Seagate FreeAgent Desktop External 500GB Hard Drive

Does what it does, nothing more, nothing less

Posted Aug 22, 2007 - I was trying to decide between this Seagate FreeAgent and a Western Digital MyBook external hardrive. MyBook had the nicer-looking blue light, but I went with the FreeAgent since I've been a loyal Seagate user for years. As far as I know, Seagate has had pretty good reliability. This external hard drive has been surprisingly quiet so far. It's less noisy than some of the Seagate internal hard drives I've had. Like most USB devices, it's plug and play. It even works with Windows 2000 SP4, no additional installation needed. But because there's no installation needed, it almost feels like it could use some more bells and whistles. When I saw its picture on packaging box, I was hoping the base to be detachable, so that I can lay it on its side on top of my computer. But no, the base is not detachable. That's where the cables are hooked up. Transfer speed is decent - limited by USB2.0. Try to avoid transferring big files on USB1.1, it could take hours. The drive automatically goes to sleep after not using it for a while (probably configurable through Windows). The time it takes to wake up after that seems a little longer than regular internal drives. I wish it can be powered solely by the USB cable (sans the power supply), but that doesn't seem to be possible. Overall, it feels pretty solid and worth the money spent.

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Quiet Drive, Great Warranty, Modern look

Posted Jul 3, 2007 - I got this thing to finally have a reliable, well made, backup drive that I could forget about. I am still trying to get together a software backup method that I like and it is unfortunate that this drive doesn't have any basic software (other versions do apparently). Other than that it is extremely quiet, and high performing, and I have pretty much forgotten about it. I have had some very minor glitches with it not powering up after a sleep or hibernation. It doesn't have a powerswitch so it is supposed to power on and off with the computer and if there was anything I would change it would be this feature. I don't like the idea of a backup drive being constantly on since I was one of those people who had been using multiple hard drives for years with no problems so I was pretty lazy with backups. Then just like clockwork I had 2 brand new drives (maxtor) fail within a month of each other. One was my fault (I was adjusting partitions) and the other was a physical failure. Maxtor was great about replacing it, but I lost my music collection. Overall this Seagate is a great product and it seems to have pretty high reviews on several other sites. Shop around as right now it seems to be failling in price quite quickly. I bought it for 159 at circuit city and within 2 weeks have price matched down to 119.

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FreeAgent Desktop External 500GB Hard Drive

Posted Jul 13, 2007 - I am very satisfied with my FreeAgent Desktop External 500GB Hard Drive. It looks really nice standing next to my computer. It runs really fast and quiet without any heat coming out. If you need big capacity external hard drive that is small in size and easy to move around, this one might fit you well. I really recommend it.

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No on/off switch.

Posted Jul 14, 2007 - I originally decided to buy this hard drive because it is the external hard drive from well-known manufacturer and the price at that time was very reasonable. Moreover, this hard drive is covered by Seagate 5-year warranty. The yellow light is unique. You can't find any other hard drive that use the yellow light. The body is made of plastic which may increase the accumulation of heat inside the hard drive, especially in summer. However, this hard drive has good power management system that turns the hard drive off when user doesn't use it for long time and reactivates it when needed. The unacceptable thing for this hard drive is that there is no on/off switch. It may be suitable for anyone who wants to leave the external hard drive on all the time.

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Excellent Enclosure

Posted Aug 14, 2007 - This is a great little enclosure. You get a ton of space at a decent price. It's a seagate, so you get a five year warranty as well. I would recommend this drive for almost anyone.

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Small, Quiet, Easy-to-use External Hard Drive

Posted Jun 26, 2007 - I have been using Windows Explorer to transfer files between the drive and my computer since the software it comes with didn't install, and I also have software that allows me to create a backup file for my computer that I'm using with it. The drive took almost no time to set up- it configured itself quickly after I plugged it in to my computer's USB port. 5-year warranty included is also a plus.

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Great Drive

Posted May 30, 2007 - I bought this from Circuit City earlier this month and am very pleased with it. It is a great size. I outgrew my 250 GB WD Mybook and this has been a suitable replacement. I do miss the firewire and its speed, but this is not too bad for transfers. I would prefer a firewire, especially for large transfers. 500 GB is a great space for now, but if you have a large collection of MP3s, files, pictures, movies, etc. then it fills up fast. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking at this as an option.

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Seagate 500GB External Drive

Posted Sep 19, 2007 - This is one of the bet USB drives you can buy. the 500gb capacity is ample and the drive runs very quiet and stays cool. the build quality is good and looks nice too. it has average speed like other USB 2.0 drives (much less than the theoretical limit of 480mbps) but with the Seagate 5-yr warranty its the best buy. highly recommended.

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Funky looking external storage

Posted Jun 26, 2007 - I've been a fan of seagate's for a long-time, primarily due to their willingness to stand behind their products and offer an industry leading 5-year warranty. This was true for all their internal hard drives, but their external drives used to only have 1-year. All competitors only offer 1-year as well. However, with Seagate's FreeAgent line, they upped the anty, offering an awesome 5-years for all their external drives! That was my reason for finally pulling the trigger on buying an external unit, versus building my own (buy internal drive with 5-year warranty, along with an enclosure). Okay, enough background. What do I think of the drive? Well, other than the time it took to get used to it's looks, I am quite happy. I now think it's cool on my desktop here at work. I use it to perform backups of my MP3 library that I have at home, with the benefit of being able to play them here at work. It's surprising small. The pictures make it look huge, but it really isn't! It's plenty fast for what I need it for. But note that Seagate also sells to Pro versions: one adds an esata port, while the other adds both esata & firewire. The pro versions also have a 16mb cache, versus the 8mb cache on this one. I doubt you'd notice the performance difference between the two different cache sizes. The unit has no power on/off switch, which is kind of annoying. I'd like to turn it off over the weekend, or evening. It will turn off on it's own if you power the computer down, but I don't do that with my computer at work. So keep this in mind before purchasing. Overall, I'm happy with the unit. I only wish it was cheaper! :-)

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Very nice external HD for the price

Posted Jul 29, 2007 - Seagates 500 external HD is a pretty cool little thing. The design is quite unique with a glowing yellow light that pulses when in use. The footprint is small, so it can fit in the most crowded of spaces. With it you get Seagate's exceptional warranty policy. The only downfall is that there is no on/off switch, the unit only turns off or on when your computer does the same. Also the cache is quite small for a 500gb drive. But in the end, this HD is a great value.

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Nice Drive

Posted Aug 10, 2007 - Nice harddrive with 500GB space. This drive is very easy to use. Just plug to the computer and we are good to go. I copy files through Windows Explorer. It copied 40GB files in around 15 - 20 minutes. It has got a nice yellow light when it is on. It is easy to carry. I carry it all the time in my backpack. It is not heavy. The only thing that I didnt like is that the drive doesnt have an On/Off switch. So we have to unplug it everytime when we are done. It is really annoying. Overall, this is a nice harddrive for the money. 5 Year warranty is a cool add-on.

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Up and going in 3 minutes!

Posted Jul 26, 2007 - The Seagate external 500 drive is built for simplicity. Large print, easy-to-follow instructions had me using the drive in the first 3 minutes it was out of the box!! The cost is amazing for a 500 drive and I am able to backup everything from home and work and free up some space on my home computer.

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Nice External HD

Posted Aug 23, 2007 - This External Hard drive is so far the best external hard drive I have ever brought. Fast USB2 SATA II interface, 7200RPM. nice looking. It keeps cool while operation. The only con is too bulky otherwise it will be a 5 starts.

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Piece of Junk!

Posted Aug 4, 2007 - I have some of the previous Seagate models, the all metal pushbutton models and they are great! I decided to buy these at a good price but they are a defective piece of junk! No on/off button, so they are SUPPOSED to turn off when the computer turns off, but they don't. They are on all the time and then suddenly the computer cannot locate them anymore. Puff! They just disappear! No good for a backup hard drive. I thought that I had just gotten a lemon but the one I got to replace it did the same thing on a different computer. Seagate screwed this up royally. Save yourself some time, money and possibly your backup by not buying this one.

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Not a good buy

Posted Aug 21, 2007 - Not worth the money, this product does not last; just bought it, and now, it's not working. Bought due to the majority of customer's good review and pricing. My computers aren't able to detect it now (os: xp and vista), was working fine the first day that I bought it, on the second day it stop functioning correctly (drive was on overnight, when the computer was turned off). This product also stays on most, if not all the time. The light is always on, even if the usb isn't connected to the computer. Remember that there is no on/off switch. Too, much of a hassle to continuously pull out the plug, and plug it in. Save your money and find something more reliable. At least one with an on/off switch.

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