Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Hard Drive ST305004FDA1E1-RK
by SEAGATE
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Hard Drive ST305004FDA1E1-RK
Customer Review: Very, very slow performance
Summary: 2 Stars
This is a very, very, very slow drive. I assume that Seagate is using a 5400rpm drive as one reason the throughput is so slow.
I used this drive to backup 300GB of photos and image data. On a PowerMacG5 Quad with 4.5GB of RAM and this drive connected directly to the front USB port, speed averaged 348MB/min. Using EMC's Retrospect Express 6.1, the entire backup took 36 hours to perform, including verification of all the files.
With the Xbench software, the drive earned a score of 14.41. By comparison, a 3-year old Western Digital 100GB ATA drive in an external Bytecc Firewire enclosure earned a score of 26.89.
The speed difference between Firewire and USB 2.0 is not great enough to account for this difference.
I guess Seagate engineers figured that there was no need to stick a fast drive in an enclosure that would be limited by USB 2.0's max speed; I suspect they picked a slower drive to reduce costs.
The drive does get hot, but after using it around the clock for three days I have not (yet) experienced any problems with being able to access data on the drive.
Those who have reported problems getting the drive to be recognized after using it for backups may be experiencing a known problem with Windows Vista and USB drives, not the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop drive. I have not had this problem with my Mac computer.
I give the product two stars for the storage, cost, and ease of use -- but the slow performance precludes any higher score.
If you need a big drive and can endure the slowness, then this drive may be okay. I haven't decided whether to keep it or pay a bit more for a faster drive in a faster enclosure.
Customer Review: Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY
Summary: 1 Stars
I cannot urge you enough to look elsewhere for an external HD. These products are GARBAGE.
I bought this along with my new iPod (ironically because I have a smaller 120GB external from these guys that has been everything I could ask of it), intending to store my iTunes files on here, rather than using up all that space on my laptop's HD. So... I get the drive, burn about 250-300 cds onto the drive.... and it craps out. Data gone. Oh man, I was livid.
Seagate replaced the drive, which is fine, but they only replace broken drives with refurbs... so, you replace your broken drive with one that was ALREADY BROKEN. Why this didn't occur to me at the time, I don't know. And guess what they charge to recover data from broken drives? $50? $200? No!!! FOURTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!!! $1,400!!!! No joke. I've bought cars for less.
Anyway, I get the replacement drive, and this one lasts all the way through all _520 CDs_ I own. FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY CDS. I get them all stored on the drive, and I'm making a playlist up right before I move the songs all to my iPod...
...and the new drive craps out.
Seriously. I wish this was a joke.
I don't know yet if the data is all gone this time, but I have had enough. If I get my music files off this heap by some miracle, I'm taking this drive out in my yard and I'm going to go "Office Space" on it. And then I'm going to take the little bits, and set them on fire. I got the iPod in March, and I have yet to listen to one lousy song on it. And it's all because of Seagate. Their products are garbage and I will NEVER buy ANYTHING from these guys again.
Customer Review: Robust and quiet with only a few quibbles
Summary: 4 Stars
Overally, good drive. Far superior to the WesternDigital drives IMO.
I used this in a tropical rainforest under far from ideal (or rated) conditions. No problems.
The good:
Seagate harddrive inside... quiet, fairly fast, fairly reliable, good quality.
The bad:
Enclosure design could be nicer. The "base" part makes it more annoying to travel with than need be. The funky asymmetric shape wastes some space. The light is pretty, but the slow "pulse" is not a very clear/obvious indicator of access and it is only visible from the left.
Also, there are the normal difficulties with USB based "on/off" sensing. Power switches are not a bad thing! Your computer goes to sleep (or any other condition where USB is powered down), and the drive will shutdown. Unfortunately, it isn't very likely to wake back up when the computer does... just pull the cable and reinsert works most of the time. I'm using it with ext2 (linux) filesystem with no real problems, though I do have to umount/mount on the command line (no autodetect) after the sleep problems (not unique to this drive).
It would be nice if the case was redesigned... put the power circiuts in that front asymmetric part instead of the base, and make the base just a removable "dock" with power and usb plugs passing through (so you don't actually need it unless you are setting the drive on its edge).
The design isn't significantly worse or better than anything else I've seen out there. However, the actual seagate harddrive inside makes the FreeAgent series the one to buy IMO.
Customer Review: You are better off using a stone tablet
Summary: 1 Stars
Like many others I had super results when I bought the thing. It worked great and it was quiet. It also had exceptional storage space for the price. Well, after 15 days of very minimal use the unit was no longer recognized by my computer or the two others I had at the house. I used their troubleshooting advice on their web page. No help. I called Seagate and not one word of an apology. They said I could send it in for an exchange for a refurbished one but data recovery was not part of the deal. I would either have to use their service or get someone else to recover my data. Their quote was only $1,700 !!! That's not a typo. They wanted that much money to recover my data from a unit they sold me less that three weeks ago. I told them to jump in a lake (this was a nice way of putting it) I brought it in to work to have our tech guys look at it. We got it apart using some instructions we found on the internet. Inside we found a Barracuda 7200.10 drive. An attempt was made to install it on another computer and the verdict was it was shot. Dead hard drive. Now I either have to pay someone to recover the data or live with the loss. I only had music on the drive so I may have to take a hit. There is no way I'll pay their price. After this bad news I did more research on this drive and there are other folks who 1. will stay away from these drive even if they were the last drives on earth. 2. had very similar problems to mine. Words of advice. BACK UP YOUR FILES ON DVD (AT A MINIMUM) NO MATTER WHAT BRAND YOU HAVE. AWAY FROM SEAGATE FREEAGENT DRIVES!!! They SUCK!Customer Review: An enigma to set up. Absolutely no useful documentation provided.
Summary: 1 Stars
According to the box's outside, it's Plug and Play. So you fork over the cash, take it home, and open the box. Other than the drive itself, you find nothing but a small, multi-fold pamphlet that hypes the product but tells you zilch about setting it up. Next, you explore the Seagate website looking for set-up guidance. What a maze! Increasingly frustrated, you phone Seagate Tech Support (M-F, day hours only mind you), you get put on hold, and when you eventually connect, you get someone who is not that familiar with this particulalr product (yup, happened to me twice in 2 successive days). One technician told me to download "Disk Wizard" from the Seagate site, and follow its menu (another maze). Next day, a 2nd technician (whose command of the English language was not that good) advised NOT to use "Disk Wizard", but to use a Microsoft application instead (its name started with an "M")-- for which he would email me the link within minutes. That was three days ago and I'm still awaiting his email. In sum, I have a handsome piece of hardware sitting next to my PC that is not user-friendly because the manufacturer has not provided this customer with step-wise guidance for its set-up and use. Oh, BTW -- neither the box nor the multi-fold pamphlet will tell you this, but the Free Agent cannot be employed to perform automatic backup. At least that's what I was told by one Seagate technician. My advice re: the Free Agent: caveat emptor!