[ insert rant ]

Then I saw the little "cloud" shaped button. Clicking the cloud button - It indicated that by registering, I'd have some sort of cloud option. Nope. At least none that I could find but then Dashboard software said instructions would be in my registration mail. It took a few hours for a registration email arrive and there was nothing about cloud storage, accounts or passwords mentioned and the program did not recognize my email address that I used for registration. Surfing The Net, I did find that Seagate has a free 100 Gig plan though eVault. the limitations say it only allows 3 backups - I assume that means 3 current backups, not 3 uses - if so that could be handy. Then again, it won't work with the "cloud" option of the Seagate backup software, so I moved on. Researching the support forums, I eventually made my way to the online registration form. Seagate Cloud Storage - Account Register

But of course the area for entering the serial number of your drive is grayed out and can't be entered - hence, you can't register your device. With a tad more research I found that if you enter a string after the php like this Seagate Cloud Storage - Account Register where xxxx = your serial number, it should work. And sure enough, it did! Success! Well, sort of. Back I went to the Dashboard and dutifully enter my well fought for log in credentials and this is when I am greeted with an big red error message indicating I must have the most current version of dashboard to run the cloud service and to go here: Seagate Cloud Storage - Sign In Well, I do have the most recent version and going to the page directed only brings you to the online log in credentials for the cloud. But, OK, I'll comply. I log in and YES it works! ...But wait. There are no files there, no updated dashboard and no way to upload files for backup at all. Seriously? At this point I figure, maybe you back up with the dashboard and access via the web - I'll try that. Uh.. Nope. You can't. No, I am not kidding. This is when the immortal words of General Beringer from 'War Games' came ringing in my head, "After very careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks."

I did find an "upgrade" button which does say I have 5 Gig of backup and can upgrade to a couple of different plans, with unlimited being $69.99 per year. But, color me crazy, I fail see the point of paying for a cloud backup service that you can't use.