Trouble Finding Things In Windows 7?

[Si Hunt]

I've just tried to install my brand new Seagate External Drive on Windows 7. I plugged it in, it's recognised and the drivers installed installed. Then... nothing.

It just sits there. I can look at the contents of the drive, but it's mostly empty, aside from the registration executable, which I've already run. There doesn't seem to be any software on it for backing stuff up. There is no entry for 'Seagate' in the programs on the Start button.

Thing is, earlier this week I upgraded Nero and, in similar fashion, it appeared to work but there is no program icon anywhere. I'm starting to wonder if there is a hidden batch of programs somewhere that Windows 7 isn't letting me see.

Any ideas? Shouldn't the software be on the external hard drive? Yet there is nothing. Or has it installed and I just don't know how to run it?

Si.

[Lissa]

The drivers which installed wouldn't show up as program icons anywhere. If there is software on the drive (I don't think mine came with any but I didn't install it if it did) it will be in a folder on the drive and you'll need to run the setup.exe file. Or use Genie like I do because it's free, it runs silently in the background and works like Apple's "Time Machine".

Windows 7 puts everything in the Start Menu and highlights new ones in a different colour if you click "all programs" at the bottom. I've only known a few very small programs (the sort that don't actually need to install anything - they are just a standalone .exe) not show up in the Start Menu as highlighted newbie applications.

Your other option would be to search for Seagate or Nero in the "Search programs and files" box at the bottom of the Start Menu. Unlike the searches in Windows Explorer this looks for programs first and then for files whereas Explorer primarily looks for files.

[Si Hunt]

I'm beginning to think there simply isn't any software with the drive, and you're just supposed to copy and paste stuff onto it to back it up. Which is odd. When you buy a portage drive you get software to backup, schedule backups and encrypt backups - it seems odd that when you buy a bigger, more expensive desktop drive you get nothing.

But I guess I can copy and paste.

Si.

[Lissa]

Try Genie - it lets you go back to how folders were 10 minutes ago, last week or (and I've just checked this) April. Incredibly useful if you're working with frequently changing files.

Or try Sync Toy if you want to manually back up folders of photos, MP3s and videos every so often.

[Si Hunt]

Thanks!

Si.

[SiHart]

We have to copy and paste (or drag whole folders) onto our external hard drive to store stuff on it.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

Hmm. I've copied all my videos onto it. Trouble is, next week I'm going to have to do a complex search for all the files updated in the last week, or copy the whole 200Gb on to it every time!

Si. :mobile

[Lissa]

Use Sync Toy - it looks for files that have changed and only copies the ones that have.

:mobile

[Jeff]

I have a Seagate external drive, and even though it has some kind of executable file preloaded on it, I never noticed that it really did anything. I treat the external drive the same way I would an internal drive. Basically, just copy/paste or drag/drop what you want stored on it to it.