Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive STBU500100 (Black)
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- Keep copies of your precious digital files, in case disaster strikes
- 500 GB storage capacity
- Save feature enables user-generated content to be backed up from your favorite social network
- Share feature allows multiple files to be uploaded to social networks at once from your computer
- Install the pre-loaded NTFS driver for Mac and use the drive interchangeably between PC and Mac computers without reformatting
- Features USB 3.0 for quick data transfer rates; upgrade to Thunderbolt technology or FireWire 800 with the available additional adapter
The Seagate Backup Plus portable external hard drive simplifies backup for consumers who want to protect their entire digital life locally, in the cloud or from social networks. Via the Seagate Dashboard, use the Protect function to set up a one-click plan or customize your scheduled local backup. Keep multiple copies of your files in case disaster strikes. 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. The days of uploading individual files without creating a new album a
External Hard Drive
Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive STBU500100 (Black)
List Price: $ 119.99
Price:
Fast and affordable for Windows and Mac users alike,
If you’re looking for an affordable USB 3.0 portable external hard drive that performs well and has a decent warranty, the Seagate Backup Plus is worth a look.
PROS:
– Runs quiet
– Stays cool
– Very good USB 3.0 performance
– Backwards compatible with USB 2.0
– Compatible with Mac OS 10.6 and up
– 2 year warranty
– Reasonably priced
CONS:
– Enclosure attracts dust
DESIGN & BUILD
The all plastic drive’s top has a brushed metal appearance, while the bottom of the enclosure has a matte finish. While the enclosure looks sharp, it attracts a lot of dust on the sides and on the top. Also, I can’t think of a reason why Seagate chose to not put rubber feet on the bottom of the drive. It slides around on flat surfaces rather easily. The 18″ SuperSpeed USB 3.0 cable is short for use on desktops, so it’s best suited for laptops.
PERFORMANCE
CrystalDiskInfo identified the internal drive as a Seagate Momentus Spinpoint M8 (ML500LM012). It’s a SATA II (3Gb/s) drive with a 9.5mm height, spinning at 5400 RPM and an 8MB cache. 5400 RPM drives are ideal for portable external storage drives, because they tend to stay cooler than 7200 RPM drives.
I tested the sequential transfer rate of the drive using CrystalDiskMark and got 117 MB/s read and 116 MB/s write, which is slightly better than the cheaper Seagate Expansion drive. It should be plenty fast for transferring large multimedia files, such as photos, videos, and music. The formatted capacity of the drive is 465 GB and comes pre-formatted in NTFS.
SOFTWARE
The Seagate Backup Plus drive comes with Seagate’s Dashboard software for backups. It’s basically replication software, so the backups are exact duplicates of the files you choose to back up. I actually prefer this method, as opposed to archiving files into a proprietary backup file. Seagate Dashboard also comes with some interesting social network functionality, but for the most part, I didn’t find them all that compelling.
You can also use Seagate Dashboard to backup your files to Seagate’s own cloud backup storage service, but I’d avoid doing so. If you want to back your files up to the cloud, use a well-known service like Dropbox, SkyDrive, Box, or Google Drive. At least with those services, you can access your files using different devices, like your smartphone or tablet. Also, the Seagate cloud service isn’t compatible with Macs.
A few drive utilities are included in Seagate Dashboard as well. I don’t know why you’d want to, but you can disable the drive’s LED light, as well as set power saving options. You’d probably be better off letting your operating system handle power savings, however. Lastly, you can run a non-destructive drive test to check the health of the drive.
MISCELLANEOUS
The Seagate Backup Plus drives have a two year warranty. Drives do have a tendency to fail over time, so the longer the warranty, the better.
The Seagate Backup Plus works with Mac OS X 10.6 and up. When I plugged it into the USB 3.0 port of a MacBook Air (June 2012), a Time Machine prompt came up asking me if I wanted to use the new drive as a Time Machine backup drive. I was also able to browse the contents of the drive in Finder, without having to reformat the drive. Since I use both Windows and Mac OS X, it’s nice not having to reformat the drive for use with one or the other (or even worse, FAT32), but I’m not entirely sure how stable the NTFS driver is for Macs. I believe Seagate may be using Paragon NTFS, though I can’t say for sure.
Also, I wanted to briefly mention that the Seagate Backup Plus portable hard drive uses a new port technology called, Universal Storage Module (USM). Basically, the back end of the drive where the USB 3.0 port is, can be removed and a new “module” can be connected, so you can convert the drive’s interface for use with Thunderbolt or FireWire. Most people, including myself, won’t have any use for USM. I’m not even sure where you can buy the different modules at this point, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Out of curiosity, I removed the module and connected a bare internal notebook drive to it. It powered up and worked fine on my Windows PC. So, if you needed to, you could remove the module and use it as a portable dock for a SATA 2.5-inch hard drive.
CONCLUSION
The Seagate Backup Plus 500GB USB 3.0 portable external hard drive is a great little drive. Its USB 3.0 performance is fantastic and the drive works interchangeably with Windows and Mac OS X, due to the NTFS driver. I’m not a big fan of the enclosure, due to how easily it attracts dust, and because Seagate forgot to attach rubber feet to the bottom. I do, however, like that the drive has a two year warranty and is reasonably priced. I recommend the drive, but suggest you spend a little more for the larger 1…
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|An Excellent Drive from an Excellent Company,
This drive and I are getting along very well. It’s quiet, fast and the build quality seems very good. I don’t know what more to say. As far as little, portable drives go, this one is the bomb. It’s a sweet drive that works just like it’s supposed to.
I know the above makes this sound like a cheezy review. I guess it is, but it’s my way of saying I’m very happy with this drive. In all honesty, this is not my first Seagate drive. I’ve never had any problems with Seagate drives and I don’t expect to have any with this. So, if my review sounds cheezy and breezy, well it’s just my way of saying that this is an excellent drive made by an excellent company.
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|Budget-friendly alternative to a Clickfree,
I’d been using a Clickfree HD801 Clickfree HD801 – Hard drive – 160 GB – external – 2.5″ – Hi-Speed USB – 5400 rpm – buffer: 8 MB since 2008 when my old Dell PC crashed and I lost many treasured photos of my pets (some of them now at Rainbow Bridge, sadly). It broke my heart to know their digital photos were gone forever; so I learned from that horrible experience to always back up. The Clickfree has been serving me well all these years. This Seagate Backup Plus works the same way, plus I get more than double the hard drive space for less money – and it’s faster. If you’re familiar with how easy the Clickfree is to use, you will be comfortable with the “dashboard” of the Seagate. As far as backing up FaceBook, I don’t use FB enough to worry about something like that, but if you do, it’s here if you need it. I’m using Vista Home Premium (still!) and have had no issues.
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