Seagate USB 2.0 External Hard Drive 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive ST310005EXA101-RK - Black

by Seagate

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5 x 1.6 inches ; 2.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001UI49XA
• Item model number: ST310005EXA101-RK
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (431 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 3, 2009

Product Description

Capacity: 1 TB

From the Manufacturer

Seagate® External Desktop Drive

From the Manufacturer Simple, reliable desktop storage expansion With Seagate® External Desktop drives, you can easily and instantly add more storage space to your system. There’s no software to install—they’re automatically recognized by Windows Vista and Windows XP. Simply drag and drop to save files. Fast USB 2.0 performance makes saving and transferring large music and video collections quick and painless. Seagate External Desktop drives make “going green” easy too, with built-in power management that ensures energy-efficient operation. And they’re backed by a 2-year limited warranty for peace of mind. Storage Calculator*   500GB 1TB 1.5TB Hours of digital video 500 1000 1500 Number of 2-hour DVD movies 125 250 375 Number of digital photos 160,000 320,000 480,000 Hours of digital music 12,497 24,994 37,491

Seagate External Desktop Drive View Larger

*Quantitative usage examples for various applications are for illustrative purposes. Actual quantities will vary based on various factors including file size, file format, features and application software.

Highlights:

Plug and play—no software to install

Simply drag and drop to save files

USB 2.0

Built-in power management ensures energy-efficient operation

2-year limited warranty

Product Description

1TB USB2.0 Desktop Storage

Seagate® External Desktop Drive

From the Manufacturer Simple, reliable desktop storage expansion With Seagate® External Desktop drives, you can easily and instantly add more storage space to your system. There’s no software to install—they’re automatically recognized by Windows Vista and Windows XP. Simply drag and drop to save files. Fast USB 2.0 performance makes saving and transferring large music and video collections quick and painless. Seagate External Desktop drives make “going green” easy too, with built-in power management that ensures energy-efficient operation. And they’re backed by a 2-year limited warranty for peace of mind. Storage Calculator*   500GB 1TB 1.5TB Hours of digital video 500 1000 1500 Number of 2-hour DVD movies 125 250 375 Number of digital photos 160,000 320,000 480,000 Hours of digital music 12,497 24,994 37,491

Seagate External Desktop Drive View Larger

*Quantitative usage examples for various applications are for illustrative purposes. Actual quantities will vary based on various factors including file size, file format, features and application software.

Highlights:

Plug and play—no software to install

Simply drag and drop to save files

USB 2.0

Built-in power management ensures energy-efficient operation

2-year limited warranty

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

525 of 543 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stay far far away, Major flaw with Seagate Expansion series., July 5, 2010

By 

Sandooz Maradi (West Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seagate Expansion 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive ST315005EXA101-RK (Personal Computers)

Drive makes loud clicking noise & eventually fails.

The symptom:
Drive works fine for the first few GB's, and once it gets somewhere around 50 to 300 GB, it starts making loud clicking noise. The more data added to the drive the more frequent the clicking noise become and eventually the drive fails.

Analysis:
As the first few sectors of the platter / platters, the traveling distance (from the edge of palter to the center) for the head arm is not that great. But as more data gets written to the disk, inner sectors of platters gets occupied with data. That's when the problem starts.

Without going into technical details, the issue here is not the drive. It is the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) that is installed in these external enclosures. This board regulates & provide power to the drive and in simple terms, there is not enough power for the disk to spin and for the head arm to extend far to reach inner sectors of the platter / platters .

I have tried many solutions recommended on the internet, including a youtube video posted by a person identified in this video as Bruce. None has worked. Some others suggested to change the usb cable, others suggested a firmware upgrade, some suggested to send the drive back to Seagate for replacement. Some people has done that but they got a new replacement drive that did the same clicking noise, and had to be sent back again. Do not waste your time on these suggestions, because I have tried them all before I started looking & analyzing the problem myself.

Seagate is well aware of this issue, but not only they are down playing the extent of this problem, they continue to sell these defective external boxes. In fact the first time this issue was reported on Seagate forum was 06-19-2009 06:50 AM. Up to the writing of this review, there are more than 31 pages from thousands of people reporting the issue with clicking noise & drive failure on Expansion boxes.

Solution & your options:
1 - If you just bought an Expansion, return it while you can get your money back.
2 - If it is under warranty, do not return it to Seagate. If you do, you end up with another defective drive that you have to send back again & each time cost $15.00 to $30.00 just for shipping (inside U.S.). Do one of the following:
A) Buy a new non-Seagate external enclosure (many good brand are in the market between $14.00 to $39.00). Take the drive out of Seagate Expansion enclosure and place it on the new one (this may void your warranty, but it is a permanent fix). Yes, You have break the tabs to open it. Seagate purposely made it non-serviceable.

B) If you can find a PCB that matches the Seagate Expansion box power & USB port openings, replace the PCB.
In my case, I replaced the case with a new enclosure.

C) Never buy a Seagate drive. They have been less than sincere & straight forward with their customers & continue to sell a defective product that they are well aware of it.

241 of 267 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Seagate Expansion: Couldn't stand it even for a day, October 20, 2009

By 

Chris H. (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Seagate Expansion 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive ST315005EXA101-RK (Personal Computers)

Last week, I purchased a Seagate Expansion 1.5TB drive. I had read the product reviews on Amazon, however it seemed respectable enough. Last Friday, the drive arrived. Upon initial set-up, I noticed that it seemed extremely loud. After copying some data to it as a test, it began to make a very loud clicking sound. I have worked with many hard drives, and the sound was out of the ordinary (and, dare I say, reminiscent of the old Iomega click of death).

Upon calling Seagate, the technician warned me that the drive was probably in its death throes and to make sure I had a backup of anything on it. I put the product back in its box, and sent it back to Amazon, who issued a replacement.

When the replacement arrived, all seemed well at first. It formatted just fine, and seemed quiet and elegant. Once I connected it to my primary machine and began to copy data, however, it began making a similar noise to the prior model. Though it showed no signs of failure, the drive was so loud that I became annoyed with it quickly and called Seagate again. A representative, who was very helpful, had me run the SeaTools diagnostic tool, which passed. After I held the phone to the drive, however, he understood why it was so bothersome to me but couldn't explain what the noise was. He did state that the 1.5TB drives are often louder than other drives due to the additional platters required in the drive, but not to the extent I experienced.

Needless to say, I called Amazon this past afternoon, and the representative I spoke with was very understanding. When I detailed the issue and he heard the drive, he was glad to create an RMA, citing on the ticket that the drive "sounds like a jet engine revving up."

Though I've been very negative about this product, it does have its merit. When operational, it was quick to copy data (~15-20MB/s). It also has a very elegant profile, which looked wonderful on my desk; the small green LED on the front was a wonderfully unobtrusive drive activity indicator. Finally, it was preformatted as NTFS and included no unnecessary software, which was a refreshing change from many other external hard drives.

In short, this drive (at least the 1.5TB model) is worth consideration if noise is not a factor, however I have doubts to its longevity.

56 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Clickety-Clack, April 1, 2010

By 

J. Bunte - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seagate Expansion 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive ST315005EXA101-RK (Personal Computers)

Are you a fan of tap dancing? The depression-era musical genre of spoons? The sound of a bad V8 head about to spew a valve through the lifter?

My friends, i have the product for you - the seagate expansion in 1.5Tb girth.

Not only does it click like chattering teeth out of a joke catalog, it does it nearly incessantly - even when it's not actively being searched!

Yes, friends, seagate even told me that clicking was not normal and that i should return my product to best buy (where i'd purchased it) for a replacement. so i did - and thankfully, the replacement chatters just as much as the original! hooray!

Now, i'll never be far from the metronome of my nightmares - an ongoing, click-of-death sound to thrill and chill you each and every day.

Bottom line: seagate's a good company but this product is flawed. i would definitely avoid it.

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