Customer Reviews

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk Desktop Adapter - Firewire 800/USB 2.0 STAE105

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I ordered the Seagate firewire 800 adapter because I back up large amounts of video files, as well as backups of the computer itself.

Using the excellent Carbon Copy Cloner to do a bootable backup of nearly 300 GB of data, the firewire adapter was at least 50% faster than the USB base that came with the original FreeAgent GoFlex system I bought. Speed should be faster on tasks that simply dump data rather than using a program that selectively chooses files to move.

I expected the speed increase but I was very surprised at the contents of the box the firewire adapter came in.

In addition to the new base, Seagate included a new universal power supply plus several adapter plugs for use outside the US. In addition to this, they included a firewire 800 cable as well as a USB cable.

I was surprised at the addition of the USB cable, but the base I received had a USB input in addition to the firewire. It also had a second firewire 800 port, so you could use the unit in a firewire chain. Nice touch!

I really can't recommend this product too highly. Not only does it do what it is advertised to, it does more, and the consideration Seagate took in proving the extras.

Highly recommended for the Mac user or anyone that used firewire peripherals. I consider it a very good buy, especially at the Amazon price.

Length:: 1:07 Mins

the price is great compared to other FW800 SATA docks, so I bought it. I hadn't read carefully so I didn't realize until after I had it that it's meant for these proprietary Seagate drives with a housing that mates to this. But after examining it, I quickly realized all you need to do is put something that about 1/8 inch thick attached to the base to even off the bottom, and it's ready to go for any naked SATA drive. (I actually just cut off the end of a chop-stick I had). It has 2 FW800 ports so you can daisy chain it if you need. The size is so small it makes it easy to be portable. BUT this is the drawback: it's very delicate when there's a drive mounted on it - make sure it's in a place where no one will knock into it. But for the price, this is easily the best solution to get SAT drives mounted via FW800. I uploaded a video so you can see my ghetto mod.

enjoy.

I was expecting just the GoFlex adapter in the box but when I picked this up at Best Buy, the box was quite heavy. The reason for that is the sheer amount of accessories that it comes with. The package includes the GoFlex adapter, a FireWire 800 cable (9 pin to 9 pin), a Mini USB cable, power adapter and interchangeable tips for every region of the world. for $19.99, this is really a steal!

The USB 3.0 adapter was freezing up Finder on my Mac but this adapter seems to have solved it. I have to give it a few days to confirm it but it seems a lot more stable already. I have no idea why the USB 3.0 adapter did that to Finder.

Another pleasant surprise was that there are 2 FireWire 800 ports on the drive so you can daisy-chain a bunch of FireWire drives together. It also has a USB 2.0 port (mini USB) if you want to use that instead. Highly recommended!

I now know why this Firewire 800 adapter cost so much. This adapter cost a third of what I paid for the 2TB USB Seagate GoFlex drive. As stated in another review, they give you the adapter, 4 ft Firewire cable, 5ft USB cable, power supply, and various international electrical connectors. The adapter base has one firewire 800 connection in the rear next to the power cable insert and another Firewire 800 and a USB connection on the side. I was able to do a Firewire daisy chain with another Fanthom 1TB drive, using the cable that came in the box. So far, everything works great and I'm very happy.

Now, I doubt I'll use all this additional stuff in the box, so it would be nice to be able to buy just the adapter and a cable for $20. Hopefully Seagate makes that change.

I just purchased this adapter today and want to have a try with a spare WD 2T ( 20EARS ) HD at home before deciding whether I need to get a goflex disk to use with this adapter. To my surprise, the WD disk also works with this adapter but the plug is a bit loose as the goflex sata plug is longer than the usual HD docking. I manage to use some blu-tack to fix the drive on this goflex dock and it is working perfectly!

If you have a Mac and you bought a GoFlex Desk that came with a USB 3.0 connector, you probably found out, like me and others Finder would freeze when having the drive plugged in after a few hours, and Time Machine backups were almost impossible.

Get this and it will solve your problems. I bought this on a whim to see if this would solve the problem I was having - and behold - it did. Now my 2TB drive is rock solid reliable.

Length:: 0:10 Mins

I picked up the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 4 TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive in order to store and edit HD video, and also to backup my large dvd library. The drive comes standard with a USB 3.0 adapter base, but like the other drives in the Seagate GoFlex "family" you can swap out the bases to accommodate different needs. USB 3.0 is extremely fast, but unfortunately it's not supported by my Mac Book Pro - it is downwards compatible, which means I can still plug it in to my USB 2.0 input if I want but it will only transfer at speeds that USB 2.0 can handle.

Fortunately, Seagate sells this Firewire 800 base, which not only allows you to plug it in at a higher speed but also has a USB 2.0 input and an additional Firewire input/output on the side. What that means is that I can have this plugged in to my one Firewire 800 port, for use with video, and I can also "stack" (or "Daisy chain") an additional Firewire 800 external drive that I use as my Time Machine backup. See the attached video for a quick look at what I mean. That adds a whole heap of convenience to this drive, since I almost always have those two drives plugged in - and being able to plug them in stacked means I leave my USB ports free for other accessories as needed.

What matters most, though, is speed, which is why you'd get one of these in the first place. It does the trick. I did a quick system test, and found that with the standard base and the USB 3.0 output plugged into one of my USB inputs, this drive can read 34.4 MB/s and write 27.5 MB/s. With the Firewire 800 base plugged in, by contrast, I can double that, with reading speeds of 79.8 MB/s and writing speeds of 51.5 MB/s.

I got the 3g Seagate FreeAgent and thought using Firewire would be a nice addition. It wasn't that I needed FireWire, but just wanted something different than the USB speeds I have on my other 2 externals. Quick installation. Popped the base off the drive, and popped this one on. Plugged in the supplied FireWire cable and off I went. Def. better speeds than USB, and overall, it was worth it.

Just got it today and I love how fast firewire still is but what screws a fast hard drive that works hard is a loose and faulty firewire cable that comes with it.

Was wondering why my drive took so long to dock and realized just by touching the cable it came on and off. Seagate. Good drives. Bad cables.

Fortunately not as bad as WD drives that have huge capacities but very loose power connectors. Beware! imagine doing heavy work on it like video editing and then poof it's unplugged it's power!

Best workhorse has been the Goflex Pro! Compact and robust.

I bought this product to use as a dock for a 3.5" internal hard drive. Normally docks that convert SATA to FireWire 800 run in the $65+ range. Using this product and 30 minutes of my time, I was able to use the cardboard box that the dock came in as a make-shift more supportive dock that keeps the hard drive connected and stable on my desktop. I really did not think it would work as well as it did. I have included direct links to images of the dock I was able to create. It basically required cutting a hard drive size rectangle on the top of the box and some velcro to attach the dock to the bottom of the box. I also cut a small rectangle in the side for easier cable management. The only inconvenience is the need for a small length of something firm enough to support the front end of the HD. I used a wooden chopstick, and it seems to work beautifully.

This is by far the cheapest solution for SATA to FireWire 800.

Running on the late 2010 MacMini.

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