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Seagate FreeAgent Desktop External 500GB Hard Drive

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Seagate FreeAgent Desktop External 500GB Hard Drive

USB 2.0, 7,200 RPM, 8MB - MPN: ST305004FDA1E1RK

As low as $131.51 from Tech for Less Store Rated 4 Star Review out of 30 reviews See Price History

Description: The FreeAgent 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive from Seagate is a high-capacity drive with an interface that allows it to be connected via USB 2.0 and a rotation speed of 7200 rpm. The drive features a bold design that will look great on your desk while at the same time occu... read more

The FreeAgent 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive from Seagate is a high-capacity drive with an interface that allows it to be connected via USB 2.0 and a rotation speed of 7200 rpm. The drive features a bold design that will look great on your desk while at the same time occupying the same footprint as a standard stapler. It features bus transfer rates of 60 MB/sec using USB 2.0, making the drive is an excellent solution for video editing, high-resolution imaging, data backup or general storage. minimize
 
 

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jerrymcdon from WA

Member Since
Dec 2001

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User has 14 Days of experience with this product

2 Star Review Seagate Really Screwed Up on This One.......

Strengths:

Quiet, that's about it.

Weaknesses:

No On/Off Switch!! No standard USB device cable, uses harder-to-find camera cable. Annoying yellow light tries to be "cool", instead it's an ugly and annoying color. Cheesy, cheap brown plastic case.

Posted May 2, 2007 - I'm reminded of the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!". The previous Seagate drives were beautifully styled, sophisticated and elegant. And they had on-off switches in front ... they were clearly the best on the market. The only drawback they had was an annoying switch-on and periodic thermal recalibrate noise. And the on-off switches should have been improved, they had to be held in for several seconds before it would "take". But these ugly things were designed by an idiot. And no on-off button, that really is incredibly stupid. And no user information manual, which is fine for those of us who know how to use these things, but I know a good portion of purchasers wouldn't have a clue. I'm appalled Seagate put out something so stupid, the product manager needs to get fired. The shade of yellow light they picked is incredibly tasteless .... nobody told them that yellow is everybody's least favorite color?? How about the cheap chocolate brown plastic case? What is this, earth-tones '70's? All in all, a very poor evolution of what was a superb product -- almost as bad as Western Digital's appalling "My Book"'s. Who pays these idiot product designers??

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razorhdwire

Member Since
Dec 2007

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User has 13 Days of experience with this product

1 Star Review Seagate FreeAgnet External 500 Gig Hard Drive.

Strengths:

None

Weaknesses:

Just Won't Work. Gives Error Messages, Windows XP Can't Find The Device.

Posted Dec 3, 2007 - I Backed Up My C Drive On This External Drive. I Started Getting Error Messages And XP Couldn't Locate The Drive. Thinking I Needed To Re-Format My C Drive, I Did. Now The External Drive Has All My Backed Up Information On It And I Can't Get Into It. Lost Everything. I Won't Return The Drive Because I Don't Want My Personal Information Viewed By Someone. I Have Financial Statements, Passwords, Ect, That I Will Not Share. I Will Never Buy Another Seagate Product Again. Western Digital Here I Come.

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jkleinlein from IN

Member Since
Feb 2004

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User has 3 Months of experience with this product

5 Star Review Great External backup hard drive!

Strengths:

Sets up in less than 1 minute, esay to use, very quiet, fast transfers, 5 year warranty

Weaknesses:

No on/off button

Posted Sep 24, 2007 - I have been using this drive for about 3 months now and am very very happy with my purchase. I was able to get this drive for $130 at Best Buy and have since seen it on sale for as low as $120. Setup is simple and takes less than 1 minute. The only thing that I dislike about the drive is that it has no on/off button. It really does not make much of a difference and I don't think it uses much power...I just think that if it had a power off button it might be able to last longer since it wouldn't be constantly on. It has an amazing amount of space for the cost! I love this drive.

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techwireless

Member Since
Mar 2009

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1 Star Review Unreliable as a backup drive

Strengths:

Great...when or IF it works

Weaknesses:

Unreliable. Prone to power failure, which means data will be inaccessible.

Posted 1 year ago - I've received replacement products through Seagate's warranty program, but the replacement products have all failed (3 times so far!). It is definitely worth it to consider other brands. The units that I have lost power within 3 months and the replacement products lasted 15 minutes (or had no power at all...so much for their commitment to fix faulty units!). A waste of money if you ask me

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faithLB

Member Since
Nov 2008

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User has 1 Year of experience with this product

1 Star Review Unreliable

Strengths:

Lots of space

Weaknesses:

Unreliable

Posted 1 year ago - I had my hard drive for about a year before it failed me :( all 500 gb of data gone! the warranty did not cover my problem so i am sitting with a busted hard drive The usb connection came loose after routine plugging in of usb cable connection became sensitive after a few months and then just slipped backward into the hard drive after what is now a year of having the item. There was no way of me avoiding this as i cart the drive between work and home. after a few months the connection became sensitive and now a year later the connection finally came loose! the warranty DOES NOT cover for this! seems as though it is a design flaw and the usb connection didn't have the proper support to keep it in place Since my problem I have been doing lots of investigation and it seems many people have had theirs fail on them within 6 months! I should consider myself lucky I got a year out of mine then But the FIVE YEAR warranty does not cover my issue.. i wish i had investigated properly before. but because of the capacity vs price i was blinded! So be warned!

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makryger from IL

Member Since
Apr 2005

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User has 3 Months of experience with this product

5 Star Review Works like it should, no complaints

Strengths:

5 year warranty, contemporary design, no need to turn off and on, quiet.

Weaknesses:

Only USB, base not detachable.

Posted Nov 21, 2007 - This 500 GB hard drive does exactly what it should, and it was up and running instantly when plugged into my computer. Seagate's 5 year warranty is amazing. I actually kind of like the fact that there is no on/off button. So when I turn off my computer to go to bed, the HD turns off too. One less thing to worry about. Quiet as a mouse, I would never know it turns on. I like the subtle pulsing when the HDD is at work. I'm kind of torn about the base. I was hopping it could come off, so that the HDD could either stand upright or lie flat. I discovered that the base has all the electronics in it, so it cannot be detached. It has a relatively small footprint still, but it would be nice for a little more flextibility. The base is only USB, but it's not a big problem for me. I use this to store movies, and it works great for accessing them from Vista Media Center.

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Fizzwizz

Member Since
Nov 2007

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User has 2 Days of experience with this product

1 Star Review Totally Unhappy

Strengths:

Large storage, cheap to buy

Weaknesses:

Ugly, horrible coloured light, weird looking, unreliable

Posted Nov 5, 2007 - I\\\'ve owned this device for a total of two days, and bought it to enable me backup my PC data so I could restore my PC. After transferring 30GB of photos, music, and personal documents to it I restored my PC and started the process of transferring the data back to my PCs hard disk. I got about 30 mp3s in and suddenly it stopped working emitting a whining noise. It looks like I\\\'ve lost all my data. Needless to say I\\\'m furious, I expect more than 2 days use from a device like this, and the sloppy quality control has caused me immeasurable loss.Don\\\'t trust your valuable data to this one!

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cmangrum from GA

Member Since
Oct 2004

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User has 1 Month of experience with this product

5 Star Review FREEAGENT DESKTOP EXTERANL 500GB HARD DRIVE

Strengths:

VERY PORTABLE EASY TO USE AND HAS GREAT AMOUNTS OF STORAGE

Weaknesses:

THE TRANSFER SPEED I WISH WAS A LITTLE QUICKER BUT WITH THAT BEING SAID THATS IT THATS THE ONLY WEAKNESS I COULD FIND

Posted Oct 30, 2007 - I LOVE THE HARD DRIVE AND CAN TAKE IT ANYWHERE AND USE IT I WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE AND IT SEEMS TO BE A GREAT BUY I HOPE EVERYONE ENJOYS IT AS MUCH AS I HAVE

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tymbo from TX

Member Since
Nov 2003

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User has 2 Months of experience with this product

5 Star Review Great Drive

Strengths:

Size. Footprint. OK speed. 5 year War.

Weaknesses:

No on/off switch.

Posted Oct 22, 2007 - This is really a great external drive. Fairly fast (USB 2) for an external. Easy to set up. Windows XP and Vista both had no problem in recognizing it. Only downfall is that it doesn't have an on/off switch...have to unplug the AC adapter from the wall when I don't want it recognized by Windows. Other than that, for the price, is a great drive.

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mellowk

Member Since
Mar 2007

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User has 4 Months of experience with this product

5 Star Review FreeAgent drive does well

Strengths:

looks, speed, heat

Weaknesses:

none

Posted Sep 24, 2007 - I bought this drive in order to store my pictures and music. I found this drive to be easy to set up and it runs quietly and isn't hot to the touch. It also has a 5 year warranty while other drive only have 1 year warranty.

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netsonic from MO

Member Since
Jun 2004

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User has 10 Days of experience with this product

4 Star Review Seagate FreeAgent Desktop External 500GB Hard Drive Review

Strengths:

small size, long warranty period,

Weaknesses:

no on/off switch

Posted Aug 13, 2007 - When you do a little research in external harrddrive market, only Seagate FreeAgent Desktop External harddrive offer 5 years warranty, other big name, like WD, only gives you 1 year warranty, that the most important reason that I buy from Seagate instead of other manufacturer. The design of FreeAgent is unique, the small size can fit in my crowded computer desktop. The glaring yellow light remind me that the freeagent is working and remind me to shut off the it after use.

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Godson

Member Since
May 2005

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User has 2 Days of experience with this product

4 Star Review GREAT

Strengths:

hold alot of vides and mp3

Weaknesses:

The design is bad

Posted Aug 13, 2007 - Great drive and comes with 5 yr warranty. The design is weird and bulk. It hold alot of my files and does not take up to much space. Keeps the harddrive cool and it does not over heat at all. I would suggest this to anyone it look weird but it is small the pictures make it look big. Seagate is the best for harddrives.

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kianrafiee

Member Since
Jul 2006

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User has 30 Days of experience with this product

5 Star Review Fast, Good Looking, 5 Year Warranty

Strengths:

7200 RPM, 500 GB Space, Sleek design, Glowing light

Weaknesses:

No power button

Posted Aug 10, 2007 - I bought this external hard drive after hearing it comes with a 5 year warranty which was before this time unheard of for external hard drives. SeaGate to my knowledge is the only company offering 5 years for external hard drives. I copied over about 50 GB of data from another external hard drive to this one in 50 minutes. It's got a nice design going for it as well. It sits on a stand and has a glowing yellow light. The light pulses when there is data transfer. As others have mentioned, theres no power button but I don't really mind. Overall though I highly recommend this hard drive.

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DLHelling from OR

Member Since
Apr 2004

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User has 1 Day of experience with this product

5 Star Review Seagate FreeAgent Desktop External 500GB Hard Drive

Strengths:

Preformatted as N.T.F.S. 5 year Seagate warranty.

Weaknesses:

None.

Posted Aug 6, 2007 - Purchased at local retailer for $ 129.99. Massive storage at a very low price. Great warranty - (5 years). Simple & Straightforward – Plug & Play. May well return to purchase another. Compliments my other U.S.B. drives: 1.) Maxtor 500 gigs 2.) Seagate 400 gigs. Now a total 1.4 Terabytes on U.S.B. Lightening fast with 7200 RPM rotational speed. Case & stand have good integrity. Yellow stripe light looks sharp on my desktop. Recommend you get one at your local retailer. Certainly deserves a 10+ rating - (Double the 5 Stars) Thank you.

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agautam

Member Since
Jul 2006

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User has 2 Days of experience with this product

5 Star Review Great External Hard Drive

Strengths:

465 GB, Cheap, Preformatted to NTFS, Easy and Quick Installation, 5-Year Limited Warranty, Small, Quiet, Does not get too hot

Weaknesses:

No Backup Software, Cannot be open

Posted Jul 31, 2007 - This is a great hard drive. This Plug and Play device allows the user to drops files easily on the hard drive. Plus, a third-party backup software (like McAfee's) can be used to back up software. It is also cheap and so far reliable.

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Product Details

Features, specifications, & other useful info

  • 8 Cache Size:
  • 7200 Rotational Speed:
  • 500000 Capacity:
  • USB - Universal Serial Bus 2.0 Interface:
  • External Internal/External:

See more product specs

Expert Reviews

What the experts think of this product

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