GUIDE TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES

Seagate ST305004FDA1E1-RK FreeAgent Desktop 500 GB 3.5" USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

Manufacturer : Seagate
In Stock : 45

List Price:	$209.99
Price:	$94.03
You Save:	$115.96 (55%)

Features

500 GB external hard drive connects to your computer via USB cable
7200 RPM spindle speed for high-speed performance and fast read times
Footprint is no bigger than a stapler; Just plug it in and you're ready to go
Backup CDs, DVDs or store files and programs for on-the-go
Includes external drive, USB 2.0 cable, AC power adapter, and quick start guide; 5-year limited warranty

Product Description

With a footprint no bigger than a stapler, the Seagate FreeAgent is an external desktop hard drive that can fit anywhere. The FreeAgent is designed to conveniently hold all of your digital content in one place. This drive can hold 500GB worth of data and is ready to go as soon as you plug it in. Mac Compatibility - Power PC G3, G4, or G5 running OS X 10.3.9 (or higher), or Intel Core Duo or Core Solo running OS X 10.4.6 (or higher) (drive is formatted NTFS, you will need to reformat for Mac using Disk Utility) 5-Year Limited Manufacturer Warranty Unit Dimensions - 7.5 (h) x 1.6 (w) (w/o 3.2 base) x 6.4 (d)

Amazon.com Product Description

When its time to back up and protect your digital content--photos, music, documents, and more--it doesn't get much easier than the Seagate Free Agent Desktop USB Portable Hard Drive. Simply plug it in to any power source, connect the USB cable to any computer, and you're ready to go. This hip-looking hard drive takes up less room on your desk than an ordinary stapler, giving you more space for your other desktop items.

Powerful storage device with a sleek new design.

Takes up less room on your desk than a stapler.

Keep all your digital content in a safe and secure location.

Portable Performance and Security
If you're still relying on your personal computer or back-up CDs or DVDs to store your digital content or vital personal or family documents, you're running an unnecessary risk. Your computer can only hold so many files and can crash at any time, leaving you helpless to access your content. DVDs and CDs have a place in archiving, but they get easily scratched and lost. It's too risky to store everything in your computer, and too time-consuming and cumbersome to have a drawer full of CDs or DVDs.

Computers come and go, but your content should always be nearby. With up to 1000 glorious gigabytes, the Free Agent external hard drive is the best place to gather and access all of your important photos, movies, music, games and documents. Simply plug in the power and the USB cable and you’re ready to go.

The Seagate Free Agent is big enough to store a huge portion of your digital content in a safe and secure environment, but small enough to let you take that content with you wherever you go. In other words, having the Seagate Free Agent is like having your entire computer with you at all times, but in a package that's a small fraction of the space and weight of your computer.

Designed to live peacefully in your home or office, the Free Agent external hard drive is extra quiet and takes up less room on your desk than a stapler. Even the cable ports are base-mounted to help keep your desk free of clutter. We even add a little bit of sophistication to your desktop with the unique espresso brown finish and molten amber illumination.

The sleek and slim design of this hard drive--only measures 7.5 x 1.6 x 6.4-inches (H x D x W)--and a weight of less than four pounds. The Seagate Free Agent lets you transfer files seamlessly from your computer via its USB 2.0 connection at a brisk transfer rate of up to 480Mb/sec. The drive delivers a spindle speed of 7,200 RPM, giving you the high-speed performance you need to back your data up quickly and safely.

The Seagate Free Agent is ready to use out of the box with a PC, but it can be made Mac-ready in a matter of minutes with Mac OS X's Disk Utility. This portable hard drive is already compatible with Windows Vista (as well as Windows XP and Windows 2000), allowing you to backup your content regardless of operating system upgrades.

At this compact size, and with this high performance, you now have the ability to take your data with you anywhere you go, so your digital content finally has room to breathe. A five-year warranty is also included, giving you complete peace of mind.

What's in the Box
FreeAgent Desktop drive, USB 2.0 cable, AC power adapter, and quick start guide.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating of 4.00 out of 201 reviews

Rating :
Seagate FreeAgent does not cooperate with GNU/Linux - Brian M. Napoletano, Aug 25, 2008

Seagate's glowing product description of its FreeAgents overlooks a rather important detail: the sleep utility built in to the hardware severely restricts its compatibility with any GNU/Linux Operating System (and allegedly with Mac systems). While the default NTFS partition is easy enough to reformat, circumventing the problems introduced by the sleep function is a bit more tortuous.

Apparently, the FreeAgent drive includes a power-saving function that automatically deactivates the drive after a brief period of inactivity. This causes the drive to disappear on Linux systems. If the system does manage power the device back up and to find the drive again, it cannot mount it to the same location, as it is reserving that mount point for a device that its still expecting to reappear. Therefore, the OS increments the mount point, which completely invalidates any references and cron tasks that were pointing to the old system.

A solution is available that works for a fair number of GNU/Linux users. These users can install the sdparm utility and issue the following command to attempt to disable the sleep utility: "sdparm --clear STANDBY -6 /dev/sd[Your device]". As I mentioned, this works for many users. Other users have been forced to resort to more extreme measures, such as scheduling a cronjob to 'touch' a file on the USB disk every thirty seconds.

If Seagate had advertised their decision to design their hardware to be incompatible with Free Software, I would not be rating this product so poorly--in fact, I wouldn't be rating it at all, because I never would have purchased it. While I certainly would not have thought very highly of Seagate, I would have at least respected the corporation more than I now do. Admittedly, I could have done a bit more research before I purchased the drive. Instead, I made the mistake of believing that we had finally begun to reach a point where one could assume that the hardware available is compatible with something other than Microsoft Windows. The time and effort wasted on this incompatibility was enough to make a more expensive, but better designed, piece of hardware the wiser economic investment. Therefore, if you are a fellow GNU/Linux user, I recommend you consider a Maxtor drive. I haven't had any compatibility or reliability issues with their products, and I've been using them longer and more rigorously than I have the Seagate drives.

Rating :
Good price with reliability - Maetee Patana-anake, Aug 24, 2008

Fast, no lousy sound when running.. that's good enough for me (it does serve it purpose here)

Rating :
Bye, Bye, Data. - James P. Walker, Aug 23, 2008

Before I make any purchase I try to look around and find the most affordable and reliable solution. However, I wish I took more care into doing so when researching my external hard drive. Lets spill out a little tale.

I was recently switching my Windows laptop over to a Linux build. Before doing so I backed up all of my data and client's data onto my 500GB Seagate External hard drive. After awhile of fooling around on the distribution and realizing the emulation capabilities were not what I hoped of some Windows based programs I switched back. (No hard feelings Linux, I still love you and use you in other ventures.) However when I went to plug my Seagate hard drive in nothing happened. I went and opened it up and the drive looked like it was completely blank. I unplugged it and switched over to my desktop. This time all the folders were there, but empty. Shut everything down checked connections, pins, made sure everything was plugged in and then powered everything on. Again, no data was shown.

In somewhat of a panic since a clients project was due that week I contacted their customer support, who seems to work more off of sales then to help. While I was on with the representative who took forever to respond between inquiries I started researching Seagates data recovery and analysis tools. When I mentioned these to the customer support he said "DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO YOUR HARD DRIVE. SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN AND DO NOT TOUCH IT." Yes, caps. Then being told that Seagate's "Remote Data Recovery" service would cost close to $1400 I promptly left.

After searching and trying various options I did eventually get my data off of the hard drive. However it was a daunting task.

I would advise anyone, who needs to backup their data to stay away from Seagate. I have yet to use any other physical back up solution. I rely heavily on Amazon's amazing S3 services. So, buyers, if you happen to be revamping your system and want to buy an external hard drive go ahead, get a Seagate. They will only cost you $1500. Or, you can try out S3 and pay pennies per month for only the space that you use.

Rating :
Early Review - Kathleen Hanson, Aug 16, 2008

Though I've only recently opened my hard drive it's worked flawlessly. Backup is quick and easy, and the device is quiet. The one downside as noted before is the lack of an on/off switch and just a plug-in. However, I wouldn't let that deter you from buying this product, especially when it's on sale.

Rating :
Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY - J. Puchalik, Aug 14, 2008

I cannot urge you enough to look elsewhere for an external HD. These products are GARBAGE.

I bought this along with my new iPod (ironically because I have a smaller 120GB external from these guys that has been everything I could ask of it), intending to store my iTunes files on here, rather than using up all that space on my laptop's HD. So... I get the drive, burn about 250-300 cds onto the drive.... and it craps out. Data gone. Oh man, I was livid.

Seagate replaced the drive, which is fine, but they only replace broken drives with refurbs... so, you replace your broken drive with one that was ALREADY BROKEN. Why this didn't occur to me at the time, I don't know. And guess what they charge to recover data from broken drives? $50? $200? No!!! FOURTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!!! $1,400!!!! No joke. I've bought cars for less.

Anyway, I get the replacement drive, and this one lasts all the way through all _520 CDs_ I own. FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY CDS. I get them all stored on the drive, and I'm making a playlist up right before I move the songs all to my iPod...

...and the new drive craps out.

Seriously. I wish this was a joke.

I don't know yet if the data is all gone this time, but I have had enough. If I get my music files off this heap by some miracle, I'm taking this drive out in my yard and I'm going to go "Office Space" on it. And then I'm going to take the little bits, and set them on fire. I got the iPod in March, and I have yet to listen to one lousy song on it. And it's all because of Seagate. Their products are garbage and I will NEVER buy ANYTHING from these guys again.

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