MBP compatible w/USB 3.0?

[coldmedina]

i just purchased a seagate freeagent goflex ultra-portable 1TB external drive which claims USB 3.0 plug and play, and in smaller print below "also works with USB 2.0."

i plugged it in, it mounted, i went to erase the drive using disk utility and after about 30 seconds threw up an error saying file system formatter failed, and now the drive won't mount. being hopeful i figured it was a faulty drive, returned it and got the same drive, same thing happened.

looking around on the webs there's too much mixed information going on for me to draw any sort of conclusion about it's compatibility. the thing i'm having trouble with is if it claims USB 2.0 compatibility, then it should format normally...?

 

[coldmedina]

ok, situation got even weirder now.

if i partition it into two partitions, both less than 500GB, it will format and mount.

one partition format fails, and two partition fails if either partition is larger than 500GB.

hoping there's a logical (and easy) fix for this?

 

[rkaufmann87]

Exactly what format scheme are you using, it should be MAC OS Extended (Journaled). If you can't do it with Disk Utility you can try with something a little more robust like Drive Genius. Here is a recent CNET article that talks about why:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20029820-263.html?tag=mncol;title



If the drive won't format then return it and get another brand or model.

 

[coldmedina]

i always use mac OS extended (journaled).

would be willing to try drive genius, but the initialize feature is disabled in the demo, and if i drop $99 on it and it doesn't work then i would be furious.

i've had a great track record with seagate for years, doubt this is a brand issue, most likely a model issue i'm guessing at this point.

 

[rkaufmann87]

i always use mac OS extended (journaled).

would be willing to try drive genius, but the initialize feature is disabled in the demo, and if i drop $99 on it and it doesn't work then i would be furious.

i've had a great track record with seagate for years, doubt this is a brand issue, most likely a model issue i'm guessing at this point.

I guessed you were but needed to ask to be sure.

You may also want to touch bases with Seagate to ask if they have tested this drive with OS X (specifically the version you're on) and ask if there are any known issues.

 

[coldmedina]

had a longer reply, but the site logged me out and it went away.

the short version, bought drive genius, it worked, only weirdness is unless i eject the drive from the finder it says the drive is in use, but icon will disappear and i can unplug it with no additional in use warnings.

if i'm going to do an important archive, not sure if i should trust it, doesn't really qualify as 100% stable imo.

 

[coldmedina]

quick update. i ended up returning the USB 3.0 for the standard 2.0, formatted fine, but on unmounting it still put up the 'drive is still in use' message (would disappear from desktop and technically unmount but drive light would still be on.) since then i've had to use some previous 500GB drives that have always worked flawlessly, mounted, went to unmount and would get the same drive is in use message and behavior. this was across the board with all of my previous externals (four of them.)

the thing i realized is this is all since i've installed drive genius.

my guess is that drive genius is doing some sort of constant real time monitoring of all mounted drives, and when i unmount them it takes a second for drive genius to disengage, hence the drive in use message.

you ever have any experience with this?