- Seagate Backup Plus Hub Mac Software Reviews
- Seagate Backup Plus Hub Software
- Install Seagate Backup Plus Software
- Seagate Backup Plus Hub Open
- Seagate Backup Plus For Mac
- Seagate Backup Plus Hub Mac Software Free
- Software For Seagate Backup Plus
Seagate Backup Plus Portable for Mac 4TB External Hard Drive HDD – USB 3.0, 2 Months Adobe CC Photography (STDS4000400) 4.0 out of 5 stars3,053 Seagate Backup Plus Hub for Mac 8TB External Hard Drive Desktop HDD – USB 3.0, 2 USB Ports, for Computer Desktop Workstation PC Laptop Mac, 2 Months Adobe CC Photography (STEM8000400). Oct 05, 2016 The Seagate Backup Plus Hub is available preformatted for Windows or for Mac. The 8TB model has an MSRP of $249.99 and is available from Amazon. The companion Seagate Backup Plus Desktop tops out at 4TB and has an MSRP 0f $129.99 and is also available from Amazon. Backup Plus Hub helps protect all of it with proven reliability, seamless backup, Mac and Windows usability, plus two front-facing USB 3.0 ports for charging and managing devices like phones, tablets, and cameras. Desk, Office, and Dorm Life—Made Easier. Backup Plus Hub for Mac Support - Product Manual, Data sheets and Downloads. Services & Software. Backup Plus Hub for Mac Data Sheet; Seagate Backup Plus Hub User Manual; Quick Start. Product Registration; Video: Toolkit for macOS - First Time Mirror.
Mac Time Machine When initiating a backup task, make certain that your Backup Plus Hub has sufficient capacity to hold the data you want to back up. All of the options in the table can be automated except for copy and paste. Copying and pasting is a manual task that requires your attention with each change to a file on your computer.
Summary :
Are you looking for Seagate backup software to back up your important files for data protection? This post will walk you through 3 backup tools – Seagate Dashboard, Seagate Toolkit, and a third-party backup software, MiniTool ShadowMaker. Read this post to learn some details.
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Data loss is a fairly common phenomenon, which might be caused by some reasons including hard drive failure, power outage, system crash, virus, mistaken operation, etc. To avoid data loss, you might choose to create a backup for your important files.
If you are using a Seagate hard drive, a Seagate backup software is required for file backup. Well then, which one should be used for you to back up your disk data? You come to the right place; some useful tools will be listed in this post.
Seagate Backup Plus Software: Seagate Dashboard
When you search for “Seagate backup software” in Google, you will find one search result – Seagate Dashboard. This backup program is preloaded on every Seagate Backup Plus drive.
With Seagate Dashboard, you can easily back up PC data and restore your data. In earlier versions, it also enables you to back up mobile content to your storage device and the cloud, save and share your social media. The following figure shows you these features:
Seagate Backup Plus Hub Mac Software Reviews
Note: Some Dashboard features are being removed in earlier 2018, including Mobile Backup, Social (Save and Share) and Cloud Backup. That is, only PC Backup and Restore are offered now.
How to Use Seagate Dashboard to Back up Your PC Files
This Seagate backup software is compatible with Windows and Mac. To use it, you need to connect your Seagate Backup Plus to your computer, and find this program on the disk. Then, click the file (.exe for PC, .dmg for Mac) to install Seagate Dashboard.
Tip: For Mac, the drive will reformat automatically to integrate with the Mac applications like Time Machine.
After running this Seagate Backup Plus software in your PC, you will find it offers you the Protect option (only for Windows). When you open it at the first time or you haven’t created a backup of data, two options will be given: Protect Now and New Backup Plan.
Seagate Backup Plus Hub Software
Once you click the first option, this Seagate backup software will automatically begin backing up all of you non-system files at once and continuously save changes whenever you make them.
The second option allows you to schedule your own custom backup, for example, set up a continuous backup, regular scheduled backups (monthly, weekly, daily or hourly) or take a one-time snapshot of all your files and folders.
All in all, if you have a need to back up all your data to your Seagate Backup Plus drive, please click Protect Now. Depending on the amount of data that required backing up, this could take quite a while. To automatically back up specific sets of files or folders, take full advantage of the second option.
Seagate Dashboard Not Working
Seagate Dashboard is useful to back up your PC files, however, some users are complaining this free Seagate software is not working. Here is a list of errors or messages that you might encounter:
- Unknown Error
- Missing ATL100.dll or Dbghelp.dll.
- Initial Job Pending
- Dashboard freezes after starting your first backup.
- Backup appears to hang at a certain percentage
- Connect a Seagate Dashboard enhanced to activate features.
- Error 1920. Service Seagate Dashboard/Mobile Backup Service failed to start.
If you are also bothered by the issue of Seagate Dashboard not working, you can go to this its official website to get solutions. But troubleshooting is troublesome, so you can choose another backup tool, MiniTool ShadowMaker, to back up your files on a regular basis. We will show it below.
Seagate Toolkit
In addition, Seagate has another own backup software and it is Toolkit. It is designed to back up your files, keep your data synced and manage security for Seagate & LaCie self-encrypting drives. Similarly, it can be used on PCs and Macs provided that computer meets the requirements:
- Windows® 7 Service Pack 1 or higher; 1 GB RAM
- macOS® 10.10 or higher; the Sync Plus activity requires macOS® 10.11 or higher
To use Seagate Toolkit, you need to open your Seagate Backup Plus drive, download and install this Seagate backup plus software. Then, you can use it to automatically back up non-system files and folders including personal files, documents, music, pictures, video, etc. For more information about this backup software, you can read the official introduce on Seagate Toolkit.
Note: This tool saves a full backup of the selected data initially when a backup plan is made. Whenever you add or remove content or update a file, a continuous backup plan saves a file.
Conclusion: Seagate Dashboard and Toolkit
After learning so much information on these two pieces of backup software from Seagate, you can clearly know both of them can only be used to back up non-system files (don’t support Windows operating system backup).
Besides, the operations are not easy-to-use enough; even many backup issues appear (especially Seagate Dashboard). Moreover, you can only use them to back up your data to a Seagate Backup Plus drive.
What if you want to back up Windows or disk data to a hard drive, not limited to Seagate Backup Plus drive? In the following section, you can know the solution: use MiniTool ShadowMaker, a third-party backup software for PC backup.
Seagate Backup Software: MiniTool ShadowMaker
As a free backup software designed by MiniTool, it is worth recommending. It can be a powerful alternative and supplement to Seagate Dashboard and Seagate Toolkit since it offers you more and flexible backup choices to back up your Seagate external hard drive, including:
- Back up files automatically based on your needs via 2 methods – create an image for files and sync files.
- Back up the entire disk and selected partition for backup.
- Clone your disk to another one.
- Back up your PC to an external hard drive, USB drive, NAS, etc. and back up hard drives from Seagate, WD, Toshiba, ADATA, Samsung and more.
- Back up Windows operating system including Windows 10/8/7/, etc. so that you can restore your computer to an earlier date in case of system breakdown.
Tip: If you want to restore Windows backup to different PC with dissimilar hardware, this backup software is also available.
Simply put, MiniTool ShadowMaker can be the best Seagate backup software. With these powerful features, you can back up and restore your PC in a breeze. So, take this program for a try by clicking the download button below.
How to Back up Files Automatically
As mentioned above, Seagate Toolkit and Seagate Dashboard support automatic file backup. Additionally, you can use MiniTool ShadowMaker to achieve your aim. So, how can you back up files automatically? Here is the guide.
Step 1: Decide a Backup Mode
- Open MiniTool ShadowMaker.
- Keep using the trial edition.
- Click the Connect button to continue. To create a remote backup, an IP is required.
![Seagate backup plus for mac Seagate backup plus for mac](/uploads/1/2/6/7/126745647/461670774.jpg)
Step 2: Choose Backup Source
- Under the Backup page, click Source to choose the backup type - Folder and Files.
- Then, choose the files you want to back up. After that, click OK.
Step 3: Choose a Destination to Store the Backup File
- MiniTool ShadowMaker allows you to back up your PC to an external hard drive (not limited to Seagate Backup Plus drive), USB flash drive, NAS and more.
- Choose one based on your needs.
Step 4: Configure Automatic File Backup Setting
- To back up files automatically, click Schedule in the Backup
- After turning this feature on, specify a time point so that this Seagate backup software can back up your important files regularly.
Step 5: Run Backup
- Go back to the following interface.
- Click Back up Now to start the backup at once.
Tip:
1. Additionally, you can use MiniTool ShadowMaker to only back up the data that you have changed or added. Meanwhile, some old backups could be deleted to save your disk space. Here, just click Scheme to make the advanced settings before running the backup.
2. This Seagate hard drive backup software gives you another method to back up files; that is syncing files to other locations. For more information, refer to this post - How to Sync Folders Windows 10 to External Drive.
1. Additionally, you can use MiniTool ShadowMaker to only back up the data that you have changed or added. Meanwhile, some old backups could be deleted to save your disk space. Here, just click Scheme to make the advanced settings before running the backup.
2. This Seagate hard drive backup software gives you another method to back up files; that is syncing files to other locations. For more information, refer to this post - How to Sync Folders Windows 10 to External Drive.
How to Back up Windows 10/8/7
In addition to file backup, you may want to back up your Windows operating system since system might crash commonly because of virus, mistaken operation, disk failure, power outage, etc. To ensure the PC can run as usual, a system image is useful to revert your system to a previous state.
But as mentioned above, the built-in Seagate backup software doesn’t support system backup. Here, MiniTool ShadowMaker is a supplement.
Step 1: Run this free backup software to start a local backup.
Step 2: By default, MiniTool ShadowMaker backs up system required partitions. Here, you won’t need to choose the backup source. Then, decide a destination to save the system image.
Step 3: After that, begin a system backup immediately by hitting Back up Now.
Tip:
1. Of course, you can back up your entire disk or some specific partitions by entering Source > Disk and Partitions to choose the source.
2. To ensure a successful system image recovery, you should create a bootable USB drive or CD/DVD disc with Media Builder after the system backup.
1. Of course, you can back up your entire disk or some specific partitions by entering Source > Disk and Partitions to choose the source.
2. To ensure a successful system image recovery, you should create a bootable USB drive or CD/DVD disc with Media Builder after the system backup.
How to Back up Hard Drive via Disk Cloning
Other than the above features, MiniTool ShadowMaker gives you a powerful feature to back up your entire hard drive – Clone Disk. This can help you to transfer all the content of the source disk to another hard drive for disk backup.
Step 1: Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker.
Step 2: Enter the Tools page, click Clone Disk to go on disk cloning.
Step 3: Select the disk you need to clone and decide the disk you want to clone to.
Step 4: Then, this Seagate hard drive backup software will start performing the cloning operation. Depending on the amount of the source disk, this will take a while. For backup, you need to shut down the PC and remove the target disk after completing cloning.
Which One Should Be Used for PC Backup
Now, three pieces of Seagate backup software are introduced in this post. Well then, which one should be used for PC backup?
Seagate Dashboard and Toolkit are designed to back up your important files to Seagate Backup Plus drive. If you prepare another hard disk from other brands, these two tools don’t support. Besides, both of them require you to register before backup. In short, the built-in Seagate backup plus software is not flexible and powerful.
By contrast, MiniTool ShadowMaker not only backs up files automatically but also backs up Windows OS, partition and disk. Incremental & differential backup are supported, meanwhile, disk space management can be enabled. Above all, multiple backup methods are offered – image, sync, and clone.
In a nutshell, it is an excellent alternative and supplement to Seagate Dashboard and Seagate Toolkit. To protect your PC well, we strongly recommend using the third-party Seagate backup software – MiniTool ShadowMaker. Also, you can share it with your friends on Twitter.
Bottom Line
Install Seagate Backup Plus Software
Now, we have shown you three pieces of Seagate backup software to back up your hard drive, just choose one to start a backup for PC protection. Should you have any question, please inform us by leaving a comment or sending an email to [email protected]. Of course, any suggestion is also appreciated.
Seagate Backup Software FAQ
- To update the driver of your Seagate external hard drive, go to Device Manager.
- Right-click the disk from Disk drives to choose Properties.
- Under the Driver tab, click Update Driver.
- Browse your computer for the downloaded driver software and complete the driver update by following the on-screen wizards.
Seagate Software is an international software company. It was formed in September 1995. At that time, Seagate Technology, the largest independent disk company in the world, merged its software assets with Arcada Software.
Sure, Seagate has diagnostic software. When you encounter problems with your Seagate external device, just run diagnostic tests to check the health of its hard drive on your Windows computer.
Seagate hard drives are one of the cheapest external hard drives that you can purchase although Seagate products are less reliable than average. Besides, its data transfer rate is quite appreciable. Thus, it is your ideal choice.
Of all the products we review, the hardest ones are external hard drives (read our reviews here) because, let’s be honest, how much can you say about a hard drive after you plug it in and it works? That’s why we were excited to hear about the Seagate Backup Plus Hub, which combines a massive 8TB external hard drive with an always on USB 3.0 powered hub.
Apple Tech Talk Scorecard
Pros | Cons |
Massive 8TB capacity | Some USB 2.0 connectivity issues |
Always-On USB 3.0 front mounted Hub | Seagate Dashboard software has limited value |
Two Years of Cloud Storage Included |
Seagate Backup Plus Hub – Unboxing
The Seagate Backup Plus Hub is available in both a Windows and Mac format as well as several sizes from 4TB to 8TB. Our evaluation unit was an 8TB Windows version which comes out of the box in the NTFS format (the Mac version comes in the default HFS+ format). Also in the box is a USB 3.0 cable with a Type A connection on one end for your computer and a Micro-B connection on the other end to connect to the drive. There is also a power adapter which connects to the back of the drive and plugs into a standard 110V AC outlet and a Quick Start Guide.
Although not packed in the box, Seagate does have a 20 page user guide that is available as a web document or as a pdf download and you can get a copy here. Also not packed in the box is the Seagate Dashboard software. The software can be downloaded from the Seagate site here, as well as its own 17 page User Guide which is available here. Google apps admin console find mac address of tablets without. Finally, for a limited time, Seagate is including 200GB of OneDrive cloud storage for two years, for free (a $95 value) when you register the drive. The two-year plan must be activated by June 30, 2017.
Considering this is an 8TB drive it is somewhat smaller than we expected it to be, measuring 4.7 x 1.6 x 7.8 inches and weighing just 2.3 lbs. Opera vpn app for mac.
The drive can be used either lying flat on the desktop or shelf but also has four small rubber feet on one side to allow the drive to be positioned vertically and still get some airflow through the vents which are now the bottom of the drive.
The Seagate Backup Plus Hub is rated for use with OS X 10.7 or higher.
Seagate Backup Plus Hub – Set-up
Even without the Quick Start Guide or User Manual, someone with little to no experience can probably figure out how to get the drive connected to your Mac since it only requires connection of power and the USB cable.
Our unit is a high gloss black plastic case with a single LED indicator that is also the Seagate logo on the front edge of the drive. The Mac version shares the same case design but comes in a white and aluminum finish and has the same single LED indicator, which, for both models, gives the same details as outlined below.
Light Color | Status |
White | Drive is on and ready |
Blinking White | Drive activity |
Off | Drive is off |
Once the drive is connected to your computer and powered on, it is ready to use, almost.
Seagate Backup Plus Hub – Format Decisions
Until now, every external hard drive we’ve looked at was formatted either in the HFS+ or FAT32 format, both of which a Mac can read and write to. But FAT32 is designed for older operating systems and is not really practical for an 8TB drive since its maximum partition size is 32GB. (Technically, FAT32 will support partitions larger than 32GB but Microsoft has set that limit in Windows to promote the more modern NTFS format.) The Seagate Backup Plus Hub (Windows version) comes formatted in the more current NTFS format which a Mac can read but cannot write to.
Although there are some Terminal commands and Open Source software solutions to get a Mac to write to a NTFS drive, they are not easy or reliable. There is a commercial solution from Paragon Software called NTFS for Mac (read about it here), which adds a driver and a Preference Pane to the System Preferences that allows you to seamlessly read and write to NTFS drives on a Mac.
The software is normally $19.95 but Seagate provides a version on their support site for free. You can download it here. We installed the Paragon driver and it does exactly what it says it does and provided write access to the drive. But be aware that the software provided by Seagate will only work with a Seagate drive. Seagate also provides a Paragon driver for Windows users that need to read and write from a Mac formatted hard drive to a Windows PC.
While the Paragon driver works well, unless you have a regular need to share this, or any drive between a Mac and a PC, we suggest reformatting the drive to the default HFS+ format for regular use.
We ran into one other issue that may have an even bigger decision on what format to use.
We tested the Seagate Backup Plus Hub on a current MacBook Air and an older (mid-2009) MacBook Pro. Both machines are configured the same, running the latest version of OS X El Capitan. One of the biggest differences between the two machines is the fact that the MacBook Air has USB 3.0 ports while the MacBook Pro has the slower USB 2.0 ports.
When we connected the NTFS formatted Backup Plus Hub to the MacBook Air, it mounted and appeared on the desktop in about 10 – 15 seconds. An additional external hard drive attached through the hub also mounted in the same period of time.
When we made the same connections on the MacBook Pro, the Backup Plus Hub would rarely mount on the Mac and was not visible in Disk Utility. Even more interesting was the fact that the additional external hard drive (formatted in the default HFS+ format) connected to the drive’s hub did mount on the desktop, even though the Backup Plus Hub itself, did not.
We tried several variations, connecting the Backup Plus Hub alone and then adding the external drive, and connecting the Backup Plus Hub with the external drive already attached but we always got the same result. On one or two occasions, we connected the Seagate Backup Plus Hub with an additional external hard drive connected to the hub and then ejected the external hard drive from the Mac and found that the Seagate Backup Plus Hub would then mount on the Mac. We could not establish a repeatable pattern for that connection and it was definitely hit or miss.
We also tried these various combinations before and after installing the Paragon software but that didn’t make any difference.
As a final test, we used the newer MacBook Air to reformat the Backup Plus Hub to the Mac’s default HFS+ format. Once we did that, the Backup Plus Hub mounted on the MacBook Pro in about the same time it mounted on the MacBook Air, with or without an external hard drive attached.
We did report our findings to Seagate and although they had not heard of this issue before, they are looking into it. If we get any updates from them, we’ll be sure to pass them along.
As a general rule, we advise people to save the few extra dollars hard drive manufacturer’s usually charge for a hard drive preformatted for a Mac. Given that this issue appears to occur in a very specific situation, it may not be a concern to most of our readers and our opinion hasn’t changed. But, if you’re only available Mac is an older model with USB 2.0 ports, you may want to buy the Seagate Backup Plus Hub for Mac, to ensure that drive works correctly when you get it home.
Seagate Backup Plus Hub – Test Results
There usually isn’t much to test with a hard drive and the Seagate Backup Plus Hub is no different. The drive is extremely quiet except for some minor sound when the disk spins up to speed but we would hardly consider it noisy.
We ran a speed test on both platforms and the results were what you would expect.
Using the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test application, we first ran a test using the slower USB 2.0 connection. We got Write and Read speeds of 35.2 MB/s and 36.6 MB/s respectively.
When we ran the same test on the new MacBook Air which has USB 3.0, we got significantly faster speeds of 184.8 Write and 189.6 Read.
While the USB 3.0 results are well below the theoretical maximum USB 3.0 speeds, the reality is that most USB 3.0 drives available today, top out in the low to mid 100 MB/s range so our test results show the Seagate Backup Plus Hub to be near the front of the pack.
Seagate Backup Plus Hub – Seagate Dashboard
Seagate Backup Plus Hub Open
The free Seagate Dashboard software is advertised for three basic functions, backing up the data on your computer, backing up your mobile device and backing up to the cloud. However the “Protect” feature for backing up your computer is intended for Windows PCs only and Seagate states that Mac users should use Time Machine.
The desktop app is straight-forward and most users will figure out what to do without the need for the available manual. The main screen has clearly marked sections for what you want to do.
Seagate Dashboard allows you to back up your contents to the cloud and the included two years of 200GB OneDrive storage is a nice start but certainly won’t be enough as you continue to put data on this 8TB drive. That is certainly not a short-coming of the Seagate drive or the software. Our suggestion is to identify your most important data in a special folder and target just that folder for cloud backup.
There is also a section that allows you to manage the drive itself. Between the available tabs you can check how much data is on the drive, generate thumbnails for video files stored on the drive, turn the LED indicator On and Off, and run a test on the drive.
One of the other things we noticed when we installed the dashboard software was that the generic Disk icon that usually appears on the desktop, changed to a representation of the drive itself. This is a nice touch and certainly comes in handy if you start to have multiple drives attached at the same time.
Seagate Dashboard also allows you to back-up your iPhone or iPad to either the Seagate Backup Plus Hub drive when you are on your local Wi-Fi network, or to your cloud storage when you are remote. To use the mobile backup function, you need to install the free Seagate Dashboard app available in the Apple App Store. You will need to create a Seagate Dashboard account but it only requires an email address and a password and set up took only a minute.
Seagate Backup Plus For Mac
The mobile app itself is somewhat limited. You are given the option to back up photos, videos and contacts but we could not find a way to add anything else. Obviously in the event of a hardware disaster, there would be a lot more data on your phone that you would want to recover.
We also discovered that in order to back up your iPhone or iPad to the drive it self, you had to be on your local network and had to be signed in to the dashboard account on both the Mac and the mobile device. You also have the ability to back up to the cloud but that assumes you have capacity with everything else you may be backing up.
To be fair, we did not spend a lot of time testing out the desktop software or the mobile app but frankly, we’re not sure why you would need it. Using Apple’s iCloud and/or iTunes backup, is a much more comprehensive mechanism to back up our iPhones and iPads. If you do use iTunes to back up your iPhone and then use Time Machine to back up your Mac to the Seagate Backup Plus Hub, you have probably done the same thing that the Seagate Dashboard software will do. If backing up photos from your phone is a concern, there are several cloud solutions, including the Google Photos app that provides virtually unlimited storage of your photos at no cost.
We suspect that the Seagate Dashboard software is much more valuable to Windows users who don’t necessarily have the benefits of the closed-system platform that sets Apple apart from its PC counterparts. Having said that, we also see the Seagate Dashboard as the free add-on that it is and would not make our buying decision based on that software.
The Bottom Line
Seagate Backup Plus Hub Mac Software Free
It wasn’t too long ago that an external hard drive was measured in megabytes and the concept of a terabyte of data was something reserved for major corporations or the government. Today, with computer hard drives breaking the 1TB barrier, having a multiple terabyte backup drive is almost a necessity.
Seagate has been making dependable hard drives for a long time. The Seagate Backup Plus Hub would be an excellent choice if all it offered was its large capacity. Having a powered 3.0 hub built in, is a nice feature. Add to that the two free years of 200GB of cloud storage and the free Paragon software and this hard drive hard to beat.
The Seagate Dashboard software did not impress us but that is due more to the fact that the Apple ecosystem already provides all of the functions this software is intended to do. You may feel differently and decide you prefer this software and that’s great. Whether or not you use the software should not have any impact on your buying decision.
We can’t say often enough that you should never have important data in only one place. If you intend to use this (or any) external hard drive as a primary storage device, you need to consider backing it up to another device. For that, Seagate offers a companion product that has the same case design, without the hub. It is a nice compliment to the Seagate Backup Plus Hub.
Software For Seagate Backup Plus
The Seagate Backup Plus Hub is available preformatted for Windows or for Mac. https://evering410.weebly.com/blog/hp-officejet-pro-8600-plus-software-for-mac-108. The 8TB model has an MSRP of $249.99 and is available from Amazon.
The companion Seagate Backup Plus Desktop tops out at 4TB and has an MSRP 0f $129.99 and is also available from Amazon.
We wish to thank our friends at Seagate for providing a Seagate Backup Plus Hub for our evaluation.
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