Prepare your Mac for service. Making a backup is an important part of preparing your Mac for service, especially because some types of repair might require erasing or replacing your hard drive. Get your Mac.

Summary :

Are you looking for Seagate backup software to back up your important files for data protection? This post will walk you through 3 backup tools – Seagate Dashboard, Seagate Toolkit, and a third-party backup software, MiniTool ShadowMaker. Read this post to learn some details.

Data loss is a fairly common phenomenon, which might be caused by some reasons including hard drive failure, power outage, system crash, virus, mistaken operation, etc. To avoid data loss, you might choose to create a backup for your important files.

If you are using a Seagate hard drive, a Seagate backup software is required for file backup. Well then, which one should be used for you to back up your disk data? You come to the right place; some useful tools will be listed in this post.

Seagate Backup Plus Software: Seagate Dashboard

When you search for “Seagate backup software” in Google, you will find one search result – Seagate Dashboard. This backup program is preloaded on every Seagate Backup Plus drive.

With Seagate Dashboard, you can easily back up PC data and restore your data. In earlier versions, it also enables you to back up mobile content to your storage device and the cloud, save and share your social media. The following figure shows you these features:

How to Use Seagate Dashboard to Back up Your PC Files

This Seagate backup software is compatible with Windows and Mac. To use it, you need to connect your Seagate Backup Plus to your computer, and find this program on the disk. Then, click the file (.exe for PC, .dmg for Mac) to install Seagate Dashboard.

After running this Seagate Backup Plus software in your PC, you will find it offers you the Protect option (only for Windows). When you open it at the first time or you haven’t created a backup of data, two options will be given: Protect Now and New Backup Plan.

Once you click the first option, this Seagate backup software will automatically begin backing up all of you non-system files at once and continuously save changes whenever you make them.

The second option allows you to schedule your own custom backup, for example, set up a continuous backup, regular scheduled backups (monthly, weekly, daily or hourly) or take a one-time snapshot of all your files and folders.

All in all, if you have a need to back up all your data to your Seagate Backup Plus drive, please click Protect Now. Depending on the amount of data that required backing up, this could take quite a while. To automatically back up specific sets of files or folders, take full advantage of the second option.

Seagate Dashboard Not Working

Seagate Dashboard is useful to back up your PC files, however, some users are complaining this free Seagate software is not working. Here is a list of errors or messages that you might encounter:

1. Unknown Error
2. Missing ATL100.dll or Dbghelp.dll.
3. Initial Job Pending
4. Dashboard freezes after starting your first backup.
5. Backup appears to hang at a certain percentage
6. Connect a Seagate Dashboard enhanced to activate features.
7. Error 1920. Service Seagate Dashboard/Mobile Backup Service failed to start.

If you are also bothered by the issue of Seagate Dashboard not working, you can go to this its official website to get solutions. But troubleshooting is troublesome, so you can choose another backup tool, MiniTool ShadowMaker, to back up your files on a regular basis. We will show it below.

Seagate Toolkit

In addition, Seagate has another own backup software and it is Toolkit. It is designed to back up your files, keep your data synced and manage security for Seagate & LaCie self-encrypting drives. Similarly, it can be used on PCs and Macs provided that computer meets the requirements:

1. Windows® 7 Service Pack 1 or higher; 1 GB RAM
2. macOS® 10.10 or higher; the Sync Plus activity requires macOS® 10.11 or higher

To use Seagate Toolkit, you need to open your Seagate Backup Plus drive, download and install this Seagate backup plus software. Then, you can use it to automatically back up non-system files and folders including personal files, documents, music, pictures, video, etc. For more information about this backup software, you can read the official introduce on Seagate Toolkit.

Conclusion: Seagate Dashboard and Toolkit

After learning so much information on these two pieces of backup software from Seagate, you can clearly know both of them can only be used to back up non-system files (don’t support Windows operating system backup).

Besides, the operations are not easy-to-use enough; even many backup issues appear (especially Seagate Dashboard). Moreover, you can only use them to back up your data to a Seagate Backup Plus drive.

What if you want to back up Windows or disk data to a hard drive, not limited to Seagate Backup Plus drive? In the following section, you can know the solution: use MiniTool ShadowMaker, a third-party backup software for PC backup.

Seagate Backup Software: MiniTool ShadowMaker

As a free backup software designed by MiniTool, it is worth recommending. It can be a powerful alternative and supplement to Seagate Dashboard and Seagate Toolkit since it offers you more and flexible backup choices to back up your Seagate external hard drive, including:

1. Back up files automatically based on your needs via 2 methods – create an image for files and sync files.
2. Back up the entire disk and selected partition for backup.
3. Clone your disk to another one.
4. Back up your PC to an external hard drive, USB drive, NAS, etc. and back up hard drives from Seagate, WD, Toshiba, ADATA, Samsung and more.
5. Back up Windows operating system including Windows 10/8/7/, etc. so that you can restore your computer to an earlier date in case of system breakdown.

Simply put, MiniTool ShadowMaker can be the best Seagate backup software. With these powerful features, you can back up and restore your PC in a breeze. So, take this program for a try by clicking the download button below.

How to Back up Files Automatically

As mentioned above, Seagate Toolkit and Seagate Dashboard support automatic file backup. Additionally, you can use MiniTool ShadowMaker to achieve your aim. So, how can you back up files automatically? Here is the guide.

Step 1: Decide a Backup Mode

1. Open MiniTool ShadowMaker.
2. Keep using the trial edition.
3. Click the Connect button to continue. To create a remote backup, an IP is required.

Step 2: Choose Backup Source

1. Under the Backup page, click Source to choose the backup type - Folder and Files.
2. Then, choose the files you want to back up. After that, click OK.

Step 3: Choose a Destination to Store the Backup File

1. MiniTool ShadowMaker allows you to back up your PC to an external hard drive (not limited to Seagate Backup Plus drive), USB flash drive, NAS and more.
2. Choose one based on your needs.

Step 4: Configure Automatic File Backup Setting

1. To back up files automatically, click Schedule in the Backup
2. After turning this feature on, specify a time point so that this Seagate backup software can back up your important files regularly.

Step 5: Run Backup

1. Go back to the following interface.
2. Click Back up Now to start the backup at once.

How to Back up Windows 10/8/7

In addition to file backup, you may want to back up your Windows operating system since system might crash commonly because of virus, mistaken operation, disk failure, power outage, etc. To ensure the PC can run as usual, a system image is useful to revert your system to a previous state.

But as mentioned above, the built-in Seagate backup software doesn’t support system backup. Here, MiniTool ShadowMaker is a supplement.

Step 1: Run this free backup software to start a local backup.

Step 2: By default, MiniTool ShadowMaker backs up system required partitions. Here, you won’t need to choose the backup source. Then, decide a destination to save the system image.

Step 3: After that, begin a system backup immediately by hitting Back up Now.

How to Back up Hard Drive via Disk Cloning

Other than the above features, MiniTool ShadowMaker gives you a powerful feature to back up your entire hard drive – Clone Disk. This can help you to transfer all the content of the source disk to another hard drive for disk backup.

Step 1: Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Step 2: Enter the Tools page, click Clone Disk to go on disk cloning.

Step 3: Select the disk you need to clone and decide the disk you want to clone to.

Step 4: Then, this Seagate hard drive backup software will start performing the cloning operation. Depending on the amount of the source disk, this will take a while. For backup, you need to shut down the PC and remove the target disk after completing cloning.

Which One Should Be Used for PC Backup

Now, three pieces of Seagate backup software are introduced in this post. Well then, which one should be used for PC backup?

Seagate Dashboard and Toolkit are designed to back up your important files to Seagate Backup Plus drive. If you prepare another hard disk from other brands, these two tools don’t support. Besides, both of them require you to register before backup. In short, the built-in Seagate backup plus software is not flexible and powerful.

By contrast, MiniTool ShadowMaker not only backs up files automatically but also backs up Windows OS, partition and disk. Incremental & differential backup are supported, meanwhile, disk space management can be enabled. Above all, multiple backup methods are offered – image, sync, and clone.

In a nutshell, it is an excellent alternative and supplement to Seagate Dashboard and Seagate Toolkit. To protect your PC well, we strongly recommend using the third-party Seagate backup software – MiniTool ShadowMaker. Also, you can share it with your friends on Twitter.

Bottom Line

Now, we have shown you three pieces of Seagate backup software to back up your hard drive, just choose one to start a backup for PC protection. Should you have any question, please inform us by leaving a comment or sending an email to [email protected]. Of course, any suggestion is also appreciated.

Seagate Backup Software FAQ

1. To update the driver of your Seagate external hard drive, go to Device Manager.
2. Right-click the disk from Disk drives to choose Properties.
3. Under the Driver tab, click Update Driver.
4. Browse your computer for the downloaded driver software and complete the driver update by following the on-screen wizards.

Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive Software For Mac

Backing up your Mac is simple and important. We recommend it for everyone.

Back up with Time Machine

Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of your Mac. It’s a complete backup solution, but you can use other backup methods as well.

Store files in iCloud

You can also use iCloud and iCloud Drive to store files, such as your photos, documents, and music.

Restore your Mac from a backup

When you have a backup, you can use it to restore your files at any time, including after the original files are deleted from your Mac.

Prepare your Mac for service

Making a backup is an important part of preparing your Mac for service, especially because some types of repair might require erasing or replacing your hard drive.

How much space do I need for a backup?

To see the size of a specific file or folder, click it once and then press Command-I. To see storage information about your Mac, click the Apple menu in the top-left of your screen. Choose About This Mac and click the Storage tab. For Time Machine backups, it's good to use a drive that has at least twice the storage capacity of your Mac.

Related topics

Free up storage on your Mac

macOS can save space by storing your content in the cloud. This isn't a backup, but it includes new tools to make it easier to find and remove large or unwanted files before you make a backup.

Erase or format a storage device

You can use Disk Utility if you need to erase or format a storage device.

Download Seagate Backup Plus Software For Mac

macOS Community

If you can't back up your Mac

Seagate Backup Software Free

We'll find the best support options for you.