Seagate ST305004FPA1E3-RK FreeAgent Pro 500 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0/eSATA/FireWire 400 External Hard Drive

Amazon Customer Reviews

(5 out of 5)

Fast data transfer, runs and looks cool - best of breed for sure

PCWorld's Editors Choice rating persuaded me to plunge into this all-too-often disappointing market. Foremost, the FreeAgent runs cool (just hand warm), it has an external powersupply (critical, as any mechanical device draws lots of juice from USB port - shortening battery life, etc). There is an on-off switch (surprisingly many units lack it); the modular design not only looks good, but provides connectivity options to select USB, USB/eSATA or firewire connection. Nice touch, the drive comes pre-formatted for the NTFS file system. Even after 3+ hours of continuous use (surface scan), the unit became warmer but not hot - a credit to sound engineering design. If you like freebies, there's a trial version of backup software, an offer to store your data via internet, and some other utilities -- personally, I just wipe them out.

The one hitch (not Seagate's problem) is the external eSATA controller; I purchased a Highpoint RR1522A which has 2 external ports and allows for RAID control of two drives. The controller works fine when the machine is awake, but seems to have problems reinitializing after a wakeup call, causing endless pulsating access to the HDD (??boot attempt) and sufficiently heavy power drain to activate the UPS alarm. Maybe have to return to the (slower) USB data link.

(5 out of 5)

Great product, works just fine, only one small complaint

I've wanted an external hard drive for months now, and I thought for sure I'd get one of the Western Digital My Book drives -- very cool book-like design. But after reading all the middling reviews on the My Book drive, I finally elected to look elsewhere. The Seagate drives had good reviews (esp. the 360Gb drive, not so much the 500Gb drive, tho I don't understand why the disparity exists because they're essentially the same thing, only one is bigger).

The Seagate drive arrived last week so I fitted the FireWire adapter to the drive and set to work backing up each of my 4 computers. Worked just fine in every case using Norton Ghost (I didn't use the software that came with the Seagate drive). I was getting about 35Gb of data movement per hour using Norton Ghost to create the backup files and FireWire to transport them from my wife's laptop to the Seagate drive, but be aware that includes using disk verification after the backup is finished. I had similar results backing up three other computers in my home.

The drive is quiet! I can't really hear it, especially over the fan noise coming from my computer.

The drive is cool-looking! The amber glow -- which so distressed another reviewer that he had to put duct tape over it -- is hardly that bright at all, certainly nothing that ought to trouble anybody. Far better than those bright blue LED lights in use on so many computers and peripherals.

The drive has a great warranty! It has a five-year warranty. Note that he Western Digital My Book has only a ONE YEAR warranty. If you have confidence in the quality of your product, you'll have a longer warranty.

The only complaint I have, and if I could have, I'd have given this product only 4.5 stars instead of 5, is that you have the awkward design that requires the user to fit into the base of the drive an adapter that will either make the drive work with USB 2.0 or with FireWire 400. It's not a big deal, but I could see that somewhere down the line, I'll want to back-up using USB, but I won't remember where I put that dumb USB adapter. It would have been much nicer to have both USB and FireWire plugs in the base together.

Seagate did a nice job with packaging: The instruction manual essentially just said, "Plug it in, and it'll start working" (which was correct). It comes with both FireWire and USB cables, but be aware that the FireWire cable has big plugs at both ends, so it'll connect fine to most desktops, but for connecting with laptops, you'll most likely need a separate FireWire cable with the small plug to fit into the laptop FireWire port.

In all, it's worth 4.5 stars, but I can't do that with Amazon's rating system, but I like the drive a lot so I'm giving it the full 5 stars just so you'll consider this Seagate drive when you're in the market for an external drive. It's worth your notice!

(5 out of 5)

My favorite Firewire Drive

I really love this drive and I have had no issues with it whatsoever. It is my favorite out of my 6 different Firewire drives. I am using it on a G4 Powerbook running 10.4.9, so I can say that there are no problems HERE with Mac compatibility. I have also used it with my G5 iMac.

What I like best about it is that it turns itself on and off when I wake and sleep my Powerbook, so that is one less thing to think about. I have been using it alot to record TV with an EyeTV device (no monthly fees to pay), so I often set up my Powerbook to wake and sleep itself when I am not home, and the drive wakes and sleeps right along with the Mac. The 7200-rpm drive records my audio/video with almost no glitches, unlike my (other) portable Firewire-bus powered drives which have frequent glitches (skipping etc), or my internal drive which isn't very usable for recording TV due to far too many glitches.

I also find that the drive is as cool as a cucumber. Those who had overheating apparently had defective fan control as well as their other problems. There are unfortunately lemons amongst all products.

The one thing I don't like about the drive is that the Firewire interface module is separate from the USB2/eSATA interface module (and takes the place of it in the base), so that I can't arbitrarily decide to use the drive with USB2 instead of Firewire (without spending a few minutes shuffling the parts around), but Firewire has better performance for sustained transfers anyway so I don't have much need to use USB2.

(5 out of 5)

Best external USB drive yet, but software NOT Vista compatible

I connect external HDs to my docked core 2 duo laptop. I previously tried several other external HD brands with disappointing results--the two Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500 HDs I am now using are extraordinarily fast on access (less hesitation on opening a shortcut to the external HD folders than to folders on the laptop drive itself!). Automatic backup software is also very easy to use right out of the box. SOOO much faster and easier to backup than my recent Western Digital external HDs.
VISTA NOTE: I just bought a new Vista 64-bit Windows PC, and while the HD itself is as fast as ever, the HD software is not Vista compatible--can't access Free Agent disk tools (can't turn off the orange light) and the AutoBackup software doesn't work at all--in fact freezes up (so had to erase). No online fixes offered at Seagate or backup software company sites.

(1 out of 5)

OK drive but eSATA is a joke .

I bought this drive mainly due to the eSATA connection option.
What a joke.
3mbs transfer rate when connected eSATA.
USB was much better @ 23mbs & Firewire clocked in @ 34mbs !
Not awesome but at least reaching about 60% of internal speed.

The backup software works... 12.5 hours to back up 50mb of data !

This was my second Freeagent Pro drive. The first had to be returned because both eSATA & Firewire failed within the first several minutes.

I first contacted Seagate support. They responded about 3 days later that they would gladly replace my brand new drive, with a refurb unit ! Add to that the cost shipping both ways and up to 3 months processing time,,, forget it...

I then contacted the company I purchased it from, they paid shipping both ways & I recieved a brand new replacement drive withing 2 weeks.
So far the new drive is working OK.

Conclusion:
I would not recommend this drive to anyone, especially if you intend to use eSATA .