Customer Reviews

Seagate Expansion 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive ST905004EXA101-RK

5 star:		(429)
4 star:		(142)
3 star:		(49)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(107)

 

 

---update at end---

I purchased this drive a few weeks ago and have been very pleased with it. The only junk it was the warranty registration program. Run it then delete it. Disk comes pre-formated for NTFS. I went ahead and did a quick format to get rid of the existing folders on it. The drive goes into standby mode after 5 minutes bye default. This is quickly remedied and set to your liking with free Seagate Manager program available on Seagates website. Also this program give you the ability to do backups, and computer syncs.

Pros -

Quiet drive

very fast

small and sleek

no power supply needed

only requires use of one usb port

Simple/Custom Backups with Seagate Manager

Sync Option with Seagate manager

Cons-

Goes into standby in 5 minutes by default. Easily changeable with Seagate Manager

Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case listed as an option to purchase with this is TOO SMALL for this drive. This is an issue with Amazon not the drive itself.

Overall I am very please with this drive I have used it on multiple laptops and pcs without issue. I would suggest this over the new WD essential drives that come pre-installed with a bunch of crapware.

------UPDATE--------- 12/17/2010

First Google seagate freeagent download select the Seagate link then select Free Agent GO link. File name is FreeAgentCN.ZIP

I have have used this drive for the last year still performs as well today as it did a year ago. This is still a great buy.

UPDATES IN THE LAST PARA

I have clarified a few things that other reviews had issues with and gave it a low rating.

For Starters: Since I use Both Mac & PC, I can 1000% say that it works on both these operating systems.

Some customers had issues with the drive going into sleep mode after 10 mins or so. Well, the copying process does not stop, just because the drive has gone into SLEEP mode.

You can take this SLEEP feature off by:

Process 1: Downloading a Free Seagate Manager program available on the Seagate website.

(I did not do this, I used process 2, described next)

OR

Process 2: Formatting the drive and remove the pre-installed Seagate software. Then the drive will NOT go to SLEEP Mode.

How to Format a Drive in Windows:

Plug the Drive --> Go to My Computer --> Right click on the Seagate icon--> Click "Format"

How to Format a Drive in Mac 10.4 or earlier:

Open Macintosh HD --> Click Applications --> Click Utilities --> Open "Disk Utility" --> Select the Seagate disk listed on the Left Side --> Click "Erase" tab --> Choose Volume Format to "MS-DOS" (I chose this so that I can use it on Windows & Mac).

(For the newer MAC 10.6.1 or later, I guess Format is : "Mac OS Extended (journaled)", as rightly pointed out to me by a learned customer IB...Thanks dude!)

Design: Compact & Sleek. Little bigger than the iPhone, but lighter than the iPhone (8GB)

Connection: NO A/C Power outlet needed. Only single USB port is needed, everything provided in the box. So you just take it out and plug it and use it.

Compatibility: Both PC & Mac. Although on the box it says "FOR PC", it was detected by my MAC and will work with both.

Size: Though it says 500GB, we get 465.35GB. And this is the case with most hard drives.

Speed: Forget about the specifics - it is FAST!!

Well worth your money, right!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~UPDATE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many customers have asking me why the format process did not work for their Mac?

The reason is, I have a Mac version 10.4.1 and I clarified that in the review.I guess there are a few changes for 10.6.1 and I added that too. If your MAC OS does not fit the description, the best way to start is by finding out OS version of your MAC & then search online on how to format it OR take it to an apple store.

Basically, the STEPS on how to format remain the SAME. But you might find some different Volumes Format based on your OS version. Volume Format will change as new Operating Systems (OS) keep sprouting.

When I bought this drive, there was not a single review which spoke about MAC Compatibility, let alone the other issues. But I took the risk and bought it for $100 or so.

Also, if you compare other reviews vs. mine. My review does not speak about how many songs I have on my drive, who gifted me this, how my life has changed with the new drive, how my office folks like it, how it fits in my pocket although the it is a trouser from my high school.

No offense, they are good individually. What I mean is....one review answer about plug n play....another spoke about light weight (by how much they didnt say)...another complained SLEEP issue...But none answered MAC compatibility, Format, Weight etc

My review has even answered everything that can happen with this drive. (Except that "What will happen if it breaks down" :P )

I bought this drive for three reasons:

1. Large capacity in a small form factor,

2. The ability to power/access it from a single USB port,

3. It was on sale at Amazon for under $70.

I started using it on my laptop when it arrived yesterday and was impressed: small, and it worked well with the short standard mini-USB cable. Then last night I plugged it in to my desktop and went to transfer over my 400 GB movie directory. It kept failing after about 10 seconds, at which time Windows 7 would report that I had just attached it. My first thought was it was due to the "sleep" utility, so I downloaded and installed the Free Agent tool from Seagate and set the timeout to Never. Didn't make any difference. I then used the test tool in the utility software and the it reported a drive failure at about 8%, and said I should contact Seagate for an RMA. All my other small external drives (except for an ancient 30 GB) need a splitter USB cable: one end connects to the drive and the two other ends connect to the PC, using the extra USB port for power. As I had nothing to loose, I gave one of those cables a try - it works fine. So, it appears that the drive needs more power than my PC can provide on a single USB cable.

I'm tempted to send it back, but I'm off on vacation tomorrow and it is a perfect drive for that. I may contact Seagate when I get back - maybe my drive is bad?

- - - - Update - - -

It worked perfectly on my trip, and it was nice to have the space. I've now tried this drive on four PCs - my desktop, my father's desktop, and two laptops. It works fine with the single cable on all but my desktop. This is strange, as I've tried the on-board USB ports and the ports on two add-in cards (one as USB-2 with four ports, and the other a USB-3 with two ports) and the drive will only work if I use a USB splitter cable. So, I have to say that the experience I reported in this review is unusual, and I can understand why others report it works fine with the single cable.

I travel often and needed something portable that would hold all my photos, music, and also to be a good backup for my personal and business laptops.

This is the perfect size; it's small, lightweight and barely takes up any room.

Also it is a very quiet drive, I barely hear it.

Set-up was so easy I thought I was missing something. Ha! It's truly USB plug and play - -no need for any software or anything.

Since I travel over a 100K miles every year for business and pleasure I try to travel as light as possible with just a laptop. Problem is I have an extensive Powerpoint collection of presentations plus all my digital media for music and photographs. My other consideration was a drive large enough to backup all my documents. I've had numerous Seagate products in the past and have always been happy with the products and support I received so they were the first place I looked when searching for a external portable drive. The good news is I didn't have to call customer support for any issues. The install was truely plug and play and the drive unit itself is so quiet I have to keep checking to make sure it is on. The drive is very light and sleek looking and fits very easily into my briefcase. All in all an excellent value and it's still hard for me to believe you can get a 500GB unit for under $100. Highly recommended.....

I purchased this drive as a Time Machine backup drive for a new (2010) MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard).

When I took the hard drive out of its packaging, something was rattling inside its case. The drive never mounted, even after trying it on several computers with various USB cables.

I sent the DOA unit back via the Amazon return process, which worked perfectly. I promptly received a replacement.

The second unit mounted properly, and I was able to reformat it for the native Mac HFS+ file system using Apple's Disk Utility (it was pre-formatted for Windows). I set up the drive as a Time Machine backup drive, and it successfully backed up 200GB of data. Everything worked as expected... for a few weeks.

Then the drive started spontaneously unmounting itself from the system. After doing some research, I found Seagate's Sleep Override Utility, which is supposed to disable the drive's built-in auto-sleep feature. I also adjusted the Mac's own Energy Saver control panel to disable drive sleep. Unfortunately, the drive continued to dismount spontaneously.

Worse, the drive started mounting unreliably. When plugging in the drive via USB, sometimes it mounted but often it would not. Now, I cannot get the drive to mount at all. Disk Utility and Disk Warrior diagnostics did not help.

After what appears to be two consecutive hardware failures, I can't recommend this drive.

This drive was recognized by my computer the first time I plugged it into a USB port -- after that, the drive was not recognized by that computer, or any other computer I tried it on. After the problems I had, I read about this issue with other people who have this external hard drive.

Thankfully, I purchased through Amazon and the return process was painless and no cost to me. I had a refund to my account within two days of the receipt of my return. Love shopping through Amazon!

I have replaced the non-functioning Seagate with a Western Digital that has been working like a champ every time I plug it in.

Just like a few people on here, my computer didn't recognize the drive upon plug-in. After some messing around within the Device Manager window, I got it to work. What did I do? I followed these steps

1. Open device manager

2. Click Universal Serial Bus controllers

3. Right click USB Root Hub and go to "properties"

4. Go to power management

5. Make sure the " Allow this computer to turn off this device to save power" option is not selected

6. Repeat 5 for all USB Root Hubs

Seemed it was a power issue.

Good luck

Do you love suspense? Get this drive. You will gnaw your nails down to the bone every time you plug it in, wondering if your computer will recognize it. Or if it will even power up. When it comes to wasting time and money, it just doesn't get any better than this.

Totally worthless, and I waited too long to try it out, so Amazon won't take it back, and God knows what Seagate will do to it.

My Western Digital Passports have been through hell and highwater and still work beautifully. Same with my LaCie. But I was tired of lugging all three around and wanted one to handle everything--the photos, the music, the videos, etc. Enter this thing, on sale at the time for $117. I thought my prayers had been answered. Little did I know I had bought a one way ticket to hell.

There's a reason here for all the crappy reviews. This thing is crappy. For those of you who have had no problems, I salute you. You are among the minority. And trust me, your day will come.

So I guess I will buy another, more reliable 1 or 1.5 drive and keep this as the backup of the backup drive. Because I can't rely on it on a daily basis. Nothing like trying to give a presentation and having to plug and unplug the drive ten times and restart your computer and then plug and unplug a few more times, with clients patiently waiting for you to stop wasting their precious time.

Yep, now THAT's suspense.

Thanks, Seagate!

Truly plug-n-play - didn't have to do anything to begin using it - just connected it to my computer via the included USB cable and was transferring files in seconds. I bought it mostly because I travel a lot and like to take movies with me to watch during layovers. I copied 40 movies from DVD to this hard drive and there's still room for more. So now I can travel with just my laptop and this external drive instead of all the DVDs. It doesn't use a separate power supply so less items to carry. A great value and I will probably buy another one for my music in the near future. I have only had it about a month but so far, no complaints.