Seagate FreeAgent Desk 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive ST305004FDA2E1-RK (Silver)

From Seagate
	Price: $104.99
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Features - USB 2.0: up to 480 Mb/s - Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM - Simple software, energy efficient, and encryption - Dynamic display, ultra stylish, brushed metal, and flexible Product Description 500 Gb Silver External Hard Drive Customer Reviews Mac OS X 10.5 and your external drive... Date: 2008-12-26 | Rating: 5 I ordered this drive because of the capacity and the price figuring that when it arrived I would simply reformat it as HFS+ and plug it into my Macintosh Network. The problem was that every time I tried to use Disk Utility to reformat it I kept getting an error (I forget the exact verbiage). Not only that but when I attached it to my PC running XP Home it wouldn't even recognize it as a hard drive - it thought it was a DVD drive. I poked around on the Seagate website and found this troubleshooting procedure which solved my issue: 1. Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility 2. Click on the Partition tab 3. Click on the Current Volume Scheme drop-down menu and select One (1) partition. 4. Click Options. From the Partition Schemes provided: 5. Click on the GUID Partition Table radio button -OR- Click on the Apple Partition Map radio button 6. Click OK. Select other options as desired (e.g., Volume Name, Format, etc.). 7. Click Apply. The Partition Disk screen opens. 8. Click Partition. At this point, the volume dismounts from the desktop and the drive is partitioned and formatted. Note: When Volumes are created, Time Machine may open asking if you would like to use the volume for backups. Click Cancel to proceed. When finished, select the Disk Utility from the Apple Menu and choose Quit Disk Utility I can't blame Seagate, the box clearly said the drive was for an XP or Vista PC, so that's why I am giving it 5 stars. I am anticipating that this drive will perform as well as the 300 gb external Seagate I have been using for the last three years Works perfectly; a pleasure to use and own Date: 2008-11-21 | Rating: 5 I have been a PC nut since the Apple II and original IBM PC, and backup technology is just now getting good for us small office and home users. I have tried tape backup units, DVDs, and other classic solutions, never with real confidence that my data was stored safely. This 1TB HDD from Seagate really is a superb backup unit. On the competent advice of my IT professional, I bought this unit to back up my home office and digital photograph library. I bought two of the earlier (black finish) versions of this unit, and they too are very nice, and the installation is identical and as far as I can tell, so is the backup software. The unit is very nicely built. It has a nice silver finish, and is designed to either mount horizontally or vertically, so most users will have no difficulty finding a place on even the busiest desktop for this compact unit. The nice finish combined with the attractive LED lighting make this an appropriate addition to any desktop. Minor quibble: could they not have mounted the little rubber feet rather than forcing the user to do it? The unit installed effortlessly. You simply plug it into the power supply, and attach the USB (or firewire) connector to the computer. On my Windows XP machine a menu came right up asking me if I wanted to install the backup software with which the unit comes equipped. I let it do so, and in a minute or so the software was installed and the 1TB HDD was shown in my Computer directory as ready to go. No need for reading anything; true plug and play. The unit is quiet and unobtrusive; it just does its job without annoying the user in any way. Nice! I did install the backup software, and it seems to be very nice. The software enabled me to schedule a nightly backup for every night, and that is an absolute first for me for my home office. A very nice feeling to know that one has one's files safely backed up. And one can easily view the contents of the unit to actually see the backed-up files. This is a USB2 unit, so transfer speeds are not as fast as a SCSI drive would be, but usually this is not an issue with the type of use I plan, as routine backups and storage in increments does not take long. For my needs, and I imagine for most users, this unit is speedy enough. Incidentally, the unit is formated NTFS, so no need to reformat it to get rid of FAT32 format as is the case with some drives. It truly was ready to go for my Vista system. So far I am extremely pleased with this unit. It is a fast, well-built, well-designed and cost-effective solution to mass storage of data. Could not be easier Date: 2008-10-01 | Rating: 5 What can I say? I am very impressed. It took me more time to figure out what USB slot to plug the thing into than it did to set up the hard drive and start my first back up. The quick start up guide is the only paper documentation that is included in the box and that is more than what is necessary. All I had to do was plug in the power and then connect with the supplied USB cable and the control system self installed and directed me to set up using the drive for general storage as well as creating a custom back-up plan. If I had to be picky, I would say that the "feet" that they include (you can choose between a tower or desktop set up that requires that you attach a tower base or 4 plastic "feet") are pretty cheap. Besides that, this was a perfect experience right from opening the box to just now when it finished my first (20GB) back up. But simply put, using this device could not be any easier. Fancy, but simple Date: 2008-10-29 | Rating: 5 This Seagate 1Tb HD is replacing my 250gb WD HD that I bought a few years ago because it was getting full. I agree completely with the other reviewers in that this hard drive is extremely simple to operate. Plug in the power, plug in the USB and it goes by itself. I found that the automatic back-up is easy to use and is a very convenient feature that my old HD didn't have. This unit is also very nicely designed and looks great. It's quite unobtrusive and a lot quieter than my old HD. In fact, I haven't even noticed any noises coming from it, but I hear my old WD going on and off whenever it is in use. My only complaint is that it runs a little warmer than my old HD, but it's not incredibly hot...it's just a little warmer. nice to look at, easy to use. Date: 2008-11-04 | Rating: 5 to put it simply this is a very nice external hard drive. it's got a sleek design with neat light effects and it's extremely easy to use. just plug the thing in and you're off and running. i usually never use the provided back up software with this external drives, but i decided to try it this once. i must say the software is very easy to use. you install it and you choose which drives or folders that you want to back up and it does it for you. you can also schedule when you want the backup to occur. very handy and a set it and forget it deal. i would like to mention that this drive does not have a fan, which is what i hated about another external drive that i had. the lack of fan makes it very quiet. the drive also turns on/off automatically which is a mixed bag, but not enough of an annoyance to really give it a lower score. overall this is a great buy and would recommend it to anybody.