Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 GB 3.5" USB 2.0/eSATA External Hard Drive
by Seagate
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 GB 3.5" USB 2.0/eSATA External Hard Drive
Customer Review: eSATA Never Worked - Now it's a door stop
Summary: 1 Stars
I received my second RMA'ed ST307504FPA1E2-RK FreeAgent Pro 750GB with eSATA/USB2.0 interfaces back from Seagate yesterday.
Originally purchased new in June, RMA'ed in August after giving up on getting it to work with eSATA. (To be fair, it did work for awhile on its USB 2.0 interface, but I would've stayed with my existing Maxtor external drives if I'd wanted a theoretically-slower USB interface; I wanted a faster eSATA interface). Multiple tries with three different brand x1 PCIe eSATA cards and multiple brands of eSATA cables on an AMD cpu homebuild with no eSATA on mobo, and then on a newer second Intel C2D Quad homebuild with two eSATA ports on the mobo backplate. First replacement unit had same system lock-up and random going-offline problems, as did this third unit (the second RMA replacement). First unit and its RMA replacement from Seagate were factory-sealed and marked as new; the third unit from Seagate was marked "Refurbished".
I have wasted way too much time and money on return UPS charges to Seagate and multiple eSATA cables and PCIe eSATA cards. Life is too short. Seagate's won. I give up. My spirit is broken. This pig will become a very stylish doorstop. When it gets cold here in another few weeks, I'll plug its power brick in again, and it'll serve as a wonderful stand-alone space heater and night light.
In post-mortem, though,... during this five-month fiasco, I've purchased two new OEM internal WD SATA-II drives (one 750GB the other 1TB) and put them in APRICORN EZ-BUS-DTS-EKIT Aluminum 3.5" USB 2.0 & eSATA External Enclosures. Both spun up the first time on the eSATA interface, they run very quiet and cool in these cases, I integrated them easily into XP Pro, and they've worked flawlessly since as rotating daily archival backup depositories.
Of course, as always,... "Your mileage may vary". :)
Customer Review: You might be ok if you only use USB...but Esata? Run for the hills
Summary: 1 Stars
If you do a google search for "freeagent esata problems" you'll see the masses of problems people are having, over and over again. The esata function of this drive (and the rest of the freeagent PRO line up) is flawed and people are complaining/blogging/forum-ing about it in pretty high numbers.
One example...
http://blog.noegruts.com/2007/12/seagate-freeagent-pro-esata-problems.html
Now this is the 2nd, freeagent pro that has died on me. The first one lasted a month. The 2nd lasted a week. The same exact thing happened both times. I've used it on 2 different computers and it's the same problem. My data would get corrupted and the hard drive would become unreadable. Then the disk errors start coming. Checkdisk would salvage most of my data and temporarily fix it, but then the problems start all over again. Then it starts it's final stage of life. It shuts down, turns on, shuts down, turns on and hangs the computer. Keep in mind this happened on 2 different hard drives and two different computers.
It's wasted so much of my time, which is why i'm even writing this. Hopefully some can benefit from my bad experience with the freeagent pro line. Thank goodness I had my data backed up. It's just NOT a reliable product and I only wish I had known about these problems before I bought it.
Regarding USB MODE -
I have not had problems while using it in USB, other than how slow it is. See the specs on the website above. But if you're only using USB why not save the money and get the FreeAgent Desktop which doesn't have esata? I haven't had any problems with that one........yet. Time for me to look for a better storage solution.
Customer Review: Just doesn't perform. What were they thinking
Summary: 1 Stars
Apparently, the inability of computers to "find" the FreeAgent Pro is a long-known problem. The vast majority of the time, it simply doesn't show up in the list of drives on my computer--and, from what I read, many others' as well--so it's basically AWOL. The only way to make it work is to disconnect it for a half minute or so and plug it back in. Then it will show up and function properly, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours, but rarely will it show up on its own after the computer has been shut down and re-started.
If your plan is to use this drive for automatic backup, as it was mine, it is therefore nearly worthless. What's more, you don't want to use the backup software that comes pre-installed on the drive because it hogs the CPU, slowing down everything else on your computer. I solved that problem by uninstalling the backup program and using Windows backup as a scheduled task. But, as you already know, that can't work because, well, Windows can't find the drive.
I've tried the troubleshooter and checked their knowledge base.,I assure skeptics that that the problem is NOT that I have the settings wrong, or that I have failed to disable all sleep settings on my computer. I've disabled every single one, I've set all of the options correctly in FreeAgent and I've gone through the troubleshooter. Nadda.
So what am I doing? When I remember that I want to back up, I unplug the FreeAgent drive, plug it back in, and do a manual backup. That works just fine. But why did I spend the money for something that has a known disability? Should have sent it back, but I thought I'd be able to figure out a cure. Don't make that assumption.
Customer Review: Fantastic customer service.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a comment more about Seagate than about the drive itself, for reasons that will become clear as you read on.
I bought the drive in Canada, before leaving for France on sabbatical, for many months. I forgot the power supply in Canada and I figured that was not a problem, I'd just buy a new one in Paris. The first surprise was that no store that sells Seagate products sells power supplies separately and they do not know where to get one. The second surprise was that the drive itself gives NO indication of what is needed. I called Seagate in Paris (after an email exchange with [...] which resulted in wrong numbers) and they said they did not sell power supplies but would connect me to technical support in Ireland. There, the agent was very helpful, told me I needed 12V DC, 3A, but took a while to understand my question about polarity. I then went hunting for a universal power supply that wold provide this. Close to impossible - either not enough power (no more than 1.2A) or they started at 15V. I found one that would work - 60 euros!.
So I got on the email to Seagate again and they restored my faith in both the company and the North American approach to customer service by promising to send one for free. Which they did, it just arrived.
So on customer service alone, I will buy Seagate again (indeed, when they come up with FreAgent at 3TB, I will be there).
As to the drive itself, I have seen people report problems with the eSATA connection and the power switch and I must say that I have neither. I haven't used the drive extensively, but so far all works perfectly, both with my desktop and my laptop.
Customer Review: Probably OK for avg users - Not me!
Summary: 1 Stars
I ordered this hard drive with pretty high expectations, being a SeaGate.
The drive catches the eye, lights up, and is a nice 750GB in size.
The major thing about it - where's the cooling? You have a SATA drive
running in a case, with no heat dissipation at all. I received the drive,
and immediately started copying 100's of GB of data to it. About 4 hours
later, check on the drive. The case is blazing hot (almost burned myself touching the case)- and I have a message on the screen that goes something like: "MFT$ Couldnt be updated. Your data has been lost". I look at the drive in Explorer, and it shows absolutely nothing on the drive. Figuring it's heat related, I turn it off, let it cool, and try reformatting the next day and try again. Same problem 30 mins into copying data. Try reformatting, and trying again... 20 mins later - same. Continually receive messages that the drive couldnt save my data - its all been lost.
I returned the drive to Amazon, got my money back, and got myself a Antec external eSATA enclosure with active cooling (built in 120mm fan)
and a 750GB WD SATA drive. Put it together myself and couldnt be happier with it. Copied all my data to the drive over night, and woke up the next morning not disappointed.
I'm sure the Seagate FreeAgent is a great product for the average user that uses it under normal circumstances, but for constant usage, it cant handle the heat. Maybe I just received a bad drive? But Ive never in my life had a drive (and enclosure) I could cook my breakfast on.