Review: Seagate FreeAgent Go 160GB
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 9:55 pm. 33 comments
Seagate was a sponsor of SXSW this year and while there I remember hearing quite a lot about the new FreeAgent drives. After finally seeing one at the Vloggies booth I was set on it, and definitely “needed one”. Basically what that means is, my inner urge for the latest and greatest tech goodies overwhelmed me. With it’s cool yellow (and functional!) glow, slick enclosure, and small form factor, the small need for external storage instantly turned into an immediate one. Combine that with Seagate’s tried and true reputation for delivering quality drives and a generous warranty, and I might as well have died and gone to heaven.
I got home today to see an Amazon.com box with my name on it, and had no idea what was inside. After walking upstairs and beginning to cut away the packing tape I soon remembered that I had ordered the FreeAgent just a few days after SXSWi 2007, and was told it wouldn’t ship until May! I was surprised to get it this early!
The box has a nice satin finish, and is covered with cute little quotes like “nothing left behind”, “oh now you want one”, and “can I get that to go”. Upon opening the box you find a small cardboard foldy-thingy containing the device and a usb cable, as well as the user manual. Seagate took a page from Apple’s book and also scattered little messages here and there as you’re opening everything up. On the inside of the flap to open the box it says “Come on, let’s go somewhere.” Each of the small stickers holding the bags inside shut say “Hello” on them, and so on. Seagate did a terrific job with packaging even if they might have thrown in a little taste of Apple.
The device itself is small. For those of you with Macbook Pro’s it’s about an inch larger in both directions as the trackpad (plus the button) and slightly thicker than the bottom end of the MBP chassis. For everyone else, its 4.8 inches long, 3.9 inches wide, and 0.7 inches tall. It’s definitely something I wouldn’t mind carrying around in my laptop bag or even a jacket pocket.
One thing I noticed right away which made me just a little nervous was the USB cable setup. The manual says to “Connect all USB plugs.” The Macbook Pro has two USB ports, that isn’t the problem, the problem is that they are both on opposite ends of the chassis! Thankfully Seagate had this in mind split the cable with just enough to hit both sides. However, I am currently copying about 60GB of files from another drive onto this one via one USB cable and it seems to be doing just fine. So, I’m not to sure if it needs both connectors or not. One is labeled “power + usb” and the other is labeled “usb”. But again, the device is working just fine with only one of these connected (obviously the power + usb connector).
The device comes loaded with software which apparently helps you keep all your crap with you on the run, but since I have a Mac I really can’t take advantage of this feature (nor do I really wan’t to). I simply loaded up disk utility and formatted the drive with the Mac OS Extended filesystem. It works like a charm. I’m coping just about 60GB of content from one external SATA Drive onto this one through my Macbook Pro and OS X has estimated the transfer time at an hour. Its copied 29.4GB so far, the drive is slightly warm to the touch (really only with my forearm, my hand doesn’t notice it much), and it’s got “About 33 Minutes” to go.
So far the drive itself is great, its extremely quiet, and it’s holding up well under the load I expect it to go through every day. Check it out here on Amazon (it’s already about $20 cheaper than when I purchased it), or if you need the official info here is the Seagate site. I’ll probably write a followup as I play more with the drive!
UPDATE: My drive is now totally dead. It works sometimes, but most of the time it just freezes up and ends up crashing my mac entirely. Due to Leopard’s imminent release, I’ll be buying a new drive soon to backup my machine, and it definitely won’t be the Seagate. Probably the WD Passport.
Heh, so you finally got it.
They stole my colors, but it’s pretty cool.
Now, let’s see how many flames I get.
Man, its good to see someone is just as impulsive as I am. Buying things based on looks is great!
If they make a 7200rpm version of the 160GB, I’ll buy twenty of them. You feel me, Seagate?
Then I can shoot and edit The Scoble Show on the fly, in the field without being dragged down with gear weight.
Rocky-
Scoble Show Editor
I got one of these and the drive is pretty nice. Be careful with the sync software. It does NOT sync hidden files and folders which to me is a bug and makes the sync software useless. (Use ROBOCOPY instead). The box says “all of your files” but this does not appear to be true. Not sync’ing hidden files means things like your album art in Windows Media Player do not get sync’ed. Not to mention other applications that create hidden files and folders that are not going to be sync’ed and may not work without all their data. Called Seagate support. No interest in fixing software and tried to defend it as a feature.
Dude that looks very cool and kinda reminiscent of Star Trek. I’m gonna order one tomorrow, I think.
Also your site rocks, I love the design and colour scheme!
Sam’s (Sam’s Warehouse Club) carries this item in their stores for $99. Just bought mine today.
My bad - it is the 120gb FreeAgent Go that is available at Sam’s for $99, not the 160gb.
I’m afraid, but you seem to be lacking technical knowledge. Like the reason the drive needs two USB ports. If you connect it to just one you violate the USB specifications which could lead to data loss or hardware defects (the latter more likely to happen to the computer than to the drive).
@geek lol i think it is you that needs some technical knowledge. the second cable is only required for older pc’s whose single usb port cannot deliver the required power hence needs two usb ports to power the drive.
You called that a review, you didn’t even try their software. I believe Seagate got the new concept right, unfortunately the Ceedo software sunk! you didn’t get that part right, because, the software doesn’t support mac, and you went ahead and formatted the entire disk.
Simple program like outlook and firefox is not supported, and the encryption function is not available for all region!!!
you guys are funny
Looks really great! Wanna buy one…
But does anyone know if it’ll work with my Alu PowerBook G4 1.5gHz?
Allready baught a WD Passport that didn’t mount on it.
THANKS for your answers!
I wonder: how tough would it be to open the drive up? I want to swap its drive with the 80GB one inside my MacBook.
So what’s up with the capacity, 160 GB drive and 149 GB capacity. Is this something normal for all drives?
Mine just died after less than a week of use with my MPB. Hopefully I can still return it and buy something else instead.
interesting
How do I sync my FreeAgent Go with my Mac ?
You do know they have a 5 year warranty…right?
Mine just reported that it is dying after only 1 week of usage - it comes up with a Diagnostic Code that Seagate then say qualifies me for a refurb replacement - but I have to send it back to them at my cost!
They then suggested that I return it to the retailer - I’m volunteering to do that if they pay my travel costs: problem is I bought it in Singapore and I live in Scotland!
Anyone had a Diagnostic Code : 98E6EA41 error when running the utilities?
Tom - Your problem is the hard drive still holds all of the seagate files (for PC), if you don’t need these, reformat to get your 160GB’s back….
My problem! I have it for 2 weeks and i backed up my life onto it!!! AND IT HAS DIED! I have all of my years work on there, and will think about a masacre if i’ve lost everything.
I have a MacBook Pro and the 160GB Freeagent, in disc utility it sees the drive but wont mount it… Anyone else getting this?
These things are crap. Will never buy seagate again. Twitchy then dead. lost volumes of irreplaceable data.
Eck!
Interesting…
Interesting…
Cool…
I bought one of these to back up my harddrive for a reformat. I put everything on it and reformatted the drive, and then the Freeagent died (I had it for 3 weeks!) before I got to put it back on my computer. I lost everything and Seagate doesn’t cove data recovery (but offers it for $2300!). I am about to go crazy because it will cost me $1300 to go through any other company. Don’t buy this thing!
DOSE THIS WORK ON A MAC.
THANK YOU
IF YOU LOOK AT THE SCREENSHOTS YOU’LL NOTICE THAT THEY ARE ALL FROM A MAC.
THANK YOU
Nice comeback.
I’ve got a problem. I’m trying to transfer files from my iBook to my bf’s FreeAgent he used with Windows. Can’t transfer at all cuz it says “The item “new pictures” could not be moved because “My Pictures” cannot be modified.” Any help on this? Thanks in advance :)
I HAVE WIN98 II
HOW TO USE IT ?
I HAVE WIN 98 V2, HOW TO USE IT ?
I bought the free agent 160GBk to use as back-up. First the ceedo software failed, then after trying a doz. times to update it freezed up my computer ( first time this has ever happened on my compaq). During 6 data transfers it crashed my computer. Then software failed again after transfers and the computer wouldn’t recognize the drive!!! Really F*****d off about this. Wouldn’t recommend this to enyone unless they’re desperate and awfully stupid.
i bought one of these 160s at sames yesterday today is 05-01-08 seems to work great but at the sams store they said it only had a 1 year waranty so i bought another 3 years for 14095 shit!
sorry thats $14.90