- Instantly add 1 TB of storage space to your computer
- Simple plug-and-play connectivity via USB cable
- USB powered, no AC adapter required
- USB 3.0 interface for extremely fast data transfer speeds (USB 2.0 compatible)
- Drive is automatically recognized by Windows; no software instillation required
PROS:
Quiet
Stays cool
Fast USB 3.0 performance
Backwards compatible with USB 2.0
Works with Mac OS X 10.4.8 and up
CONS:
Measly 1 year warranty
DESIGN & BUILD
The Seagate Expansion portable hard drive's enclosure is made out of matte plastic that feels pretty well made, though I'd prefer aluminum for durability and better heat dissipation. Glossy plastic enclosures are hard to keep looking good, so kudos to Seagate for using the matte plastic instead. The back of the drive has the USB 3.0 port and there's an itty bitty blue power/activity light on top of the drive, towards the back. Also, there are small rubber feet on the bottom, to keep the drive from sliding around on your desk. The USB 3.0 cable is short, so it's best suited for use with laptops.
PERFORMANCE
CrystalDiskInfo identified the internal drive as a Seagate Momentus Thin ST500LT012, which is a SATA II (3Gb/s) drive with a 16MB cache. It has a height of 7mm and runs at 5400RPM. 5400 RPM drives are the standard for portable external hard drives because they don't run as hot as 7200 RPM drives. 5400 RPM drives are perfectly suitable as storage drives.
I tested the Seagate Expansion drive over USB 3.0 with CrystalDiskMark and got sequential read/write rates of 107MB/s read and 105MB/s write. That's likely about 3 times the rate of what you'd get over USB 2.0. So yes, the Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 drive is great for transferring large multimedia files, like photos, movies, and music. Of course, there are plenty of other USB 3.0 drives with similar performance.
MISCELLANEOUS
The formatted capacity of the 500 GB drive is 465 GB. On the drive, there's a small registration utility for Windows that's safe to delete after you register. I deleted the utility, but kept the autorun.inf and SeagateExpansion.ico files so the drive would show up with a Seagate icon in Windows Explorer.
Online, the bare 500GB drive can be bought for around $65-$75, so the external version is a decent value if you like the enclosure and internal drive.
Though the Amazon product description doesn't mention compatibility with Mac OS X, Seagate's website shows compatibility with OS 10.4.8 and higher. It comes pre-formatted in NTFS, however, so you'll need to reformat it if you intend to use it with a Mac.
The Seagate Expansion portable hard drive comes with a measly one year warranty. The Western Digital My Passport 500 GB USB 3.0 portable hard drive costs nearly the same as the Seagate Expansion drive, but comes with backup software, has hardware encryption, and a two year warranty. For a little bit more, you can even get Seagate's own Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive , with a two year warranty. As far which company makes better hard drives, well, that's hard to say. I've used drives from both companies for many years and I've had drives from both companies fail. In fact, it's not unusual for hard drives to fail over time, which is why the length of the warranty can be a significant factor in deciding which drive to buy.
CONCLUSION
The Seagate Expansion portable hard drive is a very nice drive. It performs very well and is a pretty good value overall, however, the short warranty is a concern. I like the drive a lot, but I'd personally look for a portable hard drive with a longer warranty.
Buy Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive (STBX1000101) Now
I am not terribly computer savvy. I use a computer for my work all day every day. But I do not understand how many things work. I don't understand most technical talk/gibberish. But I do know that I need to back up my files as my desktop is limping towards a slow and painful death.I was surprised at how tiny and light the drive was. I plugged it into the USB drive. It was silent. But here is where I ran aground. The interface is not in the least bit intuitive. The only thing that readily pops up to be done is registering the unit. I did that but since I actually wanted to save things to the drive rather than just registering it, I was a little frustrated. While there are a great many tech lovers in the world they are by no means the only people using these products. I was frustrated that there were no useful instructions or a program to help me use the drive.
Eventually, I was able to figure out how to go through the control panel, back up my files, and set future back ups. It just isn't obvious up front.
And yes, I know that people are laughing at my limited technical capabilities. But idiots use products too.
Read Best Reviews of Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive (STBX1000101) Here
I also have the big brother version of this drive (3TB external hdd, AC powered), and both were very easy to use, plug to the USB port, and then start transferring files.This is the portable version, which means no addition AC power supply needed, everything is powered by USB. Portable also means smaller compared to the AC powered external HDDs. Maximum capacity for portable HDDs right now is 1TB compared to 3TB for AC powered external HDDs.
Besides media files, this is also perfect for backups, documents, etc., and if you have a laptop equipped with SSD, you'll gonna need more space and this is perfect.
So far so good, no problems at all. Used it on my old HP laptop with usb 2.0 port, works good (slower transfer speed of course). Used it on an alienware m14x with usb 3.0 port, works good again and now with fast transfer speed. Used it on my LG 3dtv to watch full hd movies saved on the drive and it works great! I hope it stays like that, can't comment on the reliability yet..
Warranty: Only 1 YEAR. Why did Seagate shorten the warranty? I have no idea.. If you want other drives with longer warranty, here's some options:
Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive STBU1000101 (Silver)
Western Digital My Passport 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive WDBBEP0010BBK-NESN (Black)
PROS:
Portable, no external power supply needed
Maximum capacity of 1Tb for portable drives (as of now..)
Matte casing, so its not prone to scratching and fingerprints
Fast usb 3.0 transfer rate and compatible to usb 2.0 (all usb 3.0 devices should be compatible to usb 2.0 port)
Plug and play, works after removing out of the box. No need to reformat
CONS:
Only 1 year warranty. Another year or two could provide more peace of mind..
What's included?
Seagate Expansion portable hard drive
"USB 3.0 cable", Amazon's product page says it's a usb "2.0" cable. The included cable is 3.0. One side of the cable is USB 3.0 and the other side is micro USB 3.0.
Quick start guide
1-year limited warranty
Two thumbs up for this external hard drive, highly recommended!
Want Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive (STBX1000101) Discount?
I purchased this drive to back up my computer files prior to reformatting the drive and selected it primarily because of the positive consumer feedback. I was able to copy my files to the drive, but I have since been unable to access anything on the drive. I have contacted Seagate and they have admitted that it is a faulty drive, and while the drive is covered by warranty and they are willing to replace it, they stipulate that data recovery is not covered. I contacted the data recovery department, and they estimate that it will cost between $600-1800 to access my files. This is highly frustrating because the reason I can't obtain the files is because they sold me a faulty product. Also, while they will replace my original drive, they require that I return the original one, which I am unwilling to do because I still want to try to recover the data that is stored on it. So now I have no computer files and no working external hard drive. Seagate still has the money I paid for the drive. I feel like my files are being held hostage for this data recovery fee. I can't tell you the hours of frustration that this has caused me, and the matter still is not resolved.Save 11% off
An external hard drive like this Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive (STBX1000101) is about as good a backup drive and portable solution as you can find. It's compact, very portable, and for those still using computers with USB 2.0 ports, it's a forward-looking device for when a computer with USB 3.0 is in the plans. But first, here are the basics...Likes:
+ Compact and sturdy; measures about 3½" wide x 4¾" long x ¾"high
+ USB 3.0; can be used with USB 2.0 computers
+ Works with Windows PCs (Vista or higher) and Macs (O SX 10.4.8 or higher)
+ Easy plug-and-play setup on both Mac OS and Windows systems
+ 1 TB (terabyte) capacity; about 930 Gb useable space formatted
+ Runs quietly; offers excellent performance
+ Reasonably priced; excellent bang-for-the-buck
Dislikes:
No password protection, but this may not matter to many
First Impressions:
Packaging is very straightforward, as it comes in a box that's easy to open. Inside is the expansion drive, a USB cable, a simple IKEA-style quick setup sheet and a warranty statement (see note below). Looking at the drive itself, its semi-matte black case has a metal-shielded top over a rigid plastic base, and measures all of 3½"W x 4¾"L x ½"D, and it weighs less than 5¾ ounces. On the back is a proprietary USB 3.0 port, and it comes with an 18" USB cable that plugs into the USB 2.0/3.0 ports on the computer.
In Use:
We all have differing reasons for purchasing and using external drives like this. Some use these for video storage, others for photos, and some as a backup device for all files. In my case, the primary dedication for this external hard drive is for digital images in both JPG and RAW formats, Word documents and some videos. But compatibility with both Mac and PC was an important standard, as this drive is being used in mobile situations.
I first tried it with my 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro running OS X 10.6.8 after re-initializing the Seagate as Mac HFS extended journaled, first transferring about 20 GB of documents and photos. I then tested it with the Time Machine app to insure that it could be used as a drive for full backups in the future. All performed as expected, so I reformatted the drive with the exFAT file system to ensure complete data compatibility between both the PC and the Mac, then loaded images and docs totaling 83 GB for transfer to the PC.
All files transferred without error, so the final step was to reformat the Seagate Expansion drive under Windows 7 (64-bit SP1) on my notebook PC, a 2.20GHz Pentium Dual-Core ASUS. Did a few more tests, and no more errors were encountered, so I went back to the exFAT file system for complete portability and compatibility between systems. Should note that all of my computers are still running USB 2.0, and my backups and file transfers are running smoothly. Right now this drive is connected to a Plugable 7 Port High Speed USB 2.0 Hub with 3A Power Adapter, so I'm getting speeds between 443 and 480 Mbps, which is about as good as one can get under USB 2.0.
There have been many other Seagate drives that I've used over the years, including the Seagate ST302504FDA1E1-RK FreeAgent, a 250 GB 3.5" USB 2.0 external drive that I purchased here on Amazon in 2007. It's still working reliably on an old HP PC running Windows XP, and it's chugging along doing its nightly automated backups of two old Seagate internal 80GB hard drives. My current system backup drive is a Seagate Expansion 2 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive STBV2000100, so my point with this is that I've had excellent use over the years with many Seagate hard drives, and why that's I prefer them as a personal choice.
It should be noted that this is a 5400-RPM drive according to the specs, which is good for external portables in terms of reliability. But if you're going to tote it around in adverse environments where it can get banged and bumped, it's highly suggested that you protect it in a well-padded enclosure or computer bag. I carry this drive with my MacBook Pro in a Think Tank Artificial Intelligence 15 V. 2.0 Laptop Bag, as my files are important to me, and even in NYC subways they stay protected.
Warranty:
As noted on the product page and in the warranty statement that accompanied the drive (dated 7/12), it comes with a 1-year limited warranty from Seagate. This is a mild surprise as other Seagate drives with similar capacities, such as the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex, come with a 2-year limited warranty. This isn't a deal breaker for me as I've had good longevity from these drives over the years, but be aware that it exists.
Cost Considerations:
Doing the math, the Seagate Expansion 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive costs about $70.00, but this 1 TB version with double the capacity runs just $20.00 more as of this writing. It terms of pure bang for the buck, this one is easily the winner.
Bottom Line:
For most users, this Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive will be an easy to use plug-and-play solution for either PC or Mac notebooks. It performs well and without any problems, and when I make that inevitable upgrade to a computer with USB 3.0 ports, it's good to know that I'll be ready to experience the performance boost. This quiet little portable hard drive is easily worth a 5-star recommendation, especially considering versatility, performance and price.
9/27/2012
