Backing up data can be considered a very important task as disc failures that can occur anytime leaving the user at a loss of important information. What is primarily expected of an external hard drive is reliability and durability. The process of setting the unit up and data transfer has to be a relatively hassle free procedure with no compatibility problems related to the computer the device is being used. Also, price is an important factor as there are a variety of storage options available.
The Seagate 1TB external hard drive makes use of USB 2.0 to connect to the computer and also needs to be connected to a power outlet to get it going. Using the unit is as easy as plugging it in and transferring data as the device comes pre formatted as NTFS. It also does not need any device drivers to be downloaded, making the viewer start his work immediately after connecting the unit to the computer. The units design is sleek and attractive with a low profile. It also has a small green LED on its face that tells the user when the device is at work and when it is not. The unit does not heat up much and most of them have been reportedly working without the slightest noise, with a few exceptions though.
The hard drive goes to a standby mode when not in use for a certain period of time, thus saving power as it has the Green feature and makes use of less power when it is idle. It is possible to partition the hard drive and use the different sections for different purposes. It does not come with any kind of unnecessary software and it also has the ability to turn itself on and off automatically when the PC boots up. It can also be connected to a play station with reliable service. It can again be used as a back up for Dish Network shows. It is always important to run a surface scan on the drive before using it though, as it helps in knowing if there are any bad sectors on it and can be fixed accordingly if any. If the device is found to be clean, it can be used immediately without any concern.
Most of the users who are not pleased with the device have found a reasonably loud clicking sound that the unit makes while in operation. The vents for cooling the hard drive are located at the bottom and that does no prove to be an efficient design as the bottom is always covered by the desk and that makes the device hot after operating for a considerable amount of time. The outer material of the device is not attractive as it attracts fingerprints and is prone to scratches. Also there is a lag found when playing videos on the computer directly from the disc. The unit cannot be considered portable as it has to be connected to a power outlet during its use.
Overall, the device is a reliable one though a few defective products were seen with a few users. If you are lucky enough to get the right one, it is definitely worth the value.
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User Reviews
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| Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive ST310005EXA101-RK |
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| Manufacturer: Seagate |
| Customer Rating: |
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| List Price: $103.99 |
| Sale Price: $79.99 |
| Availibility: Usually ships in 24 hours |
 Free Shipping Available |
| Buy Now |
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Product Description |
| Desk External Drive 1Tb Usb |
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Product Details |
- Plug n¿ play with no software to install
- Simply drag-and-drop to save files
- 7200 RPM performance, 1TB
- Built-in power management ensures energy-efficient operation
- USB 2.0 Interface
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Video Reviews |
 No video reviews found for this product.
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Customer Reviews |
 Works great on my Mac - I've always been satisfied with Seagate and this is a great price and great quality |
| Review Date: September 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Nathan Andersen, Florida |
I can't speak to the issues that some of the other reviewers have had, but I have to say I've been very impressed by this drive. You've got to plug it in so it's not really an "on-the-go" kind of drive, but that's not what I needed. I have a couple of FreeAgent Go drives for that (and the reason I went with Seagate this time is because I've been so impressed with the other Seagates). This time, I wanted a big drive that I could use as a Time Machine backup for my MacBook Pro, and as a backup for all of the video files I've shot over the years. So far I've been very happy with this drive. One thing I noted right away is that it actually has slightly more than 1TB of space! With every other external drive I've ever used the actual amount of usable memory has been a bit less than advertised, even after I've reformatted them. With this one you get what is advertised. It's a USB 2.0 data connection, and from what I've seen manages to move files more quickly than my older Western Digital 500GB desktop firewire drive.
For comparison, I tried moving a 2.15 GB video file back and forth between my laptop's hard drive and a few of my external drives. This one was fastest at both downloads and uploads - it would download the 2.15 GB file in one minute, 17 s. as opposed to 1 min., 40 for the portable FreeAgent Go and 1 min., 37 for the Western Digital. Uploading results were similar: it would upload the same 2.15 GB video file in 1 minute, 10 s. while the other drives uploaded in about 1 minute, 20 s. So, it's pretty fast and does exactly what I need - I've got no complaints and am very happy about the price (which turns out to be almost exactly what I paid a year or so ago for my 320GB portable drive and much less than what I paid about 3 years ago for my 500 GB desktop drive). What's not to like?
One more thing, for Mac users. While this drive is set up out of the factory to plug and play on Windows it can easily be converted to a handy Mac drive. Here's how:
1. plug it in to your Mac, using the USB 2.0 cable provided with the drive
2. open up your applications folder, search for the utilities folder and then run "disk utility" (or, just search for "disk utility" in finder or spotlight and click on it).
3. you should see an icon for your "1 TB Seagate Desktop Media" drive in the left column of "disk utility" and also a drive partition (as I recall it was called "desktop" but I changed the name) underneath that.
4. click on the icon labelled "1 TB Seagate Desktop Media" and you'll see a few options in the window; click "partition"
5. after this steps will vary depending on what you want to do with this. For what I wanted, I decided to create two partitions on my hard drive. So, under "volume scheme" I selected "2 partitions" then clicked on the top one and set it to 250 GB and that left 750.10 GB on the other one. For the "format" I selected "Mac OS X Extended" but you'd want to select the journaled option if you want to use either of these drives as a "boot disk". I didn't. Then hit "apply" and it will erase everything on the disk and break it into two sections.
Now when you plug in the hard drive two icons will appear on your desktop, as if there were two separate external drives. I use the smaller one for regular backups and the larger one for storing all of my old video files. I'm sure there are lots of other ways to get an excellent value from this sleek and handy little drive. Enjoy!
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The 1TB Seagate USB 2.0 Drive is great!
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| Review Date: October 18, 2009 |
| Reviewer: B. Fantroy, |
I (like everyone else) always read the reviews of an item before purchasing it. I was very skeptic about making this purchase due to the bad reviews that i've read, but a friend convinced me that it was a good deal, and I went ahead and followed through with it.
Let me tell you I WAS (and still am) VERY pleased with this purchase! The drive installs easily, however the only set back is that the drive isnt a true 1TB Drive, only 931GB's of the drive are usable. Aside from that, everything runs perfectly with no problems what so ever.
A suggestion to anyone purchasing this, is to run a surface scan on the drive prior putting anything on it. This way if there are bad sectors, they can be fixed (which is part of the reason why so many people suffer with having their drives die on them). Once running the surface scan, if all is well with no bad sectors or errors (My Seagate was perfect with no errors or bad sectors), feel free to use at your leisure.
I recommend this to ANYONE looking for an external hard drive! |
Add storage Instantly
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| Review Date: December 15, 2009 |
| Reviewer: FlipFlop, USA |
Bought this 1.5TB drive in local Fry's in Bay Area over the weekend since it was cheaper there. Drive is neatly packaged with cellophane film on the top to avoid finger-print/scratches/dust on the shiny/glossy surface. There is a small green LED activity light in the front but its very tiny and doesn't annoy a bit like some of the big bright LEDs on other external hard drives.
This is 7200 RPM drive and comes with its own power-supply adapter which must be used to power-up this drive. It is not a portable drive and is not USB-bus powered.
This drive doesn't come pre-loaded with any backup/encryption software. However it does come up with a small .exe file which when run takes you to Seagate's product registration page where it automatically fills the Drive Serial Number, so you just enter your name/email and register the product. I like registering as it helps locating the details of the drive in case you have to call customer service for repair/replace under manufacturer's warranty (which is 2 years for this drive). You can altogether not run it at all if you don't want to register.
Everytime I plug in this drive, it makes a large clicking sound once but after that it goes quiet while running. I plugged it into a Macbook Pro and created 2 partitions, one for MAC (HFS) and other for Windows (NTFS). I then used Time-Machine software that came with my Macbook to take a backup on MAC partition. It was quite smooth with no issues. I then unplugged the drive and connected to a Windows 7 laptop and it recognized the 2 partitions immediately, HFS being Read-Only and NTFS being Read-write. I then took my Windows 7 backup using in-built Windows backup software and it also went quite smooth.
So far no issues with the drive. It does tend to attract fingerpints/dust on its shiny surface since I removed the cellophane from it. |
Seagate 1 TB USB 2.0 External Desktop Hard Drive ST310005EXA101-RK (Black)
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| Review Date: November 30, 2009 |
| Reviewer: georgejs, Central Florida, USA |
| This is the second Seagate 1 TB USB 2.0 External Desktop Hard Drive ST310005EXA101-RK (Black) I have bought now. 5 stars across the board. I own an XP desktop and a Vista laptop. The hard drives are better for me, to transfer data The Seagate units are simpler to use than opening the case and expanding storage. This unit was less expensive than the first one, by a few dollars. |
Good Low Cost USB Drive
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| Review Date: June 20, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Edwin, New York, USA |
I just purchased my second seagate 1.5 tb drive as I find them to be quite affordable for such a large drive.
That said, hard-drives do fail, and I did have a problem with my first seagate drive. I returned it to Seagate and they promptly replaced it.
Why do drives fail? There are three reasons - manufacturing defect, shock and overheating. Lower priced drives; such as this one, are usually not as shock resistant as more expensive drives. If they experience a sudden shock from a drop or fall they are more likely to be damaged. That's why its important to locate external drives on a solid platform (not the top of a tower PC or the edge of a table) and ensure that cables are not placed where they will cause the drive to fall if pulled upon. Also, you don't want to bury a drive under piles of papers or magazines. They need ventilation for proper cooling.
I use my two seagate drives for file backups and rotate the drives weekly. This ensures that one backup drive is not connected to the PC, and thus protected from any power surges that may hit the PC; which is protected by a surge protector. If one backup drive fails, I have a second drive in reserve. |
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