I received this drive 8 months ago and it is still working in an acceptable manner by my standards. For more details, please continue reading.
Having recently re-browsed the Amazon reviews for this product, I saw some people complaining that their drive had failed after x months having ordered it around the same time as me. This prompted me to fully check my drive's health so that I could at least be reassured that it is in full working order for the time being. I ran a read test on Windows using HD Tune Pro since that's where my drive was plugged in at the time, and the results (shown in as screenshots attached to this review) show the drive did in fact contain some bad sectors.
I ran a non-destructive write test using badblocks on Linux which, for each sector, will first read the sector and store it in memory, then write a random pattern, then read this pattern back and make sure it matches the pattern that was written, and finally restore the original contents of the sector. I had backups just in case, so I wasn't worried and was mainly doing this for science.
At the end, SMART output showed 2310 bad sectors existed on the drive. Since I waited 8 months to run this test and used the drive sparingly, it's unclear whether the sectors were always bad or if they developed over time. It also just so happens that none of the data I had stored on the drive were on these bad sectors. Despite the clear indication of potential failure, all sectors were restored to full working order after being written over. This means the sectors were really just held a weak magnetic charge, and were not permanently bad from e.g. physical damage to the platter.
As a result, the pending/offline uncorrectable sector counts were dropped to 0 and the reallocated sector count did not increase at all. If interested, I've included the entire SMART output below.
MART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 117 100 006 Pre-fail Always - 154970934
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 097 096 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 568
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 070 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 11738583
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 2497 (146 170 0)
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 52
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 587
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 099 000 Old_age Always - 4295032834
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 054 041 045 Old_age Always - 46 (Min/Max 32/49 #8)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 9
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 096 096 000 Old_age Always - 8819
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 046 059 000 Old_age Always - 46 (0 18 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 062 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 062 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 147 (146 13 0)
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 9955309601
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 15389131969
You can see there is an error count, but no pending/uncorrectable or reallocated sectors. Although it's clear that the drive is currently working, the history of weak sectors means I will keep a close eye on it in case data ends up being written to the sectors that used to be weak, since if they become weak again, the drive will have trouble reading from them and I could start to lose data as a result.
Remember: all drives fail, no matter what make or model you buy, so always keep backups and be prepared for the inevitable.
Great for a PS4 Pro. I have over 200 PS4 games and I have all of the ones that I play downloaded to this external drive (91 games currently) with plenty more space for future downloads. No lag, no indication that I am playing on an external drive, loading times have actually decreased. I got the 4GB version and am completely satisfied. I love being able to play any game I own without having to worry able deleting games and redownloading because of space issues. Awesome drive!!!! If you have a PS4 and want more storage this is the way to go, much easier than replacing the stock drive which I have done before on my regular PS4, just plug this is and setup external storage from your PS4 settings menu....too easy. It has taken over a week to download my games but now I am free to binge game.
I got on Amazon today to purchase another one of these and just started looking through the reviews again before I made my purchase. After reading some of the negative reviews I thought that I should at least leave what my experience has been with these. I have two of these (2TB) versions with the oldest being purchased in Jan 2016. The oldest one runs every single day as my MacPro time machine back up, as well as storing and running numerous recording studio music files. I run those studio files directly from the external hard drive pretty much every day. The second was purchased Feb 2016 and that one travels in my briefcase every weekend to record live bands with my laptop (Macbook Pro) and is also that laptop's Time Machine back up disk. Both of these are still running strong with zero problems after nearly three years of working them hard. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I can't find a good reason not to stick with what has worked so well for me after years of constant use. I plan to buy the 4TB this time and hope to get the same reliability that i've had with the two that I'm still using. For what I have been using them for I have been extremely happy, and they have been well worth what I paid for them.
Love the hard drive! Although, a big con for me was the set up - it had me download 2 installations but I'm not sure how necessary it was to do so. And then eventually, I saw that you could just "erase" the hard drive, rename it, and that's when you can finally start to drag and drop what ever file you'd like. I thought it was just something that I could just plug in and use as advertised, but you only get to that point after the set up.
Other than that, it's fast, quick and easy! Super light and small as well!
I bought the 2 tb in blue. and once a gain Seagate showed me that my money was well spent. light well built quite I'd dropped it on it's edge twice once for the top of my desk and again from about 12 feet. these hard drive are built tough unlike other brands I've wasted my money on like Western Digital. My files I keep backed up are files I'm spent the last 20 years researching and adding new information to almost on a daily bases. So I need a external back up that I can trust to keep my information on. I have friend that tell me I should put everything on the cloud. problem is with clouds they either get hacked or the evaporate and take your files with them. by keeping my files on an external back up I know where they are when I need them. As a music collector I have over 200 gigs of artist tracks in MP3's that you can't get from any one any more even if you try. As a photographer and graphic artist I have room for all 5 million photos and images I have taken or created. as a genealogist I have more than enough room to grow on my external Seagate hard drives.
The only con I have ever found with Seagate external hard drives is they like all other hard drive get hot to the touch. So why hasn't someone at Seagate developed a cooling pad similar to the ones used on laptops?
Feature Product
- Want an easy, on-the-go USB drive for storage? Seagate Backup Plus Portable hard drive offers 5TB
- The perfect complimentary laptop hard drive featuring a minimalist metal enclosure
- Simply plug this external hard drive for Mac and Windows into a computer via the included USB 3.0 cable to back up files with a single click or schedule automatic daily, weekly, or monthly backups
- Take advantage of a complimentary two-month membership to the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan for access to awesome photo and video editing apps
- Enjoy long-term peace of mind with the included two-year limited warranty
Description
Seagate Backup Plus Portable is an external hard drive that makes protecting and accessing files on the go easy. Offering massive capacity of up to 5TB, it’s compatible with USB 3.0/2/0, as well as both Mac and Windows. The sleek and protective metal finish is available in classic black, silver, red or blue;System_requirement:Windows 7or higher, or Mac OS X 10.9 or higher operating system. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port (required for USB 3.0 transfer speeds or backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports at USB 2.0 transfer speeds). Seagate Mobile Backup app system requirements: iOS 8 or higher, Android 3.0 or higher
So far, so good. I bought this because I had some Citibank Visa points about to expire, but I'm glad I did.
This Seagate USB drive contains a SATA inside, unlike such drives from WD and Toshiba, which are exclusively USB. That means if the USB portion fails, with the Seagate I can simply remove the internal drive and recover its data by connecting to a common SATA port, at a cost of no more than about $35, rather than pay a data recovery company hundreds or thousands. That may not seem important, but all of my drive failures over the past 20 years have been related to failure of the USB connector or USB-SATA adapter electronics.
BOTTOM LINE: I've used multiple Seagate external hard drives over the years (mostly 2TB units) with no issues of any kind and this 4TB seems equally sturdy and idiot-proof. It's still chugging along after a ton of daily use loading/deleting & re-loading. Other reviewers may have had problems with Seagate products but in over 4 years' use and seven different drive of various sizes, I have had no problems with any of them. Therefore... 5 STARS!
THOUGHTS: I have several 2TB Seagate drives I use to store my library of movies & TV shows which I've been slowly converting to MP4 format; I plug in one of these drives into one of the USB ports on the back of my HDTV and watch whatever I want with the push of a couple of buttons on my remote. Never had any problems with these various units. In fact, one of my 2TB drives survived a 4ft drop from the back of my TV onto a hardwood floor! Still works like nothing ever happened!! (I also have a couple of 2TB units from Toshiba which work well, but seem to be more power hungry compared to the Seagates. I have a 4-port USB hub and if I run anything else while the Toshiba is plugged into it, the Toshiba drive just clicks will not work. I don't have this issue with my Seagate drives. Not saying Toshiba sucks, just though it should be mentioned.)
Anyhow, this 4TB Seagate is my primary odds & ends storage unit and I have had no issues with it, whether I'm dumping huge files or small ones. It just works and works. Consider me a happy Seagate user. :-)
With modern cameras taking about 700-1000 photos in the course of an afternoon hike, or any event, the computer 1 Terabyte memory gets used up awfully fast. You're not taking pictures of your granny and grampy or the birthday party, so clearly, that computer space gets filled up awfully fast. Enter this Seagate Backup Plus slim 2 TB Portable Hard Drive External USB 3.0, Blue (with 2 months Adobe CC Photography...) There are two lights to indicate that is working: a larger blue light and a smaller light in the left corner. For re-assurance. Photos in this storage device are readily and easily accessible for future retrieval as the Hard Drive shows up on your desk-top as a separate drive. It did take about 10 hours to transfer almost 980 GB of photos. (And, of course, as the computer memory starts to get filled up, the computer becomes less stable and more wonky.)
But many reviewers wrote with negative comments: apparently, there is a failure rate with this product of 15% . And any external Hard-Drive cannot last forever. Well, that make this (and any) external back-up drive an iffy proposition. Clearly, a choice has to be made about where you want your photos stored for both storage and easy access. A Cloud storage arrangement would seem to be a less expensive alternative, to say nothing of being a safer alternative. The angst of losing a life-time of photos--who needs it? Caveat Emptor.!
I haven't used the Adobe...
I'm using this for my Xbox One. The XB1 only came with 500 Gb of memory, which is pathetic. Adding 2 Tb (actually 1.8) helps a lot. You just plug the USB into the back of your Xbox, wait for the format screen to come up, let it format, and you're good to go. So far I've been using this as my default memory for both downloading and playing games, and I haven't noticed any problems at all. I'm withholding judgment until I see how this thing does for the long haul, but for now I am really pleased with it.
Upon receipt almost returned this Seagate drive immediately----it first appeared I had to "create an account" just to use MY device. I couldn't access any feature of the drive without being directed to an internet site Because I will not "create an account" just to use a device I've purchased this was of high concern for me, no where in the product details was this possibility mentioned. There was no Read Me file which could have mentioned there was a workaround to this "create an account" crap. Only after contacting Seagate was it known upon my computer recognizing the drive I could format it without the cumbersome BS of "creating an account". After running for a bit its a nice little drive but not sure how it measures up to the HGST Touro S 1TB drives I also have--time will tell. Over all a good drive for the price, would recommend one to others without hesitation.
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