 Quiet, Quick, and Easy |
| Review Date: November 27, 2008 |
| Reviewer: J. Holbrook, |
The Seagate FreeAgent Deks 1TB for Mac (ST310005FJA105-RK) is a 1TB external drive Seagate is marketing for the Mac fanbase (though the drive could be re-formatted for Windows). I purchased the drive because my iTunes Music folder had soared to 120GB in size, and I needed to move the folder permanently to an external drive to free up space on my internal drive.
The drive is 2.2 lbs and measures 7.28" in H x 1.48" in W x 5.98" in L . It comes with an AC adaptor, a Firewire 800 cable, a Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 cable (for those with older iMacs, like me, who only have 6-pin Firewire 400 ports), and a USB cable. The FreeAgent Desk itself sits on a small white stand with a rubber pad on the bottom. Unless I've missed something, the stand cannot be removed from the external drive itself. As a result, it must be placed upright. Seagate provides a 5 year limited warranty, so keep your receipt. The FreeAgent Desk is formatted for Mac and Time Machine ready. The brushed steel exterior, plastic white trim, and white cabling complement the iMac's appearance. The cache size isn't readily ascertainable, though the spin speed is 7200 RPM. Details on the drive from Seagate's website can be found here:[...]
After taking it out of the box, the FreeAgent Desk requires only two steps to set it up. First, plug the AC adaptor into the drive and power supply. Second, connect the drive to your iMac using the appropriate cable. I chose the Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 cable because Firewire transfers (even for a Firewire 400 port) are reportedly faster than a USB 2.0 transfer, and because I need my USB ports for other devices. Because I plan to keep the drive constantly connected, I placed it only about 6 inches from the computer itself.
Mac OSX Leopard immediately recognized the drive. The preferences window for Time Machine, which I hadn't used before, popped up on its own and asked me whether I wanted to use the external drive as the backup drive for Time Machine. I did, but before I completed the Time Machine setup, I wanted to move my iTunes Music folder so the first Time Machine backup would mirror the internal drive as I wanted it to be, not as it was. I turned off Time Machine in the "preferences" window, printed out and carefully followed the instructions I'd previously found online for moving my iTunes Music folder to an external drive, and waited for the 120GB transfer to complete. I didn't time the transfer, but it took between 30 minutes and 1 hour or so. After the transfer was complete and my iMac's hard drive no longer had dangerously low space, I re-opened Time Machine preferences, turned it "on," and allowed it to do its magic. After heading out of the room to watch a Christmas movie with my wife and children, I stopped back in and found Time Machine had already completed two backups to the external drive (now only 57 GB of data).
As other reviews have noted, the drive, when active, has a white light emanating from the bottom of the unit, creating a pool of light under the drive and on top of the foot of the stand. Also, the Seagate logo on the front of the drive is backlit by a white light. Both lights go off when the drive goes to sleep. The drive is extremely quiet. It sits on my desktop near my computer and generally cannot be heard. I can hear it spin up as it comes out of sleep mode (a faint, high-pitched sound, followed by a click), and, if I listen closely, can hear a low background hum after it finishes spinning up and begins actively working. I was concerned about noise level since the drive sits directly on my desktop, but so far the noise level is fine.
My media (both music and video) streams perfectly from the FreeAgent Desk through iTunes, although there is 3-4 second lag in start time if the FreeAgent Desk is in sleep mode when I click "play" in iTunes. Once the external drive spins up, the media plays as if I were running it off the internal drive. We also have an Apple TV which is synced to our iMac, and we were able to play a movie now residing on the FreeAgent Desk drive through Apple TV without a hitch. Now that Apple TV and iTunes are using the iTunes Music folder on the FreeAgent Desk, I can continue adding media without worrying about the amount of disk space it's taking up on my internal drive.
All in all, a great purchase. Sleek, quiet, and a ton of space. Note: If you use your external hard drive both to back up files (i.e., Time Machine) and to store active files (i.e., iTunes Music folder), just remember that the active files on the external hard drive are not being backed up. You may want to have a plan to ensure these files are backed up as well. |
Fast, quiet drive with fun LED lighting
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| Review Date: December 2, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Navarro L. Parker, San Diego, CA United States |
I'm a big fan of the MyBook Studio drives, so I was unsure about this drive when I bought it on sale. But it really won me over. It's far quieter than the Western Digital drive. It's also much thinner than the MyBook cases. It's also pre-formatted for Mac HFS+ Journaled.
It features cool white Firewire 800 and USB cables and matching white power cord. You can buy a 800/400 cable if you don't have FW800. The silver case blends perfectly with my MacBook Pro unibody. The underside of the case is illuminated, which you'll either love or hate (I love how it lights up my desk). The Seagate logo also illuminates white, but it doesn't display disk activity. In fact, there are no disk indicators on the case. There's no also power button. When it's plugged in, it's on. Some may be bothered by that omission. I found the MyBook's pulsing display to be distracting (especially when you have several drives lined up).
But the Seagate Mac is a great drive that looks terrific next to a Mac!
PROS: Slim profile, Fast Firewire 800 interface, cool LED glow, quiet drive mechanism.
CONS: Foot not removable, can only stand vertically, not stackable, no power button, no activity lights, foot will probably break off if dropped. |
Sleek and super fast!
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| Review Date: January 3, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Grant Brummett, Arizona USA |
Pros:
Superfast
Crazy easy super simple setup
I like the light at night makes a good night light (when drive is not asleep)
Cons:
Takes a few minutes to be recognized by Mac OS X Tiger the first time you plug it in.
Light when in use might bother some people.
The light goes out when the drive goes to sleep, this could be good or bad depending on your use.
Setup:
I pulled it out of the box, plugged in the power just like the instructions say then plugged in the Firewire 800 cable. And nothing. I double checked the connections and then tried the USB 2 cable. Nothing...
I called Apple Tech support and then just as they were coming on the line I see the light on the front and underneath light up and suddenly the new Seagate Harddrive icon appears on my iMac OS X Tiger desktop.
I click on it and Finder Opens right away and it's working!!
Use:
I bought this drive because the Harddrive on my iMac was full and overflowing. Also an old Maxtor USB 2 drive I had plugged in was so slow.
This Seagate is lightening fast like having the files on my regular drive. My old Maxtor USB 2 was always kind of slow when editing photos but this thing is just like having them on the iMac Hard Drive. I thought I would need to keep editing photos on my main iMac hard drive but this new drive is so fast I won't need to.
Appearance:
It's smaller then my old Maxtor 320 GB USB 2 drive and much sleeker. The housing is made out of plastic but it looks like aluminum on the sides. About half the physical size despite having 3 times the storage space on the drive.
Light:
When the disk is operating the logo on the front does this cool slow pulsing with the glow getting slightly brighter and then darker. Very cool, very Sci Fi like. I like it a lot. Plus a light glows in the bottom towards the stand making it appear like it's floating on air in the dark. The light does go out though when the drive goes to sleep.
Sleep mode:
Both my iMac 24" and this Seagate drive go to sleep and wake up just find. There is the usual slight delay when you click on the drive after it has been to sleep but you can hear a very slight whine if you put your ear next to it as it spins up. And it spins up pretty quick usually waking up in only a couple of seconds or so.
Recommendation:
I couldn't be more pleased. If you own a Mac with Firewire 800 and you don't the light at night then get it you won't be disappointed. |
Very Cool
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| Review Date: November 13, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Brian Petros, Stanton, CA |
| So glad I got this. It's gotta be the easiest thing I've set up on my Mac. No complicated instructions... just had to plug it in. And it comes with all the fancy Firewire cords too. It did take a few minutes to show up on my laptop. Looks like it was just the initial setup time because it's always connected now and the files transfer really fast. Some of the other reviews complain about the light, but it actually looks really cool. Kinda looks like it's hovering! I'm sure I could just throw a towel over it if doing an over-night download. I think my PowerMac is a little jealous because this Seagate hard drive gets everyone's attention now =). This little hard drive is pretty cool and is really quiet. It holds a ridiculous amount of files. Finally, there is an external hard drive that looks like a Mac and can handle all of the video, sound, and picture files we need it for! |
Like It
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| Review Date: October 29, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Ronny Widjaja, Culver City, CA United States |
Like the other reviewer said, It has a bright white light underneath the drive but it doesn't really bother me much since I put it outside from my bedroom and it will turn off by itself when idle.
The transfer rate is pretty fast, and its very quiet. I plugged it into my iMac Aluminum (Leopard) via Firewire 800, and make a 100gb file transfer from internal to external hard drive for under 30 minutes. I was hoping to be faster but I guess that is a good speed.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with the look, the capacity and the speed. And the price is also good for a Mac-related products. |
Sleek, Shiny and fast
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| Review Date: November 11, 2008 |
| Reviewer: D. Chin, WEST COVINA, CA USA |
I was very pleased when I opened the box. This drive looks great next to my MacBook Pro. The LED light under the drive looks pretty cool in the dark, but I can see how some might find it distracting. I don't mind it too much since it doesn't blink. Overall, it looks sleek and futuristic.
The drive works great with OS X. I plugged it in, and it popped up right away on my desktop and I started transferring files with ease. The speed is great on my older Macbook pro, but awesome on my new iMac. I managed to back up a bunch of music and video files and still have enough space to set up Time Machine.
All in all, I'm very happy with this drive. |
Definitely buy this one for low noise, low temp mass storage.
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| Review Date: January 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: G. Duell, Raleigh, NC |
| I just picked up one of these after reading multiple resources and a great price. The sleep issue discussed in other reviews was not an issue at all for me. I have the drive connected using the Firewire 800 cable (included) to my MacBook Pro 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo running OS X 10.5.6 and love it. The drive sleeps when it's inactive and wakes quickly when I need it. When my Mac sleeps, the drive sleeps. When I wake my Mac, the drive wakes. It's very quiet and runs very cool. |
Works Perfectly with iMac
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| Review Date: May 5, 2009 |
| Reviewer: C. Sommer, |
| The Seagate FreeAgent Desk for Mac works perfectly with my iMac. I now own three of them (one as my primary storage for video and two for backups). The iMac immediately recognized each one when I connected them (in a daisy chain). The Firewire 800 connection is super fast (approx 2 GB/minute). I did a lot of research between WD, Iomega, Lacie, and am really glad that I went with Seagate. |
Super Drive!!
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| Review Date: May 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: F. Roske, Reno, NV |
I've always been a believer in Seagate's products. They have been very reliable. Recently I strayed, however. I went for form over function when I chose a Western Digital My Book FW400 drive despite my bad experiences with WD in the past (late 90's, early 00's). I thought having several My Books lined up next to each other would be more aesthetically pleasing than pretty much any other external drive available. And surely their quality must have improved...
Well, when I was unable to retrieve my photo collection from my WD drive, I learned my lesson. Again. The WD was less than two years old, and the warranty on it only good for one. So I went on the search for a replacement and naturally checked out Seagate. The reviews were favorable and I must concur. The performance of this drive is much better, probably aided by its FW800 interface. I do want to note this, however: when checking out the drive properties on my Mac, the WD showed as FW400 connecting at 200Mb/s, this Seagate shows as FW800 connecting at 800Mb/s. Why the WD connects more slowly, I do not know. So really I now have a 4-fold improvement in performance.
In conclusion: this drive is fast, reliable, and includes a 5-year warranty. Even if you have to shell out $20 or $30 over (really not so) comparable drives, it is well worth it. |
Seagate MAC 1TB
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| Review Date: March 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Michael C. Wayman, USA |
| Working great so far. Almost silent operation. Much quieter thank my old 250GB Seagate HD. |
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