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

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.