USB Storage Faqs

A: It may be to not having enough power thru the USB port you are using. Try another USB port in your computer.

A: The installation files are stored on the external drive. When you access the drive you should see files labeled Getting Started for Windows and Getting Started for Mac.

Double clicking the file will bring up a menu offering options to install the included software.

A: We continue to investigate this behavior, however we have not identified a cause. Some items to verify on your system set-up include:

• Use of a USB hub. The USB hub may not be providing ample USB signal quality to the device. It is recommended you directly attach the USB drive to your system.
• Use of alternate cables. Please ensure you are using the USB cable and power supply which were included with the drive.
• Power management settings. The Operating System may be turning off the USB ports as a part of power management. Please review your system's power management settings.
• System set-up or previously installed software. There may be an application running on your system that may be causing the USB device to disconnect.
• Updates. Ensure you have the latest windows updates and USB drivers.

If you have verified the items above are not the issue and your drive is still within the warranty return period, you may want return the drive to the place of purchase for a refund. A replacement drive may exhibit the same behavior.

A: Be sure to backup any data on the drive, as well as the Total Media installation software, before attempting to repartition and format the drive. You may also contact our support center for more assistance with repartitioning and reformatting your drive at Contact Support .

A: It may be that you do not have enough power supplied to the drive. Make sure you have both ends of the Y cable connected to your system, so that you are receiving enough power to the drive.

A: If the Y cable does not reach, you can try using a USB extender cable. Under no circumstances should you plug one side into a laptop and one side into another laptop, desktop or USB hub. Both ends of the Y cable need to be plugged into the same system.

A: The light may temporarily turn off. It is just cycling the light. There is nothing to worry about.

A: If power or data is disrupted during a backup, there is a potential for file corruption. Run the backup again to ensure data integrity.

A: It is possible that the drive letters have changed on your system. If the drive letter has changed you would need to change the drive letter back to the initial drive letter that was used when setting up the Total Media Backup.

A: When using scheduled backups and the backup button is pushed, it will backup the next scheduled project. Future backups will continue as scheduled.

A: Once the backup software has been installed, pressing the button will initiate a previously configured scheduled backup. If you have not previously configured a scheduled backup, a “personal documents” project will be created. This will backup the files according to the current categories setting. In the OPTIONS dialogue, you can define which drives are selected, and the application will scan files that are supported in these selected drives and then perform the backup based on these selections. It is an incremental backup.

A: Within Windows:

• Double-click on the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in your system tray (right-click and selecting “Safely Remove Hardware” does the same)
• Select the device (Easy Drive) to be removed from service
• Select “Stop”
• Select “OK”
• Select “Close” to complete the process
  Alternatively, single-click on the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in your system tray and select the appropriate device from the pop-up dialogue
• Wait for the drive activity light to stabilize
• Power-off and/or disconnect the drive.

Within the Mac OS: Drag the drive icon into the Trash icon and wait for the drive activity light to stabilize. Power-off and/or disconnect the drive.

A: There are several factors that may influence the time it takes to transfer your data:

• A drive in an external enclosure, connected through USB ports, will have a slower transfer rate than drives connected internally. A drive attached to a USB 1.1 port operates much slower than when attached to a USB 2.0 port. The transfer rate specifications are as follows:
  USB 1.1        12 Mb per second
  USB 2.0       480Mb per second
• Larger files will take longer to transfer
• Running other applications during the transfer process may cause the transfer to take longer
• The file system used (NTFS, FAT32, and Extended)