Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 3 TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive STAC3000102

by Seagate

• USB 3.0 plug-and-play
• Easy-to-use pre-loaded backup software with encryption
• World's most versatile external drive - upgrade your interface to suit your needs
• Includes GoFlex Desk USB 3.0 adapter with capacity gauge display
• 2-Year limited warranty

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 1.7 x 6.2 inches ; 2.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B005IA844G
• Item model number: STAC3000102
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (384 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 1, 2011

Product Description

Size: 3 TB

From the Manufacturer

The GoFlex Desk external drive delivers high-capacity storage and automatic, continuous backup with encryption for all your files with its pre-loaded software. The included USB 3.0 plug-and-play adapter makes it easy to connect to your computer and displays the drive's available storage capacity. The streamlined design complements any modern workspace, and as the world's most versatile external desktop drive, you now have the ability to upgrade your connection interface to suit your needs. This drive is great for allowing you to save or access your videos, photos, music or files.

Store over 16,000 hours of music on the 1TB GoFlex Drive

Store, back up and encrypt all your files with plug-and-play USB 3.0 connectivity

Streamlined design complements any workspace. View larger

Protect your files with GoFlex's built-in back-up software

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 for Faster Performance

The GoFlex Desk drive includes a USB 3.0 interface that provides up to 10x faster data transfer rates compared to USB 2.0 interfaces. USB 3.0 is backward compatible with USB 2.0 so you have the flexibility to access files from any PC.

Plug-and-Play with Automatic Backup Software

The Seagate GoFlex's built-in backup software ensures automatic continuous backup of your data. It secures your backed up files and protects your privacy with powerful encryption software. The Seagate Dashboard management tool software provides easy management of backup schedules, file encryption, and at-a-glance drive statistics, including available capacity.

Access Files with the Interface of Your Choice

Use the advanced USB 3.0 interface for maximum compatibility with standard desktops and laptops. USB 3.0 works with PCs equipped with a USB 3.0 port for maximum file transfer speeds, but also works with standard USB 2.0 ports. Or upgrade to FireWire 800 or powered eSATA by pairing the drive with the appropriate GoFlex upgrade cable. (Upgrade cables sold separately.)

Enhanced Versatility Is a Snap

Plug-and-play connectivity options let you protect, store, and do more. The GoFlex Storage System allows you to upgrade the way you access your digital content without having to replace your drive. Upgrade cables and kits make it easy to move from USB 3.0 to eSATA or FireWire 800 for even faster transfer speeds for your large files and HD movies. Extend your digital life so you can access and share your files from anywhere.

What's in the Box

The Seagate GoFlex Desk drive, backup with encryption software pre-loaded on drive, GoFlex USB 3.0 interface adapter, 4-foot USB 3.0 cable, quick start guide, 2-year limited warranty.

Seagate GoFlex Desk v2.0 Specifications

	TB1	2TB1	3TB1	4TB1
Model Number	STAC1000103	STAC2000106	STAC3000102	STAC4000100
Interface	USB 3.0	USB 3.0	USB 3.0	USB 3.0
How Much Will it Store?
Digital Music (Hours)	16,660	33,320	49,980	66,640
Digital Photos (Files) Average file size using cameras highest resolution JPEG mode	320,000	640,000	960,000	1,280,000
Digital Videos (Hours)	1,000	2,000	3,000	4,000
DVD Quality (Movies) Based on standard 2 hour movie	250	500	750	1,000
HD Video (Hours) Based on H.264 compression at a 6.75Mbs bitrate	250	500	750	1,000
1One gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equals one trillion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity.

The Seagate GoFlex Family Hard Drives

GoFlex
Ultra-Portable Drive

GoFlex Desk v2.0
External Drive

GoFlex Home
Network Storage System

Product Description

Protect, store and access files through the interface of your choice with the world's most versatile drive. The GoFlex Desk external drive delivers high-capacity storage and automatic, continuous backup with encryption for all your files with its pre-loaded software. The included USB 3.0 plug-and-play adapter makes it easy to connect to your PC or Mac computer and it displays the drive's available storage capacity. The streamlined design complements any modern workspace, and as the world's most versatile external desktop drive, you now have the ability to upgrade your connection interface to suit your needs .The GoFlex Desk drive includes a USB 3.0 interface that provides up to 10x faster data transfer rates compared to USB 2.0 interfaces. USB 3.0 is backward compatible with USB 2.0 so you have the flexibility to access files from any PC. With the included NTFS driver for Mac, you can now interchangeably store and access files from PC and Mac computers without reformatting. The NTFS driver is simply installed on your Mac computer, allowing it to access and store files in a NTFS formatted drive. Reformatting to HFS+ required to use backup software for Mac or Time Machine software

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

183 of 190 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 4TB Sleek, Fast, & Easy September 23, 2011

By Mumford

Size Name:4 TB|Amazon Verified Purchase

I purchased the 4TB Seagate GoFlex Desk external drive with the intent of consolidating all my media files onto a single central drive. Straight out of the box, impressions were good. The newer generation drive offers a sleeker high gloss alternative to the previous Seagate Desk models. The drive comes equipped with a USB 3.0 base dock, which features five white LEDs on the front to illustrate power as well as indicate the capacity used on the drive in 25% increments. In addition, it also comes with the AC power adapter and a 4 foot USB 3.0 cord, which is significantly more convenient than the 1 1/2 foot cords that were supplied with my 1TB Seagate GoFlex Ultra Portable Drives.

Right out of the box I plugged in to my Windows 7 laptop, had the drivers automatically installed, and was off and running in about 30 seconds. Simple enough. Actual available space on the drive (due to conversion) is about 3.63 TB, which was an expected reduction.. but is worth noting for those who aren't aware there will be less memory actually available than what is advertised.

An initial letdown was the noise. The drive emits a low frequency hum when powered, as well as airflow noise from the vent holes on the top of the enclosure. Overall, the sound is somewhat noticeable, but not loud. Nothing I'd really complain about.. I think I'm just spoiled by my virtually silent USB powered portable drives. Also, one thing you don't want to do is tilt this thing on its side or move it around haphazardly while transferring data - you'll get a kind of faint and unnerving buzz-saw sound if you tilt it at an angle or jostle it roughly. Best to leave it stationary or keep it straight up and down when moving the drive while it's running.. learned that the hard way.

I did run diagnostics to determine the read/write speed of the drive, but since I only have a USB 2.0 motherboard in my laptop, my personal results are not at all accurate to the true capabilities of this drive. However, I have read reviews of users with USB 3.0 technology benchmarking the drive at approximately 190MB/s read and 160MB/s write speeds. When I gain access to a USB 3.0 PC, I'll run the tests and update with personal results.

Additional details from the diagnostic show the GoFlex Desk houses a SATA III 6Gbps 7200RPM 3.5" hard drive with 5 platters (800GB each). Temperature is around 47°C on idle startup. After 8 hours of running transfer, temperature maxed at 55°C. Pretty happy with the drive thus far - will update with any encountered problems over the next few weeks.

UPDATE June 15, 2012 - I've owned this drive for over 9 months now with virtually no problems to speak of. The drive is always running with excessive daily use for the past nine months. No data corruption or failed transfers have occurred thus far. After filling the drive to capacity with various media, playback has been flawlessly smooth, especially when viewing full 1080p BluRay rips. Unfortunately, I've knocked it over hard a handful of times (it's inevitable), but no apparent damage has been done whatsoever.

Overall, it appears Seagate has surprisingly released a solid and reliable 4TB drive on their first attempt. I was wary at first to spend the $220 to essentially beta test a new product, but now I'm happy that I did, as I look forward to purchasing more. I've noticed these have been generally out of stock this year, most likely due to the aftermath of the flood fiasco in Thailand, but it appears they will be readily available again here in the latter half of this year. I intend to purchase a couple more, strip out the drives, and drop them in a NAS enclosure.

Also, please note the respective 190MB/S & 160MB/S read write speeds stated above are theoretical peak benchmark speeds, not taking into account bottlenecking and real world transfer. You should expect to get about half these speeds on a consistent basis. About ~95MB/S Read ~85MB/S Write using USB 3.0 . Will update again if the drive ever dies or encounters problems.

122 of 128 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Drive with One Understandable Flaw November 22, 2011

By Beard///

Size Name:4 TB|Amazon Verified Purchase

Because of some early negative reviews from Amazon users, and what I'm pretty sure is a computer rendering of the product instead of a photograph, I was initially a little reluctant about this drive. But I've had a lot of very good experiences with Seagate, so I bought it. I'm glad I did.

The build quality is nice. The enclosure is actually really slick. I do prefer the look of a thin, USB powered, 2.5" external, but in the world of 3.5" drives this is total design win.

It performs about as expected, if not better. I'm currently still using USB 2.0, but the initial burst on this thing is crazy high, and it (very) gradually slows down to my typical transfer rate. This is more true with a single large file than many small files. But its overall performance has me really excited about installing a USB 3.0 card in my system.

The Bad? Well, I bought this to be a media drive, and it "sleeps" after a relatively short period of inactivity. I want my media to be accessible all the time without waiting for the disc to fire up. Starting and stopping the drive as often as I need it to could be annoying. After changing some system settings and installing some software from the Seagate website, I disabled its auto-sleep. Now everything works as it should.

However, if you're using this disc as a back up drive, the disc sleeping is actually a very good thing. It will conserve energy and likely prolong the life of your drive. So for those people, this is a 5 star product.

If I could give it 4.5 stars, I would. It performs well, looks great, stays quiet and reasonably cool. There's just that one correctable hiccup that will only upset some users.

Definitely recommended.

126 of 135 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Works in Windows Explorer after Converting to GPT December 23, 2011

By Chuck

Size Name:3 TB|Amazon Verified Purchase

This drive uses 4KB sectors due to it being over 2TB. 512 bytes has been the standard. Long story short, Windows doesn't like the way the drive is formatted. Windows recognizes it and can view files on the drive, but USB transfers, especially large ones, using Windows Explorer hang partway through and never complete. Transfers seemed to be working fine if I used the software included with the drive, but I did not want something running in the background constantly. I just wanted more storage space to copy files onto manually.

If you want to use this with Windows Explorer, you'll need to convert the drive to GPT (GUID Partition Table). The Seagate software did not recognize the drive after I did this, but I was fine with that.

In windows 7, you can convert your drive by going to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management. Find the correct drive, delete all volumes on that drive. Right click on the drive and select "Convert to GPT." Then, create a new partition.

The drive itself now seems to be working perfectly. Seagate should at the very least provide instructions on how to get this to work in Windows. They could have also provided a small utility to convert the drive. I should have not had to spend nearly as long as I did trying to figure out what was wrong.