External Hard Drives

The USB hard drive is in fact a great invention when it comes to adding capacity to a local PC, or doing backup, or just moving data around. But, as you know, it was only a data store and so, it had its own limitations. In particular, it was hard to install applications there as the most modern applications seem to spread their junk all over the system drive. Additionally, a hard disk also needs mains power, all of which means that it did not work well as a portable personal workspace. So, for those of us who need to work at different locations but do not want to or cannot do everything on the web, there has not been much alternative to carrying a laptop.

All this seems to be changing at a rapid pace, thanks to technologies such as software virtualisation and development of the Small Form Factor drives that require lesser power. This means, you will be really able to take a hard disk and turn that into a portable desktop environment; and this is exactly what has done with the FreeAgent Go. There are two Seagate FreeAgent Go models: the regular model and the Special Edition. In the following review, we will be seeing about the latter one. Apart from the cosmetic trim, the only difference between the both is that, the Special Edition includes a basic USB dock, allowing you to seat the drive in a upright fashion, just like an iPhone dock.

Design:

Pocket it:
With its glossy aluminium finish, chrome trim, and jet black top and cover, the Seagate FreeAgent Go Special Edition makes it extremely convenient to carry your photos, music and videos anywhere, without sacrificing the good looks. The drive is extremely pocket friendly with dimensions of just (H x W x D) 5.1 x 3.1 x 0.4 inches and weighs a mere 0.16 Kgs and hence, is light enough and tiny to slide into basically any bag as well. The drive looks absolutely spectacular and in addition to the amazing looking drive and it even sports a series of white lights on the bottom portion of the top cover that pulsate when the drive is active, and slowly fades down as the activity of the drive decreases. Apart from the slim figure of the drive, the shape of the drive looks similar to many of the other external drives. The top of the rectangular case has a brushed metal finish that looks sleek and even passes our scratch test with very impressive resilience. The bottom of it covered with a slightly rough material that prevents the drive from sliding around on a hard surface.

The stylish dock:
Seagate has made things even better with the inclusion of a piano black desktop dock. This dock has made it easier than ever before to connect the drive to the computer without having to fumble all the wires. The best part of the drive is that, it has a massive amount of storage, without taking up a massive amount of space. The drive is available in bright red and Piano black finishes. Of course, you can choose to buy the original FreeAgent Go which is available in a range of finishes of blue, red, silver and black.

Port and connectivity:
The only port in the front of the drive is that of the USB2.0 powered port that connects the drive to your computer. While other drives such as the Iomega eGo Camo ship with a long 1-metre USB cord, the Seagate’s falls short at less than half a metre long. If you are not lucky enough to have a USB port on the front of your computer, you will find yourself wishing for an extension cable.

Capacity and Interface:

The Seagate FreeAgent Go Special Edition Model is available in capacities of 640GB and 500GB. Note that, this Special Edition is a Windows only Portable drive and if you a Mac person, the FreeAgent Go Mac Edition is also available which is especially for the Macers like you.

Ease of use:

The Special Edition FreeAgent Go comes pre-loaded with an easy to use software that helps you to retain data without automatic data backup and encryption of your important files, folders etc. This Windows only Seagate Manager was up and running in no time.  If you do not have autorun enabled, you can go in manually and start the software. This is where it starts to get clever. The Ceedo software, which Seagate has licensed from its eponymous developer, creates a virtual area within the system - you can install and run apps, and sync data onto it, all without any permanent effect on the host PC. Then when you dismount and unplug FreeAgent, it cleans up after itself and is ready to run on a different PC, with all your apps and data just as they were.

There were options in the software for us to pick specific files and folders that we wanted to back up for safe keeping swiftly. We were also able to quickly set a day and time when we wanted the backups to occur. After that, the software was basically on auto-pilot, and did everything by itself just as it was told. The software is really convenient for the PC; it reminded us of Time Machine, which if you do not know is the Mac backup program that is built-in to every Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. Seagate Manager also let us create a password-protected folder that safeguards files with 256-bit AES encryption. Lastly, the Sync option permits users to access our data when we plugged the FreeAgent Go Special Edition hard drive into another PC, so we always had the most current versions of my files at my fingertips when moving the drive from PC to PC.

Performance:

Performance wise, the FreeAgent Go Special Edition (500GB, 640GB) Hard Drive proved to be pretty fast for a USB drive and although it takes the prize for the best value as far as we know. It read about 5GB of videos, photos, music and documents in less than four minutes at an amazing rate of 22Mbps. And in our tests, the Go managed to achieve about 20Mbps. Hence, we still prefer the FireWire drives, as they are just way faster and require just one wire to connect. But still, this FreeAgent Go has become one of your favourite external hard drive by far.

Warranty and Service:

The Seagate Web site contains a comprehensive list of forums, knowledge bases, driver downloads, installation help and FAQs to help you troubleshoot your drive, which is all a great help for those who are new to external hard drives. And, Seagate offers a very generous five year limited warranty on parts and labour for the Seagare FreeAgent Go Special Edition.

Verdict:

Overall, the Seagate FreeAgent Go Special Edition has managed to impress us a lot. The stunning design, the convenient capacities and the overall experiences were all positive. If we have any winging to do, it is only that, it would been the ultimate drive if it had the FireWire capabilities.

Seagate External Hard Drive Reviews in this website.

FreeAgent Go Special Edition Hard Drive - Technical Specification Table

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