Seagate FreeAgent Go 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive ST905003FGA2E1-RK (Silver)

Other products by Seagate

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4 x 6.8 x 2 inches ; 11.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001FWCDQG
• Item model number: ST905003FGA2E1-RK
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (370 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank

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

• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 29, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

With its sleek design and huge capacity, the FreeAgent® Go portable storage solution makes it easy to take your photos, music, videos, and documents everywhere. Included, easy-to-use software helps keep your information safe with automatic data backup and encryption of your important files and folders. You can sync content between your work and home computers so you’ll always have your most current versions. And you can take advantage of the world’s first portable drive with a convenient desktop dock accessory. Simply pop your drive into the FreeAgent dock whenever you want to access your files — no more fumbling for cables!

Winner of CNET Editors’ Choice, September 2008 and PC Magazine Editors’ Choice, October 2008.
“The Seagate FreeAgent Go is our favorite portable hard drive to date and takes our award for Editors’ Choice. The drive is well designed and fast, and you won’t find a better value for the price.” — Justin Yu, CNET

FreeAgent® Go is the thinnest portable hard drive available	Automatically back up and sync your files with the included software	FreeAgent® Go with a convenient docking station — no more fumbling for cables
Sleek Design and Huge Capacity With its sleek design and huge capacity, the FreeAgent® Go portable storage solution makes it easy to take your photos, music, videos, and documents everywhere. Pocket and carry your data with ease thanks to a sleek design—the thinnest portable storage solution on the market. Even the cable folds up compactly.	Easy-to-use Software Included, easy-to-use software helps keep your information safe with automatic data backup and encryption of your important files and folders. You can sync content between your work and home computers so you’ll always have your most current versions.	Convenient Dock and Travel Case Take advantage of the world’s first portable drive with an optional desktop dock accessory. Simply pop your drive into the FreeAgent dock whenever you want to access your files — no more fumbling for cables!

Key Benefits

• Pocket and carry your data with ease thanks to a sleek design—the thinnest portable storage solution on the market. Even the cable folds up compactly.
• Choose from a variety of colors to complement your style and help you differentiate between multiple drives.
• Access your files with unparalleled convenience by simply popping your drive into the FreeAgent desktop dock accessory.
• You’ll never fumble for cables again! Even purchase another dock for convenience at home and at the office.
• Take all your photos, music, videos and documents with you everywhere thanks to large storage capacities of 250GB, 320GB, and 500GB
• Easily protect your data with automatic backup software.
• Keep your most important files and folders private with software encryption technology.
• Sync content between your work and home computers so you’ll always have your most current versions.
• Experience fast data transfer with a USB 2.0 interface.
• Get started quickly with pre-loaded software. No CDs!
• Save energy by using one small drive for both mobile and desktop needs, and take advantage of an environmentally smart utility that can power down your drive when it’s not in use.
• Enjoy peace of mind with a 5-year limited warranty from the worldwide leader in storage solutions.

What’s in the Box
FreeAgent® Go portable hard drive, FreeAgent software pre-loaded on drive (Windows only), Quickstart guide, New and flexible USB travel cable. Optional dock not included

Product Description

Take your desktop environment and all of your files to go. The FreeAgent Go portable hard drive can run more than 100 free and pay-to-use applications on any PC without installing or storing programs on the host computer. Carry your browser, favorites, passwords, IM client and contacts, email client, cookies, settings and files; so whether you're using a computer at work, school, a business center, an Internet cafe, or a library, you have your desktop environment there when you need it. FreeAgent Go software lets you carry lots of great programs and all your browser favorites and passwords without having to haul around your computer. Your FreeAgent Go Portable Hard Drive saves all of your private information on itself, not on the computer you're using. That means there's no trace of your last session to tempt the next person on a borrowed computer. It also provides strong file encryption to protect your content, and lets you sync your files from several PCs. It's all about having your desktop environment and latest files with you, whenever and wherever you need them. Designed for mobility, the sleek compact design easily fits into your shirt pocket, briefcase or backpack. Plug in the USB 2.0 cable to a PC and your personal desktop environment launches automatically. Leave no trace of your last session on a borrowed computer Operating System - Windows XP Home, Professional Edition, or Vista Dimensions - Height 0.7 x Width 4.8 x Depth 3.9 (17.7x121.9x99mm) Weight - 6.4 ounces (184 kg)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

283 of 288 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stylish product, dockable, beats my WD Passport drives, December 3, 2008

By	R. van Bakel (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a professional photographer who fills up two portable drives a year (I swap the onsite and offsite copies after each shoot). The Western Digital (WD) Passport portables I've been using, at 320 Gb each, are full to the brim with all my 2008 'raw' work. Wanting to preserve the data on them, I went shopping for two more portable drives, and came across the Seagate 500 Gb GO models.

You can't really go wrong with either drive (both companies offer a great five-year warranty), but I like the form factor of the Seagates a bit better (they're a fraction of an inch smaller in all dimensions but LOOK even more svelte than they are). Also, an Amazon promotion currently offers a free dock with the Seagate drives, much like an iPod dock -- just slide the device onto the connector and it mounts on your desktop. Handy and elegant. The WD drives don't have this option.

The downside to using the Seagate dock (and this is why I give this setup 4 stars, not 5) is that, for reasons I don't comprehend, it takes up TWO USB ports on your computer. Those have to be powered ports, so you can't use a non-powered USB hub (at least that doesn't work with my one-year-old iMac and my el-cheapo hub -- your mileage may vary). The alternative is buying a powered hub, OR just not using the dock, instead connecting the drive directly to a single USB port on the computer with the supplied cable.

Speaking of USB connections: Apart from the dock, another advantage of the Seagate drive over the WD Passport is that it seems more power-efficient. At least, I can use the Seagate with my aging Powerbook and a single (supplied) cable, no problems. The WD drives, on the other hand, won't mount on my Powerbook's desktop unless I purchase a special three-plug "power booster" USB cable that (again) takes up two of the machine's ports. This may be a small thing, but it's meaningful to me. With the Seagates, I can finally just slide a capacious drive into a shirt pocket or any other available small space, and use the device on the road, nothing else necessary beyond a standard mini-to-regular USB cable (supplied) -- no booster cable, no power supply.

There is also a Mac version of the Seagate drive. I inadvertently purchased the PC version but it makes zero difference, I believe: the thing works fine, no drivers needed. The Mac version contains platform-specific backup software and maybe a couple of other goodies that I don't need or won't miss.

Due to the idiosyncracies of file systems and how bits and bytes are counted in the computer industry, the usable capacity of the 500Gb Seagate drive is actually just 465Gb. That 'shortcoming' goes for every drive on the market, though -- no big deal, just something to keep in mind.

The Seagate's speed is fine: on my Mac, it took just under 4 minutes to copy 5 gigs' worth of smallish files. So it's neither a speed demon nor a slowpoke.

One more thing about the dock: It comes with a nice enough black leatherette padded sleeve for the drive. That bonus really should have been packaged with the drive instead of the dock, but I'm not complaining. The Passport drives come without a case or sleeve, and I paid another 30 bucks for two Case Logic soft-side cases at the time. I will continue to use the Case Logic cases for the Seagate GO drives, because the Seagates, outfitted with their own leatherette sleeves, fit snugly inside the Case Logic clamshell design -- double protection and peace of mind.

144 of 155 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Works great so far BUT..., January 6, 2009

By	W. Cubbage (Louisville, KY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Seagate FreeAgent Go 250 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive-Black ST902503FAA2E1-RK (Electronics)

I am using this hard drive to back-up my computer and so far it works great. The only thing that prevented me from giving it a 5-star rating is that software updates won't install on my computer because I'm running Vista 64-bit Home Premium. Seagate only supports Vista 32-bit. No where on the packaging or in the specs for the unit is this poined out, in fact it specifically says that it is compatible with Vista.

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent write speed (in my opinion), October 29, 2008

By	J. Holston - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Seagate FreeAgent Go 250 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive ST902503FGA2E1-RK (Silver) (Electronics)

I downloaded 1.06 GB in 2 min 27.63 seconds (yes I used a stopwatch so I could post this review to help all of you reading this). There were multiple big files but also a lot of small files. There were a total of 107 files in that download. I was downloading from a network attached drive, which may have slowed it down a little, but I don't really know.

I tell you these things because I found it very difficult to get "real" numbers when I was trying to decide which hard drive to buy. I cared mostly about write speed because for the most part I will only use it to back up my files. I took a chance with this drive based on opinions from people I talked to, and I am glad I did. It is very portable and very nice looking. I opened a file to test the read speed, and it seemed fine. I don't know how to time the read speed of a drive, sorry.

I did not test the software because I don't plan to use it. I've heard that the software makes it faster, but I can't use it because I am on a public computer.

If you are looking for a hard drive case, I highly recommend this one! Caselogic PHDC-1 Small EVA External Hard Drive Case (Red) I hope this helps you make your decision. Have a great day!