Seagate backup plus 4TB review

[gas4you]

Seagate backup plus review

I have had a couple of backup drives over the years, I regard them as being important just in case the inevitable happens and a hard drive fails on the computer. Because of the large amount of HD video footage that I capture the hard drives tend to get full very quickly.

I bought the Seagate Backup plus 4TB several months ago. I need 4TB because the main drive for the computer is a 500GB SSD and then I have two 1TB hard drives configured in raid 0 which equals 2.5TB I figured I’d get one that is plenty large enough rather than struggling with a smaller drive.

You will never know how good a backup is until you need it, hopefully I never will need it and I’m not confident it would ever work judging by the reliability of the software used to do the backup. Since installing the drive I have had nothing but problems with my computer. At times the computer runs so slow that you cannot even use it and since installing the software the reset button on the computer has never been pressed so many times- which I am certain is not good for the computer!

A few weeks ago I took some data from a large hard drive and so I used the 4TB external hard drive, which was unplugged and lent to a friend for about a month. I uninstalled the Seagate Backup plus software and in that time the computer worked brilliantly, I never hit the reset button once in all that time and I never got the mouse pointer doing its “busy” motion like I regularly get now.

Another thing that used to annoy me was the fact that the software was set up to continuously back up my computer, so I would expect it to have one large backup file that would be the same size as the data on C drive and F drive combined (which is what it is set to backup). Bearing in mind that the backup drive is 4TB I would expect there to be plenty of room, but for some strange reason I kept getting a message that said “Drive 90% is full”. That’s not a miss type by the way, it actually says “Drive 90% is full” not “Drive is 90% full”. I’m wondering if this software has been written in another language and has not been translated correctly!

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So how do you get a 4TB drive to be 90% full when you only have 2.5TB (maximum) data on your computer? Well it’s easy because the Software seems to have backed up the entire computer to begin with and now is making another backup each day, so it’s not adding to the original file and altering things that are changed, instead it’s writing a new file each day!

After I got the drive back from my friend I wiped all the Data and then reinstalled the latest version of Seagate backup, thinking that they must have fixed the bugs in the software but I was wrong. It’s still slows the computer down to a snail’s pace and is still showing the “drive 90% is full” message when I boot up the computer.

So if you are thinking of spending your money on one of these backup drives I would not bother using the software that is supplied with it, unless you like having a slow computer. I’m now going to format the drive and use the backup function in Windows 7 to see if that is any better.

The drive itself is perfectly fine; it’s just the software that makes it unusable!

[kellys_eye]

There are reliable stories going around of USB keys (and I suspect HDDs too) being 'jimmied' to report fake capacities - changing the boot records on a 1Tb device to make it look like a 4Tb device could happen.

I know you've checked yours Chez but it's worth warning people of the potential frauds out there, particularly if they think they are getting a bargain....

[Rorschach]

I never use these auto backup programmes, nothing but trouble. I do a manual backup of reasonably important files and the very important stuff such as business files, website stuff etc is all stored on both dropbox and google drive so not only is it stored in the cloud but also on my other computers.

[moderator6]

Why on earth are you running your data drives in RAID 0 Chez

That's really asking for trouble

I use onboard RAID 10 which is a lot safer and fast but isn't really needed. You would've been better buying another drive and going RAID 5 or bunging a 3TB drive in to back the important stuff up to.

Can you just delete the software from the back up drive and use it as plain external storage?

[moderator6]

PS RAID 0 isn't really raid at all

[aeromech3]

I use a W7 hdd as my back up to a Linux mint ssd, the Linux can access the w7 folders and deposit copies I select, my computer brain mate thinks its a badge but works for me.

[ultimatehandyman]

When I built this computer in 2009 SSD's were relatively new technology and very expensive. Raid 0 was a good way to increase computer performance especially when encoding HD video's which used to take a few hours.

I'm going to wipe the backup drive and then just use the utility in windows to back up the important files once a week.

Thanks for the comments

[joinerjohn]

Have you tried getting in touch with Seagate and getting some support from them?

[Wes]

I bought a 1TB seagate external last year. Moved all my stuff over to it to free up space on my lappy. My seagate fell off my desk a couple of months ago and just goes 'click click click...' now and my lappy doesn't even know it's there. Well pished off!!

Not saying anything good or bad about seagate though, obviously that can happen to any external drive when a nugget like me pushes it off a desk

[kellys_eye]

I (almost) share your pain Wes - I got a Toshiba 1Tb for backup recently and the bl00dy lead on it is so short that everytime I move the lappy I drag the HDD onto the floor

So far it's survived the half dozen or so bounces but I'm more p1ssed by the fact the lead that attaches to it is 'special' at one end and USB at the other, clearly deliverately done to make people pay extra for a lead of decent length..... tw@ts.

The lead is also so stiff that there's no point in taking out the 'bends' in it as any slight movement of the lappy and the disk is skating across the desk!

Thinking I'll fix velcro to it and fasten it to the lid of the lappy now

[Wes]

Thinking I'll fix velcro to it and fasten it to the lid of the lappy now

I'd do something K_E. I teared up when I heard the click of death It's actually salvageable by all accounts, but if you drop it and the needle skates across the disc, you may just lose the lot. At the least, it would appear it ain't cheap to send it in to have the contents salvaged...

[kellys_eye]

Don't believe all you read about HDD failures and data recovery. It's possible to open the device up and attempt some form of repair yourself if you know what you're doing (and how). Obviously you run the risk of losing some data but getting 'some' back is lots better than getting none.

I had the click of death on a HDD once and managed a 'fix' by holding the drive on its edge in my hand and then giving its edge a sharp tap with the handle of a large screwdriver....... yeah, I know, brutal Luck played a large part I have no doubt but the drive started and ran long enough for me to transfer everything from it. AFAIK it would have continued working but I wasn't going to risk it!

Portable HDD are supposed to survive considerable G-force (something like 30G which corresponds to a 1m fall onto a solid surface).

[BillyGoat]

Personally, I think:

- If you have more than one computer
- Have important files
- Wish/would like to restore FULL or partial computer backups
- Have devices that consume media (steamers, audio players, etc)
- Have tablets that you wish to consume media, but limited storage
- Have a DVR/CCTV that offers backup (FTP/etc)
- Have a need/want to access your data safely from other locations

Then you can do MUCH worse than getting yourself a home server. Yeah, yeah, people baulk at the thought of having a server. Fact is, if you do it RIGHT, then:

a) you'll never have to touch it
b) it does INCREMENTAL backups of your systems (not like that clumsy seagate software)
1 computer might be 5GB
2 computers (with different apps) might be an additional 1GB
3 computers might only take an extra 300MB - 3 full systems for 6300MB (6.3GB) and NOT 15+GB
c) you can use internal and existing USB/External drives
d) external drives can be used as a backup to the backup - great for off site backups
e) it can use cloud backup (Skydrive/etc as offsite incase there is a fire/loss)

I've got one, my in-laws have one and my parents have one. They don't KNOW what it does, only that it gets left plugged in. Lost something? Can get it back. Machine virus? FULL system restore to the day before it happened. Videos steamed to PS3/Xboxes.

Best money you'll spend - it's just getting over the "it's not got a keyboard and monitor and I don't sit at it" thoughts.

BG

[Wes]

Shut up and take my money BG

How much??

[kellys_eye]

BG is, as ever, right on the money.

That said, I actually DO run a server! but it doesn't run RAID so I've backed up 'my' important files to a portable HDD that remains tucked away.

All I need now is a backup of the backup.