sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Got a Seagate 4 TB Backup drive. Cannot get it to work. Just read a review and some said it was incompatible with Win 10. Anyone have any experience with this?

anotherview Loc: California

Did you download the Windows driver for the Seagate drive? A brief review of the Seagate Web-site indicates the need to download a driver.

KarenKaptures Loc: New Jersey

I purchased a Seagate drive and it worked just by inserting in USB port. Good luck

dustywing Loc: North East WI

I have a 5TB and in window I had to partition the drive. If memory serves windows will only work with a 3 TB(drive).
I broke it up to n2TB for myself and 2TB for my wife photos and 1TB for what ever.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10. Apparently have been some driver issues with Win 10 upgrades. I did a quick search: Seagate 4 TB Backup drive compatible with windows 10 ?? I have a 1-2 yr. old 1 TB Seagate and have not had any trouble with it...Win 10 & Spectrum/brighthouse don't always get along well, and some folks have problems with apps and utilities after upgrades......I'm sure some of the computer techies will chime in soon, good luck with it.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Thanks for the replies. Looked for a manual and could find nothing that pertained to Win 10. Simply plugging into a usb allowed recognized the drive but it is supposed to automatically back up, which it does not do. I downled Seagate "tool kit" which requires permission every time I use it to add to the computer. Usually once for that is enough. I know I am missing something, not a super computer guy but not bad for an old one.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

OK, here’s the “techie” explanation on max partition size: First, the max partition size has nothing to do with the Windows version directly - it’s a file system issue. Currently, NTFS or FAT32 file systems typically utilize a master boot record (MBR) to organize the data on the disk, although there are utilities to use GPT as an alternative. Assuming you’re using MBR, the maximum partition size depends on the sector size of the disk. A sector size of 512 bytes is typical, and in that case, 2TB is the max partition size under MBR. As disks have become larger, some manufacturers have moved to a 4K byte sector size which allows a max partition size of 16TB.

Larger sector sizes are a mixed blessing in that it can cause lower disk utilization. Here’s an example: suppose you had a 4.6K byte file. With a 512 sector size, it would require 9 512 sectors, using 4.608 K of disk space. On the other hand, since any file larger than 4K, but less than 8K would use 2 4K sectors to store the 4.6K, the remaining 3.4 K is wasted. The net-net is that smaller sector sizes typically result in greater disk utilization unless the write size of the file falls exactly on 4K boundaries.

Now to the OP’s issue. It wasn’t stated how the drive was connected (USB, eSATA, etc), but unless it’s a driver issue as was suggested, then I’d go into disk management in control panel and look at the information displayed for the drive. Assuming you can see the drive there, you’ll also see information about the partition (if any), the drive letter assigned, size, health of the drive and if it’s active. If ther’s No partition or it’s not shown as active, then click on the drive and BEING CAREFUL you’re on the correct drive (partitioning a drive essentially wipes any data on the drive), partition and format it - the wizard will lead you through the process. On the other hand, if you can’t see the drive at all, then it could be a faulty driver, a bad cable, or a bad drive. Take a look in disk management and tell us what you see.

Edit: just saw your additional post while writing this. Since You can now see the drive, I’d still look at it in disk management just to make sure it’s partitioned, active and healthy. If so, then it sounds like you’re having an issue with the backup SW. you can either debug the problem with the Seagate SW (with their assistance), use the backup utility in Windows, or use one of the many good third-party backup /mirror vendors.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

My 1 Tb Seagate worked the same way.....and still working!

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

So, it automatically started backing all your files up and continues to back them up automatically as you add new ones?

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

I have an old Seagate 1 TB and a 4 TB Western Digital portable drive. Both work with no problem. But, I have Window 8.

cam.79 Loc: Gray, GA

I just recently installed a Seagate 6TB on the wife's Win7 computer and a Seagate 8TB on my WIN10. I took them out of the box, plugged them in and installed the Seagate Toolkit program and it started backing up. That simple.

FiddleMaker Loc: Merrimac, MA

Never in a million years would I ever be this lucky !!!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have an 8TB drive that works fine with Win10.

ggenova64

Update the Driver.

larkahn

My feeling is that most drives, if they are used with Windows, are plug and play. You shouldn't need to format it unless you want to change the system. I would suggest trying it on some other computers. It's possible that the drive you purchased is just DOA (Dead on Arrival) and needs to be exchanged.