Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive ST305004FPA1E3-RK by Seagate
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Digital camera reviews of Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive ST305004FPA1E3-RK
Digital camera Review: Does not work well with Mac
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this HD for my iMac. I am a little disappointed. It was easy enough to setup and partition but, it fails 90% of the time when using "Time Machine". I have to manually back up. I called Seagate and they said they do not support their products when partitioned for PC and Mac and that this was the reason for the failure. However, I had the same issue before adding the PC partition. Do you homework before buying this item, I think there are much better drives out there for the money.Digital camera Review: Doesn't wake up after sleep
Summary: 2 Stars
I've owned this drive for 8 months and mainly use it with my MacBook Pro. I've partitioned and formatted it without any difficulties, however whenever I unplug the firewire cable (after dismounting the drive) and it goes into sleep mode, it never wakes up again. The only way I've managed to work around this is to unplug the power cable and plug it back in which becomes annoying after a while. In addition to that I only found out that the firewire and USB connections are on separate modules after purchasing it, which requires removing one and attaching the other one to use the two different interfaces. I don't do that often, but it's still another inconvenience. I've purchased, used, and recommended various Seagate drives before, unfortunately this one seems to favor looks rather than functionality and therefore don't recommend it to others.Digital camera Review: Easy, no-fuss backup
Summary: 5 Stars
This external hard drive gave me exactly what I was looking for: an easy, solid way to keep my laptop backed up. The software makes it easy to select what and when you want to back up. Installation was easy and straightforward as well. I'm quite happy with this product.Digital camera Review: Eaxctly what I needed
Summary: 5 Stars
When I switched to Mac from PC .. I needed a reliable backup.. I had been using Carbonite (the online storage site). After checking out the online options for the Mac I decided to go with an external hard drive. While the Seagate Free Agent Pro contains only PC software .. it didn't matter. I started Time Machine, it recognized the drive and I haven't thought about it since. It quietly and efficiently saves everything on my Mac. And the FireWire connection is very fast. It never interferes with anything else I'm doing.Digital camera Review: Everything but the basics is problematic
Summary: 3 Stars
Getting data to and from the drive is obviously the most important thing for a hard drive to be able to do. This drive does that very well - fast, quiet, and so far no errors. But that's all this drive does well. Everything else has caused me trouble:
* It took several tries before my XP Home computer would recognize the drive when I first tried to install it.
* Now that it's installed, it still isn't always recognized by Windows.
* Sometimes the drive turns off when the computer is turned off, but usually not.
* Sometimes the power button works, but usually not.
* If the drive is left on it gets so hot I can't comfortably touch it.
* Because of the above issues, I have to manually plug/unplug the drive.
* Ever since installing this drive, I have to shut down windows twice before the computer will actually turn off. I have to hit "turn off", wait a minute, then hit "turn off" again.
* The included backup software sometimes fails to notice that files have been modified. After changing files, the backup software doesn't back them up yet reports that all backups are up to date. If I reboot, all of the files changed the last time I logged in are backed up.
As I mentioned earlier, the drive does reliably store and retrieve bits. Since that's what a hard drive is all about, I'll give it three stars. Nothing else works as it should. What's supposed to be a set-it-and-forget-it backup solution is actually a clunky, manual process. This is the only external hard drive I've ever owned so I can't compare it to other brands, but my intuition tells me you would be better served going with another brand.