Is it crazy of me to assume that after buying an external backup drive I shouldn't be forced into a subscrption to use it?

[mongony]

Hi all,

When I brought my Dell laptop in 2013 I also added an Seagate Expansion 3TB external drive. Now, I'm not very savy with these things, but I did perform a back-up after a few months of use....... but not again.

Recently, I stopped being irresponsible and went back to execute a new back-up, but was surprised to see that my "30-Day trial" was expired and in order to perform any future back-up I was being prompted to upgrade to a premium account.

I has no idea that a device i own, was being treated as a subscription item. If I buy a car, an appliance, a book, or a coat, I do not have to pay the seller again and again for the "privilege " of using those items.

The Seagate dashboard is governed by a system called "Memeo" which appears to be the force behind the trial and upgrade to Premium services. My question is, do all external drives face this issue? I am not inclined to use a cloud-based format either for similar subscription mandates. Is there a workaround?

Any advice is greatly welcomed.

- John

 

[USAFRet]

That 30 day trial is only for their proprietary backup solution.

It's just another drive. Use it how you wish.

 

[USAFRet]

For actually free backup solution, I use Macrium Reflect.

Uninstall that Seagate junk, and use that instead.
$0, full featured, works with any drive.

On my main system, I use the paid version. All others in the house, the free version.

 

[mazboy]

Basically, use Windows Disk Manager to repartition and reformat the drive to GBT/NTFS and it's your drive again. Windows 7 and 10 have excellent backup apps built in, including the ability to image your entire system.