Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Hard Drive ST305004FDA1E1-RK
by SEAGATE
|
List Price: Our Price: $249.99 You Save: $20.00 (7%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $75.00 (click here) Category: Personal Computer See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Hard Drive ST305004FDA1E1-RK
Customer Review: My chat with Seagate regarding the issues with this drive.....
Summary: 1 Stars
Here is a copy of my chat today with Seagate regarding the issues commented on here with this drive, which are the same issues I've experienced. What bothered me was Seagate seems to deny there being any issue with the drive overheating and subsequently failing (I quote, "the design is the same but we have had no issues with overheating"). Is this grounds for a class action lawsuit?
Keith: Hi, my name is Keith. How may I help you?
Todd Nickolas: I have a replacement Seagate ST305004FDA1E1-RK FreeAgent Desktop 500 GB 3.5" USB 2.0 External Hard Drive arriving today because mine crapped out due to the same issues discussed here:
Todd Nickolas: http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B000ND75C0/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?%5Fencoding=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar
Todd Nickolas: Has Seagate done anything to resolve these issues?
Todd Nickolas: I don't want to go through the same massive data loss I did the first time.
Keith: if you are talking about replacing the entire unit if the FreeAgent fails then that is still true. just remember that if the data is important to you have a backup (also known as a copy) of it in case of anything happening to the data weither it is virus or hardware related
Todd Nickolas: That's what the drive was purchased for in the first place, to back up data, which is kind of pointless if the drive has a history of failing due to overheating. Why should I have to buy a backup drive to backup my backup drive?
Todd Nickolas: It's obvious Seagate is aware of this problem, so back to my original question, have they done anything to fix it?
Keith: the replacement process of what you are talking about is nothing new for any of our products. however if you were using it as a backup then there should have been no data loss since all the data was in another place
Todd Nickolas: You're not getting the point. Having data backed up is pointless if your backup drive is unreliable, so I will ask again, has Seagate addressed the overheating and subsequent failure issues with this drive?
Todd Nickolas: It's a simple "yes" or "no" question.
Keith: the design is the same but we have had no issues with overheating
Todd Nickolas: No recent issues with overheating or no issues ever?
Todd Nickolas: Because if you read through the link I sent you of Amazon product comments, a lot of customers would say otherwise.
Keith: we are going by the testing we have done and the drives that have come back to us
Todd Nickolas: I'm not trying to be confrontational, but you're telling me that the design of the drive has not been changed (the plastic case and bottom ventilation, which were the main source of the overheating) yet that overheating is no longer, or has never been an issue. If overheating was/is not the problem, then can you please tell me what is causing these drives to fail, so that I can maybe get some pointers on using this drive so that it is less likely to fail?
Keith: sure here are some pointers.....
Keith: keep it on a flat desk that has some romm around the drive and it is not crowded. do not run it hard 24/7. you can keep it connected to your computer if you do not run your computer 24/7. however if your computer does run 24/7 try unplugging it from time to time (thus the drive will turn off) using this method -- Answer Link: http://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/seagate.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=683&p_created=985826313 also I would go to our website download and install the latest software and use the power management software so it can go into a standby mode so the drive is not again running 24/7
Keith: that is a start
Todd Nickolas: Does that link include instructions on how to disable the lights on the drive?
Keith: the power settings should also address the light but there is no direct shut on/off button for the light
Todd Nickolas: OK, thanks.
Keith: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Todd Nickolas: That's all for now.
Todd Nickolas: Thanks.
Keith has disconnected.
Customer Review: Very happy with Pro and Go
Summary: 5 Stars
I have the 500 gig USB FreeAgent PRO and the 120 gig FreeAgent GO. The Pro and Go worked right out of the box on XP home. I would prefer an overview of capabilities that was not written by a Marketing person, perhaps a video. I was looking for a backup device that required no input on my part, both do this. The menu walks you through the set up, but I would have preferred an overview that told me what to expect, but this is not a show stopper. There is no instruction on how to properly disable the device. You will find your hard drive unexpectedly spinning for long, long intervals. Is this a virus wiping my hard drive? No, it is Free Agent doing something. Open the Memeo backup and restore software (supplied) tray icon and it gives you an idea what it is doing. But is it safe to turn off my computer?
While the drive is spinning, other apps may appear to hang. Don't do anything, leave it alone. Don't frantically push keys or buttons. The back up software is turning over processing power to the new app or whatever you are trying to execute. The software monitors your drive and does automatic backups, even saving several changed versions of the same file for restoration choices. There is a tiny pop up window that tells you when files are being backed up.
My issue happened recently. I use a UPS but the battery is apparently failing and I had several power dips. This disconnected the PRO drive momentarily. After several disconnects, the backup indexing file(?) was corrupted and the backup folder is no longer recognized for backup or global restore purposes. The data is not corrupted and is accessible as would happen with a straight external drive but new data will not back up to that folder. The backup utilities will not recognize the backup plan and the instructions on where to find the plan are cryptic at best. "look for a folder named Memeo" Where? On the E drive, the C drive, in Program Files? I plan to be more careful in the future, always use a UPS (back up power supply) and determine the most gentle way of turning the thing off without corrupting the back up index, or whatever is wrong. Note, the initial backup may take two solid days. I am not sure what the effect computer hibernation may have on the process.
Enter FreeAgent Go, much, much smaller in size, 120 gigs. Importantly, runs off USB port for power so no crashes or outside power or UPS. Same software, FreeAgent and Memeo, plus Creedo. It is marketed as a device that holds your files and portable applications. Plug it in to any computer and you have your apps and data. Comes with Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook Express, IE, and will accept apps written for Creedo. (Google it). There are plenty of apps that don't need to be installed by Windows and will run by clicking on the .exe file. Look for portable USB flash drive apps like KeePass, OpenOffice, AVG, SpyBot, Firefox, and Thunderbird. The Creedo software imports the software and creates it's own tiny "desktop" with app. icons. Cute. Non Creedo apps can be placed in a separate directory on the GO drive or better yet, include them in your backup files so the data/passwords/browser favorites are always in sync.
I am not sure if you can back up to GO and PRO on the same machine since they share the same software. GO and PRO have slightly different purposes. Does it make sense to carry primary backup files with you instead of locking them up in a secure area? Not sure, but it makes sense that Memeo software will sync new files to your hard drive if GO was used on a different computer and new files created.
Customer Review: An Astonishing Experience: Three Drives Purchased - Three Drives Failed
Summary: 1 Stars
I was truly astonished by the bad experience I had with this particular drive. I picked up three of them intending to use them for backing up data and was truly shocked to discover two were confirmed DOA by Seagate Technical Support right out of the box.
Symptom: Drive only spins up when power and USB cable are attached. But Windows XP never detected two of the drives, installing them only as "Unknown device," despite more than a dozen attempts to reinstall.
Problem: "These drives are bad because the chipset is not responding properly with your computer." We tried several other machines here with the same results. Apparently hit or miss efforts to get the drive recognized by XP are also a result of a bad chipset, but people are apparently living with this, and they are living dangerously. Should the drive fail during a file write, your data integrity is at risk.
Symptom: The third drive was instantly recognized by Windows XP, but within 15 minutes as so many other reviewers have discovered, "delayed write failures" begin appearing as the drive overheats. A massively poor design by Seagate is responsible for this, with the primary ventilation being located underneath the drive stand, which is for all intents and purposes a distinct piece of plastic. No direct, short access to the drive itself is provided by the ventilation holes, which also don't seem to take into account that heat rises, not falls. Shortly after the delayed write failures began, the drive began making a loud whining sound.
Problem: The drive has overheated and its useful life is shortened by the presence of the whining sound, which would indicate something is hanging up inside the drive.
Seagate wants to RMA all three drives, but all of these failured occured within 24 hours of receipt of the drives, so no thanks. All three are going back for a refund and I'll look elsewhere.
I have to say this is the worst experience I've ever had in more than 20 years of buying computer components. There is simply no excuse to stock a product so poorly designed as to guarantee the shocking number of problem reports I've encountered on many review sites, all relating to the drive's incredibly inept design for dealing with heat-related matters, an inexcusably poor chipset implementation which does not guarantee instantly recognized connections to your computer, and, frankly, encountering for the first time multiple units (one from a different manufacturing lot) suffer a 100% failure rate within hours of receipt. What in the world was Seagate thinking?
Stay far, far away from this one. Look instead for products that offer either fan cooling or a more open design to deal with the heat issues newer generation hard drives have to contend with.
A five year product warranty means absolutely nothing if the integrity of your data is at peril, and it definitely is with this product.
Update 11/10/2007 - Replaced with Western Digital My Book units (picked up four total). These are working right out of the box and make a far better alternate choice, although the warranty (extendable to three years for $25 at Western Digital website) is only one year. Note that the older My Book model and newer v2.0 (green box) both work basically the same, but Western Digital has done away with the power switch on v2.0.
Customer Review: Format etc
Summary: 4 Stars
Seagate FreeAgent external 500GB drive USB
- Price: locally about $135, Amazon just raised the price aprox $10 concurrently with a 10% discount postcard (good until Aug4).
- Format etc: The information is on the Seagate web site but hard to find.
The FreeAgent comes formatted as '500GB' NTSF. If you wish to use this drive also with Macs, download and use Seagate's DiscWizard to format the drive as Fat32 instead of NTSF. The DiscWizard calls it 'Partitioning' but it really also does formatting (automatically). Furthermore, on XP os, the DiscWizard edits a line in Registry to allow greater than 137GB partition and format. The drive can not be partitioned and formatted as 500GB Fat32 using the XP Format, which has a artificial limit of 132GB (perhaps it would take too long to CheckDisk 500GB?).
I have an IntelPerl motherboard and chipset which was listed on a Seagate indicated Intel site as needing two chipset upgrades before I ran DiscWizard. When I ran them, they indicated that they were not needed. I then ran DiscWizard which turned my FreeAgent into a Fat32 500GB drive which ran well on both Pc XPsp2 and on Mac G4 10.3.9.
On one mac especially, Adobe Reader, which has, in various versions, been a memory hog and which doesn't play nicely with others, sometimes interfered with seeing the Segate drive icon, until I quit the Adobe Reader and restarted.
On Macs, I use the free program, Silver (something or other), to do full or incremental backups each night on Sleeping Macs. It produces a non-proprietary, non-compressed backup.
For Pcs, I am trying a 35$ program, NTI Shadow 3.5, which does the same thing.
At $130/500GB with a 5 year warranty from Seagate, there are no other choices. None of the other external drive boxes from a major manufacturer have a 5 year warranty and are cheaper.
I was worried about heat in the plastic box with no fan and no slots because I have experienced extremely hot (this can't be good for the life of the drive) external boxes (OWC) before, for which i removed the box top to cool the drive, however, the FreeAgentdescribed as running cool, does not seem to have this hot box, besides, 5 yr warranty!
Yes, the indicating light is stupidly placed and is not helpful, the drive is wobbly, but it can be placed so that it is protected, and I find that my XPsp2 wants me to Safely Remove Hardware but this doesn't work for this drive. I simply leave it on unless I need to pull the USB to move it to another computer. So far, so good.
PS: Drives can and will fail so I also backup to Verbatim 8.5GB DVD+R DL disks for security.
-Nino
Customer Review: Seagate FreeAgent does not cooperate with GNU/Linux
Summary: 1 Stars
Seagate's glowing product description of its FreeAgents overlooks a rather important detail: the sleep utility built in to the hardware severely restricts its compatibility with any GNU/Linux Operating System (and allegedly with Mac systems). While the default NTFS partition is easy enough to reformat, circumventing the problems introduced by the sleep function is a bit more tortuous.
Apparently, the FreeAgent drive includes a power-saving function that automatically deactivates the drive after a brief period of inactivity. This causes the drive to disappear on Linux systems. If the system does manage power the device back up and to find the drive again, it cannot mount it to the same location, as it is reserving that mount point for a device that its still expecting to reappear. Therefore, the OS increments the mount point, which completely invalidates any references and cron tasks that were pointing to the old system.
A solution is available that works for a fair number of GNU/Linux users. These users can install the sdparm utility and issue the following command to attempt to disable the sleep utility: "sdparm --clear STANDBY -6 /dev/sd[Your device]". As I mentioned, this works for many users. Other users have been forced to resort to more extreme measures, such as scheduling a cronjob to 'touch' a file on the USB disk every thirty seconds.
If Seagate had advertised their decision to design their hardware to be incompatible with Free Software, I would not be rating this product so poorly--in fact, I wouldn't be rating it at all, because I never would have purchased it. While I certainly would not have thought very highly of Seagate, I would have at least respected the corporation more than I now do. Admittedly, I could have done a bit more research before I purchased the drive. Instead, I made the mistake of believing that we had finally begun to reach a point where one could assume that the hardware available is compatible with something other than Microsoft Windows. The time and effort wasted on this incompatibility was enough to make a more expensive, but better designed, piece of hardware the wiser economic investment. Therefore, if you are a fellow GNU/Linux user, I recommend you consider a Maxtor drive. I haven't had any compatibility or reliability issues with their products, and I've been using them longer and more rigorously than I have the Seagate drives.