Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Hard Drive ST305004FDA1E1-RK
by SEAGATE
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List Price: Our Price: $75.00 You Save: $194.99 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Personal Computer See more product details |
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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: Will fall over and crash the disk
Summary: 1 Stars
So I bought 2 copies of the non pro version, these units are designed to stand but to be honest they are really designed to fall over - and when they do that they can crash the drive if they are running.
Since I need to use either a 3rd party data recovery or Seagate's data recovery services and Seagates policy equals an easier time if I use Seagates data recovery services (for third party I need to generate additional paperworks from 3rd party BEFORE I can let them open the case - so I can send the unit back to Seagate under warranty, after data recovery).
Now what have we got - we have a manufacturer who add a significant extra income for data recovery and a design which chooses to be the most likely to require data recovery in the first place. Does anyone else feel that something is going on here?
Operation is fine, I like that Seagate's technology keeps the directory structure and there are many features with this unit that will be useful. So long as I make sure that it cant fall over
Customer Review: Good drive, easy setup, sleep-hibernate issues
Summary: 3 Stars
The setup is a snap. Basically, plug in and it works.
Overall, the drive works well, is essentially silent, and integrates well with automatic backup software--AutoBackup included but also works well with MS OneCare.
Main Complaint: The drive does NOT seem to work well if you use Windows hibernate/sleep functionality (rather than a full shutdown). If you hibernate/sleep the computer, in my experience, the drive beomes unusable until you remove the power supply of the drive, wait a few seconds, and then plug the power back in (and sometimes you need to remove the USB connection as well). An annoyance (no data loss--yet) and strange.
Minor Complaint:
The drive case is described as a pulsating, amber colored light. This light is a thin strip on the three narrow sides of the unit. Frankly, I do not see much "pulsing." However, leaving these lights on generates SIGNIFICANT amounts of heat (nice coffee cup warmer). I turn them off and the unit works fine (setting in the driver software).
Customer Review: Seagate Makes Great Hardware
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this hard drive in December 2008, to connect to our Mac Mini. I didn't need to install the included software, but did out of curiosity. Ooops, bad mistake... immediately the free space on the start-up drive began to fluctuate greatly. I mean several GBs at a time. There was only 10 GB free on the start-up drive, but sometimes it would drop to less than 100 MB and was causing problems with the operation of the computer. Uninstalling the software didn't help. It continued to be a problem until I did a back-up and restore.
Now, the Seagate FreeAgent 500 is connected without any of the included software installed and there are NO PROBLEMS! The hard drive performs beautifully. It is so quiet that we hardly even know that it is there.
I highly recommend this external hard drive, and will purchase more from Seagate. But, I do not recommend installing the included software for Macintosh. The only reason that I am not giving it 5 stars is because of my experience with the included software.
Customer Review: Great backup device
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this item in August to store large media files, music, and backup large folders of archived documents. It's now December and I have had no technical difficulties with the drive. I would prefer if the drive did not come pre-installed with Seagate's backup software but it was easy enough to disable. I never intended this to be a portable solution (I bought another Seagate drive for that purpose) and it's certainly not designed for the road-warrior. At nearly half a terabyte (465GB of usable space), you probably don't need to walk around with it. It's a little heavy for its size so I wouldn't consider throwing it in my briefbag but I guess one could. It's reasonably quiet and the vertical size with the fan base makes it easy to sit on a desk. I don't leave it plugged into my computer though, which may avoid some of the other problems in the other reviews. I only plug it in when I want to transfer files and then unplug it. If you are looking for an archival/backup solution, this is a good choice.Customer Review: Seagate rocks!
Summary: 5 Stars
An external USB drive with it's own fan, power supply, and 5 year warranty. This one is a great design as well. It is solidly built. Heavy duty. Fast and well designed.
Western Digital and Maxtor eat the dust of Seagate. Ask them why they do not offer up a 5 year warranty on their external drives. They don't even dare to offer up 5 year warranties on their internal drives!
Again, Seagate rocks.
I've been installing drives since the day Rodime was still around. Any old timers out there know what I mean. I remember installing the old MFM and RLL drives in the 5Mb and 10Mb sizes. And Seagate has always been the best of the best. They last the longest on average and offer up the best service and warranties.
Make your own decision but decide on Seagate.
Finally, what I paid for this drive, less then $150.00 for the 500Gb external, I could not buy a 150Gb external of any brand at any big-box store.