Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500GB USB 2.0 & FireWire 400/800 External Hard Drive for Mac

by Seagate

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 6.2 inches ; 3.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• ASIN: B001FFRX7M
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: ST305005FJA105-RK
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 6, 2008

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

With its huge capacity and sleek design, the Mac-ready FreeAgent® Desk storage solution delivers a powerful yet simple way to help safeguard all your photos, music, videos, and documents. You can get up and running quickly thanks to Mac formatting and Time Machine-readiness, then enjoy blazingly-fast transfer of your content with FireWire 800 and USB interfaces. Enjoy a modern design that complements your Mac system, and take advantage of a vertical profile that maximizes your workspace.

Energy Efficiency

Formatted for Mac, FireWire 800/400 and USB interfaces

Energy Efficient
With its huge capacity and sleek design, the Mac-ready FreeAgent Desk storage solution delivers a powerful yet simple way to help safeguard all your photos, music, videos, and documents. Support for Apple’s power-management utilities helps to conserve energy.

Mac formatted and Time Machine ready
You can get up and running quickly thanks to Mac formatting and Time Machine-readiness, then enjoy blazingly-fast transfer of your content with FireWire 800/400 and USB interfaces.

Stylish Design

Modern Design
Enjoy a modern design that complements your Mac system, and take advantage of a vertical profile that maximizes your workspace.

Key Features

• Conveniently store all your photos, music, videos and documents in one place thanks to generous storage capacity.
• Blazingly fast data transfer with FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 interfaces, and take advantage of support for FireWire 400.
• Enjoy a sleek, modern design that complements your Mac system and maximizes your workspace.
• Get up and running quickly thanks to Mac formatting and Time Machine-readiness.
• Supports Apple power-management utilities.
• Enjoy peace of mind with a 5-year limited warranty from the worldwide leader in storage solutions.

What’s in the Box
FreeAgent® | Desk for Mac external hard drive, FireWire 800 cable, FireWire 800 to 400 cable, USB cable, power supply and quickstart guide. END

Product Description

Smart, sleek desktop solution for storage and safekeeping of all your photos, music, videos, and more

With its huge capacity and sleek design, the Mac-ready Seagate® FreeAgentâ"¢ Desk storage solution delivers a powerful yet simple way to help safeguard all your photos, music, videos, and documents. You can get up and running quickly thanks to Mac formatting and Time Machine-readiness, then enjoy blazingly-fast transfer of your content with FireWire 800 and USB interfaces. Enjoy a modern design that complements your Mac system, and take advantage of a vertical profile that maximizes your workspace.

Count on the FreeAgent Desk storage solution to store everything on your Macâ?"and to look really good doing it.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Nice Drive:), February 2, 2009

By 

Del K. Kelley (Idaho) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500GB USB 2.0 & FireWire 400/800 External Hard Drive for Mac (Electronics)

I have the FreeAgent Desk 500GB Mac. The only software I've needed for the drive is Time Machine.

It started right up with Time Machine backups. I have it hooked directly to my iMac via Firewire 400. The drive goes to sleep when the computer sleeps and awakens when the computer does. I have it partitioned into 2 partitions - one for backups and one for video files (which I back up on DVD's). The drive is completely quiet.

As an aside, my wife has been wirelessly backing up her MacBook to a Seagate FreeAgent Go 150GB drive that we got last year -- it was PC formatted and I changed it to Mac OS Extended Journaled and it has been flawless for almost a year now -- it is USB-connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station.

The 5-year limited warranty offered by Seagate is also great.

Note: if the drive doesn't sleep when the computer does, you may just need to check "Put the hard disks to sleep when possible" in the "Energy Saver" settings of "System Preferences" and also shorten the times for screen sleep and computer sleep if it bothers you to have the drive light on when you aren't using the computer.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seamless for use with a Mac, January 3, 2009

By 

Eastnortheast (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500GB USB 2.0 & FireWire 400/800 External Hard Drive for Mac (Electronics)

Absolutely no problems with this hard drive. I bought it specifically to use with the Time Machine function on my Mac. I could have spent a bit less and gotten an equivalent sized hard drive that was not configured for the Mac, but being an beginner/intermediate computer user, I wanted something that would work with minimal input on my side.

I have not been disappointed. There is not much documentation that comes with the hard drive itself; just a "quick start" guide. However, that is enough. Out of the box, I plugged it into my iMac via the firewire connection, clicked on Time Machine and presto, it was done.

I have had it running for about a month - it has basically been invisible. It runs in the background doing automatic backups and I really dont even know that it is there.

The hard drive is quiet, and takes up hardly any space on my desk. It is styled so that it fits in very well with the brushed metallic look of the iMac. It does require its' own power source, though this is a minor inconvenience.

All in all, I give it 5 starts.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works great for Time Machine and great 5 year warranty, January 4, 2009

By 

Allan Ray Miller "Ray's Reviews" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500GB USB 2.0 & FireWire 400/800 External Hard Drive for Mac (Electronics)

Took it out of the box, plugged it into a power strip and into my 13" aluminum Macbook, configured it for Time Machine backups, and it has been working great ever since. Simple.

I really liked the 5 year warranty. To me that was the key selling point. All disk drives have some failure rate, and you can find complaints against all manufacturers. But most vendors ship their products with 1 or 2 year warranties at most. I researched many other products and was delighted to see that Seagate is willing to stand behind their products for that extended warranty duration. My suggestion is before you buy a disk drive, any drive, check out the manufacturer's web site for the warranty information first.