This article will list and link to tutorials and information on the various diagnostic software available for testing Seagate and Maxtor-brand external drives.

Each drive listed below comes with a bundled software that can run diagnostics that are tailored for it.  See Document ID: 201413 for a complete chart of available software downloads. 
SeaTools for Windows is also a good diagnostic and will function with any Seagate or Maxtor-brand external drive, though not network drives.
 

Seagate and Maxtor-brand External Hard Drives

Product Image	Product Name	Tutorial Document ID
	FreeAgent GoFlex family	Document ID: 219147 (flash video tutorial)
	FreeAgent XTreme	Document ID: 205731 (flash video tutorial) Document ID: 205631 (interactive tool)
	FreeAgent Desk	Document ID: 205731 (flash video tutorial) Document ID: 205631 (interactive tool)
	FreeAgent Go	Document ID: 205731 (flash video tutorial) Document ID: 205631 (interactive tool)
	Seagate FreeAgent Pro	Document ID: 197491
	Seagate FreeAgent Desktop	Document ID: 204411 (for Windows) Document ID: 200875 (for Mac)
	Seagate FreeAgent Go (classic brown)	Document ID: 196531
	Maxtor Black Armor	Document ID: 207123
	Maxtor OneTouch 4 Family	Document ID: 192251
	Maxtor OneTouch 3 Family (Only the 80, 120, and 160 GB models of the Maxtor OneTouch III mini are compatible with MacOS)	Document ID: 192251
	Maxtor OneTouch 2 Family	Document ID: 192251 (flash tutorial for Windows) Document ID: 191131 (illustrated, text tutorial)
	Maxtor Personal Storage 3100	Document ID: 191937
	Seagate Pocket Drive	Document ID: 194431

Network Hard Drives

	Maxtor Shared Storage Drive	Document ID: 190571 (flash tutorial) Document ID: 191111 (illustrated, text tutorial)
	Maxtor Shared Storage Plus Drive	Document ID: 192159 (for Windows) Document ID: 192151 (for Mac)

Reminder:  SeaTools for Windows is a perfectly good diagnostic program for any external drive, even those that have specific diagnostic softwares as those listed above.  It will not function correctly when trying to test network drives.  Please see Document ID: 202435 for a full tutorial on its usage. 
Checkdisk (chkdsk) is also a useful tool for checking the integrity of a partition in Windows and checking for bad sectors.  See Document ID: 184611 for information on using it.

For more information on errors and error codes that signify drive failure, please see Document ID: 206595.

For more information on results given by third-party SMART diagnostic utilities and their utility, please see Document ID: 203971.