 A great, stylish portable drive |
| Review Date: November 20, 2009 |
| Reviewer: MiRSD, |
I've been through a few external drives - WD Pocket drives, WD raid drives, HP Portable media drives, but the Seagate Freeagent GO is definitely my favorite. It's a very thing and stylish drive which is very reliable (and fast!), with a capacity big enough to hold all of your documents.
Compared to my WD Raid and HP Portable media drives, this one is by far the fastest (copying data through the same connector at almost twice the speed). It's also very stylish and easy to take with you wherever you go.
I originally purchased the normal Freeagent GO drive but after filling it, looked into the Freeagent GO Special Edition for my next drive.
The drive and connectors are all the same - the difference is a chrome trim along the sides, and a glossy black dock. The trim wasn't important to me (although was nice to help differentiate it from my plain black Freeagent GO), but the Dock was very nice. The dock is only available (outside of this package) in a matte white/grey color, not really blending with any of the drives outside of the Silver color. The glossy black dock matches the style of the drive and really gives an overall great appearance.
The dock uses 2 USB ports (although only one is necessary - the 2 USB ports are for older computers which can't power and transfer data with 1 cable). You can also choose to connect the USB cable directly to the drive, bypassing the dock.
One big difference (to me) was the lack of a case for the drive - if you buy the Dock separately in stores, you get a free faux-leather case to hold the drive. This was actually the selling point for me when buying the drive in the first place. The Special Edition only includes the drive, USB cable and the dock (no case). Keep this in mind if you decide to go for this version!
The drive has not given me any issues so far - something I cannot say about my WD raid drive - it's quiet and does just what it's supposed to.
Which version would I recommend? Normal or Special edition?
For looks? Special Edition - the black dock makes a big difference.
If you don't care about looks, or don't plan to use the dock, go for the regular one. It's cheaper, looks just fine and if you do decide to get a dock later on, you'll still be paying less than what the Special Edition costs, and you'll get a case out of it. |
Solid, Easy to Use and Stylish
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| Review Date: January 9, 2010 |
| Reviewer: B Bezukhov, |
Introduction
I wanted to have an external portable drive (EHDD) that would not require another power cord, as I will be traveling it is a great benefit to be able to back up files and store other important files on an easy to access portable external EHDD. I also needed a lot of space, something that a year ago was out of my price range. However, [...] was having a sale and this only cost around $110, which was perfect. The Black/Chrome version (which I bought) comes with a dock that you can use to hook the EHDD to, I've only used it a couple times, but it works as advertised, though it does need to use two USBs instead of one.
Appearance
This device looks good, it doesn't smug that much due to the finish on the top and bottom, though the sides will get some finger prints on it, it shouldn't matter that much and it is easy to clean with a cloth or shirt. The EHDD has a glowing light that strobes slowly, indicating if the drive is in use. This is nice, though I wish it was more pronounced and that they used the smaller Seagate logo to indicate this instead of the radiating patter of dots. Overall, the design works, which is what it comes down to.
Construction quality
The build quality is good, but not spectacular. The sides are quite solid and feel like they can handle being hit; the material used for the top and bottom feels a bit weaker. But for all intents and purposes, unless you are continuously dropping this device from heights, it should hold up well.
Ease of installation
I am using Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise. On my machine it was a plug n' play affair, the only installation comes from the optional Seagate software (remember to go into Services on Windows if you don't want the FreeAgent executable running in the background all the time). The software has some useful features (standard backup, etc.) as well as the ability to change some settings on what the device will do (such as turning off the light). Overall it is a pretty standard affair, but one that gets the job done and is easy to customize (what you want to backup, when, etc.).
Ease of use
As stated above, minimal install (the setup is on the EHDD and you can run the .exe from there). It is a drag n' drop external EHDD, standard affair. Although, some people might be irked by the short USB cable, it uses a standard mini-USB connection, so you can just use one of your longer cables (from a camera, mp3 player or whatever other device you have a mini-USB cable for). Transferring data is relatively fast, it is not an e-SATA connection, just a USB 2.0, so don't expect blazing fast speeds, but unless you need to transfer enormous amounts very quickly, this should suit your purposes of backing up data or using it to play media.
Reliability
I have had no problems with this EHDD so far, but I can't give it 4 stars for reliability until I have had it for a longer period of time. I will update the review (with 5 stars for reliability) if this drive continues to perform well and doesn't have any problems.
Overall/Conclusion
This is a solid drive; it is compact, easy to use, and so far has got the job done. Do some shopping around on the internet to make sure you get it for the best price. If you have any specific questions, let me know in the comments questions and I will try to answer as best I can. |
Great Stuff
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| Review Date: December 17, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Cesar Tejuco, |
This piece is very quiet and the backup is VERY FAST.
It is also very smart in that once a folder is backed up and you want to back it up again, the equipment will only backup the new files within that folder (ignoring the old ones already backed up), which saves you plenty of time!
It comes with a software that will manage backup date for you. I found it annoying at first, but then I actually got to love it more a few days later. I can tell it when to backup (hour and day) and what files to backup.
Using this device is very easy and just takes common sense. I highly recommend it. |
Good product for the price.
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| Review Date: February 11, 2010 |
| Reviewer: A. H. Cross, |
| A sturdy, well-constructed, aesthetically pleasing USB hard drive, for a good price. I formatted mine, to use it as a standard USB hard drive, although it does come with a automatic-backup software suite you can use, if you want to. |
Easy To Use
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| Review Date: April 9, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Painted Lady, Oklahoma |
If you need to enlarge your disk storage, this is a perfect solution.
Easy to install easy to use, just plug it into two of your USB ports and use away. Great way to share files between to different computers.
I got this because it is designed to travel, less risk of loosing your data from bigger external drives.
My LapTop HD is rather small and I can't add a whole lot of new files that are very large. But with this drive no problem. |
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