True Image 9 Home build 3677 and Seagate USB Drive

Had an occasion to create a C:drive full image (single partition of about 3GB) using a Seagate Model ST3250601U2RK USB drive. Internally this is a model ST325062 3A 250 GB ATA/100 IDE drive apparantly fitted with a USB to ATA interface (chipset perhaps). The drive is USB 2.0 capable and backward compatible. The PC was running Windows XP, SP2 with all of the current updates. The USB interface was running USB 1.1. Seagate backup software had not been installed.

The problem noted:
Booting with the True Image Rescue Media CD the Seagate USB drive was recognized correctly. Attempting to create a full C: drive file (*.tib) to this drive using the Rescue Media CD caused the backup to freeze. Starting over and changing to a Maxtor USB drive Model 4R060L0 (3000LS) the image was created successfully. No other changes were made.

My Concerns:
I frequently recommend True Image software as well as Seagate drives. If there is a conflict here I would like to identify it. I see nothing on the Seagate web site that identifies the chipset used with this drive. Recommending Seagate USB drives for use with True Image at this time is a concern. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Bruce

 

Hmmmm ... odd one ... was the Seagate jumpered as Master or Cable Select? Whichever one it was, try the other.

 

I don't know. Internally Seagate set it up for USB use. I used it as purchased and wouldn't indiscriminately change the configuration.

BHM

 

I have the same 250Gb factory drive with a ST3250824U2RK internal mechanism. It works fine for imaging and restores running TI9 v3677 & XP Pro from my Dell laptop.

 

Thanks for the input. That is a different drive but excellent input.

Bruce

 

Ah ... I misunderstood when you said, "Starting over and changing to a Maxtor USB drive Model 4R060L0 (3000LS) the image was created successfully." I took that to mean you removed the Seagate from the enclosure and put the Maxtor in. But I get it now. I always buy my enclosures and drives separately. Saves a few dollars that way. The chipset in the enclosure could be what is causing the problem.

 

Yes, I simply re-booted and then installed the Maxtor USB drive (this was configured as NTFS), The Seagate drive was set up as FAT32 (factory default) which should not have been a factor. It might have handled the files differently but still should have worked.

 

One note: these Seagate externals have an auto-sleep mode which they enter automatically after a few minutes. Could that be causing your problem?

 

I guess that could be a factor. I wasn't aware that Seagate was doing that and admittedly I'm not impressed with that enhancement. I was simply using a customer's drive. Note that I didn't install their backup software so I don't know if this is a factor. Thought I was working with a raw drive. Thanks for your input.

 

I use this external harddisk for backup :
HDD External Seagate 160GB USB 2.0 7200RPM 8MB
I never had any problems and it worked from the beginning without doing anything special.
Advice : never move it, when it's ON and working.

I really wonder why people in here, have so many problems with ATI and everything around it. Even creating the Rescue CD is a problem, which is a simple burning of an iso-file. Beats me.
ATI is pure boring routine on my computer : backup & restore. I must be very lucky.

 

I wish to thank you all for your comments. Since I was using another user's drive I really don't have any experience with it. It would appear that my next step would be to purchase a similar drive and experiment with it. I really don't need the expenditure but I do need to determine what the issue is if I'm going to continue to recommend this software and hardware. Once again I thank you all for your very helpful comments/suggestions.

Best regards,
Bruce

 

IT might be worth hunting around for some USB sniffer software (there are some very basic freebie ones). USB works by the device telling the hub (the motherboard) what type of device it is, how much current it should draw, what version of USB it is and also what transmission mode it uses - if a drive doesn't invoke the BULK parameter, it might be quite slow.

Colin