Seagate Expansion 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive STAX500102
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- Plug n’ play – no software to install
- Simply drag-and-drop to save files
- USB 3.0, backwards compatible with USB 2.0
- Built-in power management ensures energy efficient operation
- USB powered
- 1 year limited warranty
Compact, portable computer storage. It’s straightforward to use, just plug in a single USB cable and you’re ready to go. Automatically recognized by Windows operating system — no software to install. Simply drag-and-drop to save files. Built-in power management ensures energy efficient operation. 1-year limited warranty.
External Hard Drive
Seagate Expansion 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive STAX500102
List Price: $ 79.99
Price:
Nice Drive,
USB 3.0 is a major improvement over the older 2.0 version, with speed up to 5 Gigabits/sec (versus 480 Megabits/sec of USB 2.0). Computers with USB 3.0 are still relatively rare but this SEAGATE Expansion 500 GB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive STAX500102 is backward-compatible to USB 2.0, which is what I got in my HP desktop. There was no connectivity problem. The hard drive is plug-N-play; within seconds after I plugged it in, it was up and running. A USB 3.0 cable is included. It is different in construction from USB 2.0 cables. A tiny green LED lights up when the connection is made. Like most of the portable hard drives, power is drawn from the computer via the USB cable. No AC transformer or cord is necessary. This hard drive is cool to the touch, even after prolonged usage. This drive is highly portable, measuring 3-1/4″ X 5-3/8″ X 5/8″ thick. A backup software called Memeo is included. I did not install it. Frankly, I was leery of cluttering up my hard drive with unfamiliar programs. I don’t have USB 3.0, but I can see the logic of buying a USB 3.0 drive for a computer with USB 2.0, because USB 3.0 will be the standard in a few years. I can’t speak to the drive’s reliability, but I own two Seagate external hard drives and they have been very reliable.
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|not such a good drive,
I have just returned my second failed Seagate 1 TB 3.0 USB External Drive.
Both failed within 60 days of purchase (and one within 30 days). I have several of the USB 2.0 versions that work fine and have for quite a long time. Both failures of the 3.0 drive were total- the drive was not recognizable by my computer (or the other computer I tried them on), both power supplies were working fine and both cords were operational. The drive, when plugged in, would just start repetitively beeping and would not even spin up.
I like Seagate drives- I have several FreeAgent drives which are first-class drives and the two Expansion 2.0 drives all of which have been great. The 3.0 model, however, is a dog and should be avoided. Go with the FreeAgent drives, which are dependable.
The worse part of this was trying to deal with the manufacturer. I did the responsible consumer thing, went to the Seagate website and tried to create a return. The process would be stopped in the middle every time with a “due to technical problems, the website is unavailable”. I tried every day for a week and I could never complete the return process, and I only got automated email replies referring me to go back and use the process on the website. Fortunately I had bought the drives from a reputable retailer who happily took them back and gave me a refund.
In short- a bad drive, and a bad return process from the manufacturer. Try another drive.
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|Works Fine Backing Up My MacBook,
The first thing I did after getting this drive was to format it to work on a Mac. Why they don’t say this is Mac compatible, I don’t know, but it is. Once you format it, it’s a Mac drive. I use this as a backup to my white MacBook which also has a 500 GB drive. I don’t use Time Machine as I like Super Duper better. This drive is quiet and does it job. You can’t ask more of a hard drive than that. At least I don’t think so.
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