Customer Reviews

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive STAC2000100 (Black)

5 star:		(140)
4 star:		(57)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(103)

 

 

This review is for the 2TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex model. The 2TB version is not small and portable like the 500GB model. The 2TB version uses a standard desktop size 3.5" HDD, while the 500GB model uses a laptop size 2.5" HDD. The 3.5" HDD will transfer files faster than the 2.5" HDD, but will produce more heat.

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My history with Seagate has not been so good. To me and many others, Seagate has a reputation for drives that fail quickly and unexpectedly. Everyone can repair a bad history, but I can't seem to forget Seagate's reputation. But like any bad relationship, things change and I must try to move on.

This Seagate GoFlex external hard drive looks good, really good. It's the kind of design that stands out from the crowd. But... where is the ventilation? All hard drives heat up, so why are their no air vents or fans? This worries me. All the eye-candy in the world won't make up for a burned up hard drive.

The performance statistics are like any other external HDD. 3.5" disk, 7200 RPM, USB 2.0, 32MB cache. Nothing to get excited about. Matching stats makes me long for a hard drive brand that I can depend on... like Western Digital (I've owned 7 in the last 3 years and never had one fail even once.)

However, this Seagate does offer something new: the ability to upgrade to USB 3.0!!! Sounds amazing, but.... you have to shell out $40 for the USB 3.0 HDD adapter (and another $30 for the USB 3.0 card for your computer). So "The World's Most Upgradeable Desktop Hard Drive" comes with some fine print... USB 3.0 not included.

The lack of built-in USB 3.0 isn't terrible, however. The advantage of this external HDD is that you can keep your HDD and upgrade the base adapter when you decide to buy a new laptop in the future. That's a plus. However, we also have to consider that when USB 3.0 does become a standard component of laptops, hard drive size will also have doubled or tripled. And the 7,2000 speed barrier may be broken. (Faster HDDs are available, but are costly and small in storage space.) Then will you even want to use your out-dated hard drive?

Some people will never fill a 2 TB hard drive and for them this Seagate GoFlex design is great. You don't need to worry about transferring files to a new HDD for many years. And if you aren't using all 2TB, then you most likely won't overheat this HDD. However for those of us who fill up HDDs rather quickly, we may want to consider another external hard drive option - one with better ventilation and a better company reputation.

In addition, this Seagate hard drive has a 32 MB cache. This is the standard cache size for hard drives at this time, however 64 MB cache disks are available for under $200. A larger cache size makes a noticeable improvement if you are using the drive to run programs or stream files. For simple file back-up, a larger cache size won't make much of a difference.

Personally, I prefer using a multi-bay external hard drive set up. Something with hot swapable bays, networking, ESATA or RAID is ideal. In addition to my 4-Bay RAID Network enclosure, I use an external desktop HDD (like this one) to act as a second hard drive for my laptop. So I have 4 HDDs in RAID backing up everything in my laptop HDD and my desktop external HDD. (I am using 4 WD drives and 1 Samsung drive.) This gives me the fastest load time, most storage space, and file protection for a laptop setup. It may sound like an overkill, however I know the pain that comes with a dead hard drive and loss of irreplaceable files. (Did I mention that I also backup on Blu-Ray discs?)

For $200 a 2TB external hard drive is not a screaming deal. But this HDD does offer something that no one else does - the ability to upgrade to USB 3.0. Is it worth the extra $40+ down the road? (Plus the extra $50-70 compared to the current price of other 2TB external HDDs on the market.) Only you can make that call.

I've passed this Seagate GoFlex HDD onto my girlfriend. Seagate's included automatic back-up software is easy to use and this will free up some more space on my RAID setup for my own files. My girlfriend appreciates the ease of use, attractive design (if it only came in pink), and hassle-free back-up protection.

5 stars for looks
2 stars for ventilation
3 stars for hard drive performance
4 stars for upgradability
2 stars for cost
1 star for Seagate's past reputation

FINAL SCORE = 3 stars

** Computer components can be a boring subject, so if you've found my review helpful and enjoyable, please click "YES" below.

I didn't want to believe the reviews. I have two Seagates from a few years ago and they work beautifully. I didn't want to believe the many comments here because, well, you never know how carefully people follow directions. So I ordered the 2 Tb Goflex Desk, with the 800 firewire adapter. After copying files to the drive for 2 hours, the computer stopped recognizing it in the middle of a transfer. I suspect the drive overheats. And yes, I had adjusted the settings so the drive would never go into automatic sleep. Thank you, Amazon for making the return/refund process so painless. Back to Western Digital, I guess.

Pros:
1. easy to install
2. easy to use
3. Specific Folders can be selected for backup
4. It turns off and on when computer is turned off and on.

Cons:
1. Software license only allows use with 1 computer
2. Many ads to purchase more software in the bundled software
3. There is a memory leak in the software (version 4.60.0.7252)

I plugged this thing in and it automatically started the software install which was very easy to follow. Once it was done it defaulted to backup my entire computer which was perfect because 2 TB of space if plenty of space to do this for me. The software did have an option to select only specific folders which was nice to know in case I upgrade my pc and have to limit the amount of files for backup.
The software has built in advertisements asking you to try and purchase more of their software. They are easily avoidable, but I'd rather not see them. My favorite part about the backup software bundled with this external hard drive is that it is constantly working to create a mirror image of all the data on the pc. It updates files on the external as soon as they are updated on the pc.
The biggest issue I ran into was that the software only allows you to install it on one pc. I had planned on using this drive with both my pcs and backing it up over my home network. I am going to continue using the drive, but I will go back to using cobian backup which is free; though the interface is a bit less easy.[...]

I do want to say that if you are planning on only using this with one pc or you are willing to purchase extra licenses to utilize the very easy to use interface then this is a very good product.

** My original review didn't contain the below information ***
This problem didn't occur right away. The memory leak in the memeo software bundled with the drive causes windows to popup a message that there is a problem with .NET software. Windows will handle it when you click ok, but all that happens is the Memeo software is closed. I checked the system memory before I closed the program and saw it was using over 1.5 Gigabytes of RAM. I am currently running the most up to date version of Memeo instant backup (version 4.60.0.7252).

I really get upset when I buy a simple product - that is supposed to perform a simple function - and then I have to spend excessive time configuring to get it to work properly. The GoFlex hard drive is an example of this kind of stupidity.

If you just start using the drive you'll find it sleeps after 15 minutes. It simply vanishes from the system. You have to install the software to update the firmware to tell it not to do that (set sleep to never).

So now I've spent time troubleshooting why it vanishes... installed software on my computer (WHY? I don't want software on my computer to run a hard drive) and got that solved. But oh... what's this... since the sleep is set to never, the stupid drive won't shutoff because IT HAS NO POWER SWITCH!

Great - so now I've got a drive that sits under my desk that I either have to reach underneath and pull the power cable from each time I'm done using it... or I have to buy a little tiny power strip to control the power to this hard drive that has no power button... great... more clutter. Thanks.

Also - (and this might be particular to my setup) - I had to turn off some USB setting in my BIOS in order to keep the drive from freezing the system on startup. More diagnostic time wasting.

Too much time lost... it's just a hard drive - it SHOULDN'T BE SO DIFFICULT!

I have owned this drive for a few days. It replaced an older Maxtor OneTouch 300G USB2 drive that I had used for several years. Overall, this new drive works as advertised ... it is capacious, easy to use, and quiet. That being said, there are a few quirks worth discussing:

1. Seagate provided a real cheap USB cable. And I mean REAL cheap. Mini USB2 format. It failed immediately, and I was lucky that I had a spare mini USB2 cable lying around that I could use. My camera came with a better cord. Come-on Seagate, how about some attention to quality here?

2. The drive comes standard with a USB2 interface. You can upgrade to USB3 by replacing the base, for about $50. So why did they not ship the unit with USB3? After all, USB3 is backwards compatible with USB2. I would have done that in a heartbeat, even if Seagate had charged a bit more for the drive. Think about the marketing hay they could have made. So Seagate is not only cheap, but also stupid.

3. The drive has some configurable parameters built into the firmware. They do not document this anywhere, including their brain-dead Quick-start installation guide. There is no detailed user manual that comes with the unit. You are supposed to install a Seagate Dashboard utility automatically once you plug in the drive, and this utility controls the configurable parameters built into the drive firmware. However, since I am such a know-it-all, and since I like simple, and since I HATE to install software that I neither need nor want, and since I just wanted an attached drive for backup purposes (and I use my own backup software), the first thing I did was disable the Dashboard utility install setup. So what happens? Every 15 minutes or so the drive disappears from the system and then reattaches. My system makes funny noises, I get pop-up windows asking me what I am supposed to do with the "new" drive, and I am wondering just what the HELL is going on. So then I have to spend time contacting Seagate tech support. They tell me to change the drive power options. Huh??? What power options??? The drive power options that are built into the drive firmware, that there is no mention of anywhere. Seems that the drive default is to go to sleep every 15 minutes, which is what was happening to my system. Ohhhhh!!! Silly me ... I should have known. So how do I disable the "sleep" parameter? Well, you do that through the Dashboard utility, which is not discussed anywhere. Ohhh!!! Silly me for not wanting to install the Dashboard and further cluttering up system with useless software, and not knowing about their undocumented firmware configuration parameters. So I install the Dashboard, find the power parameter, and change it from "15 minutes" to "never". Problem solved. Then I remove the Dashboard utility from my system. I only lost maybe 2 hours figuring this out. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And I mean SEAGATE, and not me.

But as the Bard said, "All's well that ends well". The drive works, my backups exist, and I fervently hope I do not have to contact Seagate again. They might not like what I have to say to them.

That is all.

Already have an array of mixed brand drives including Seagate and have never had the problem that this particular one seems to have. Purchased one before Christmas and within the first week it begin to Eject itself from the system. At first just unplugged the USB cable and it would reappear then later on the problem worsened as it would not show up as before and I would have to reboot to find it. Then finally it just would not come back at all and so I used the Disc Utility on my Mac to verify and repair disc. There were so many errors the drive could NOT be repaired!! Lost over a TB of video THANK YOU SEAGATE! Figuring it was just a fluke problem, I returned the drive to Best Buy for another identical drive while still on sale. Again worked fine for a couple of days and now this one is beginning to Eject itself for no reason as well. Here we go again.
If this one goes then Ill definitely dump Seagate from future purchases.

Maybe it was the one I got but this drive didn't mount properly on my imac. Bought the 2TB version to serve as a time machine and it kept ejecting itself. I've since seen several similar reviews from other Mac users on here describing the same problem. I got the same result regardless of how I formatted it (using the Seagate included instructions or Apple's Disk Utility).

1. Drive kept automatically ejecting itself.
2. Couldn't copy anything larger than 40MB at a time to the drive
3. No trust that it could safely keep my files
It seems like my problems mirror some of the other reviews.
I am returning this brand and will probably buy a LaCie.
Also note, I have a Mac.

I purchased this product for its advertised eSATA capabilities. Seagate site explains that if you purchase the eSata cable that you can connect this drive to eSATA. However, the drive doesn't work with any of their eSATA cables because once you replace docking station with eSATA cable - there is no option for power cord which is required. Seagate Technical support, which I called 3 times, was able to tell me that only on 3rd call. First they send me to my Dell support which came out and replaced motherboard and eSATA port. That didn't work, so I took this drive to BestBuy and plugged it into all other computers and it didn't work then. So, when I did that, Seagate told me they will send me replacement cord which may take up to 2 weeks to arrive. Amazon steps in and sends it on 3rd next day (thanks Amazon) but when I get it it still doesn't work. So, on 3rd call, Seagate tech support explains me that this drive shouldn't be marketed with eSATA cord (WTF?!?) and that they are working on solution that will have both eSATA and powercord in one as required by these large drives and should be out in few weeks. Overall, total waste of time. Drive works well with USB 2.0 but so every other drive out there.

 

Reformatting for a Mac was as simple as for any other external drive.

Using the drive on a Mac is impossible. The drive continuously ummounts and mounts itself. Every unmount (every 10 minutes or so) results in a large warning sign splashed across the monitor. Thirty seconds later, the drive will remount itself. The drive remounts itself even after ejecting it or dragging it to the trash. It will not stay mounted, and it will not stay unmounted. It is totally useless on a Mac.