Customer Reviews

Seagate BlackArmor PS 110 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive ST905003BPA1E1-RK

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I bought a 320GB Maxtor BlackArmor drive and have loved it--fast, easy to use, and quite reliable.

When, two weeks later, I tried to buy a second drive of the same sort, the 320GB was no longer available, but CNET liked this one so I bought it thinking it was the "new" BlackArmor drive.

It turns out that this drive is only usable as a backup drive--it doesn't respond to the Maxtor BlackArmor software and doesn't seem to offer any kind of hardware encryption other than for the secure backup.

Interestingly, the Seagate BlackArmor drive also has a Maxtor trademark on it.

So, upshot, I'm confused and annoyed because I leapt to the conclusion that two drives of the "BlackArmor (TM)" sort would be operationally similar, but they're about as much alike as a barn swallow and a chili dog.

I'm sure this drive is fine, but make sure you know what you're getting.

I purchased the Seagate BlackArmor PS110 with some trepidation after reading the angry reviews posted by other presumed purchasers. The reality is that this is the best backup drive that Seagate has made. In my case, I used it to replace a Western Digital external drive that failed after two years. I plugged the USB cable into the back of my Dell XPS 210 and the software install process began. As will all initial backups, the first step took quite awhile, so I did it in the evening.

The software worked flawlessly and the subsequent backups were completed on time and accurately as well. The complaint about the length of the cable is technically true, but the interface is common, so if you've owned more than one PC in your life, you're likely to have plenty of extra, longer cables sitting around the house.

We have six computers in use (4 PC's, 2 laptops - for business and pleasure). I have set up individual backup drives for all but one PC. We use Carbonite on one PC as a test case (and yes, I realize I could set up a terabyte storage server, but that would be too much of network manager hassle to be worth it).

I personally like external hard drives because you can take the files with you. The downside, of course, is that these drives fail and if you have something awful like a fire, you'll lose your data. The negative to online services is that it takes a really long time (like days) to back up a hard drive and subsequent backups slow your internet access down just a bit while its underway. Finally, this is a personal preference, but I prefer to pay once for something -- and this is what Seagate (and others) allow you to do with a purchase of an external drive.

Thus, I can heartily recommend the BlackArmor to anyone. If you want a slightly less industrial strength product, go with the FreeAgent -- we have three of those and they work fine too.

Well I didn't buy this product off Amazon but I did just buy the product even after reading the reviews on Amazon. But I am pretty tech savvy and like to think I can handle some hardware and software problems on my own seeing I've built my own gaming computer and service all my own electronics equipment. So I decided to buy the Seagate BlackArmor 500gb because it is among the smallest external harddrive I've seen and would be great to transport around my files (photos, music and documents) I'd like to have handy.
I was pretty skeptical it would work fine with all the bad reviews on here.
So I brought it home plugged it in to my usb on my gaming pc and it recognized new hardware asked how I'd like to view so I just opened the folder and voila I just copied and pasted the files I wanted from my pc and other external harddrives into the BlackArmor HD folder.
Also I checked to see if I could open the folder manually from "y compter" folder. It showed a seagate icon in my G drive so I right clicked the G drive, selected "open" and there were my files. In that folder is also the BlackArmor backup software exe. files but no big deal just ignore them if you don't want to use it.
Also do not double click on the Seagate emblem showing the BlackArmor harddrive (like mine said G:) because this will start up the BlackArmor backup program, if you do not want to us that program.

This worked great for me. No hassle in installing program or anything. You can drag and drop files to the drive and use it as an external storage. Or, if you want the data to be encrypted, you will need to use seagate software (supplied in the drive itself). Either ways this is a fast drive. I had 2 of Free agent go before that worked great so I decided to give this drive a chance. The first time, when I tried backing up, I could not get my data encrypted, it just started backing up my C drive and did not ask me anything to password protect. I played with the software a little and figured out you can individually back up files and folders and encrypt them up to 256 bit. It also incremental and differential backup as well as drive clone and rescue disk creation. It also has easy system restore - says on the box, I have not tried it yet.
I see some people are not happy with this on Amazon, but other places like CNET has great reviews. I am going to get one more of these, I have way too much of HD Videos and Pictures.
Cheers

As another reviewer pointed out, this Seagate version of the BlackArmor IS NOT the same as the Maxtor BlackArmor. Seagate bought out Maxtor but didn't continue the BlackArmor legacy exactly the same as Maxtor. The Maxtor BlackArmor was "hardware-based full-disk encryption" based which means it's independent of the OS and the security of the device is built in to the drive itself. That means no matter what computer you plug it into, you'll still have to have the correct password unlike the Seagate BlackArmor which you can plug into a computer without the security software and access the drive.

As a "standard" external portable drive it performs well, but if you're expecting the high security aspects like what the Maxtor BlackArmors had, you'll be disappointed.

Here is a link to help with your research:

Go to Seagate's Forum pages for additional candid reviews on this drive

Cheers

Like other reviewers I owned the Maxtor Black Armor that had full disk encryption. I wanted a higher capacity drive like my old one but was disappointed that the Black Armor applied to the backup software, NOT the disk encryption software. I will be returning this hard drive.

UPDATE - Buffalo makes several alternatives to the original Maxtor Black Armor. A couple have software based encryption and an one has hardware based encryption. I have the Buffalo Mini Station Metro 1TB - about $94 (Amazon) and works great.

After finding this nicely designed, highly portable little backpack drive for 89.00 at my local Office Depot, I plugged it in, dealt with the usual slow, cumbersome, and mostly stupid Seagate software, and had the Black Armor backing up my 350GB Maxtor which backs up my Panasonic TB. But, within three days, I was running the software and it froze up my laptop, stole all my resources, and after about 10 mins, finally resolved the freeze as bad sectors. Confirmed that with DTI scanner, and then ran Seatools and found it totally unusable as the short and long DST failed. Back to OD.
Can't say much about the QC, but the style is nice and had it worked, the only complaint I would have had was the Black Armor software. You do get what you pay for. And Office Depot, as they usually do, just took it back no questions asked.

I bought the Maxtor BlackArmor 320GB drive which is great. I later bought this one thinking it was the same with more capacity but it's not encrypted and is really designed to be a backup device. It's completely misleading...

Not worth buying. It failed after 9 months. Even though under warranty I wouldn't want to send a hard drive, encrypted or not, back to the manufacturer for repairs because of personal data on the drive. For that reason I just decided to eat the cost and not buy another drive of this type. I have another smaller Black Armor drive that has worked fine for perhaps two years, but not in constant use, so it is not a valid comparison for this one. The software that comes with the drive is very easy to use, a nice feature, but otherwise the drive is not dependable.

So I bought one of these today. I have a couple of Seagate FreeAgent Go's that worked fine. Thought I would give this one and it's software a try. The Black Armor backup software installed okay, then when I tried to open the program it couldn't find the drive and would not register. Keep saying "host not found" I never could get the program to open. So for now, it's not even one star. Ridiculous and they expect a person to backup up with that software?