FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 1.5 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive STAC1500100

Just as an introduction I am a college student so I was looking for a relatively cheap high capacity drive that ran on a MAC and this drive is perfect. Bought with the Firewire 800 adapter "kit" Pros: -Whisper quiet -Relatively long included cords -Not much, if any heat -Good looking -Changeable Bases Cons: -It takes a while for the indicator lights to light up (~5-20 seconds) which not being too important I would prefer an instantaneous on light, just so I know that the drive is on/ off or simply working. -While I appreciate the "intelligent on" feature where all you have to do is plug in the drive, I really want a PHYSICAL power button. Overall thoughts: A good solid drive, I have had it for a good 2 Months and have not had any problems with it, its easy integration with Mac's make me love it. I would (and have) recommend to a friend because of the success I have had as well as the variety of "upgrade" options that are available now and in the future, for example, current: UBS 3.0, Firewire 800, and hopefully soon, Thunderbolt. It is a good quiet device that's low footprint and good design make it sleek more than a worthwhile investment. OK that was the short version, the the full review read on. Hardware: I really like the detachable base because that gives me the option of upgrading to Thunderbolt in the future, at least I heard that Seagate was working on the base for that. I really like the design overall it is the black model with the "dotted" sides and rounded corners, the drive capacity is 2TB which is more than enough for my needs. I should note that I got an additional base that has Two firewire ports, which allows for daisy chaining and faster transfer speeds, the base also has a USB 2.0 port. The firewire cord that comes with the adapter is actually a good length(~5ft ish), I know a real shocker, instead of the stupid tiny cords that usually come with these things. It also came with international power adapters, a power cord, and a USB 2.0 cord. Software: Extremely easy to set up on a Mac, when the drive is first recognized it prompts the user for two options Mac only or PC&Mac (with Pc being the main system). After that I just had to sit back and relax. Also on a mac it was really easy to partition, for example I use 500GB for Time machine, and the other 1.5TB for random stuff like movies and music. Overall thoughts: A good solid drive, I have had it for a good 2 Months and have not had any problems with it, its easy integration with Mac's make me love it, granted I believe that if Mac's are your main computers then drivers that are used for compatibility on PCs are not supposed to work with this drive, instead look at the GoFlex series for mac's. Personally I went with this because I wanted the black, Unless the enclosure is aluminum, I don't like the silver design. I would recommend to a friend because of the success I have had as well as the variety of "upgrade" options that are available now and in the future, for example, current: UBS 3.0, Firewire 800, and hopefully soon, Thunderbolt. It is a good quiet device that's low footprint and good design make it sleek more than a worthwhile investment, especially for ~ 120$(~90 for Drive and 20 ish for the adapter)

** I have purchased a firewire 800 base to use instead of the included USB 2.0 base. This review is based on the transfer speed of firewire 800** Note: The firewire 800 base (sold separately, $35) also supports the USB 2.0 connection type as well. Serves as a replacement for the included USB 2.0 only base. Unpacking the drive and cables from the box was easy. Had the drive connected and running in just minutes. I use this drive with my Macbook Pro to store large libraries of audio, video, and picture files. This drive has some included software bundled with it that allows the reading and writing of NTFS volumes on Mac OS and Windows. This software sounds really neat, but is really limited because you have to go through licensing and serial number entry etc. I did not want to bother with it since I will be the only user of the drive. I formatted the drive to Mac OS Extended with Journaling and made two partition: one for Time Machine and another for file dumping. When formatted, this drive is CLEAN. No software or other bloatware remains after formatting which is a plus as some other drives embed their software into their hard drives. Time Machine functions perfectly and the initial backup was about 190GB of data that transferred in an hour and a half. The speed of firewire 800 and this drive is just crazy fast. The other partition is for large media files that I only access occasionally. 5 stars for speed and versatility! (Mac OS compatible and Windows compatible via formatting) Pros: Lightning-fast file transfer via firewire 800 (52GB in 17 minutes) Everything is erased when formatted (for people who just want to file dump) Compact size makes for easy storage in a drawer or on a shelf Supports vertical or horizontal positions (horizontal is safer) Upgradable to USB 3.0 base when released by Seagate Capacity lights on the base light up as space is used up Cons: Not buss powered. It is an extra step to plug the drive in. It does chain you to the wall while you use it. Not a huge problem because the performance of the drive is awesome.

I decided to try the seagate drive as it has the ability to replace the base with a different or faster base if that is what I would need. Installing the drive is a snap. Plug it in turn it on. You need to look at the drive folders or wait some time for the auto install of the backup software to start. The part that irritates me is the backup software. I don't believe the software is created by seagate but is subbed out to a 3rd party. I have not tried the default, keep a backup of the complete computer software that is free. I wanted to back up specific folders for my application of a paperless house using snapscan and rack2 filer. That is the $30 extra cost option. In addtion there are 3 other packages the software creator tries to sell you with popups. Another thing that is bothersome is while the software is backing up it pops up a little black box over in the bottom right of the screen. I have not found a way to permenently disable that popover. The software also creates conflicts with the other software i am using and will not allow me to save. So the workaround is to suspend backup either until the computer is idle or permenently. I find this software to be intrusive rather than complimentary. I also have a WD essential external and i find the software that comes with it to be superior and included in the price. Oh and prior to obtaining the drive I was using my windows backup solution. Now that does not work. In conclusion the drive has excellent versatility. The backup software leaves a lot to be desired expecially since you have to pay extra to select what you wish to backup. Would I purchase again? Probably not unless Seagate resolves the backup solution.

Fantastic.