Pros: Great performance, attractive slim design; affordable; loads of space.
Cons: None
The bottom line: If you want a small footprint, high capacity, affordable external hard drive from a name you can trust, look no further than the Seagate FreeAgent 500GB HHD.
Can one ever have enough storage space? I say no, one can always find a use for space and with the prices for hard drive the only thing that seems to be dropping these days, it’s easy to grab an affordable external hard drive for not a lot of green. Such is the case with the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500GB Hard Drive. With an average (on-line and off-line) street price of $120.00, this brown beauty is a bargain waiting to found.

The Drive

Product Description (From Seagate) Designed to live peacefully in your home or office, the FreeAgent external hard drive is extra quiet and takes up less room on your desk than a stapler. Even the cable ports are base-mounted to help keep your desk free of clutter. We even add a little bit of sophistication to your desktop with the unique espresso brown finish and molten amber illumination. To eliminate the slightest bit of worry, we’ve even included technical support and a five-year limited warranty.

In The Box

o Seagate FreeAgent 500GB HHD
o 3-foot USB cable
o Small Quick-Start Install guide
o A/C Power Adapter

I have a love, love relationship with Seagate hard drives. They are comparable in price the trouble-prone Western Digital drives, but my experience has shown that they (Seagate HHD’s) represent a far more reliable alternative. And Seagate is a nameplate I can trust and have trusted for a very long time; the company has around since the beginning of the PC revolution. I choose the FreeAgent Desktop 500GB HHD a combo USB 2.0 solution for affordability and storage capacity and the fact that the drive looks cool on my desk didn’t hurt.

Seagate also offers the FreeAgent line in a “Pro” configuration with Firewire/USB/eSATA connection, but of course the price point jumps and since the lone Firewire connection on my computer is spoken for, and eSATA is not an option, the “Desktop” model made more sense for me.

Installation

I attached this drive to my Dell XPS One desktop computer running Windows Vista Home Premium. I unpacked the neatly packed drive, plugged in the power, and then plugged the USB 2.0 cable into the port while the desktop was on-line. Under Windows Vista there is of course nothing to the install; connect the drive and go. If you are connecting the drive via USB, Windows Vista/XP will detect the drive, install the necessary drives (if they are needed), and then assign the FreeAgent Desktop 500GB HHD a drive letter.

Out of the box the drive is preformatted NTFS, which is surprising given that Seagate also markets this drive to Apple Macintosh users; can Mac read NTFS partitions now? But I prefer NTFS because the file system it allows for robust security and the file system utilizes drive space more efficiently. I say that but interestingly enough the formatted capacity of the drive is the same 452GB—no matter which file system is used.

Windows 95/98 users will not be able to utilize this drive because the Windows 95 (OS) does not support USB, and Windows 98/SE has no native support for USB 2.0. The drive may or may not work with Windows Me. There was an upgrade to Windows 95 that supports USB version 1.0, but it was released only to OEM vendors; and in any case the FreeAgent 500GB HHD is not backwards compatible to USB version 1.0 or 1.1.

After the FreeAgent 500GB HHD was assigned a drive letter by the OS, I was prompted to install the small utility software included on the drive. This small application allows you to perform a simple backup and or restore operation(s). You can also control when the brown drive goes into sleep mode.

Note: be advised, that if you have a preponderance of mapped drives already on your computer, as I do, Windows Vista/XP may not assign the HHD the next open drive letter; this has happen to me. If after installing or attaching the FreeAgent 500GB HHD and you get the message that new hardware has been found and is now available for use, but the drive is not assigned a drive letter, you must go to Control Panel /Administrative Tools/ Computer Manager/ Disk Manager, to manually assign the drive letter, or reassign the CD-ROM(s), a drive letter. Alternatively, you can right-click on My Computer, click on Manage and then click on Disk Manager.

Use

I bought these drives to serve as a storage medium for temporary files; i.e. software I download from the Internet, files that I may want to upload, or attach to an email. Over time these files add up; right now I have over 50GB on the drive; hey I’m a computer geek, and we are always downloading something!

I like the orange LED that runs the length of the front of the drive; it even pulses slowing when the drive is being accessed. And the FreeAgent 500GB HHD is silent. Even when transferring a large number of files to it, I hear nothing, not a whisper, not a sound; amazing!

Conclusion

The FreeAgent 500GB HHD is high capacity, reliable (thus far), and highly transportable (if the need arises). The drive warrant serious consideration if you need to backup large quantities of files on a continual basis, or just want to supplement your computers’ storage space.

And for those who might need a portable drive, the FreeAgent 500GB HHD will most surely fit the bill. I was surprised by how small the drive is. While not small enough to put in ones pocket the drive will easily fit in even the smallest backpack. If you want a small footprint, high capacity, affordable external hard drive from a name you can trust, look no further than the Seagate FreeAgent 500GB HHD. Did I mention this baby comes with a 5-year limited warranty?

Features & Specifications

Capacity (Native) - 500GB
Capacity (Formatted FAT32 and or NTFS) – 452GB
Compatibility - PC, Mac
Interface Type - Hi-Speed USB 2.0
Connector – Mini- pin USB
Data Transfer Rate - 480 Mbps (Hi-Speed USB)
Average Seek Time - 8.5 ms
Spindle Speed - 7200 rpm
Cache - 16MB
Power - AC 110/230 V (50/60Hz)
Manufacturer Warranty - 1 year warranty