Reviews for Seagate FreeAgent Pro Desktop 750 GB External Hard Drive - Retail

A Tremendous External Drive Package

Strengths: Trouble free installation, beautiful drive enclosure, whisper quiet, and high performance.

Weakness: None, except for the fact that it 1/2 taller than all my over external drives, and that it must be in the uprighted position due to its' peculiar base.

I'm in the middle of converting a large VHS tape library of family videos to DVD format, and need extra storage for the edited videos. Always on the look out for good bargains in external hard drives with USB 2.0, I latched on to this 750GB Seagate FreeAgent Pro that BestBuy offered this past weekend.
The FreeAgent Pro installed without a hitch, Windows XP recognized it quickly, and Seagates FreeAgent Pro Tools and AutoBackup applications loaded incident free. This HD comes pre-formatted with NTFS, but I have a policy of doing a FULL FORMAT, to check a newly purchased drive's integrity. Formating took over 3 hours for this 750GB drive, but it passed with flying colors. The drive enclosure is a work of art to look at, and it is silent running in a quiet room. Seagate's 5 year warranty makes it possible to assume years of good service.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Don't Buy for the eSATA

Strengths: Quiet

Weakness: It is faster with USB than with eSATA, Drive is cripled with slow access times and low performance via firmware

This drive is designed to be used with a DVR not a computer. HD Tune speed ratings: USB transfer rates range from 29 - to 30 MB/sec with 29.7 being the average and a 21 ms access time and 27 MB/Sec burst rate. eSATA transfer rate ranger from 17 - 45 MB/Sec with 37 being the average and a 23 ms access time and a 20 MB/Sec burst rate.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Humongous capacity in a fairly small case

Strengths: Gigantic 750GB of storage; looks nice to the eye compared to other typical computer hardware; has a 5-year limited warranty; apparently it also functions as a heater which would be good for cold winters

Weakness: No eSATA cable; very simple instructional manual, or rather, pamphlet (may be difficult for those not so computer savvy); the fact that it also seems to function as a heater brings up questions about the safety of your data...

I jumped on this baby because I saw a good deal for it, and I was looking for a high capacity external hard drive anyway. 750GB is quite a bit for those who don't download a ton of "special movies" all the time. *hint hint, nudge nudge*

The first thing you will notice when you open the box is how slick the design of the hard drive is, it looks very modern and simple, with a very smooth black exterior, and it looks even better when it is plugged in -- the orange you see in the product pictures isn't just some clear orange plastic casing, there is also lighting inside of the case that turns on when it is plugged in that makes that clear orange plastic bright and nifty-looking. Definitely adds a coolness factor to the whole thing.

Speaking of coolness, or the lack thereof, is the temperature of this sucker. Maybe if you live in Alaska, this would be a benefit for you, but right now I'm in California where you regularly spend your summers roasting in high temperatures. This piece of hardware DOES NOT help the situation AT ALL. I spent a good amount of time today transfering files from my old external hard drive to this new one, and man, does this thing heat up fast, and stay hot. With all seriousness, I'm actually a little afraid of the security of my data because I don't want this thing to overheat and melt down. I already did read some user reviews about how this thing gets hot, but man, I didn't know it would get THIS hot. You could probably fry some eggs on this thing. As long as you don't use this hard drive 24/7, things should work out okay, at least for a while (which is why I ended up getting this, since I only turn on my external hard drive once every few days).

For a while, it took me some time to find out where the "ventilation" was on this heating machine. It took me a while, because it was actually brilliantly placed UNDER THE BASE of the hard drive, which is quite a peculiar location. If you don't know by now, this external hard drive is designed only to be stood vertically upright, so by putting the ventilation area under the base... well... you'll be getting a LOT of air circulation straight from your desk (that's sarcasm, folks)... what's even worse is that you put your hand at the ventilation area and feel no air passing out whatsoever. Oh boy.

But the thing DOES have a 5-year limited warranty, so if the heat ends up frying your drive, you'll have a good amount of time to get a replacement. But yeah, good luck replacing the up to 750GB you just lost...

I used the included USB 2.0 cord and the USB 2.0 works fine, I'm getting the speeds that I expect from a USB 2.0 connection. Although I don't have an eSATA port, it would have been nice to have the cable thrown into the package in case I end up upgrading to a new computer that has one.

One of the themes of this product is simplicity, you can see it in the design of the case and you can see it in their approach to advertising for this product and in the product's instructional manual. The manual, or rather, pamphlet, has instructions that aren't very descriptive, which might give difficulty to computer noobs, but in all honestly, it's not that hard to use an external drive. Honestly, the instructions are to the effect of "plug in the power and the USB cable, and BING! BAM! BOOM! you're done."

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Awesome capacity external hard drive!

Strengths: 750GB; eSata; 5-year warranty

Weakness: Cannot stack drives on desktop; no eSata cable; Power button is hidden on the base, and is not documented

My MP3 & DVD rips were filling up the internal drives in my computer, so I wanted to offload to an external drive. As DVDs take up so much space, I wanted to minimize the number of drives I had. While I could have gone with 1TB, they are too darn expensive right now, or are comprised of two drives, so are too big. That's why I went with 750GB: it's not as cost-effective as 320gb or 500gb, but certainly more so than 1TB. While I was annoyed at first that it was missing an eSata cable, I got over it. The drive does take some getting used to! It's cool, yet ugly, at the same time. Kind of like those Toyota Prius cars, it takes some getting used to. While it takes a small footprint on your desktop, the unit cannot be stacked, so if you want more than one, it will take up too much space. For me, it's connected to my media-center PC, so that wasn't important. The unit runs very cool, so it's a perfect fit for my media closet.

Note that the power on/off might be kind of funky if you use the eSata port instead of USB. For USB, I plug in the cable, and the unit powers up, I install the software, and everything is good. However, when I plugged in the (not supplied) eSATA cable, nothing happened! No power-on or cool orange light. :-( After a chat with Seagate tech support, they indicated that their is a subtly hidden power port on the base, that you can stroke your finger on to turn the unit on/off! Nowhere in the 39-page downloaded PDF manual does it even mention this. Crazy!!

I might be getting another one after the price drops, as the newer DVR boxes have eSata ports, so it's possible to extend the size of your DVR/TiVo storage with one of these.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

A fast and silent drive

Strengths: quiet, fast, large capacity, ESATA interface, 5 year warranty

Weakness: Gimmicky power switch, documentation stored on drive instead of cd

I bought the 750 GB Seagate FreeAgent Pro external hard drive to store my music and movies. The version I'm using has USB 2.0 and ESATA (external SATA) interfaces. If you don't have a computer with a built-in ESATA port you can buy a ESATA card for $50 or so or buy an SATA to ESATA adapter which can turn a internal SATA port into a ESATA compatible port for around $15 to $20 dollars. I'm using one of those adapters and the ESATA interface on the drive. The advantage of using the ESATA port is that it's much faster than USB 2.0 or even firewire and puts less load on the CPU both of which are important when streaming video to and from the drive.

The drive has a completely different case design than previous Seagate external hds and has an unusual "touch - point" power switch which frankly I don't like. The drive has no fan which I was concerned about so it's quiet but it runs cool. I had no problem setting up the drive thanks to the printed quick installation guide included with the drive. The main documentation for the drive and its supporting software is included on the drive instead of on a CD. I feel this is a mistake because if the drive crashes you'll lose the documentation. The drive also comes with synchronization and backup software which are ok but nothing to write home about. One very good thing about this drive is that it has a 5 year warranty instead of the 1 year warranty most other external hds come with. I've been using the drive to stream music and movies thus far with no problems. I just hope it will stand up to being on 24/7 instead of the short power on times most external drives are used for.

88% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Great drive

Strengths: Great design and esata, 5 year warranty

Weakness: expensive

This drive looks as good as it performs. A handsome drive that stays cool and has a 5 year warranty. Esata is a nice touch making this external drive an asset down the line when the Esata can be utilized. I like the drive a lot. It is a tad expensive but you do get what you pay for.

80% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Great design / performance

Strengths: 5 yrs warranty, design, huge storage, eSATA interface, not loud!

Weakness: price, no SATA cable included

after use it to replace my Maxtor 300gb external(cause it's full) it works great so far and the design is so cool the style make the hard drive look durable! Run under the Vista works fine with the USB connection, but I haven't try the eSATA yet. Totally love the design and it also come with the 5 years warranty which is the plus for me to choice this hard drive! overall it's good hard drive, just don't know why the actual space is only 698gb :( where are the 50gb go?.....!! However, 5 star recommended!

75% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Great Drive

Strengths: Design, esata, 5 year warranty, quiet, small, unobtrusive, easy setup, that orange strip glowing in the dark.

Weakness: Tall, upright positioning quite precarious, not happy when knocked over.

Have used both USB and esata interfaces.

Despite the one weakness, I think it's great. This is second, first got knocked over. Solved that by wire tieing the thing to the shelves. No other problems.

If they would integrate the base with the drive profile and make it flat instead, I would buy a few more. When I travel, I need things that don't fall over and quit working.

Still, I think the package is an absolute [and functional] work of art.

Ken

67% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

looks great. doesn't work so great

Strengths: looks fantastic cool switches

Weakness: doesn't work well

Well I wanted to love this, esp. since I got it for $50 less than the cost of a bare 750gb drive! Unfortunately, it didn't work at ALL when connected to an eSATA port -- a fact missed by every single "professional" review site, since none of them bothered to actually test the eSATA connection. Also, even the USB connection had a problem -- it caused my machine to hang in the boot process (even if I turned the drive off). Seagate's tech support FAQ references this problem and suggests removing the USB cable when rebooting. DUH!! Skip this piece of junk.

57% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Repetitive Memeo Autostart Install Hangs PC

Strengths: Looks good. eSATA interface. Memeo backup software.

Weakness: Memeo backup software. Seagate 5-year "support" is exclusively an ability to review online FAQs; no online ability to actually submit a support request.

Even after the Memeo backup software is installed, every time this eSATA drive is powered up, it autostarts the Memeo software install again, which hangs my PC. I'm going to be forced to dispense with the Memeo software and just reformat the drive so the autostart install ceases.

50% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Format comPatability

Strengths: Sleek, Hi-Tech, Silent, Cool

Weakness: No Fan, Lo-Dexterity, incomPatability

The Format ComPatability Lists Both Mac and PC : : Truth Is : Once the HD is PC/Mac InFected : It BeComes Totally InComPatable to the Other forMat : Even Being That the OS Used Has Intel Core Duo(TM) ProCessing : :

How the Hell Was I S'Posed to Know ::

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Awesome external drive!

Strengths: Sleek and stylish, great price

Weakness: A little slow, but not much

I think these are great external drives. Having 2-750GB drives has been fantastic for having some external swap space. It comes with solid backup software (I use it to mirror my two drives) and I was able to get them for $199/piece. Even better, seagate makes the best consumer drives in the business, IMO and it came with the great 5 year warranty they always honor.

Highly recommended

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Love the capacity, BUT...

Strengths: Good for what I use it for--video editing, work doc storage, etc.

Weakness: FLIMSY USB port. Apparently it is glued and not soldered to the board, so it comes apart rather easily.

Warranty service sucks. When the USB port came apart, I contacted Seagate and was promised I would be sent a new module within a week. Two weeks later, I was sent an email telling me I was not getting the module because they no longer make them. They could not provide me an eSATA cable so I could access my drive that way. However, they did tell me I could send the entire drive back and get a new one. If I wanted my data off the drive, they would be happy to refer me to their service to have it "recovered" for MORE than what I paid for the drive.

I am about thisclose to tearing the unit apart and then move the drive to a univeral external case.

To their (dubious) credit, they sent me a consolation gift of an international power supply kit. Of course, since the port is not accessible, this is like offering a fish the keys to one's car...

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

huge storage

Strengths: huge capacity, esata connection, seagate 5 year warranty

Weakness: no firewire in this version, automatic backup software is only a trial software for 30 days, must stand upright, no esata cable

so far i've really liked using this hard drive. i've backed up all of my hard drives (2x 320gb drives) and using the esata connection i was able to do it very quickly. it runs quiet. i installed the backup software, but with only a 30 day trial, it's not even worth using

i do wish there was a power "switch" instead of this weird "button"

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

By member: DLHelling - Oct 12, 2007

Free Agent 750 GB External Drive - Seagate

Strengths: Tremendous capacity - External SATA/USB configuration

Weakness: None

Seagate does it again - With this drive you get External SATA/USB configuration - 16mb buffer - Pre-installed back-up software.
Seagate reliability with 5 year warranty.
I am able to back up all document and financial files along with my music and photos to this drive.
My only regret was I had not saved and purchased 3 of these as I have 3 external USB drives currently:
Maxtor and Seagate both 500 GB and a Seagate 400 GB.
Not intended as an endorsement but item was purchased at Best Buy for $ 194.99.
I will purchase an addition one of these - indeed may return to get two more.
I wholeheartedly recommend this unit.
Deserves 6 star rating
Thank you.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Like it

Strengths: Quiet & 5 Yr warranty

Weakness: Difficult to locate the hidden power button

I compared between Western Digital & Seagate and finally bought this because of the 5 year warranty and good reviews. I am using this for the last 2 month. Satisfied so far. But I still haven't mastered the art of using the Power off button.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

great design, stylish case, quiet External HD

Strengths: small footprint, installed easily

Weakness: as mentioned by numerous people, can not lay it down. Kind of heavy so be careful not to knock it over.

the orange glow from 3 sides of the enclosure is very cool, but may not be for everyone. and, beware, it is only 698 GB once installed.
Otherwise, great value for the size. and looks nice enough to display on the desktop if you need/want to.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Fast, silent, and nice looking external drive

Strengths: eSATA, good passive cooling, nice black/orange exterior, low noise, power-saving feature.

Weakness: eSATA cable/bracket are not in package, USB interface is not reliable

I bought that drive because of eSATA feature, and have no regret about extra money spent. It works flawlessly in my workstation (using 3' eSATA cable), and for mobility I use USB connection, but be carefull - in some cases big files (> 1GB) may got corrupted while transfer (it depends of computer chipset, ATI RS480/SB400 in my case), so I recommend to use checksum verification software. I did not install the soft which comes with drive, it works as default external drive in Win2000, XP, Vista. Upright position may be instable, so you need to find safe place for that drive. Comparing to other external drives that I used to have, the noise level and power-saving features are the best (hard drive stop spinning while idling approx. 15 min.). I would definitely recommend it.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Big storage device with nice slim looking running...

Strengths: 5 years warranty, slim design, look great, running cool and quite, useful software, easy installation, and reliable of Seagate brand

Weakness: The software tends to run slow backing up large files, Pricier than other brands, loss some space due to pre-installed files vis USB.

After 7 external hard drives, Seagate proves so far "knock on the wood" to be the most reliable and easy to use. Out of the box, it looks great -- slim design consumes little space. It has everything pre-installed in the drive, so it doesn't need the CD installation. It, however, waste some spaces though. I don't mind since it has 750 GB. The drive runs pretty cool and quiet. Software is useful but takes long time to backup large files via USB port. Software can be used to turn on or off the light of the drive itself. You can set it and forget it for the backing up your files from local hard drive or from the external drive itself. However, I can't find when it will perform the backing up (instantly or later -- probably not simultaneously). I have already recommended a friend to buy a similar but smaller version and it has been great.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

FreeAgent Pro External 750GB

Strengths: Quiet

Weakness: little warm, need esata 2 cable for fit.

I picked up this unit to extend my Directv HD DVR capabilities and it has been performing flawlessly. The Esata cable required is Esata 2. It fits more securely into the port, and unlike many Esata 1 cables, it doesn't require any trimming for fit. I am pleased with it so far.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Sturdy, gorgeous, dependable

Strengths: Great transfer rates with eSATA

Weakness: No SATA cable included -- that's why I bought the thing!

Extremely aesthetically pleasing. The pictures make the case look like a cheap plastic, but it's actually a brushed, heavy metal. Great-looking thing to have on your desk. It's also a HD, and my transfer rates with eSATA have been quite impressive.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Seagate 750GB FreeAgent Pro

Strengths: Lots of hard drive space; Price is reasonable; Fast data transfer; Very easy to set up; 5 Year Warranty

Weakness: Operates at a very high temp; ON/OFF switch is tricky; Doesn't always turn off completely; Needs a lot of air circulation space

I bought two of these hard drives hoping that they would perform reliably like my other SeaGate drives. In general, it works fine and is reasonably fast for large file transfers. However, the drive gets really hot (to the point where I had to call SeaGate to find out if the temperature was normal). Also, the ON/OFF switch is tricky. It took me a few tries to figure out that you have to stroke the button gently to get it to turn on. But to turn it off, you have to press down for a second. My last complaint is that I bought two and since they run so hot, they need a lot of air circulation space (at least 4 inches all around). So much for saving space. I will be switching these for one Maxtor 1.5TB drive in the near future, which has it's own internal cooling system.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

very fast, very quiet

Strengths: fast drive, very quiet, stylish design, great software bundle

Weakness: not stackable

The new FreeAgent design looks great, and the optional light is cool. FreeAgent Tools and Autobackup are strong pieces of software. I just prefer a stackable design, which makes buying a second drive in this design less desirable.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Great design / performance

Strengths: Large capacity, eSATA interface

Weakness: No eSATA cable included

This is a cool looking external hard drive with both USB 2.0 interface for compatibility and eSATA for speed. It is fairly small and compact. AC adapter is small. Lots of capacity at 750 GB. The orange light has a low glow when on. It doesn't come with an eSATA cable. Only a USB cable. Otherwise a great product.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Sharp Design with 750GB to back it up!

Strengths: Sharp Design, Whisper Quiet, USB 2.0 + eSATA, Formatted NTFS, 5 Yr Warranty.

Weakness: Runs Warm/Hot to the touch (seems many this size do), no SATA cable included.

Windows XP and Windows Vista had no issues detecting the drive immediately connected via USB. Really sharp looking design and I love the yellow/amber lights (which can be turned off using the included software on the HDD). Transferred all my data over to the drive without any trouble. I haven’t tested the eSATA connection with my HD DVR box, nor my computer (since I lack an eSATA connection on my computer - I would assume the bus speed would really improve transferring large amount of data). Recommend if size, interface options, and style are of importance.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Highly recommended drive.

Strengths: Massive 750gb storage, 5 year warranty, eSATA interface.

Weakness: eSATA cable is not included.

The only negative thing about this drive is that it doesn't include an eSATA cable, which will set you back $10-20.

Otherwise, it has a massive drive in it, the enclosure itself is sturdy & looks slick. USB 2.0 connectivity is standard, but eSATA is a big plus - especially if you're transferring 750gb!

One of these will probably set you back as much as 2 500gb drives, but if desk space is at a premium, this is the way to go. Can't beat Seagate's 5 year warranty on an external drive!

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Rock solid design / performance and gorgeous good...

Strengths: Seagate warranty Solid feel Beautiful design Supports esata quiet Good backup software

Weakness: No esata cable included

Using this to backup my programs and I am blown away by its good looks. It has to be the first external that I would be proud to showcase on my desk. The glowing lights are a nice touch and the unit runs absolutely quiet. The seagate 5 year warranty is the best and the unit supports esata, which works great to increase the storage space for your new tivos. This unit will be doing double duty with backup and as extra storage for my series 3.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Seagate FreeAgent Pro USB/eSATA external hard drive (750GB)

THE GOOD: AutoBackup and FreeAgent Tools software are easy to use and highly configurable; drive offers good gigabyte-per-dollar value; smooth interface with Internet Drive and Shutterfly; eSATA connectivity offers fast transfer speeds; elegant design; generous warranty. THE BAD: Mac users cant take advantage of the bundled software; software installation is a bit slow; accessing your data...

Read Full Review

Seagate FreeAgent Pro

An eye catching design coupled with a useful and well-rounded software help differentiate the FreeAgent Pro.

Read Full Review