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Question

Seagate BUP no longer recognised by TV

Mar 28, 2015 7:36PM PDT

Hey folks,


So, I bought a Seagate BUP about two months ago for storage and so that I can watch media files on my TV. I had absolutely zero problems with this (worked fine in both laptop and TV) until a couple of days ago when I plugged it into my TV and the TV registered nothing as being connected. The drive still works fine in my computer and I'm able to use a thumb drive in my TV.

The drive is formatted as NTFS. The TV is a Samsung.

I contacted Seagate customer support by email but to say that they were useless is an understatement. The staff member who replied clearly hadn't actually read a word of the email I sent through to them.

I've looked online and have seen large numbers of similar posts and have tried the various fixes offered, to no avail.

I realise that I may just need to exchange the hard drive but I'd rather not since it's fairly time consuming shifting all of my off the current drive and onto the new one.

Any help would be massively appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: external drive
Mar 28, 2015 9:18PM PDT

If your BUP gets power via USB, you can try to connect it via an Y-cable (using 2 USB-ports on the TV, if it has two) or via a powered hub. Not getting enough power is a common reason for a drive not working.

What fixes did you try?

Kees

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re. external hardrive
Mar 29, 2015 8:27PM PDT

To be fair, there isn't much that I've tried. I did check that all of the drivers were installed but many of the other possible fixes that I've seen required formatting the drive and I'd rather not do that until I've exhausted all other avenues.

Considering that the hard drive worked with the TV previously by plugging it into just the one USB port would plugging it into both actually help? I'm more than happy to try it, just wondering if it's worth buying the Y cable.

Either way, thank you very much for your reply, It's appreciated.

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USB drives push the edge of USB power.
Mar 30, 2015 1:47AM PDT

This is why we get the Y power cable to be sure it's not that. A client that demands to know it will fix it is going to be hard to deal with. What usually works is moving to a flash drive.
Bob

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re. external hardrive
Mar 30, 2015 6:52PM PDT

Cool. Didn't mean to offend anyone/seem demanding or come across as difficult. I appreciate any and all help given on this. I was simply asking for kees_b's opinion on the likelihood of it working. Will grab the y-cable tomorrow and let you know how I go.

Cheers.

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I'm giving it a 50-50 or higher chance.
Mar 31, 2015 1:53AM PDT

If you get a client that demands you know it will fix it, you use your best skills to help them work through the problems.
Bob

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Answer
I always just run the media through
Apr 1, 2015 3:25AM PDT

the laptop and connect through a HDMI cable. I also use Samsung TV.

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HDMI from
Apr 1, 2015 3:26AM PDT

laptop to TV. Rather then connecting the drive to the TV. The way I don't have to move the drive around.