The Seagate FreeAgent external drive is perhaps the best drive I have ever owned.  It is so quiet that I cannot hear any sounds from it unless I put my ear right up to it.  It does not run hot, like I was afraid it would.  It is fast!!  Best of all, it is inexpensive and comes with a 5-year warranty!!!

hotrod77

Camby, IN

With computers - especially laptops - it's not a matter of *if* your computer will crash and burn, but *when*, so it's really unwise not to have an external hard drive. As a Mac user (pre-Leopard OS), it is unfortunate that you need to buy a program to use this external drive (for PC-users, it's just plug and play), but other than that, it's a great device.

icon23

New York, NY

I am not a computer techno-geek but love this piece of equipment. It provides me with reassurance that my kids pictures will be there if my hard-drive crashes. It is easy to use and reliable thus far.  It is small enough not to be obtrusive  and quiet in operation.

mom22ninos

Chapel Hill, NC

I bought this hard drive after hearing good reviews about seagate from friends. There's always this on going debate about whether seagate or western digital make better hard drives. Since my friends had good experiences with seagate I went with them. BUt I was wrong! This hard at first works great but then after a few months, it starts making clicking noises meaning the hard drive is about to die! The disk space is about 500 GB. That means if it starts clicking the hard drive is able to die and you're going to lose about 500 GB worth of important data! Next time I think i am going to go with western digital that has better customer service and a longer warranty period than seagate. I am highly disappointed in this company..

gaprebulic

Littleton, CO

I bought this about 2 years ago on a black friday, and I have been very happy with my purchase until recently. Recently, the hard drive stopped working after it was gently knocked over on my carpet floor. I bought this hard drive to be extra portable and extra sturdy, but after one little tap, the headers get stuck inside the drive. I guess Seagate decided not to put motion sensors to protect the hardrive.  I blame the design of the hard drive. Instead of lying it flat on the side, it is set upright. That makes it much easier to tip over, which is exactly what happenned to me. It has a small base that keeps it right side up, and that makes it a bit awkward to travel around. I put it inside my laptop bag when I travel, and I always notice this huge bulge coming off the side. The orange light is kind of cool, it glows a soft orange when not in use, and blinks when the hard drive is in use. The power adaptor provides sufficient power to power up the hard drive. The hard was good until it died. It only lived for two years, a short lived lived life. Take my advice, don't buy this hard drive and get a better designed on unless you want all of your data to be wiped out in the next two years.

PeterTran

Dallas, TX

Keyword = non-portable  This is 1+ years old now. There are much better external hds on the market now. This one kinda sucks because you have to plug it into the wall socket. I would much prefer if it ran off the usb port. I suppose one drawback of that is that it drains the laptop's battery. Oh yeah, I should mention I am an exclusive laptop user, so portability is key. Because this is non-portable, I leave it at home to store movies and music. I never experienced compatibility issues with a  number of PCs I have used with it over the years. All in all, its a solid external HD Recommendation: Buy a newer model. I think you can get a western digital plugin hd for around 100 for 2 TB of storage. Also, look into something with USB 3.0 or eSATA for faster transfers. I didnt look into the RPM rating of this unit, but higher = faster, so look out for that if you want fast data transfer. Make sure your laptop/desktop has the faster ports, not just USB 2.0

scientistdanle

San Francisco, CA

i LOVE my seagate hard drive! it does everything it's supposed to, and it also works really well to back up the boyfriend's laptop! I keep all my important data on this and i never have to worry about it!

Hiroshyma

Carlisle, PA

I bought the FreeAgent a few years ago to store all the torrents I had downloaded.  I started collecting entire season of shows and needed lots of space to store them.  When I bought it, it was three times the price it is now, but that's just how the hard drive/ storage industry works.  I was worried it wouldn't last long because when I received the package, it was very damaged.  It has been at least 3 years and it's still going.  It has taken some pretty ugly falls though.  Dog gets caught in the cords and pulls it off.  The coffee table gets bumped too hard.  It is still going though.  I would like it if the design was less tipsy. It doesn't take much of a bump to send it to the floor.  It does take some time to get spinning.  I do wish that every time I opened up my computer the hard drive wouldn't turn on.  I don't like it to spin more than it has too.  Overall, I am happy with my investment and would consider a Seagate when I upgrade to 1 or 2 TB 

rhich

Vancouver, WA

I got this on sale at fry's and it was a mistake. It was working okay at home. When I had to go back to school and ground ship this along with many other things it stop workng when it arrived. My other external hard drive from maxtor worked fine. Both were shipped in the same condition. Yet the seagate decided not to even turn on. I called for tech support and it wasn't helpful at all so I asked my friend and he just replaced the casing.

calgirl06

Berkeley, CA

This hard drive runs a little hot.  It is just as noisy as the rest of the market.  I would like the cache to be a litle larger, but you get what you paid for.  Software is horrible, and I can't even use it.

tonyhart

San Diego, CA