There is a very simple way to get started with your Seagate Personal Cloud 2-Bay NAS drive - Here is our guide to connect your Seagate NAS drive to your Windows PC.
First of all, make sure your device meets the minimum system requirements:
Windows 10, 8.1, Windows 7, and Windows Vista
You will also need an active internet connection for getting your device set up, using one of the following web browsers:
Internet Explorer 9.x or later
Firefox 5.x or later
Chrome 11.x or later
Safari 5 or later
The Personal Cloud 2-Bay comes supplied with an ethernet port and power supply - Connect the power supply into a socket, and the ethernet port into one of the LAN ports in your router. Firstly, the storage device will flash white - Wait for the white light to turn solid before beginning the set up process on your device.
How to set up Seagate Personal Cloud 2-Bay on Windows devices
Step 1: Creating your Seagate account and setup
Firstly, once you have your Seagate Cloud 2-Bay plugged in and ready to use, you'll need to head to File Explorer and look for the PersonalCloud drive in your network folder. From here, click on the personal cloud web shortcut.
You will be presented with a personal cloud setup page - Here, you'll need to accept the Seagate terms and conditions.
Next, your Windows device will install all of the latest Seagate firmware for your NAS storage device. Once this is complete, you will be presented with a sign up form to fill out your owner settings.
Enter the following details:
An email address
A password & confirm your password
A password hint
Your current time zone
Also tick the "Register my product with Seagate" box, and then click Next.
You will have been sent a confirmation code to the email you used in the sign-up form - Enter this code in the "Confirm your Seagate access account" section, then click next.
The online portal will have now provided you with your device username, and your Seagate access ID - Once you have taken a note of these, click Finish. (These details will also be accessible from your email once you finish this setup process).
Step 2: Adding a new user onto your device
The next step involves adding a new user, where you will then be given your own folder location to store files into the Seagate personal cloud.
First up, you want to head to personalcloud.seagate.com (The same web shortcut as listed in step 1).
Click on device manager, then users.
Next, click on add user, and select whether this user will be a local user (i.e. your device) or a remote user (on a remote device that isn't connected to the same network as your NAS device).
If the user is going to be remote, simply enter their (Or your) email address, so that they receive the start up guide for connecting the network drive location to their device.
If the user is local, simply follow the start up guide yourself, entering an email, a device username, a device password, and also confirming that password, before clicking finish.
Once you have set up your local or remote account, it will be added to the same network location as where the PersonalCloud is located. The account folder will have the same name as what you typed into the device username section of the add user form (Please see above).
When you attempt to access this new folder location, you will be shown a login page, where you will be required to enter the device name password associated with that Windows device (The same password used in the add user form).
Step 3: Choosing your settings, permissions and folder options
Once you have your user fully set up within the network cloud location for your Seagate Personal Cloud 2-Bay device, the next step is to begin setting up your folders, your settings and permissions. These steps will help you know how to maximise the security of your network location, and allow seamless file backups and transfers, both on local user devices, and the devices that remote users access the files and data from too.
First up is choosing whether to add your files to a public or a private folder.
Private folders - In these folders, you are able to back up your content so that it becomes completely safeguarded against any malfunction you may encounter. Only you will be able to view content that gets backed up to your private folder. You can back up your other computer and mobile devices by using the Seagate Dashboard software, as well as the Seagate Mobile Backup apps. You can also secure your backups by creating a backup and sync plan in the Backup Manager section of the Seagate online portal. Private folders are simply named after the device name, and must be accessed by entering the device username and password.
Public folders - Can be accessed by local users, as well as any remote users who are within the network group. Files in the public cloud can be freely moved from between the network cloud, and into another device's local storage - Please bare this in mind when adding new users to your Seagate ownership account. The public folder can have files added to it at any time, and will be called public by default.
After that step, we want to know how to set permissions and grant or revoke access for remote users (add or remove users).
As a Seagate account owner, you are able to invite the people within your home and outside of your home network. These options can be accessed in device manager.
To add users:
1. Open the Users page. Note: If you are wanting to enable remote access and you have not yet confirmed your Seagate Access account, you'll firstly want to confirm your email, so that your account gets verified for full use.
2. Click Add user. You can add three types of users:
Local and remote - A user who has access to your home network - They may also be given remote access to your personal cloud when away from home.
Local only - This is a user who can only access the personal cloud at home on your local network attached to the Seagate device. This user can be granted remote access at a later stage if needed.
Remote only - A user who can only access your home personal cloud remotely. You can give this user local access later if needed.
3. Complete the New User form. An email with instructions will be sent to the new user (Always check the spam folder if you cannot find the email). The verification code is valid for 72 hours.
Please note: A personal cloud group can only have a maximum of 10 users.
Managing remote access for an existing user
As an owner, you can manage remote access on a user-by-user basis. Remote access allows different users to access content held within the personal cloud while away from home.
You can also control remote access for all users.
To manage remote access for an existing user:
Open the Users page. (Make sure the user's email is confirmed before managing their access).
Click the dot under Seagate Access (to the right of the username).
Each dot colour is explained in the below table:
Edit a user
Only the owner of the account can change a user’s username and/or email address.
To do so;
1. Open the Users page in the Seagate portal.
2. Click the item you want to change.
Username - When this is changed, the name of the private folder associated with it will also change.
Password - This will change the user’s private folder password. The option to change a user's password is not available if the user already has a Seagate access account. The user can change their password by logging in to the personal cloud.
Email address - The email address is also the user’s Seagate Access ID. This is used to remotely access the personal cloud.
Delete a user
The Personal Cloud 2-Bay owner can delete any user account in the group. Deleting a user account will also delete a user’s private folder, and the contents within that folder.
If the user has created any backup plans through the Backup Manager, the backups are also deleted. For more info on backups and how to use them - Take a look at Seagate's Backups guide.
To delete a user:
Open the Users page.
Place the cursor to the right of the user's row and click Edit.
Select Delete.
Step 4: Mapping the network drive
Network mapping is a way to conveniently access your shared folder from the same location as the local files from your PC.
To map a network drive;
1. Head to the file explorer and click on This PC.
2. Click Computer ---> Map network drive.
3. In the window that opens, choose the same drive letter your Seagate folder has assigned to it, from the Drive list.
4. In the Folder box, type the path name of the shared network folder;
The format is \hostnamesharename, where hostname is the name (or IP address) of the network device.
Sharename is the name of your shared network folder e.g. Danpersonal.
You can also click Browse to find the Seagate folder you want to map on the network.
5. Click Finish.
Now you are ready to get adding files to your Seagate network drive!
To add files, all you need to do is drag and drop them into the public or private folder you prefer. Wait for the process to complete, and the files will now be available in either your private folder (For your viewing only), or the public folder (Where all local and remote users can access the files with the same privileges).
