Seagate ST3500641CB-RK 500 GB External Hard Drive USB 2.0/FireWire

by Seagate

Product Details

• Item Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000F3XIMY
• Item model number: ST3500641CB-RK
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Fast, Versatile, High-Capacity Storage

This compact, durable drive is ideal for all your business and personal storage needs. You can easily protect and access everything from multimedia presentations and digital photos to MPEG video and DVDs.

• Back up with the touch of a button. Award-winning BounceBack Express software from CMS backs up faster and easier than any other method.
• High-performance 7200-RPM drive with 16 MB cache.
• On/off button eliminates concerns that your hard drive hasn't been shut down safely.
• Built-in self-monitoring technology continuously checks your hard drive for data safety and drive performance.
• Advanced software lets you quickly retrieve files.
• Designed to run much cooler than other external drives.
• Hot-swappable, so you can connect and disconnect without turning off your computer.
• Complete with USB 2.0 cable, FireWire 1394a cable, AC adapter and power cord, quick installation guide and backup software CD.

Product Description

Seagate 500 GB External Pushbutton USB 2.0/1394 External Hard Drive 16 MB Cache. Live large, store small. These drives are beautifully engineered, inside and out, with state-of-the-art features and work-of-art design. They’re exceptionally durable, conveniently portable and perfectly stackable.This compact, durable drive is ideal for all your business and personal storage needs. You can easily protect and access everything from multimedia presentations and digital photos to MPEG video and DVDs with back up with the touch of a button. Award-winning BounceBack Express software from CMS backs up faster and easier than any other method.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best external solution on the market, September 22, 2006

By 

Beemer903 (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Seagate ST3500641CB-RK 500 GB External Hard Drive USB 2.0/FireWire (Personal Computers)

Until recently I had relied on three external 500gb LaCie drives to manage my data and backups, but one by one they started failing - possibly due to Mac OS X Firewire issues, but unreliable nonetheless. I replaced two internal and two external drives with four of these new Seagate models, and they are incredible. A generous 5 year warranty (vs. 1yr for LaCie), beautiful, ergonomic form factor for the external versions (about half the size of the LaCie's) and QUIET! I do a lot of pro photo/video/music work and I live and die by the quality of my storage media. For every drive I have, I have an exact clone drive in case something goes wrong. I researched all the options and came to the conclusion that the newer Seagate models were the most reliable for the money. So far, I am extremely pleased with my volume purchase of these four drives!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warranty is only one year, October 26, 2006

By 

Tired Techie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seagate ST3500641CB-RK 500 GB External Hard Drive USB 2.0/FireWire (Personal Computers)

Seagate warranty on external drives is only one year in the US. Two years in the EU.

The warranty on their internal drives is five years.

Very good product nonetheless. Excellent technical support, too.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It was not up to my expectation... UPDATED January 2008, February 5, 2007

By 

LFTV (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seagate ST3500641CB-RK 500 GB External Hard Drive USB 2.0/FireWire (Personal Computers)

I had originally bought the Seagate 400GB with 16MB of cache at a local store, but, I returned it when I saw this one for almost $40 cheaper and with greater capacity. I was completely disappointed when I saw it working since I was expecting the same quality and performance as the previous model:

Cons:

-It was vibrating too much to my linking (the one I returned did not vibrate at all),
-it got hotter than the 400GB model,
-after testing it with HD Tune (a free utility) I found that the last 50GB on the drive were very slow and irregular,
-it was noisier and slower than the 400GB model.

So, a few hours after I unpacked it I repacked it and returned it the next day (even with these flaws, I give it 4 stars because it is still better than other drives out there).

Then, I went back to the same local store and bought the 400GB model again. Now I am happier. This new 400GB model vibrates just a little (the first one did not vibrate at all), it does not get hot at all (just a little warm, very little), and best of all, it is faster than the bigger capacity models. I did try the WD My Book Premium 500 GB, but I also returned it because it really vibrated a lot, it really got hot (not warm, but hot), and it gave some trouble to my computer when being detected or after unplugging it from the system. The things I did like were the speed and the looks; it is the fastest out there. However, speed is of no use if you run the risk of losing data because the drive overheats. By the way, this WD drive was the only drive that allowed me to see the S.M.A.R.T. status over the USB port (using the WD tools). I was not pleased with the Maxtor or the AcomData either.

In the end I found by personally trying different brands, that right now (February 2007), the Seagate 400GB with 16MB cache USB/Firewire is the best -to my liking (I have read some bad reviews about the model with 8MB cache, but not this one with 16), even when I cannot check the S.M.A.R.T. status.




UPDATE (January 2008):

This is an update for the 400 GB model, and not this one (500 GB model) advertised here.

The 400 GB model has been working flawlessly, it still does not overheat, and it is quiet.

That being said, a few times I have had the problem that my PC with Windows XP will not detect the drive. At first I thought that some of the reviews were right when reporting this issue, but, since I am a computer techqui, I started troubleshooting my system and the hard drive and this is what I found:

It is not the hard drive but Windows XP at fault. Here is how you fix this issue:

1. Make sure your external Seagate hard drive is OFF.
2. Get to "System Properties": go to Control Panel and then double click on System, or right click on the "My Computer" icon on the desktop and then click on Properties.
3. Once the "System Properties" windows is on the screen, click on the "Hardware" option tab, then on "Device Manager"
4. After the "Device Manager" window appears, click "View" on the toolbar, and then click on "Show Hidden Devices".
5. Now "Device Manager" will show you everything, even those things which you can only see when booting as "Safe Mode" (so, no need to boot in Safe Mode, but you can still do that if you prefer).
6. What you do next is that you look for all the references to the Seagate hard drive (make sure it is the external one, in case you have an internal drive of the same brand) and DELETE them all. This can be found under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and "Disk Drives". Then, I went more radical and I also deleted (just the prior option alone didn't work for me) all the grayed-out devices under "Human Interface Devices" and also under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" and "SBP2 IEEE 1394 Devices" (here I deleted whatever was there since the only firewire device that I ever used in my system was the Seagate hard drive). Now, remember that the hard drive must be turned off, this way the system will show all the firewire and usb devices relating to the Seagate hard drive as grayed-out, and even if it is not grayed out you still delete the device if you see the name of your external hard drive.
7. Now reboot the computer and after your system is done loading then turn on your external Seagate hard drive and it will work; Windows will start detecting again "like for the first time" all the things you deleted, including your external hard drive.

So much for "Plug and Play"! It is the PnP in Windows that prevents the hard drive from being detected. I have never had another problem again after doing the steps above. Oh, if you have a Mac, well, you are on your own... sorry. The Mac doesn't give you this level of hardware control since it doesn't use a "registry" like Windows does. You can try deleting references to the hard drive under "extensions", or rebuilding your desktop, and if you want to go radical: create a new user account and delete the old one (NOTE: be mindful that all your setting and personal files on the desktop and throughout the system will/may be gone).