MAXTOR MANAGER & SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~These notes are offered because the software is problematic after the Maxtor Manager has been used a few times. But if you can get round its foibles it can be absolutely invaluable, being much quicker and more convenient as a rescue system than anything else I have come across.
The comments are based on trial and error with 80GB and 320GB versions which saved two installations on Win XP with a custom built PC, and one(so far!) on Vista with an Acer Aspire 5920 laptop, when clean installs from scratch would otherwise have been required.
The laptop had no Windows CDs and relied on serial backups on a second partition on the hard drive, as well as on two post installation backup DVDs, and sets of three and five other backup DVDs which were made later over two years. Life was too short to make another set for six months or so but luckily I got the OneTouch 4 Mini a few weeks ago, which saved the day when the serial backup system subsequently failed completely.
1.) The CD Included with OneTouch 4 Mini - is only used as a boot disc for system restoration using 'Safety Drill' copies of a whole system
(see 5. and 6. below).
n.b. Maxtor Manager and drivers are not on this CD
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2.) Maxtor Manager - When the drive is new, the installation files for Maxtor Manager (a set of utilies), as well as a comprehensive
User Manual,are pre-saved as files on the drive itself. This is why the manual strongly recommends copying and saving them on the PC for future use. This is just in case you need to format the drive and then cannot retrieve the files to reinstall the Manager program later.
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3.) Using the OneTouch 4 Mini without extra software -PCs already have the necessary drivers to run external drives including OneTouch. When it is first plugged in the PC installs the drivers automatically so it can be accessed though its icon in the 'My Computer' window without any need for other drivers, and files can be copied and 'dragged out' or 'dropped in' as usual. However if Maxtor Manager cannot see OneTouch re-installation of drivers or Maxtor manager could be needed, see 8.).
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4.) Installation of Maxtor Manager -At first you can agree to this when it is offered automatically when you connect the drive.
- Later, re-installation just requires double clicking on the 'Launch' icon, which is among the file icons on the drive itself, when the drivers may, or may not, still be intact.
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5.) 'Safety Drill' Copies -These are copies of the whole system in its current state, which may be saved onto the OneTouch drive by using the 'Safety Drill' utility,which is only one of the programs in the set of utilities accessed through Maxtor Manager.
- Depending on the remaining capacity, the software may not like allowing less than 100% of the Drive for safety Drill copies and/or tends to fail to save properly if the percentage is changed. e.g. if 80% is already in use for other files and previous Safety Drill copies, and you want to save another copy there may not be room unless 100% is allocated for copies.
When the drive fills up it is unknown whether the automatic deletion of unmarked (for protection) copies works properly, or not.
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6.) Using 'Safety Drill' -To use it to make a copy, first install Manager and run it, then click on the Safety Drill icon in the row of utility icons across the top of each page.
- In the event of a disaster, full recovery of the full working system to the date of the last or an earlier Safety Drill copy can be achieved.
- This is done by putting the supplied CD in the PC's drive, ensuring that BIOS is set to 'boot from CD' (the default),connecting the drive, restarting the PC to boot from the CD (see 1.above), and following the on-screen instructions to restore from a Safety Drill copy which has been saved on the OneTouch drive.
- The process is simple and progress is documented by clear comments on screen.
- After removing the CD when prompted, the System should be restarted without recourse to the BIOS to reset the boot priority, which should be only be done later once everything has been restored.
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7.) If Maxtor Manager becomes corrupt -e.g. if Manager ceases to recognise the drive, or if the list of Safety Drill copies contains duplicates, or shows other anomalies, it is time to uninstall and then reinstall it, which usually puts things right.Also see 8.) below, and if you should wish to format the drive as well, see 2.) and make sure you have saved a copy of these installation files from the drive :-
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8.) If the OneTouch does not appear
in My Computer or cannot be found by Maxtor Manager, right click on My Computer icon and select Properties, Device Manager, Disc drives, and expand Disc Drives. There will probably be a yellow overlay over Maxtor drive, to show it has a problem, so right click on it and select 'Choose drivers for this device' to reinstall them. Without going online they seem to be found somewhere locally on the PC to restore function.
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9.) Diagnose or repair disk errors, & check warranty status
- Seatools is a free diagnostic, repair, and auto-warranty checker program which can be downloaded from Seagate.
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10.) To preserve the Setup FilesInstallation of Maxtor Manager is performed by clicking the file marked 'Launch' which can be found amongst the setup files on the OneTouch drive itself, see 2. above. They are not on the CD which is provided.
The files can more easily be identified at first by exploring the OneTouch drive, where they remain unless the drive is formatted. It is a good idea to copy the setup files to PC because no download is available.
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