Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive ST310005FDA2E1-RK (Silver)

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 1.3 x 6.9 inches ; 2.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001FWEETK
• Item model number: ST310005FDA2E1-RK
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (283 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #219 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Memory Cards & External Storage > External Hard Drives

• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 11, 2008

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

With its huge capacity and sleek design, the FreeAgent® Desk storage solution delivers a powerful yet simple way to help safeguard all your photos, music, videos, and documents. Included, easy-to-use software helps keep your information safe and private with automatic data backup and encryption of your important files and folders. Environmentally smart utilities help save energy by putting your FreeAgent drive in sleep mode once it has been idle for 15 minutes. And you can take advantage of its flexibility to lie on its side or stand vertically to maximize your workspace.

Durable brushed metal finish, dynamic display lighting

Easy-to-use encryption, password-protect critical files.

Modern Design
With its huge capacity and sleek design, the FreeAgent® Desk storage solution delivers a powerful yet simple way to help safeguard all your photos, music, videos, and documents.

Security
Included, easy-to-use software helps keep your information safe and private with automatic data backup and encryption of your important files and folders.

Dual orientation to maximize space, easily stackable, energy efficient

Space Saving and Energy Efficient
Environmentally smart utilities help save energy by putting your FreeAgent drive in sleep mode once it has been idle for 15 minutes. And you can take advantage of its flexibility to lie on its side or stand vertically to maximize your workspace. Plus, multiple drives can easily stack on top of each other.

Key Features

• Conveniently store all your photos, music, videos and documents in one place thanks to generous storage capacity.
• Enjoy a sleek, modern design that offers the choice of horizontal or vertical orientation to complement your desktop environment.
• Easily protect your data with automatic backup software.
• Keep your important files and folders private with powerful software encryption technology.
• Sync content between your FreeAgent Desk drive and other portable drives so you’ll always have your current versions wherever you are.
• Experience fast data transfer with a USB 2.0 interface.
• Get started quickly with pre-loaded software. No CDs!
• Save energy with an environmentally smart utility that can put your drive in sleep mode once it has been idle for 15 minutes.
• Enjoy peace of mind with a 5-year limited warranty from the worldwide leader in storage solutions.

What’s in the Box
FreeAgent® | Desk external hard drive, FreeAgent software pre-loaded on drive (Windows only), Quickstart guide, Base stand, Attachable feet, USB cable and Power supply. END

Product Description

Smart. Simple. Sleek. Store and safeguard all your favorite files, photos, music, videos, documents, you name it in a stylishly designed desktop storage solution that's as powerful as it is beautiful. Compatibility: Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, or Business Service Pack-1; Windows XP Home, Professional, Media Center Edition Service Pack-2; Windows XP/Vista; USB 2.0 Port.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

139 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mac OS X 10.5 and your external drive..., December 25, 2008

By	Charles E. Paulsen "Chucksen" (Clio, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I ordered this drive because of the capacity and the price figuring that when it arrived I would simply reformat it as HFS+ and plug it into my Macintosh Network. The problem was that every time I tried to use Disk Utility to reformat it I kept getting an error (I forget the exact verbiage). Not only that but when I attached it to my PC running XP Home it wouldn't even recognize it as a hard drive - it thought it was a DVD drive.

I poked around on the Seagate website and found this troubleshooting procedure which solved my issue:

1. Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
2. Click on the Partition tab
3. Click on the Current Volume Scheme drop-down menu and select One (1) partition.
4. Click Options. From the Partition Schemes provided:
5. Click on the GUID Partition Table radio button
-OR-
Click on the Apple Partition Map radio button
6. Click OK. Select other options as desired (e.g., Volume Name, Format, etc.).
7. Click Apply. The Partition Disk screen opens.
8. Click Partition. At this point, the volume dismounts from the desktop and the drive is partitioned and formatted.
Note: When Volumes are created, Time Machine may open asking if you would like to use the volume for backups. Click Cancel to proceed.
When finished, select the Disk Utility from the Apple Menu and choose Quit Disk Utility

I can't blame Seagate, the box clearly said the drive was for an XP or Vista PC, so that's why I am giving it 5 stars. I am anticipating that this drive will perform as well as the 300 gb external Seagate I have been using for the last three years

102 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works perfectly; a pleasure to use and own, November 21, 2008

By	Roger J. Buffington (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been a PC nut since the Apple II and original IBM PC, and backup technology is just now getting good for us small office and home users. I have tried tape backup units, DVDs, and other classic solutions, never with real confidence that my data was stored safely. This 1TB HDD from Seagate really is a superb backup unit. On the competent advice of my IT professional, I bought this unit to back up my home office and digital photograph library.

I bought two of the earlier (black finish) versions of this unit, and they too are very nice, and the installation is identical and as far as I can tell, so is the backup software.

The unit is very nicely built. It has a nice silver finish, and is designed to either mount horizontally or vertically, so most users will have no difficulty finding a place on even the busiest desktop for this compact unit. The nice finish combined with the attractive LED lighting make this an appropriate addition to any desktop. Minor quibble: could they not have mounted the little rubber feet rather than forcing the user to do it?

The unit installed effortlessly. You simply plug it into the power supply, and attach the USB (or firewire) connector to the computer. On my Windows XP machine a menu came right up asking me if I wanted to install the backup software with which the unit comes equipped. I let it do so, and in a minute or so the software was installed and the 1TB HDD was shown in my Computer directory as ready to go. No need for reading anything; true plug and play. The unit is quiet and unobtrusive; it just does its job without annoying the user in any way. Nice!

I did install the backup software, and it seems to be very nice. The software enabled me to schedule a nightly backup for every night, and that is an absolute first for me for my home office. A very nice feeling to know that one has one's files safely backed up. And one can easily view the contents of the unit to actually see the backed-up files.

This is a USB2 unit, so transfer speeds are not as fast as a SCSI drive would be, but usually this is not an issue with the type of use I plan, as routine backups and storage in increments does not take long. For my needs, and I imagine for most users, this unit is speedy enough.

Incidentally, the unit is formated NTFS, so no need to reformat it to get rid of FAT32 format as is the case with some drives. It truly was ready to go for my Vista system.

So far I am extremely pleased with this unit. It is a fast, well-built, well-designed and cost-effective solution to mass storage of data.

163 of 182 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Started out great! Then it died... LEMONS!, December 28, 2008

By	N. W. Campbeln "Campbeln" (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive ST315005FDA2E1-RK (Silver) (Electronics)

As has been mentioned on here and other sites (Tiger, New Egg, etc) this drive is from a great company with a great history, but this LEMON POS has gotta be weeks from being recalled.

Mine worked great under OSX with MacFUSE/NTFS-3G and XP for about 2 weeks. Then the little punk died along with 200gig or so of my data. The disk didn't move off my desk the entire time, no drops, knocks or otherwise.

I love Seagate and I really love their FreeAgent drives (which is why I bought this even after reading the negative reviews here and elsewhere) but this model is a LEMON! DO NOT PURCHASE THIS DRIVE! There's a reason other reviews have mentioned instant RMAs, these things have a high failure rate - hence the no questions asked returns.

Seagate: Recall this POS and reissue a new model with these issues fixed. This is sullying your good name!