?
rth98122 said: Thanks for posting Jeff. Not sure we're comparing apples to apples here - newer seagate goflex drives plugged into a seagate flex net device versus a seagate freeagent go (classic) plugged directly into Pogoplug.
At any rate, I will definitely see if I am able to monkey with the sleep timer once seagate support sends me a download link to the software (i erased without copying - and apparently it's restricted distribution due to encryption functions included).
You can download Seagate Manager and use it to change settings, test the drive, read the serial number from the drive etc.
Go here: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Seagate-Manager-Download-116138.html
When you install it, register with Seagate, get the S/N using the installed manager program, then you will be told there is an update -- it will update automatically.
As to the BIOS issue, many report issues when the drive is attached to Windows, having it disappear. This is because BIOS gets in the act, when it adds nothing useful if you run Windows. So I disable "native USB" support at the BIOS level to avoid problems when using the drive with Windows (a good and fast way to put content on the drive).
Hope this help
jeff
@rth98122 and clb2196: Are your external hard drives powered from the mains supply or via the USB cable from the pogoplug? If powered from the pogoplug then try powering directly from the mains supply (if possible!) The USB power connections can be quite fragile and easily disturbed.
See here for other forum members comments on this problem;
http://www.pogoplugged.com/forum/thread/14932/Hard-Drive-suddenly-not-recognised/#9190
willieboy
Remember, its not what life does to you, but what you do with what life does to you, that matters.
@jeff92677 Thanks for the explanation on the native USB support. Also, Seagate support never bothered to respond, so the link will be helpful :)
@willieboy You know, I intuitively thought maybe the USB power might be the issue. The Seagate Freeagent Go (classic) only has one plug on it (the mini usb) so there is no other way to feed power to it. Tried several different cables in case it was a loose fitting plug or something - all behaved the same. However, the externally powered Vantec/WD Caviar setup I am now running has been as solid as a rock and performing flawlessly.
I am having the same problem with the Pogoplug Video and a brand new WD 2TB My Book Essential USB 3.0 HD. I also had a 4GB USB stick plugged into the front USB port (tried this a few times too). Same problem works for 2 or 3 days then no drive access on line or at home, pogoplug flashing green LED, WD flashing white (like being accessed) and the thumb drive is not available as well. Re boot and plug WD into PC, check disk dismount reconnect to pogoplug and then it's working for another 2-3days. I also have no messages on line for the flashing green LED. I am giving up on the pogoplug video, its going back to best buy. I decided to give pogoplug one more chance, I got a new pogoplug (not video) and a new Seagate 2GB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk USB 2.0 Hard drive. I am only going to put a few things at a time on it and see how it goes. I can hold on to the pogoplug video until the end of May if anyone wants to have me try something with it. If the new pogoplug and new Seagate (Seagate is what is connected to the pogoplug on the photograph box for heaven sakes) crashes, the third time everything is going back and I am going to wait for something (not pogoplug) that works, like Amazon or Google heck I am sure there will be third party apps that can use dyndns and windows media player or something, anything come on, cloud computing is the wave of the future, someone has to get it right!...right?!?!!
rth98122 said: Update: Emailed Pogoplug support about this issue. Received a speedy reply from Ray at support (thanks Ray!) with instructions to take the following steps: 1. Connect the drive directly to your computer 2. Delete the .cedata folder from the root level 3. Use Check Disk (Windows) or Disk Utility (Mac) to repair the drive. If you're using a Windows machine, be sure to enable both options before selecting Start. Safely eject when finished 4. Restart your Pogoplug and wait for a solid green LED 5. Use a different ethernet cable to reattach the drive to your Pogoplug When I received the reply, I was already in the process of doing a full (slow) reformat of the drive, so was only able to follow steps 4 and 5. As previously, the drive stayed connected for a couple of days, but today when I tried to access it, the drive started beeping and was not available. When I plugged it directly into my computer, a dialog came up saying errors were found on the disc. Am currently following all the steps listed above, but am not feeling very enthusiastic about the possibility of it being successful if a freshly re-formatted drive won't work... time will tell. Will post an update of the results. P.S. Am also inserting a regular 4GB thumb drive into one of the other pogo ports. If it doesn't get corrupted it will help confirm the problem has something to do with the seagate/pogo combo (note the seagate drive has worked fine for the last 6 months while it was plugged directly into my computer).
rth98122 said: Update 2: Followed the above steps a couple of times. Both times the seagate freeagent seemed to be happy and stay on line for a few days. Then for whatever reason, it becomes inaccessible via Pogoplug. When I plug it directly into my computer, a message comes up (I'm using window 7) saying the drive has errors - but upon running the suggested scan and fix, no errors are found or fixed. Meanwhile the thumb drive I plugged into the other port stayed online and accessible the whole time. Soooooo.... I finally decided the seagate freeagent is waaayyy too unstable for use with Pogoplug and I would certainly recommend looking at alternatives. If you are bent on using one like I was (since I already owned one), then all I can say is good luck. I finally purchased a Vantec hard drive enclosure and a 1 TB Western Digital Caviar drive for a total cost that was considerably less than the freeagent drive initially was. It has been running for a couple of weeks now with no glitches, seems very solid and certainly is more responsive than the freeagent (not surprisingly). Knock on wood. Meanwhile, one lightly used Seagate Freeagent Go is up for sale ;-))
If you are getting messages indicating that there are errors on the the disk, I would surmise that the issue is with the drive and has nothing to do with the PP. I'm curious what Seagate's tech support said when you told them that the drive is reporting errors?
Seagate drives have a pretty good warranty, you should be able to get a refund or replacement from them.
Death is Conquered While You Slumber- Seven is the Perfect Number
Well got the pogoplug up and running in like 10sec, no joke, at least setup on these things are quick (I already had an account set up) everything has gone off without a hitch so far. Going to slowly upload photos, music and videos and see what happens over the next few days. I have recoding of videos off but left thumbnails for music and photos on (kind of need them). Hope I have better luck with this setup, the drive has no cooling vents like the WD, not sure if this is a good thing or bad. I think the milking of data to the hard drive may help. The last pogoplug video I just plugged in a hard drive that had like 10k photos and a few cheesy camera clip videos, no music, perhaps that caused the drive/pogoplug to crash? One other thing, the pogoplug (not video) is silent, oh the joys of silence! I will self encode videos that I want to stream, I have read that you just need to make sure they are in a format that the player can accept. Can someone post what format the pogoplug uses when it encodes the video? Please let me know format, size and bit rate. Mostly need this for streaming to my PS3. Thanks!
I do get the impression the Pogos can be a little finicky about the hardware that gets plugged into them... I suspected the USB power was the culprit a lot of the time. So I'm curious... doesn't the WD 2TB My Book Essential USB 3.0 HD come with an AC adapter for power?
Update: after 7 weeks, Vantec hd enclosure / 1 TB Western Digital Caviar combo still up and running w/o a glitch.
rth98122 said: I do get the impression the Pogos can be a little finicky about the hardware that gets plugged into them... I suspected the USB power was the culprit a lot of the time. So I'm curious... doesn't the WD 2TB My Book Essential USB 3.0 HD come with an AC adapter for power? Update: after 7 weeks, Vantec hd enclosure / 1 TB Western Digital Caviar combo still up and running w/o a glitch.
I haven't had problems with the drives hooked to a pogoplug device, as long as the drives are working correctly.
WD may have a timer in the drive firmware that shuts it down after some period of time, I've seen that on my Seagate drives and turned that feature off using their software when the drive is attached to my computer. Then it won't go to sleep.
If the drive is overheating, get a better drive. I've used Seagate drives and they run cool, and I haven't run into any problems with them once I turned off the 15 minute default sleep timer.
I don't think this is a Pogoplug problem, so posting more about a WD drive won't really help you solve the problem, but getting a drive that runs cool might fix the problems you are having.
Jeff
Well so far I have found that I like the regular pogoplug much better than the video one, I encode my videos in mp4/H264 and plays in HD on my PS3's, phone videos are encoded divx avi (lower rez) and everything plays smooth, and best of all no more fan noise, so I really have no need for the video version. I think the video version would be good if you share your videos over a broad variety of devices, the pogoplug video would then be worth the extra $$$. P.S. Best Buy has the pogoplug for $49 this week! (week of May 23, 2011). I will check the heat level of the seagate drive when I get home tonight. The seagate does go to sleep and wakes up just fine as when you access it on mobile there is a pause and it says folder is not available then in a second or two its up and fast as an internal drive on the HTC Evo.
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Update:
Emailed Pogoplug support about this issue. Received a speedy reply from Ray at support (thanks Ray!) with instructions to take the following steps:
1. Connect the drive directly to your computer
2. Delete the .cedata folder from the root level
3. Use Check Disk (Windows) or Disk Utility (Mac) to repair the drive. If you're using a Windows machine, be sure to enable both options before selecting Start. Safely eject when finished
4. Restart your Pogoplug and wait for a solid green LED
5. Use a different ethernet cable to reattach the drive to your Pogoplug
When I received the reply, I was already in the process of doing a full (slow) reformat of the drive, so was only able to follow steps 4 and 5.
As previously, the drive stayed connected for a couple of days, but today when I tried to access it, the drive started beeping and was not available.
When I plugged it directly into my computer, a dialog came up saying errors were found on the disc.
Am currently following all the steps listed above, but am not feeling very enthusiastic about the possibility of it being successful if a freshly re-formatted drive won't work... time will tell.
Will post an update of the results.
P.S. Am also inserting a regular 4GB thumb drive into one of the other pogo ports. If it doesn't get corrupted it will help confirm the problem has something to do with the seagate/pogo combo (note the seagate drive has worked fine for the last 6 months while it was plugged directly into my computer).