Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive for Mac (STBW1000900)
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- 1 TB storage capacity with lightning fast USB 3.0 transfer speed (upgrade to Thunderbolt or FireWire 800 with adapter, purchased separately)
- Use the Save feature to back up user-generated content from your favorite social media networks
- Share feature allows multiple files to be uploaded to social networks at once
- Install the downloadable HFS+ driver for PC and use the drive interchangeably between Mac computers and PC’s without reformatting
The Seagate Backup Plus for Mac portable drive simplifies backup for consumers who want to protect their entire digital life locally or on social networks. The drive is formatted for Mac out of the box, making it compatible with Time Machine software to provide the simplest and most efficient way to back up locally. With the Save feature, user-generated content can be backed up from your favorite social networks. Many people now use their smartphones to capture priceless moments. While these devices are handy and readily available, storage is not their strong suit. Capture a memory, post it on a social networking site and let the Seagate Dashboard automatically back up any content posted. Even if the file gets accidentally deleted from the device, another copy can be waiting. The Share feature allows multiple files to be uploaded to social networks at once from your computer. Simply select files to upload, choose where to post them and even add comments. Managing your social profile ha
External Hard Drives
Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive for Mac (STBW1000900)
List Price: $ 129.99
Price:
Nice & fast drive – just skip the bloatware,
Remember the “Mac vs. PC” ads? In one of them, “Mac vs. Fat PC”, the latter is complaining about all the extra trial software that comes preinstalled from the manufacturer, slowing him down and creating compatibility issues all over. Mac, in contrast, is lean, mean, and simply pristine.
Yeah that was then, this is now. The era of manufacturer bloatware has arrived for the Mac too. I gather, when all the industry buzz is about trusting your digital life to “the Cloud”, hard drive manufacturers might feel like they need to do _something_ to stay in business. So they “join them”.
In this case, Seagate is apparently trying to sell you the idea that you need to back up your data FROM the cloud onto a personal drive. Clearly, it is more secure there than when managed by the cowboys at Amazon or Google.
Maybe there is a market niche for this line of thought. I am not in that niche however, and I think this emphasis makes Seagate lose their focus on what they are good at: Making darn good, robust drives!
And let’s face it, just like computers failed to bring about the “paperless society”, there is no indication that people’s need for personal storage and backup devices will diminish – quite the opposite.
So the first thing I did was to NOT install any of the bundled software. Instead, I just plugged it in, and started using it with Time Machine. For that task, it is an excellent option:
* It plugs in to any USB port on your Mac, even those on your Apple USB keyboard, without the need for external power.
* It is preformatted for HFS+, which means there is no extra setup needed to use with Time Machine
* It is fast and very quiet.
* Even more so if you have one of the newer Macs, given the option of Thunderbolt.
One caveat is that the interface is the older mini-USB standard, not micro-USB as is more common these days. This means that you will likely need to use a dedicated cable (such as the included one) with this drive, rather than sharing with your phone, camera, etc.
The industrial design is otherwise excellent. It looks sleek (slightly moreso than my Western Digital passport drive) and sturdy at the same time. It is otherwise lightweight and quite portable.
Compared to drives from other manufacturers, the price also seems to be right – especially given Seagate’s reputation for reliability.
That’s really all I want or could ask for in a drive!
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|Decent external drive – FAIL on MAC compatibility for the software,
This external drive has a nice form factor. Thin, light and simple to use as expected. The USB 3.0 cable is included and that’s a nice plus these days.
My primary concern is with the Seagate registration software – it pulls your email address right off your computer with no ‘by your leave’ or anything. Makes me wonder if I am installing adware by using the software….Seagate claims that you receive a year of cloud storage with the drive. The email received from Seagate states to click on the ‘cloud storage icon’ to access this feature. The problem is there is no ‘cloud storage icon’ in the Seagate Dashboard software. I discovered on the support site that the cloud service is NOT compatible with MAC – lovely. They do not tell you that in the product documentation = FAIL.
The Seagate Dashboard software is fairly simple and does not take a great deal of space on the HD. Basic information, drive management and testing are available from the dashboard/backup plus panel. Then we came to let me backup on the drive – NOPE – would not allow any of that. The dashboard software had no protect icon as depicted in the online manual = FAIL
So, what’s the end result? You get an external drive – it’s ‘special’ options DO NOT WORK with Mac – even though they claim to. I was unable to review the rest of those functions for that very reason. Greatly disappointed in Seagate for submitting an inferior software product claiming to do things that it is not capable of doing.
The only PRO of this review is that it is a nice, 500GB external HD with a decent form factor and connection. As for utilizing it for a backup – I will have to use time machine.
Testing performed on macbook with OSX Lion installed.
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|Jun 28, 2012 6:22:32 AM PDT
This reply is from Seagate Support. We noticed your review and wanted to comment on your experience with your Backup Plus Portable drive. The registration process is totally optional on this product. If you do not wish to register, simply close the window and click “Never Register This Drive” to skip that step. The Seagate Backup Plus for Mac doesn’t advertise one year of service or cloud backup features. This drive is pre-formatted for Mac OS which works with Time Machine right out of the box as a great backup solution. It offers the ability to upload and download content from social media sites using the included Dashboard software.
Please use the link reference in your quick start guide to install Windows software that will allow you to mount the drive in Windows for cross platform functionality.
http://ow.ly/bS8ay
If the above troubleshooting does not help or you have any remaining questions, we would be happy to help further. Please use the link below to speak with a support representative directly:
http://seagate.com/support/contact-support/
Regards,
Seagate Support
Stable and Easy to Use Backup Solution,
This is a solid basic drive usable for backups. I used the device between Mac OS 10.6 and Windows 7 x64 (need to download a driver for Windows). The design is very sleek and lightweight, making it easy to carry wherever you go. I throw it in my camera bag and barely notice its there. It appears more than rugged enough for carrying in the field in controlled conditions. However, the top casing is made of plastic or maybe a very light aluminum, which sort of shocked me. So keep that in mind as you consider it for your everyday travel needs.
The drive itself provides stable USB 2.0 connectivity with the supplied 18 inch mini-USB 2.0 cable (also powers the drive from the port). It copied 72 gb of RAW images in about 26 minutes. Based on other reviews, it appears this is the fastest you can expect and may have been an anomaly. I do find it unusual that USB 3.0 connectivity is not included but offered as an option as is Thunderbolt. But, the advertising is very clear in that this is a USB 2.0 device and makes no inferences otherwise.
This drive is preformatted using the MacOS HFS+ file system. It was instantly recognized on my Mac Air and offered up the Time Machine backup program without intervention. I did not appreciate the registration software required to enable cloud backup, which appeared to access my e-mail address. However, the Dashboard software is decent and not too invasive. I did not test the share feature included for upload/download of social media, so I cannot comment on that. However, I doubt many would have use for such a feature from what I read. I could not find the cloud storage feature on my Mac version of the Dashboard software but did find it on Windows.
In short, I find it a decent drive for my purposes, which is primarily the backup and transfer of raw image files (.nef) from a Mac to Windows and vice versa.
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