Home > Consumer Reviews > Seagate Expansions 1TB External Desktop USB 2.0 Hard Drive for PC

This is my third HDD in 5 years and is designed to give back up to a Vista PC with a Western Digital Mybook already doing the same for another PC.

First of all, it comes fully protected in a stout box with protective film over its glossy black finish. Sits flat on 4 rubber feet unlike the Mybook that is expected to sit upright. I have also used the Seagate upright and it seemed quite happy though. Glossy black finish may not be the best to avoid showing fingermarks but then, how often will you move your HDD?

The Seagate is simplicity itself to set up. Attach the mains cord (it uses a mains adaptor that has two or three pin adaptors which are very easy to switch) and then fit the USB lead and off you go. It launches the registration form in which you only have to add your contact details and it is then ready to us. No formatting needed on a Windows machine, you can drag and drop files straight away.

Very quiet (quieter than my Mybook), it has a green light that is initially on to show power on and then flashes during file transfer. Not as funky as the Mybook twin flashing blue bars but does that matter? Down to personal choice.

File transfer is as good as the Mybook and I have found no heat build up to speak of.Power efficient,it has the excellent Seagate reputation so hopefully durability won't be an issue. This unit is also smaller than I expected, has a quality finish and will sit discretely on any desk.

So, given the proviso that I would always recommend that, before buying, potential buyers check dimensions and finish of any peripherals that are intended to remain visible (assessment of appearance is such a personal consideration) , I would have to say that I prefer this unit to my 8 month old Mybook and as it also represents excellent value for money, happily give it 5/5 and an unequivocal recommendation.

Brilliant Hard drive. Have used it heavily and it hasnt let me down once. Quiet and left on for several days yet still stays cool. Pretty thing to look at too but the usual 3.5" size.

Excellent value for money as fast as you would expect from USB 2.0. If transferring 45gb it can take up to 40mins but thats not bad considering its a large amount.

Overall very pleased and a DEFINATE reccomendation from me. Reliable and a stable hard drive with a large capacity which anyone will have trouble filling up!

After many years of teaching computing and IT I finally decided I should practise what I preached and set up a backup system for my home computers. This drive has made it easy to take regular backups of my computers without having to organise racks of CDs etc. (Why do you think I never had a system!) The 1Tb capacity should see me out even though I do remember a certain Bill Gates wondering how anyone would ever use more than 540Kb. The installation was intuitive and simple and the drive works well with both Vista and XP.

This is my THIRD, yes THIRD replacement for this hard drive. It seems that Seagate need to sort out "the click of death". This was also the issue with the 1.5TB hard drive I had originally bought. I hope that this new one will be click-less or I am definately going for another brand! It's a shame as I've never had any issues with Seagate before!

Hard-drives are hard-drives. All we want them to do is not to fail. I can't give advice on possible failure-rates for this, but all hard-drives seem to have a small proportion of them (especially if they fall off the desk!). Just remember that multiple back-ups are good, so I suggest any really _vital_ backup files also get burned to a DVD-R or two, as well as going onto the Seagate. The 1TB Seagate External certainly look reliable and sleek, though - with a hard mirror-polished surface that sits very attractively on the desk. Perhaps _too_ attractively, and if you have small children around it might be better off in a drawer, where it'll be safer (no chance it'll be used a mirror by a toddler, no cables to yank it off the desk with) and you won't have to dust it either. My new drive was instantly recognised by Windows 7, which swiftly installed generic drivers. The Seagate External showed up in Windows Explorer with about 980Gb of free space on it, plus a folder with registration information. It didn't need to be formatted, being already formatted as a standard NTFS drive. Transfer rates seem fairly standard - a test 40Gb took about 45 minutes to be transferred directly from an older external drive to this one, via my monitor's built-in USB 2.0 hub. Everything went smoothly. I'm always a little suspicious of cheap power blocks on anything made in the Far East, and this one looked a little odd (it has dual fittings for the UK three-prong and European two-prong electricity sockets) but it didn't get noticeably hot during the transfer. Overall - it looks great, works quietly, the power-block seems efficient, the transfer rates are standard, and at the moment the price is certainly right.