Seagate 80GB Portable Hard Drive Review

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Seagate 80GB Portable Hard Drive
3 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3 out of 5

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BobTech's Review of Seagate 80GB Portable Hard Drive

7th Apr 2008

Overall Rating

3 stars
  • Value for money
    3.5 stars
  • Time External Device Owned
    6 - 12 Months
Good Points

Quite small. Futuristic appearance. Fast transfer of files. Lots of extra functions in the Seagate software. Doesn't need an external power supply.


Bad Points

It uses >500mA of current. A single USB port can't supply that much so it has two USB plugs at the end of its Y-shaped cable, to get the extra current it needs from a second port. That means it ties up two USB ports while you're using it.
The tiny USB socket on the side of the drive has to carry all that current., making me as an electronics technician feel very uneasy. My doubts were confirmed when I found that jiggling the plug in its socket can make the drive intermittently disconnect from the port - not a good thing to do when transferring files.


General Comments

I bought this drive to regularly back up the contents of my hard drive and store it in a safe place to enable me to restore my computer (or put everything onto a new one) if some kind of disaster happens. It has worked well in this role in the 8 months I've owned it. Seagate provides their DiscWizard software for free, to make backing up a complete hard drive very easy.
The Seagate FreeAgent Tools software can make archiving and synchronising the drive's contents with your main hard drive easier, though it has to be used carefully because it's possible for it to delete files you wanted to keep on your main hard drive, without you realising it. I stopped using it for that reason.
One end of the drive case glows yellow - constant dull if the drive's idle and pulsating when it's in use. It's certainly attention-getting though not especially useful.
Overall I'd recommend this drive, with the caution to make sure that you don't disturb the tiny USB connector or its cables while transferring files.

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