Seagate External Harddrive DC and RC Problems

r2d2bonds

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May 26, 2015
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So I have a MacBook pro 2013 that uses boot camp to run windows. I enjoy playing games but I didn't get a bigger size ssd. I bought a Seagate external hardrive, it's the backup plus slim 1 tb one. Now I have tried to download games onto it and play them and on Mac side it works great, I have downloaded and played LFD2. When I first got it though, I needed the space for Windows side so I tried to download Payday 2. It worked great, I played it for about an hour before leaving it for the night. The next morning though, I tried and it didn't work. It gave me errors and when I tried to reinstall the game the hard drive would dc after about 2 mins. Now I tried it on Mac side and it can download and play games great, but when I go to Windows side it won't even download the game and randomly dc's and reconnects. I have no idea what's wrong but I believe its not the hard drive considering it works on Mac side. Please help, I don't know a lot about computers though so don't make me feel dumb. P.s. this was typed on a phone, sorry for grammar mistakes
 
Solution
Hey there, r2d2bonds!

I'd suggest you to run your manufacturer's diagnostic tool on the external to check up on the health and SMART status. I'd also try using a different USB cable and re-install the USB drivers in Device Manager on your Windows computer. Check this MS tutorial: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725782.aspx
I'd not recommend you to play demanding games from it, especially if it's a portable external drive. These HDDs usually are not designed to withstand such excessive workload and to be constantly connected to the computers.

P.S. I'm guessing here, @Phillip Cocoran, but I think he means "Disconnect" and "Reconnect" by those DC/RC abbreviations.

Test the drive and let us know how it goes, @r2d2bond! :)...
Hey there, r2d2bonds!

I'd suggest you to run your manufacturer's diagnostic tool on the external to check up on the health and SMART status. I'd also try using a different USB cable and re-install the USB drivers in Device Manager on your Windows computer. Check this MS tutorial: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725782.aspx
I'd not recommend you to play demanding games from it, especially if it's a portable external drive. These HDDs usually are not designed to withstand such excessive workload and to be constantly connected to the computers.

P.S. I'm guessing here, @Phillip Cocoran, but I think he means "Disconnect" and "Reconnect" by those DC/RC abbreviations.

Test the drive and let us know how it goes, @r2d2bond! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
Solution

r2d2bonds

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May 26, 2015
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Yes, dc and rc just mean disconnect and reconnect. I didn't feel like typing them at the time. Also, I played the game the first time I had the hd connected and it worked great. Now it just craps out. Regardless of if I can actually play it or not from the hd, shouldn't I be able to download the game to the hd?

@SuperSoph_WD
 
Hi again, r2d2bonds!

What I meant was that it's not recommended mainly because it might shorten the lifespan of the hard drive itself. However, you should be able to download and transfer any data to the external regardless of the file itself. If you are not able to do that, you should definitely try using a different USB cable to connect the external HDD. As I already mentioned it's probably a good idea to test the health and S.M.A.R.T. status too, just to make sure there are no bad sectors or any other possible failed S.M.A.R.T. attributes. You should be able to find the software on your HDD manufacturer's website.
Also have you tried it on other computers as well? How is the drive recognized there?

Let us know how it goes! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 

r2d2bonds

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May 26, 2015
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It cant be the hdd because on the Mac/ osx side of my macbook it works fine. I can download stuff to it and it won't dc once, but once I got to Windows on the same MacBook. That'd when it freaks out and doesn't work.
Shortened version-1 computer, 2 operating systems. On osx it works. On Windows it doesn't.
@SuperSoph_WD
 
Oh, I get it now, @r2d2bonds! Sorry, I kind of missed the boot camp sentence in the OP. :D
I'd suggest you to try to un-install the USB host drivers using Device Manager and then "Scan for hardware changes" to re-install them (in Windows). While there, I'd also suggest to check Disk Management and see how the external appears there, and let me know what is the file system.
If it's HFS+ (Mac OS Extended Volume Hard Drive Format), it's no wonder why the Windows OS is not recognizing it since it needs NTFS or exFAT/FAT32 formats in order to get the external HDD detected.
If you want to read/write from both operating systems to that drive, you'd need a FAT32/exFAT file system format but it comes with some limitations. Here you can read more about them: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=2DOyxb
If you decide that these are not an issue for you, you can refer to this link on how to re-format the external drive in FAT32 using either Windows or Mac OS: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=vUHsoh

Hope this was helpful. :)
SuperSoph_WD