Seagate FreeAgent drives not down with Linux?

It seems as if FreeAgent owners that prefer a more open operating system have been experiencing issues with the drive for a little while now, but we're finally seeing that Seagate isn't exactly rushing to the rescue. Apparently, the power-saving settings on the drives in question only function as advertised in Windows, and users running Linux (and OS X, we presume) could see their FreeAgent duck into inactivity, only to have the USB connection drop and reconnect as USB 1.1. Furthermore, we've even seen an e-mail response from the firm tersely stating that it "does not provide support for Personal / External Storage products (and / or accessories) used in a Linux environment." So, dear readers, are any of you fighting this same battle, and if so, have you found a sufficient workaround?

Update: The workaround you were hoping for? Yeah, check this out. Thanks, nerdgod!

Read - Seagate snubs Linux
Read - E-mail response

[Russell @ Dec 7th 2007 2:53PM]

I've been using my FreeAgent with OS X for a few months now and never had a problem. I plugged it into my Ubuntu box a few times for formatting and whatnot (Apple's "Disk Utility" is next to useless if you are dealing with a partitioned drive) and never had a problem. But maybe thats just me.

[jus10 @ Dec 7th 2007 7:09PM]

Same here. My Freeagent normally sits as my time machine drive and is always connected to the Macbook. It has on occasion been connected to Linux boxes and also never had a problem.

Still, their e-mail response means I'll probably be looking elsewhere whenever it comes time to replace this drive.

[Temple @ Dec 7th 2007 10:42PM]

hmmm, I've actually had problems with the NTFS-formated Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500GB. I can read from it but can't write to it from OSX. I also use this external HDD with Vista as well as OSX, and haven't reformatted or modified since opening the box. Odd. . .

[nerdgod @ Dec 7th 2007 2:58PM]

seek ye here:
http://alienghic.livejournal.com/382903.html (Endless thanks to Diane Trout)
You need to turn off the STANDBY mode with sdparm:

sdparm --clear STANDBY -6 /dev/sdc
if it's already stopped, you have to start it before telling it to clear:
sdparm --command=start /dev/sdd

[Joshua Walters @ Dec 7th 2007 2:59PM]

A product that doesnt work with linux, now thats just wrong.

[Andreas Krankl @ Dec 7th 2007 3:02PM]

so does this mean that, when the drive goes to sleep, it wakes up in 1.1? I have mine connected to an airport extreme. what affect does this have on streaming performance?
hmm

[talon @ Dec 7th 2007 3:08PM]

It isn't just a Linux thing. I have had problems with the same issue with Windows Server 2003. The drive will just drop out unannounced. If it does wake up, it wakes up slow until it is actually unplugged and reinserted. This drive happens to be hanging on a server in another building, and I have to walk over to get things back in line.

[Jack @ Dec 7th 2007 3:12PM]

Buy another brand. Money talks, you know.

[skoochy @ Dec 7th 2007 3:18PM]

Yeah, it's not just Linux. A lot of PVRs and other devices which use an external USB storage device have been having problems with the FreeAgent drives.

-s-

[REI @ Dec 7th 2007 4:33PM]

>>>>>Buy another brand. Money talks, you know.

Yeah mine is always saying "good-bye"

ReiG

[Jack @ Dec 7th 2007 4:36PM]

Haha. Good one REI. Money does have a way of leaving you.

[rzlmlchm009 @ Dec 7th 2007 6:18PM]

@ Skoochy: I agree. This sounds to me like the company is simply trying to dodge support of their product.

[phpuser @ Dec 7th 2007 3:31PM]

For what it's worth, I have been using this drive with OS X for a couple of months and haven't had any problems at all...

[mathew @ Dec 7th 2007 3:37PM]

Works fine for me with OS X too. Doesn't go to sleep unexpectedly.

[dsiren72 @ Dec 7th 2007 4:00PM]

Just a F.Y.I.---I've got the external hard drive in question in this forum, and I've been backing up every day with time machine on my macbook, and I've had no issues. I'm able to read, and write. I had to format the hard drive before I used it, but I've had no issues.

[Bill @ Dec 7th 2007 4:05PM]

The Dish Network 622/722 DVRs do not work right with this drive either, and now it's no wonder, because those DVRs use a version of Linux as their OS. The solution has always been to disable the sleep mode on the drive, but it would be better if we didn't have to do that.

[Matt @ Dec 7th 2007 11:25PM]

Wait, I have a 722. What can you do with an external hard drive? I remember trying to play media off it a while ago, which I'm pretty sure didn't work.

[Lonnie McClure @ Dec 8th 2007 4:18PM]

Matt:

See:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/dish_hd/external_hd/index.shtml

[Alan Riaso @ Dec 7th 2007 4:06PM]

That sucks. But what sucks even more is that with this drive and Wester Digital MyBook is that its impossible to do a full ScanDisk (with all options on) as it has to restart to get a exclusive lock on the Volume, but the drive is powered up AFTER the scandisk boot event, so scandisk never even sees the drive, therefore cannot repair damaged disk areas.

Avoid these new crap disks. Buy an enclosure with a power switch and drive separately instead.

[Nushio (NDF - Blue) @ Dec 7th 2007 4:22PM]

I have that Free Agent Drive, pictured, running on Fedora 7 with no issues. Its a 750 GB HDD.

Runs out of the box, it uses NTFS as its file system though, so I understand the worries.

[adamantypants @ Dec 7th 2007 4:40PM]

I've got the same exact drive pictured there. But as soon as I got it, I reformatted it to Fat32. But it works on my Windows XP MCE2002 PC, Vista PC, XP SP2 PC, PS3, and finally my YellowDog Linux installed on the same PS3.

No problems whatsoever.

[G-Ski @ Dec 7th 2007 4:41PM]

I have OS X and it's done it since I've had it.. also crashes my system to a point where I have to FORCE shut down every-time... I'm removing ALL data and tossing the P.O.S out. I have a Lacie which I will stay with as a result.

[Aaron @ Dec 7th 2007 5:00PM]

It seems there is a lot not to like about the FreeAgent from Seagate. I am really not happy with the Seagate FreeAgent Pro USB/eSATA that I have. The eSATA connection is flaky at best. First, the connection is not deep enough to accommodate standard eSATA cables that I picked up at NewEgg. I had to cut some of the rubber off the cable just to make a connection.

Of course, I spent needless hours of trouble shooting drivers and settings prior to making this realization. Then, when the drive goes to sleep, it will not reconnect via eSATA unless I pull the plug on the eSATA and put it back. There are plenty of unhappy purchasers at CNET forums that have this drive. I'm thinking about cracking it open and ditching the 'external' part of this. I would stay away if you want to use the eSATA on one of these.

[kballs @ Dec 7th 2007 5:25PM]

I had a FreeAgent Pro 750GB and had problems with it managing it's own spin-down timeout over USB, and it also did it over eSATA (ignoring power commands sent from the SATA controller)... and this was in Windows. It has such a slow spin-up that if Windows thinks it's spinning (since it doesn't know about the internal power saving behavior) it would time out and give errors trying to access the drive.

My solution was to pry open the FreeAgent case (not easy as it's very sharp sheet metal), and put the drive in a 3rd party eSATA case (with no USB bridge, so the PC thinks it's just another SATA drive inside the machine). Now Windows has no problem managing the spin-down behavior directly and I don't get any timeouts or errors.

[Xian72 @ Dec 7th 2007 5:47PM]

Another option would be to connect the drive to a Windows machine, run the FreeAgent Pro software and turn OFF the drive sleep timer. After that no problem.

[Matt @ Dec 7th 2007 11:21PM]

What is this software of which you speak?

[dave lemke @ Dec 7th 2007 7:40PM]

man. And I was about to go buy one this week - they are super inexpensive - 149 for a 500gb. I guess it's back to the drawing board. I'm running OSX on a macbook pro. Any suggestions on a relatively cheap, but reliable external HD?

[Karan @ Dec 7th 2007 8:13PM]

as mentioned in the other comments, it works fine on OSX (perfect for me on Macbook) - having tried LaCie and WD, I've found the Seagate just edges them out, but not in any blistering must-have way. Lacie is good value for money, though.

[dave lemke @ Dec 7th 2007 9:28PM]

yes, but as also mentioned in the comments 50/50 it seems - people have also had some rather outrageous problems with them as well. Not only those who ran Linux and Mac platforms, but also windows based users as well. Perhaps, as the saying goes, there are always a few bad eggs in every batch, ya? It still doesn't fill me with confidence however. I'd hate to buy an external HD and have it cop out on me - and as also mentioned in the user comments, seagate has taken a zero responsibility mind-frame. So, yes, perhaps lacie it is. In Toronto though, Lacie seems to be the most expensive of the bunch.

[skoochy @ Dec 7th 2007 9:38PM]

Just to point out, a lot of people have "FreeAgent PRO" which is a different drive than FreeAgent (and we're not just talking about the addition of the eSATA port). You can expect different results from the two different drives, as they have two different firmware tracks.

So you don't have the exact same drive pictured if you have a FreeAgent Pro.

-s-

[JollyIsTheRoger @ Dec 8th 2007 4:21AM]

yeah, i had the 500gb version...only problem i had was the small footprint making it liable to fall over, used it with my triple boot(XP, OSX, and Ubuntu) and i noticed slower speeds after leaving it mounted overnight...this maybe be why...ill have to see what happens when i get my replacement next week(fell over while writing....ugly thing to here happen)

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Dec 8th 2007 5:10AM]

I'm in search of new external storage and Seagate is on my black-list: most products officially do not support Linux, no NFS/FTP support.

Whoever bought that crappy thing should have checked system requirements before.

[plaka999 @ Dec 8th 2007 7:09AM]

Huh. I got the 750g pro version when they first came out. After testing it out on a bunch of machines, I formatted mine hfs+, and use it primarily attached to my mac fileserver. It's never gone to sleep unexpectedly for me. I've also been occasionally putting it on my ubuntu box w/ no issues, it doesn't sleep unexpectedly or anything like that. And esata has been fine, too. The only thing I can think of is that I did change the power settings through the drive configuration when I first set it up...

[sleytr @ Dec 8th 2007 7:31AM]

The command below has been solved my "wakeup in to readonly mode" problems with my freeagent drive.

echo 1 > /sys/block/sda/device/scsi_disk*/allow_restart

I placed this command to roots cronjob. It runs on every 5mins so it catches any plug ins while system running. But if your drive plugged in permanently, you can place this command to startup too.

[Rob @ Dec 8th 2007 11:58AM]

I bought a 500gig FreeAgent in the summer to hook up to my PS3. It worked like a charm. Then a month ago I bought another one. The packaging was very identical with the exception of new stickers here and there. Not, the new one is not recognized by the PS3. But, when I hook up the old one it does. Yes, I have FAT32 formatted. However, both are recognized on XP. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong, or has Seagate messed up and give us the "you bought it, your problem" attitude. I hope not.

[Rob @ Dec 8th 2007 12:01PM]

"Not, the new one is not recognized by the PS3."
I meant, "Now, the new one is not recognized by the PS3."

Sorry about that.

[Silverkat @ Feb 28th 2008 12:59PM]

Did you ever find any info on this, or a solution? Maybe it will be something supported in a PS3 firmware upgrade. I am in the same boat, a new 500GB drive that doesn't work on the PS3 :-(

[Lonnie McClure @ Dec 8th 2007 4:16PM]

Matt:

See:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/dish_hd/external_hd/index.shtml

[Lonnie McClure @ Dec 8th 2007 4:21PM]

Ignore my comment above. It should have been posted as a comment to an earlier message.

[Eric @ Dec 8th 2007 5:38PM]

Yeah, this drive goes to sleep all the time on my Mac. It is a piece of crap. Last time I bought a Seagate drive.

[Sasha @ Dec 8th 2007 10:46PM]

Oops...well, I'm a Linux user, that's enough for me to never buy a Seagate product again, at least until I read otherwise. There's plenty of fish in the pond.

That's all right, you didn't need my money anyway, right?

[Matt Z @ Dec 10th 2007 4:24AM]

Seriously, HDD and USB storage is one of those things that's always worked with linux. For seagate to release something that specifically, if not deliberately, break compatibility is more than enough for me to not consider them in any near future hdd purchase.

[Nathan @ Dec 10th 2007 6:28PM]

Seagate and Maxtor storage solutions will work with Linux. There should be little issue reading and writing to the drives when connected to a Linux-based system. The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus and OneTouch 4 Mini actually ship with a Linux boot CD that works in conjunction with Maxtor Safety Drill as a bare metal restore application. The issues that are being reported are related to the power management of the Seagate FreeAgent drives. The Maxtor OneTouch 4 and OneTouch III do not have any issue with spinning the drives up through Linux after sleep mode.

All Seagate and Maxtor branded external storage solutions feature a power management that places the drive into a sleep mode after 15 minutes of inactivity. Linux does have difficulty speaking to this and waking the drive up once it has gone into sleep mode. In order to read and write to the drive, the drive needs to return to full power mode, which can be done by simply disconnecting the USB connector and plugging it back into the system. There is a method to disable power management, but it will have to be done through a Windows system.

To disable the power management feature with a Windows system, please use the following:

Seagate FreeAgent Family
*Open the Seagate FreeAgent Tools application. Click Utilities in the Command panel.
*The Utilities window opens. Click Adjust Drive Sleep Interval.
*The Adjust Drive Sleep Interval window opens. Select an interval from the dropdown menu (Never)
*Click Apply to save the Drive Sleep Interval setting.
*The Adjust Drive Sleep Interval window confirms that the power setting for your drive has been changed. Click OK to return to the Utilities window.

Maxtor OneTouch 4 Family
*Double-click the Maxtor Manager icon on your Desktop. The Maxtor Manager Opens.

*Click on the Settings button. The Settings window opens.

*Click Adjust Power Setting Button. The Adjust Power Setting window opens.

*By default, an OneTouch 4 will spin down after 15 minutes of inactivity; the OneTouch 4 Mini will spin down after 5 minutes of inactivity. Click on the time field to select an inactivity period (set it to Never). Click Apply.

*A Window opens notifying you that the power setting has been changed. Click OK to return to the Settings window.

[Nathan @ Dec 10th 2007 7:52PM]

How to disable power management on Seagate FreeAgent storage solutions on Linux system.

1 - It is supposed in this sample that the drive is attached to device /dev/sdc

2 - Check that the right drive is selected:
$ sudo sdparm -a /dev/sdc
/dev/sde: Seagate FreeAgent Pro 400A
Power condition mode page:
IDLE 0 [cha: n, def: 0, sav: 0]
STANDBY 1 [cha: y, def: 1, sav: 1]
ICT 0 [cha: n, def: 0, sav: 0]
SCT 9000 [cha: y, def:9000, sav:9000]

3 - Force restart the drive ( if the drive was in stanby mode):
$ sudo sdparm --command=start /dev/sdc

4 - Disable power management:
$ sudo sdparm --clear STANDBY -6 /dev/sdc

5 - Check the drive power management has been disabled:
$ sudo sdparm -a /dev/sdc
/dev/sde: Seagate FreeAgent Pro 400A
Power condition mode page:
IDLE 0 [cha: n, def: 0, sav: 0]
STANDBY 0 [cha: n, def: 1, sav: 0]
ICT 0 [cha: n, def: 0, sav: 0]
SCT 0 [cha: n, def:9000, sav: 0]

[Vwampage @ Jan 6th 2008 10:11PM]

I actually own a seagate freeagent 250GB drive and run ubuntu 7.10 on a HP nx7000 notebook.
The only issue I have with it is that I have to plug the drive's USB cord into my computer before I plug it into the wall. The drive does spin down after significant idle time (read: greater than five minutes), but stays mounted.
When I go to access a file on it there's just a few second delay as the drive spins up again.
There is also no noticeable decrease in speed (granted, I am usually just watching a movie from it, not doing a hardcore data transfer).