Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500GB drive

[ktinkel]

In case anyone is interested in the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500GB (http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-FireWire-External-ST305004FPA1E3-RK/dp/B000ND93DE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1195682068&sr=8-4), with USB, Firewire, and eSATA ports, it can be bought now from Amazon for $180. (Marlene and I found it for $200 at Costco, which was some $80 less than any other source — at that time, all of three weeks ago in my case).

Amazon has also collected a bunch of user comments, some quite negative, others positive. Interesting, in fact — almost sounds as if they are critiquing different products.

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

In case anyone is interested in the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500GB (http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-FireWire-External-ST305004FPA1E3-RK/dp/B000ND93DE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1195682068&sr=8-4), with USB, Firewire, and eSATA ports, it can be bought now from Amazon for $180.

Amazon has also collected a bunch of user comments, some quite negative, others positive. Interesting, in fact — almost sounds as if they are critiquing different products.

I don't like to buy other than books from Amazon and for them I'd probably support my local bookstore if I had one <g>

NewEgg have that drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=Seagate+FreeAgent+Pro+500GB&x=16&y=32) for $175 with all three interfaces or for $159 with only USB 2.0 / eSATA.

I'd be more comfortable buying from NewEgg than from whomever Amazon off-loads the order to.

[ktinkel]

I don't like to buy other than books from Amazon and for them I'd probably support my local bookstore if I had one <g>

NewEgg have that drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=Seagate+FreeAgent+Pro+500GB&x=16&y=32) for $175 with all three interfaces or for $159 with only USB 2.0 / eSATA.

I'd be more comfortable buying from NewEgg than from whomever Amazon off-loads the order to.Interesting. I find a difference in products sold “directly” by Amazon and those from third parties, but not in items bought from Amazon directly.

But the NewEgg price is certainly good. (The non-Pro version of that drive is different in several aspects — not sure it is just the lack of eSATA or FireWire.)

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

<< (The non-Pro version of that drive is different in several aspects — not sure it is just the lack of eSATA or FireWire.) >>

Both the NewEgg ones I saw are labeled "Pro". Is there another version as well?

[ktinkel]

NewEgg have that drive for $175 with all three interfaces or for $159 with only USB 2.0 / eSATA.Interesting — when I was researching large-capacity drives a month ago, I was looking for Firewire/USB 2 models, so never noticed the eSATA/USB 2 one.

I did find the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500 GB (http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-Desktop-External-ST305004FDA1E1-RK/dp/tech-data/B000ND75C0/ref=de_a_smtd?ie=UTF8&qid=1195682068&sr=8-4) version. I think I also found a lot of complaints about this one, which is evidently not the same design as the Pro drives.

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

Over in Laptop Forum someone has drawn attention to some very cheap external drives on sale at Circuit City but USB2 only -- like 1TB for $200 and 500MB for $80!

http://dealnews.com/categories/Computer/Storage/51.html

but this week sales only.

[Molly/CA]

I got a 750gig Free Agent at Costco, with a coupon. Wish I'd gotten two or three!

It seems much more bombproof than my two or three (more?) year old Seagate and Maxtor USB hard drives. I thought it was slow but I think it was the other computer, which had a number of peculiar issues. I used it to transfer all the data files I could find from the old computer and it got them onto the new one's D drive toot sweet. Not so fast as the internal drives, but not so slow either. It's compact and runs pretty cool. I like it a lot. Maybe Costco will do it again sometime.

PS This drive comes with a USB connector and a Firewire kit, sort of, with a Firewire out. Haven't tried it, saving Firewire ports until I see what obligate Firewire stuff I'll have to plug in.

m

[ktinkel]

I got a 750gig Free Agent at CostcoSo did I. They still had several of them for $200 when I was at Costco just before Christmas, btw.

I was thinking about you recently — wondered if you were caught by the flooding.

[DickM]

Kathleen,

I've been replacing Maxtor and Seagates with Apricorn's for the past year or so. I really like their case design -- very quiet and runs cool. They cost a bit more, but I haven't had any failures. I've had two Seagates roast their electronics (I then put the drives in Apricorn cases).

Hope you've been well.

[ktinkel]

Kathleen,

I've been replacing Maxtor and Seagates with Apricorn's for the past year or so. I really like their case design -- very quiet and runs cool. They cost a bit more, but I haven't had any failures. I've had two Seagates roast their electronics (I then put the drives in Apricorn cases).Howdy, stranger. Nice to see you.

But oh, no! I haven’t even installed the drive yet, and already I have to worry about it! (Marlene has been using hers for months, though; let’s hope it doesn’t roast anything!)

Was there any warning?

Apricorn doesn’t offer a Firewire connection, which is what I was looking for; though it appears that USB2 isn’t much slower, and I suppose it would do (it’s not as if blazing speed is the point — it just has sex appeal! I do not have SATA, alas.) Maybe I will consider their USB drive once I actually begin to get this mess organized, as I think I want two drives, one for backing everything up, one for emergencies.

Hope you've been well.Pretty well, and the same to you. Is your son still doing map work? (I was wondering just the other day if Freehand was still the most used app.)

[DickM]

Kathleen,

Sorry, I had no warning on the external drives. Well, maybe I should have noticed the extreme heat... The HDD's were fine, so there was no mechanical noise or funny behavior that is typical with the onset of HDD failures. The good news, of course, was that it was easy to put the drives in another enclosure and all was well. One really hates to lose the backup data! One failure was a TV DVR eSATA drive, for which there is no backup of stored recordings.

I built my first PC with SATA last fall. eSATA is simply incredible compared with USB2. If speed matters [sometimes, USB2 is fast enough for backups], I think I'd install a SATA controller (if possible) just to get eSATA.

You can buy the Apricorn cases empty or filled. I got the first one as a DVR Expander (all pre-formatted and ready to plug into Scientific Atlanta HD cable box) and was so impressed I got a second one and then several more for my PCs.

I've been reasonably well, considering my advancing age <g>. The Detroit area is in really bad shape and won't be getting better for many years. It's not very comforting in retirement to realize that you couldn't sell your house if you decided to move south or to downsize or, god forbid, into a senior facility.

Mapmaking moved south of the border a decade ago. My son found work (and a wife) at an encyclopedia company in downtown Chicago but left to use his GIS-demographic profiling experience with a suburban marketing firm. He got laid off a couple years ago and went back to retail, managing a drug store. After some drawn-out foot surgery he is now a manager at an office supply store. In all, quite typical for young folks today and very unlike those of us who hired on at a major industrial company for a lifetime. But that's another sad story.

[ktinkel]

Kathleen,

Sorry, I had no warning on the external drives. Well, maybe I should have noticed the extreme heat... The HDD's were fine, so there was no mechanical noise or funny behavior that is typical with the onset of HDD failures. The good news, of course, was that it was easy to put the drives in another enclosure and all was well. One really hates to lose the backup data! One failure was a TV DVR eSATA drive, for which there is no backup of stored recordings.

I built my first PC with SATA last fall. eSATA is simply incredible compared with USB2. If speed matters [sometimes, USB2 is fast enough for backups], I think I'd install a SATA controller (if possible) just to get eSATA.

You can buy the Apricorn cases empty or filled. I got the first one as a DVR Expander (all pre-formatted and ready to plug into Scientific Atlanta HD cable box) and was so impressed I got a second one and then several more for my PCs.It may be better not to leave everything on all the time, as I usually do. Never occurred to me that external drives could fail in that way — but now that I think about it, it has been several years since I even used an external.

Always something to think about! Thanks for the alert.

[iamback]

I always keep all of them on all the time... some for several years now - unless I need to power them down to move them, that is. No external drive has burned out on me yet (except years ago a JAZ drive!).

[ktinkel]

I always keep all of them on all the time... some for several years now - unless I need to power them down to move them, that is. No external drive has burned out on me yet (except years ago a JAZ drive!).Does your experience include recent Seagate drives?

Oh, yes — the JAZ. I remember that one. That was one of the formats I skipped (by happenstance), but do remember the stories. As I recall, they had several ways to fail.

[terrie]

dickm: I then put the drives in Apricorn casesDo the cases have an on/off switch???

Thanks!

Terrie

[iamback]

Does your experience include recent Seagate drives? I have a couple of fairly recent Western Digital external drives (500G each) and two much older drives I put myself in an enclosure - both 160G Maxtors. Internal drives are Maxtor (Grace, old but still rock-solid) and Fujitsu (Alan).

No Seagates here (unless that's what my MacBook has, I don't know how to check that yet).

[ktinkel]

I have a couple of fairly recent Western Digital external drives (500G each) and two much older drives I put myself in an enclosure - both 160G Maxtors. Internal drives are Maxtor (Grace, old but still rock-solid) and Fujitsu (Alan).And I always avoid Western Digital drives, for some problems years ago.

I suspect it is a unitary problem for most of the established companies, not a product or model issue.

No Seagates here (unless that's what my MacBook has, I don't know how to check that yet).I don’t think Apple has ever used Seagates, but it is easy to check.

In the Finder, go to the Apple menu (upper left) and in the window that appears click on More Info. That brings up System Monitor, with information about most of the physical Mac.

Or go to your system drive > Applications > Utilities > System Monitor. If you haven’t poked around in the Utilities folder — something I find hard to believe, actually ;) — Activity Monitor is also useful. So might be some of the others.

[iamback]

Thanks, noted. I'll look when I open it up again. :)

I have of course poked around in many nooks and crannies, but am not familiar yet with all of them. Yes, I have found Activity Monitor, and parked it on my dock. :D

The two WD drives seem stable, rock solid; sitting on my desk and very quiet, too, which I like. I've heard bad things about Maxtor, my own experience is, if one is going to fail, it will fail fast - well within the warranty period. That happened with one of the two in Grace, within a week. I got an exchange drive, and never a peep any more. I had a Maxtor drive in an older computer as well; just as stable, never a peep.

[annc]

I've got an external Maxtor that's been rock solid for over two years. It gets turned on and off for regular weekly backups.

[DickM]

Terrie,

Yes, it's a push button on the front with a red pilot light below it. Most other cases have a toggle switch at the rear.

The big difference with the Apricorn cases is that they use a large diameter thin, flat fan [like on on a high-end video card] that covers most of the large surface of the HDD [e.g., the side of the HDD if you have the case mounted vertically] rather than a small fan in one of the ends of the case. The cases are all aluminum, more compact, and much cooler and quieter than the typical Maxtor and Seagate boxes. This is really noticeable on a TV DVR application where the drive never really goes to sleep.

[terrie]

dickm: Yes, it's a push button on the front with a red pilot light below it. Most other cases have a toggle switch at the rear.Cool...


>>The big difference with the Apricorn cases is that they use a large diameter thin, flat fan [like on on a high-end video card] that covers most of the large surface of the HDD [e.g., the side of the HDD if you have the case mounted vertically] rather than a small fan in one of the ends of the case. The cases are all aluminum, more compact, and much cooler and quieter than the typical Maxtor and Seagate boxes.

That sounds very good to me...I took a look at what newegg had to offer the other day and it was reasonably priced so I've got that on my list...

Thanks!

Terrie