If Seagate tells you to call Microsoft for technical support, don’t talk back or you’re going to get an earful. At least that’s what reader K. learned when he called to ask why his external drive worked well under Vista, but not XP. Seagate’s customer service representative immediately blamed the problem on Microsoft, and when K. tried explaining why the problem might lie with Seagate, the CSR responded: “Well since you know better then we do, Im sure you dont need our assistance.”

K writes:

I am having a problem with an external Maxtor OneTouch 2TB drive, which is being used in a RAID1 format. The drive works beautifully with my Vista computer, but doesn’t work with my Win XP computer. The XP systems recognizes the drive immediately, but can’t read it, and in fact wants to format the drive. So, I decided to contact customer service to see if there was a work around to this. I use other external drives all the time between these two operating systems without any problem. I suspect that the software supplied with the Maxtor drive is at fault.

The response that I received was unwarranted (see below). I do hope that this is not representative of their normal customer service. The rudeness of their representative will make me certain to avoid any Seagate or Maxtor drives in the future.

I have sent a copy of this exchange to their investor relations dept.

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Please wait while we find an agent to assist you…
Hello. How may I help you?
Bruce W.: To properly assist you today, can you please provide me with your specific Operating System ( for example windows XP Pro, Vista Home Premium, Mac OS 10.6)?

K. : Hi! Vista and XP I have a 2TB Maxtor OneTouch III ext drive. It is set up as a 1TB mirror. Vista sees it fine, XP wants to format it. How do I make XP read the drive, please?

Bruce W.: the issue is that XP and VIsta have different ways of naming files
Bruce W.: This conflict is not something that is a Seagate issue
Bruce W.: so depending on what files you are saving and what you are trying to do, you may never get XP to read any Vista files
K. : I don’t think that the FAT or drive format is an issue. The two computers have identical file formats. XP wants to format the ext file.
Bruce W.: for more information on this I suggest you contact Microsoft as this is not a Seagate drive issue

K. : I suspect that it has more to do with the mirroring software supplied with the drive.
K. : It is not a MS problem
K. : I share ext drives between XP and Vista all the time

Bruce W.: Well since you know better then we do, Im sure you dont need our assistance

K. : Excuse me?

Bruce W.: I am telling you what the issue is and you are telling me that I am wrong
Bruce W.: You contacted Seagate for this issue, if you dont want to take the information then there is nothign more i can do to assist you

K. : I am asking if there is an issue with the mirroring software supplied with the drive.

Bruce W.: NO there is not
Bruce W.: it is an OS issue

K. : Thank you for your help. It has been most interesting. I hope that your day goes better from now on. I’m sorry that you are upset about an innocuous question.

Update: K. writes:

I did hear from Seagate/Maxtor. The email to the company produced results. A very nice customer service representative contacted me and apologized for their technical service person. She put me in touch with a senior technical person and the solution was very, very simple.

All I had to do to get my new external drive recognized by both Win XP and Vista machines was to do the initial format with the Win XP machine. Then, ALL of my Vista machines (both 32 bit and 64 bit) recognized the drive as a 1 TB RAID1 hard drive.

(Photo: Piez)

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