Customer Reviews

Seagate Expansion 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive STAX500102

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

USB 3.0 is a major improvement over the older 2.0 version, with speed up to 5 Gigabits/sec (versus 480 Megabits/sec of USB 2.0). Computers with USB 3.0 are still relatively rare but this SEAGATE Expansion 500 GB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive STAX500102 is backward-compatible to USB 2.0, which is what I got in my HP desktop. There was no connectivity problem. The hard drive is plug-N-play; within seconds after I plugged it in, it was up and running. A USB 3.0 cable is included. It is different in construction from USB 2.0 cables. A tiny green LED lights up when the connection is made. Like most of the portable hard drives, power is drawn from the computer via the USB cable. No AC transformer or cord is necessary. This hard drive is cool to the touch, even after prolonged usage. This drive is highly portable, measuring 3-1/4" X 5-3/8" X 5/8" thick. A backup software called Memeo is included. I did not install it. Frankly, I was leery of cluttering up my hard drive with unfamiliar programs. I don't have USB 3.0, but I can see the logic of buying a USB 3.0 drive for a computer with USB 2.0, because USB 3.0 will be the standard in a few years. I can't speak to the drive's reliability, but I own two Seagate external hard drives and they have been very reliable.

I have quite a few external drives so I'm pretty familiar with their general specs, so honestly I wasn't expecting too much out of the Seagate Expansion drive. Other than the USB 3.0 connector, there's really nothing really "new" about this drive.

The basics - it's a 2.5" 5400 RPM "green" drive - which means the disk has a habit of going to sleep when not in use, but it also means that it's pretty light on the power consumption. It's also quiet and has a very low heat signature. Average read/write speeds (over USB 3.0): 30/25 MBps (see "customer images" for my benchmark results).

What it's good for:

At 500GB, this drive is pretty small when compared to its 2-4TB neighbors. However this drive is nice because it's completely powered via USB and has a small footprint. The portability comes in handy when a USB memory stick just doesn't have enough room. And this is where the Expansion might be the best fit - as an IT Consultant it's nice to be able to have an extra hdd portable enough to take along on business trips. It's large enough that you can hold presentations, installation binaries and even a few movies or TV shows for the long flight (or boring hotel room).

While the speed isn't phenomenal (you probably don't want to run graphically intense games directly from the drive) it is quick enough to handle playing 720p video without flicker or stuttering (I didn't try 1080p, sorry).

The Bad:

At 500GB, this thing is tiny by today's standards - and the 750GB version isn't much better. Unfortunately once you start looking at the 1TB and 1.5TB drives, they get physically larger and lose their compactness. If you're planning on using this drive as an external storage for movies, music and images, you'll probably find yourself filling it up rather quickly and wishing you bought a drive with more room for growth. I know that some people probably are looking at this drive as a possible backup drive to use in case of a hdd failure on their main drive, but keep in mind that this is also a standalone drive with no physical redundancy - and drives that you physically move around generally tend to go bad before stationary drives like those in workstations do.

Conclusion:

The Expansion drive fills a niche but it's a very specific niche. If you plan on traveling and need a drive that's "ok" on speed and uses very little power, this thing might be the perfect fit. As an generic storage dump the size hampers its usefulness and a multi-terabyte option is probably a better choice.

The first thing I did after getting this drive was to format it to work on a Mac. Why they don't say this is Mac compatible, I don't know, but it is. Once you format it, it's a Mac drive. I use this as a backup to my white MacBook which also has a 500 GB drive. I don't use Time Machine as I like Super Duper better. This drive is quiet and does it job. You can't ask more of a hard drive than that. At least I don't think so.

I have just returned my second failed Seagate 1 TB 3.0 USB External Drive.

Both failed within 60 days of purchase (and one within 30 days). I have several of the USB 2.0 versions that work fine and have for quite a long time. Both failures of the 3.0 drive were total- the drive was not recognizable by my computer (or the other computer I tried them on), both power supplies were working fine and both cords were operational. The drive, when plugged in, would just start repetitively beeping and would not even spin up.

I like Seagate drives- I have several FreeAgent drives which are first-class drives and the two Expansion 2.0 drives all of which have been great. The 3.0 model, however, is a dog and should be avoided. Go with the FreeAgent drives, which are dependable.

The worse part of this was trying to deal with the manufacturer. I did the responsible consumer thing, went to the Seagate website and tried to create a return. The process would be stopped in the middle every time with a "due to technical problems, the website is unavailable". I tried every day for a week and I could never complete the return process, and I only got automated email replies referring me to go back and use the process on the website. Fortunately I had bought the drives from a reputable retailer who happily took them back and gave me a refund.

In short- a bad drive, and a bad return process from the manufacturer. Try another drive.

This product is a great and a quick little external. I just have one problem with this product; the connection to the hard drive within the enclosure is not very good. I now have the product less than a month but i need to put something under my cable where it goes in to the enclosure.

I dont want to send it back as i have too many things on there plus i have to wait longer to send it overseas and then wait and hope they wont remove my data, so i'm not bothering.

If you'd ask me i'd say its a good product but i wouldnt buy another Seagate

In general USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 do NOT indicate anything with respect to the read or write speed of a storage device. The theoretical maximum transfer speed of USB 2.0 is 60MB/s (480 Mbit/s) and for USB 3.0 625 MB/s (5.0 Gbit/s). According to my measurements using the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 port on my laptop (and other computers I have) the write speed of this external hard drive is 30MB/s when using USB 2.0 and 31MB/s when using USB 3.0. It is possible that the file system or the laptop hard drive read speed is a bottleneck, but it does not seem to be the case. It looks like 30MB/s is the write speed of this hard drive and whether you use USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 does not make much of a difference. Even if there is a bottleneck of which I am unaware that skewed my measurements, it is important to note that USB 3.0 does not mean a write/speed utilizing the USB 3.0 bandwidth.

However, 30MB/s is still a decent write speed even though there are many other faster hard drives. 500GB is not a lot for a modern external hard drive but you have to consider the price. The hard drive is plug and play and very easy to use. This hard drive is light weight and small, and it fits in my pocket. It is powered via a one foot included USB. It seems to use very little power and stays cool during operation. Therefore it is a practical and portable hard drive.

I have been using this drive for one month with several of my computers (Windows XP, Windows 7) and it keeps working very well and quickly. It appears robust and I have accidentally dropped it and it keeps working so it seems I can also assume it is robust.

However, I do have a complaint about the included software. However, you don't have to install it like I did. The Memeo Backup Software seems useful at first. It can do backups and encrypt and password protect your files. However, you only get a free trial period and at least in my case it messed up my system. The first time backup was disappointingly slow. Backing up 20GB of data the first time using the Memeo Software took almost three days. I could not have that and what was worse was that the Memeo Backup Software caused the startup of my Windows XP laptop to take longer, and it slowed the computer. I had to remove it.

In conclusion this hard drive is not that fast and it does not have a very large capacity. The Memeo software is not very good but you don't need to install it. However, the drive is not that expensive and it is very practical and compact. I give four stars and recommend it with some hesitation.

The hard drive failed after several months of usage. Will have to buy a new one : Very disappointed. Western Digital hard drives still work.

 

Ridiculous! I have 6 external hard drives, this is my first Seagate and no other hard drive has given me as much headache as this one. Sometimes its recognized by my Windows XP computer, sometimes its not! Makes it amazingly frustrating when the drive is kicked out in the middle of working on anything. A quick search online shows several others have similar problems. No reason to put up with this when alternative manufacturers are out there!

 

I am on the road a lot. I did not realize how great this product was until I tried it and threw it into my backpack. It takes up literally no room and I can store everything from my desktop computer. It's incredible. Price is right; works perfectly; and very, very thin and lightweight.

I've had this product for less than 2 months and it's already failed on me. It did its job in the meantime somewhat well, but now about 7 weeks later, it just decided to quit. It still spins up. The light still comes on. Windows gave me a single error about a usb device failure and advised me to reconnect it. But it's apparently just done working. It no longer shows up as connected anywhere. Alternate cords and ports and computers make no difference. My options at this point seem to be "lose all my data and get a new hunk of junk" or "void my warranty to try to save my precious data by prying the case off and hooking the drive up directly." Neither choice is particularly appetizing so I'm most likely to just never buy another Seagate product ever again.