I just bought this drive, but I have second thoughts on it after reading a few reviews online so what do you guys think about the Seagate FreeAgent 500GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive, is it reliable? This is not the pro version.
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Seagate FreeAgent 500GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive
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I'm not sure which version I have but my Seagate drives are fine. Basically, you'll hear horror stories for every brand. I was fine with Western Digital for a long time then I got a couple lemons in a row so I switched to Seagate.
USB2 is fine for Time Machine.
You'll notice pretty quick if the drive is having issues. Format it, see if it has any weird issues, disconnects, or makes any loud noises. Check the heat too. If it works ok at first, I'm sure you'll be fine using it as a backup. If it's for anything more than backups, make sure you have another way to backup what you put on it.
You'll notice pretty quick if the drive is having issues. Format it, see if it has any weird issues, disconnects, or makes any loud noises. Check the heat too. If it works ok at first, I'm sure you'll be fine using it as a backup. If it's for anything more than backups, make sure you have another way to backup what you put on it.
I have 4 Seagates. 2 are FreeAgent Pros - a 750GB eSata/USB2, and a 320GB with both eSATA/USB2 and FW modules. I'm currently running the 320GB as my TM drive, on FW. The other 750GB is in a 3rd party eSATA case running 24/7 as my DirecTV DVR drive, using eSATA. The forth is a 500GB in a FW 800 case. All are extremely quiet and reliable. (edit - just remembered a fifth. A 250GB in another FW800 case...)
I wouldn't worry about using USB2 for TM. FW is faster when working with large files, but since TM just works in the background, I don't think there's any real advantage. I'm actually going to switch the 320GB TM drive back to USB2 and use the FW module on my 750GB. The main reason it's hooked up over FW is because it's next to another FW device and I'm daisy-chaining off of it.
Just stay AWAY from Maxtor drives like the Plague if you want to preserve your data for beyond femtosecond after the warranty expires. (which - Maxtor has one of shortest of the big brands across the line)
WD Drives are pretty good - I've had some loud ones lately - which raises my eyebrow with a slight look of concern. Warranty is a good period, especially for their internals. But nothing dead *yet*.
Seagate in my opinion is top-notch. They've been consistently the quietest and longest lived drives I've had to date. Some of them sporting 5 years of warranty. And again - the warranty seems to stick longer for the internals vs the externals.
And the same for my massive file modifying / sharing / and formatting psycho PC friends. They all swear by Seagate.
I've had 2 failures of Hitachi drives (in laptops) but these were from smell computer - and warranty actually helped me with both.
WD Drives are pretty good - I've had some loud ones lately - which raises my eyebrow with a slight look of concern. Warranty is a good period, especially for their internals. But nothing dead *yet*.
Seagate in my opinion is top-notch. They've been consistently the quietest and longest lived drives I've had to date. Some of them sporting 5 years of warranty. And again - the warranty seems to stick longer for the internals vs the externals.
And the same for my massive file modifying / sharing / and formatting psycho PC friends. They all swear by Seagate.
I've had 2 failures of Hitachi drives (in laptops) but these were from smell computer - and warranty actually helped me with both.
Real-world transfer speeds actually favor Firewire according to most reports.
Also, Firewire hits the computer CPU a lot less than USB.
Finally, if Firewire is 'garbage', then double the speed of garbage can't be that 'amazing'.
With all that being said, the OP's drive should be fine. I have a FreeAgent Pro that has USB2, Firewire 400, and eSATA for Time Machine and it's worked fine so far.
Yeah that is burst speed for USB 2. Firewire has better sustained throughput making it superior for hard drives.
Your average pc doesn't have a firewire port. Even many brand new budget pcs don't have firewire. Imagine all the pc owners buying ipods and going home to find that they can't connect them to their computer.
Switching the ipods to usb was a good marketing move for apple.
I call them "Halloween drives". They'd be just about perfect, if they got rid of the full length stripe.
The nice finish on the aluminum almost makes up for it, though.