Error 2013 with Seagate FreeAgent backup

Tuesday 11 May 2010 - Filed under Default

I recently ran into a problem where the backup software that came with a 1TB Seagate FreeAgent external usb drive wasn’t working. When I looked at the backup logs I saw many files(possibly all) that the program tried to backup said Error 2013 next to them. After a bit of searching, I found the problem to be related to simple Windows file permissions.

To fix this, all you have to do is:

1. Open the Seagate drive from My Computer(or Computer for you Vista/7 users).

2. Right click on the backup folder(e.g. Seagate Backup) and go to properties.

3. Uncheck read only in the attributes and apply this change. Windows may ask you if you want to apply this to all subfolders and files and you definitely want to. It may take a few minutes to an hour to complete depending on how many files you have.

Once this is complete, your backup should proceed as normal. As always make sure you test any kind of backup periodically by retrieving and opening a file from it. Remember, you  might be doing backup but you really want RESTORE!

Update: After revisiting the backup on the same machine, Seagate backup is still saying backup filed and its icon is glowing red. Looking into the logs this time, I only see system and hidden files that it refuses to backup which is ok for my purposes. For the time being, this appears to be as good as it gets with this program. For a more reliable, yet less user friendly option, I have to recommend cwRsync (rsync bundled with necessary files from cygwin) scheduled using the Windows Task Scheduler.

2010-05-11  »  David Sterry