Hacking Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex drives

[bnm81002]

I was thinking about getting the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5TB portable drive to use for my Wii, I've seen some people have success using it and some with no success, so I would like a clear cut answer if this drive is compatible with the Wii, how can I make it work with my Wii as well? I will use it for apps and games, it will be a secondary drive to my other FreeAgent Go drive that I'm using now, thanks for the help

 

[XFlak]

I have 4 of these drives, 2x 1TB and 2x 1.5TB, and I couldn't be happier with them

the 1.5TB HDDs came with USB3.0 adapters, and work intermittently on my Wii (works fine on my PS3 and other devices though), but if I swap in the USB2.0 adapters (that came with my 1TB HDDs) the 1.5TB drives work fine on the Wii

The USB2.0 adapters are also sold separately on the seagate website for 15 or 20 bucks. These adapters are awesome, if you have any bare 2.5" hard drives lying around (ie. without cases) you can connect it to your Wii or laptop or anything that takes a USB HDD (same applies to the USB3.0 adapters).

These drives are really sweet, but I noticed the 1.5TBs are a little slower to initialize (ie. "spin-up") that their 1TB counterparts. However, I didn't find this problematic with my forwarder channels or anything else Wii related. I mainly only notice the slower initialization times when loaded the 1.5TB drives using my laptop, but once the drive is recognize by windows the transfer rates are still really fast

Oh, a couple things worth noting. The brand new 1.5TB hard drives come preloaded with a few hundred gigs worth of movies. Also it will come with the seagate dashboard software, which u'll need to install and use to disable the sleep timer.

Another issue I've had with these drives and some WD drives is if you have 2 of the exact same drive (ie. 2x 1.5 Seagate HDDs of the same make and model) the both cannot be recognized by windows at the same (& possibly other OSs too, not sure). However, after doing some googling I learned that changing the drive signature of at least one of the drives fixes the problem. The tutorial I followed can be found HERE.

edit: forgot to mention that obviously the HDDs would need to be formatted to FAT32 for optimal compatibility with the Wii, and they work good for everything I've thrown at them including uneek+di and things like that. And the beauty of it is that I get that same great compatibility even when connecting a bare hard drive to the Wii using the USB2.0 adapter.

 

[bnm81002]

I have 4 of these drives, 2x 1TB and 2x 1.5TB, and I couldn't be happier with them

the 1.5TB HDDs came with USB3.0 adapters, and work intermittently on my Wii (works fine on my PS3 and other devices though), but if I swap in the USB2.0 adapters (that came with my 1TB HDDs) the 1.5TB drives work fine on the Wii

The USB2.0 adapters are also sold separately on the seagate website for 15 or 20 bucks. These adapters are awesome, if you have any bare 2.5" hard drives lying around (ie. without cases) you can connect it to your Wii or laptop or anything that takes a USB HDD (same applies to the USB3.0 adapters).

These drives are really sweet, but I noticed the 1.5TBs are a little slower to initialize (ie. "spin-up") that their 1TB counterparts. However, I didn't find this problematic with my forwarder channels or anything else Wii related. I mainly only notice the slower initialization times when loaded the 1.5TB drives using my laptop, but once the drive is recognize by windows the transfer rates are still really fast

Oh, a couple things worth noting. The brand new 1.5TB hard drives come preloaded with a few hundred gigs worth of movies. Also it will come with the seagate dashboard software, which u'll need to install and use to disable the sleep timer.

Another issue I've had with these drives and some WD drives is if you have 2 of the exact same drive (ie. 2x 1.5 Seagate HDDs of the same make and model) the both cannot be recognized by windows at the same (& possibly other OSs too, not sure). However, after doing some googling I learned that changing the drive signature of at least one of the drives fixes the problem. The tutorial I followed can be found HERE.

edit: forgot to mention that obviously the HDDs would need to be formatted to FAT32 for optimal compatibility with the Wii, and they work good for everything I've thrown at them including uneek+di and things like that. And the beauty of it is that I get that same great compatibility even when connecting a bare hard drive to the Wii using the USB2.0 adapter.

wow that's a great amount of information about the drive, I searched Seagate's website but didn't see any USB2.0 adapters? also, are you saying if I have a regular internal 2.5" hard drive that I can use it on my Wii with the USB2.0 adapter? thanks for the information

 

[XFlak]

it's $15 here:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/accessories

Do a ctrl+F for this:
FreeAgent® GoFlex™ Upgrade Cable — USB 2.0

You can always wait and see if you have better luck with the USB3.0 adapter before going and buying the 2.0 one. Last time I tried my 3.0 adapter was before the d2x cIOSs were released, it's possible it could have enhanced compatibility since my last tests

and yes, I'm saying you can unplug the adapter from your seagate hard drive and connect it to a bare 2.5" hard drive, one without a case\enclosure

 

[bnm81002]

it's $15 here:
http://www.seagate.c...cts/accessories

Do a ctrl+F for this:
FreeAgent® GoFlex™ Upgrade Cable — USB 2.0

You can always wait and see if you have better luck with the USB3.0 adapter before going and buying the 2.0 one. Last time I tried my 3.0 adapter was before the d2x cIOSs were released, it's possible it could have enhanced compatibility since my last tests

and yes, I'm saying you can unplug the adapter from your seagate hard drive and connect it to a bare 2.5" hard drive, one without a case\enclosure

I saw this one from Newegg, would it work, I like the protective cases for the drives too,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119152

 

[XFlak]

i have something similar (I mainly got it for 3.5" HDDs though), and that might work on the Wii, it would depend on compatibility, but the seagate alternative definitely has great compatibility

 

[bnm81002]

i have something similar (I mainly got it for 3.5" HDDs though), and that might work on the Wii, it would depend on compatibility, but the seagate alternative definitely has great compatibility

well for $18 bucks I'll try it first since I have plenty of Seagate internal drives I can test with my Wii, if not I'll get the GoFlex drive then, thanks for the help

 

[bnm81002]

i have something similar (I mainly got it for 3.5" HDDs though), and that might work on the Wii, it would depend on compatibility, but the seagate alternative definitely has great compatibility

well for $18 bucks I'll try it first since I have plenty of Seagate internal drives I can test with my Wii, if not I'll get the GoFlex drive then, thanks for the help

@XFlak, it's working fine with a Seagate 500GB internal drive, this $18 adapter saved me money that I would have spent in buying a new GoFlex drive, the internal drive will be my backup drive for emergency purposes, thanks once again for the help

 

[XFlak]

Glad I could help!

FYI, if your adapter works with 1 hard drive it should work with any internal hard drive, what determines compatibility is the adapter\enclosure, not the hard drive itself

 

[bnm81002]

Glad I could help!

FYI, if your adapter works with 1 hard drive it should work with any internal hard drive, what determines compatibility is the adapter\enclosure, not the hard drive itself

yeah I know but through the years I've had the most success with Seagate drives both internal and portable ones