2025-05-14

Why doesn’t the button on Seagate external drive launch a backup?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM06 mins

Common reasons the button won’t launch a backup:

BounceBack Express must be installed for the button to function. Insert the CD that came with your Seagate External drive and install the software. If it was installed, allow it to remove and reinstall the software. Be sure the choose the YES option when it asks if you have an external drive.

The backup won’t run if all jobs are disabled. Any jobs you want to run must be enabled. Go to the settings area of BounceBack Express by clicking the BounceBack program group on the Windows Start menu (or BounceBack folder in the Mac Applications folder). Click the BounceBack Settings icon. In the settings window highlight the job you want to enable and click the Enable button at the bottom of the window.

The backup won’t run if all jobs are scheduled to run at a specific time. If a job is scheduled to run at a specific time then it will be inactive except at that time. If you want to schedule a job and be able to run the job when you push the button then simply create two backup jobs with the same characteristics, but don’t schedule one of the jobs.

The backup won’t run if no jobs are configured (if all jobs are removed or deleted). If all of the jobs have been removed then a new job will need to be created for the button to have anything to do. Just add a new job by clicking the ADD button in the settings window and choose a source and destination and any options you wish.

BounceBack has been disabled or closed (by right clicking the system tray icon). If you right click the BounceBack icon in the Systray and choose to close it (Windows users) then it will not run. Launch the BounceBack Express launcher from the BounceBack Express program group to enable the button again.

BounceBack was installed to one interface (USB or 1394) and now the drive is using the other. During installation of the BounceBack Express software a program is setup to monitor the USB or 1394 bus for a signal from the button. If you switch from 1394 to USB or USB to 1394 then the monitor will need to be setup again by uninstalling and reinstalling the BounceBack Express software.

The drive is not plugged in or powered on. If the drive is not plugged into the computer properly or if the drive has no power then the button will not respond. Power off the drive, disconnect the USB / 1394 cable, plug the cables back in and turn the drive power on again.

There is a problem between the drive and the OS. Go to device manager on your computer by right clicking My Computer and selecting the manage option. Then go to the Device Manager item. Check that your host adapters and drive are not reporting any problems. If the USB or 1394 host adapter is showing under other devices you will need to load drivers. Service pack 1 in Windows XP and service pack 4 in Windows 2000 add support for many USB 2.0 host adapters, other host adapters may require special drivers from the vendor. The Seagate external drive should be automatically detected once the host adapter is configured, except in Windows 98 where drivers are required. These drivers for Windows 98 can be found on the CD that shipped with the drive, or they can be downloaded from seagate USB Windows 98 drivers page.

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How to make a Windows startup disk or bootable floppy diskette?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM02 mins

Windows Startup Disk This article outlines the procedure for creating a system Startup Disk (Boot Disk) with the Windows operating systems.  If you start the computer with a bootable floppy diskette in the A: drive, then the system will boot to the OS on the floppy instead of the hard drive.  You may need to adjust your BIOS Boot Order options to set the boot sequence.  The typical boot sequence is A:, CD drive, hard drive.

Note: This information only as a courtesy, if you have any other questions or concerns about Microsoft and it’s operating systems, they should be directed to the Microsoft web site or contact Microsoft directly.

Windows Vista, XP and 2000 operating systems:

  1. Select My Computer
  2. Insert a floppy diskette into the A:\ drive.
  3. Right click on the 3 ½ Floppy (A: ) floppy disk drive icon and select Format.  Be sure to select the correct drive.
  4. In the Format Options section put a check next to “Create an MS-DOS startup disk”
  5. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the task.

Windows Me (Millennium), 98 and 95 operating systems:
Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. Click on the Start menu.
  2. Go to the settings tab and choose control panel.
  3. After the control panel opens, click on the Add Remove Programs Icon.  This generates the Add/Remove Programs Properties box.
  4. Click on the Startup Disk tab.
  5. Insert a formatted floppy diskette into the A:\ drive, then click on the Create Disk button.
  6. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.
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Can I boot to the USB Personal Storage as the primary drive?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM01 mins

The Microsoft Windows operating system families (98SE,ME,2000,XP) do not support USB2 as a boot drive or primary system drive.

The Maxtor Personal Storage 160GB and above models are not supported as a boot drive for Macintosh operating systems because of Apple file system limitations. Some Macintosh platforms allow USB2 hard drives to function as the primary or boot drive. Check with Apple to see if your computer system supports booting to USB2 storage devices.

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What is termination? How to set it on Maxtor SCSI drive?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM01 mins

Termination is how the signal in the SCSI cable is controlled. Devices at the physical ends of the cable need to have termination installed. All devices between the ends of the cable need to have termination removed. To install or remove termination on the drive, locate the installation sheet or guide that came with the drive.

Search for your drive and select the SCSI family and locate the Installation guide for more information on termination configurations.

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Internal Error 2

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM03 mins

Maxtor Manager program is showing Internal Error 2 and a red “M” icon indicating backup failure when to backup OneTouch III drive.  What is wrong?

This error generally appears in the OneTouch III Maxtor Backup log in the different Windows operating systems.  The “M” icon in the System Tray turns red, and it says that the backup has failed.

It is always referring to a file that is open or in use.  Most of the time, that refers to the Program Files of the Windows operating system, which is a folder located in the C: drive.
Most people choose to use Maxtor Backup to attempt to backup the entire contents of the C: drive, which is the boot drive of your Windows computer.  The Maxtor Backup, however, is not made to backup the Program Files and certain other files and folders successfully.

Thus, when you choose the Program Files as a folder to be backed up, you will sometimes see this message because of your anti-virus programs and the like.

Solution:

  • Close all files that are giving you this error and/or that are open during the backup, then try the backup again, and
  • Close down all anti-virus software during the running of the backup, or
  • Simply choose to backup only your data files, not the entire C: drive. Remember that Maxtor Backup is only meant to be a data backup, meaning your documents, photos, videos, music, etc.  It is not meant to backup the entire operating system or to make a mirror image of your drive, or
  • To make a full clone or image of your hard drive, see about using discwizard.
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Computer crashes when an ATA drive larger than 32 GB is installed

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM06 mins

ATA Hard Drive If your computer crashes once an ATA drive larger than 32GB is installed, it is probable that the capacity of the hard drive is too large for the BIOS to support.

This article and its troubleshooting refer only to ATA drives, as Serial ATA controllers do not have any issues seeing large capacity SATA drives.

Computer systems built prior to October of 1998 (such as Pentium 2 processors and some Pentium 3 processors) typically hang or freeze while auto-detecting large hard disks during system startup.

Common BIOS capacity barriers include 528 MB, 2.1 GB, 8.4 GB, and 32 GB. There are multiple solutions to work around BIOS capacity barriers.

First of all,

  1. turn off your computer
  2. disconnect the ATA and power cables from the large drive

before booting the computer and entering the BIOS, in order to keep the system from hanging.

To allow your system’s hardware to recognize the full capacity of the hard drive, it is recommended that you either

  1. upgrade your system’s BIOS (see the motherboard manufacturer website or contact their technical support department), or
  2. purchase a PCI ATA controller card.  This is the best solution, and these cards are usually inexpensive.

The following steps can allow older systems to access ATA drives of larger capacity.  However, the drive will operate with a reduced capacity.

  1. Create a SeaTools for DOS CD or floppy diskette.  SeaTools for DOS tutorial for help.
  2. Restart and enter the system BIOS to set the drive parameters manually.Entering the system BIOS is usually accomplished by pressing F1, F2, or DEL right after powering the system on. Look for an on-screen message stating which key to press.
    Alternately, the correct key to press may be found in the motherboard documentation.
  3. Set the BIOS parameters for the drive from Auto-Detect to None, or Off.
  4. Save BIOS settings.
  5. Exit setup.
  6. Power the system off.
  7. Reconnect the power and ATA cables.
  8. Insert the SeaTools for DOS CD or floppy diskette.
  9. Power on the computer.
  10. When the system boots to the SeaTools program, press C to set the drive capacity.
  11. If you don’t know the maximum capacity drive your system’s BIOS can handle, press S to set the maximum to 32GB, which is a common limit on older systems. If you do know the maximum, you can press Mto set the limit manually.Once you have changed the capacity for the drive and SeaTools for DOS accepts it, completely power down your system to clear any cached information. If you simply restart without completely powering the computer off first, the drive size changes may be lost.
  12. Power the system back on and enter the system BIOS.
  13. Set the drive parameters back to Auto-Detect.
  14. Save BIOS settings.
  15. Exit setup.
  16. (If necessary) Insert your Windows install CD.
  17. (If necessary) Reboot the computer to launch the normal Windows installation procedures.

Alternate Settings: Steps 1 and 2 above will not work on some system BIOSes. You will notice this if the system still hangs at startup or if SeaTools for DOS is unable to detect the drive after the BIOS settings have have been set to None.
So, try setting the drive’s parameters to a User Definable Type with 1024 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors.

  1. With the computer’s power off, disconnect the large ATA drive’s cables.
  2. Boot to the BIOS.
  3. Set the LBA to Normal, Standard or Disabled.
  4. Set Write Pre Comp (WpCom) and Landing Zone (LZ) settings to zero.
  5. Save BIOS settings.
  6. Exit setup.
  7. Power the system off.
  8. Reconnect the power and ATA cables of the large drive.
  9. Power the system on.
  10. Reboot the computer to launch the normal Windows installation procedures.

This process will also set the drive to operate at a reduced capacity.  Please remember that the best solution is to connect the drive to PCI ATA controller card, which should solve the system hang problem and also allow the drive to function at full capacity.

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Locate CHS values for older Seagate, Maxtor, or Quantum ATA drive?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM01 mins

What are the Cylinder, Head and Sector values [C/H/S] for ATA disk drive and how to find them?

C/H/S is an older method of identifying drive capacity and tracking the location of data on the drive. The C/H/S method was replaced with the Logical Block Addressing (LBA) when drives transitioned above 8.4 GBytes. If you are attempting to use a drive smaller than 8.4 GBytes then the C/H/S information can be found by searching the Product Finder in the bottom left corner of the Seagate support site.

For drives larger than 8.4GB it is recommended that the BIOS be allowed to automatically negotiate with the drive using the LBA method.

Note: Changing the C/H/S setting in the BIOS can make existing data on a drive unreadable.

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Back up folders not listed in ‘Folders Recommended for Backup’ window?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM01 mins

On the Backup and Restore screen in the Mirra application,

  • Click New backup on the Backup Tasks menu.
  • Select a folder to back up from the Browse for folder window and click OK.
  • Click OK in the Confirm Backup Creation window.

You can also select a folder for backup by right-clicking on the folder in Windows Explorer or Control-clicking on the folder in Finder and selecting Add to Mirra Backups on the dropdown menu.

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APPLE PowerBook doesn’t recognize 1394 storage

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM02 mins

Apple PowerBook My Apple PowerBook laptop suddenly stopped responding. The system freezes. When restarted, it does not recognize any FireWire devices.

Download and install the latest firewire drivers from the Apple Software Updates Web site: http://www.apple.com/swupdates. Try these troubleshooting tips as well:

  • If a PowerBook computer with a Maxtor 1394 CardBus adapter will not start up, eject the card. Start the computer again.
  • Do not allow a PowerBook computer to sleep while it is receiving digital video. The video input may not continue when the computer wakes up.
  • If a Maxtor CardBus adapter cannot be removed from the desktop, first power down the computer. Press the card eject button to remove the card.
  • If a PowerBook stops responding to commands, and there are no 1394 devices connected, 1394 system resources may not detect after a restart. If this happens, fully power down the PowerBook and restart.
  • If a PowerBook (FireWire) will not operate in Target Disk Mode, fully shut down the PowerBook and then restart.
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