Is the Seagate FreeAgent XTreme 1TB that bad for MBPs?

[yniq]

I just bought a Seagate FreeAgent XTreme 1TB.

After I went home, I checked online and found all these horrid stories about how this HDD crashed after just a month, or two months, or even 2 weeks (there are like 10+ stories about this problem).

What bugs me more is that on the box it is actually written "Designed for Windows Vista" (which I didn't read before buying, a lesson I learned for future reference) so I'm afraid that it won't work that well on Mac OS X.
I did find out that it works on Mac and I only need to format the drive, but I think, logically, if it works as well for Macs, why did they have to put a label that indicates it was designed for Windows?

I want to know this product IS that bad.
I haven't opened the seal or the plastic at all, just in case everyone says it is that bad and I should to return it to the shop.

I'm using a 15" MBP (not the NEW MBP), Mac OS X v10.5.7

 

[r.j.s]

When reading horror stories online, remember, 95% of people won't post something about how everything is working fine. If something goes wrong, the first thing they will do is tell everyone.

Anyway, it should be fine. If it does die, there is a warranty.

The reason it says Designed for Vista is so that people with Vista won't be wondering if it will work. All you have to do is plug it in, format it as HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) and you'll be fine.

 

[yniq]

Thanks. I'm not sure they'll let me return the HDD anyway. :|
I think i'll just use this one and see what happens.
Hopefully I won't be the next one going on those sites to tell a horror story of my own about this product.

 

[HLdan]

The reason it says Designed for Vista is so that people with Vista won't be wondering if it will work. All you have to do is plug it in, format it as HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) and you'll be fine.

Well, that's not quite right. The reason most hard drive manufacturers label their boxes with the logo "Designed for Windows Vista" is, yes, of course for compatibility reasons but more so due to the backup software that's included with the drive which is generally made for Windows and not Mac OS X. It doesn't matter anyway, that's why Apple designed Time Machine.
Any hard drive will work with a Mac once formatted. There's no such thing as a Windows only drive.

And to the OP, you really should just USE the product you buy rather than immediately forwarding yourself to a forum to read bad stories. Think about it, would a person that buys a hard drive that has no issues with it come to a forum and say, "Hey my new Free Agent hard drive works great!"? NO. When people post stories about a hard drive it will most likely be negative. The negative posters are a small percentage.

 

[rick3000]

I have a FreeAgent Xtreme 1TB. To be honest I've learned my lesson about HD's in general. This drive failed about 4 months ago, luckily I was able to use a disk recovery program to get my stuff off. Seagate sent me a new drive, but know I have another 1TB drive that I backup the first one too.

I realized that it really doesn't matter which HD you get they can fail early and will fail eventually (I've had a Maxtor drive fail, and a few others).
So I now keep a complete backup of the first drive. If you are concerned about losing your data this really the best way to safeguard everything short of a RAID.

 

[yniq]

And to the OP, you really should just USE the product you buy rather than immediately forwarding yourself to a forum to read bad stories.

hahaha. Yea I kinda realized that it was kinda suicidal. I was planning to get the WD MyBook Studio Version (I did some research on the internet before deciding what to buy), but the guy from the shop said they ran out of stock for it and recommended me to buy the Seagate one instead and kept on going about how he used the Seagate HDD at home and it's good and stuff (he did say he's not a Mac user) and I, being new and clueless in this field, just said "okay, I'll take it"

And when I got home I was like "oh boy, what if this product is actually NOT that good?", then I saw the "Designed for Vista" logo and began to be paranoia about this. And then I forward myself to read the bad stories.

That story is kinda irrelevant.
Thanks though, what you said kinda makes me feel better.

 

[yniq]

So I now keep a complete backup of the first drive.

That makes sense, but it's kinda expensive to get two drives. I have to agree, it does seem like the safest way. Do you need a special app to do the backup of the first drive (I think time machine can only back up the main/internal drive, but I'm not sure) or do you do it manually (like you copy the whole thing manually)?

 

[rick3000]

I have it setup like this:

Drive 1
-200GB Partition with a Carbon Copy Clone of my internal drive
-730GB Partition with my files, etc.
Drive 2
-930GB Time Machine backup of my internal drive and 700GB partition.
This won't work for everyone but it works for me, and keeps everything backed up and safe with a bootable backup.

 

[cluthz]

I just bought a Seagate FreeAgent XTreme 1TB.
...
What bugs me more is that on the box it is actually written "Designed for Windows Vista" (which I didn't read before buying, a lesson I learned for future reference) so I'm afraid that it won't work that well on Mac OS X.
I did find out that it works on Mac and I only need to format the drive, but I think, logically, if it works as well for Macs, why did they have to put a label that indicates it was designed for Windows?

I want to know this product IS that bad.
I haven't opened the seal or the plastic at all, just in case everyone says it is that bad and I should to return it to the shop.

I'm using a 15" MBP (not the NEW MBP), Mac OS X v10.5.7

I got a FreeAgent Extreme (black one) and it did say designed for windows when i bought it, its a 500GB one and I've had it for two years, working flawless!!!

I recently bought a new one "mac version" the only difference is that the "mac version" has Firewire 800 instead of eSata, and the macversion is white.

The "made for windows" or "made for mac" is just stickers
Hardware is the same (just the fact that segate adds fw800 to mac versions and eSata to Windows versions).

Imo, seagate is a very reputable brand and I have had nothing but good experiences with Seagate.

One of my best friends uses 2x Freeagents for backing up his system for over a year now and I just convinced my little brother to buy a FreeAgent aswell!


At the moment i have:
1x LaCie D2 (great HD, fast, but noisy)
1x LaCie Neil Poulton (Noisy, doesn't really support powermanagement, so it spins always and it's slow)
2x FreeAgents (fast, quiet, goes to sleep when not used etc!)

 

[yniq]

I got a FreeAgent Extreme (black one) and it did say designed for windows when i bought it, its a 500GB one and I've had it for two years, working flawless!!!

I recently bought a new one "mac version" the only difference is that the "mac version" has Firewire 800 instead of eSata, and the macversion is white.

The "made for windows" or "made for mac" is just stickers
Hardware is the same (just the fact that segate adds fw800 to mac versions and eSata to Windows versions).

Imo, seagate is a very reputable brand and I have had nothing but good experiences with Seagate.

One of my best friends uses 2x Freeagents for backing up his system for over a year now and I just convinced my little brother to buy a FreeAgent aswell!


At the moment i have:
1x LaCie D2 (great HD, fast, but noisy)
1x LaCie Neil Poulton (Noisy, doesn't really support powermanagement, so it spins always and it's slow)
2x FreeAgents (fast, quiet, goes to sleep when not used etc!)

Thanks a lot I figure I shouldn't worry too much about those horror stories now.