Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD – Black USB 3.0 for PC Laptop and Mac, 2 Months Adobe CC Photography (STDR2000100)

I bought a (blue 2tb) one of these several months ago after nearly running out of space on my 1 terabyte standard external drive. The old drive was nearly five years old, is huge compared to this and needs a separate power supply, which is inconvenient because I generally use my external drive while laying in bed with my laptop. This drive worked perfectly with my Windows 8 machine. I recently switched to Mac (mainly because I started using Photoshop and my old laptop wasnt up to the task) and got a second (silver 2th) drive as a backup. When I initially plugged the blue drive which was still formatted for Windows, I could view the photos on my Mac but they didnt play nicely with Photoshop and Lightroom in the Windows format (I believe its NTSC by default). I formatted my silver drive to be more compatible with my Mac and partitioned it so I could use it for time machine as well. I then copied all the files from the blue drive to the silver drive, formatted the blue drive and put the pictures back onto it from the silver drive. So far everything has been working perfectly. I have noticed that I need a powered USB hub to even use one of these drives even if theres nothing else plugged into the hub. I can also use my RavPower File Hub to copy pictures I take from the microSD card directly to one of the drives and then later plug the drive into the Mac to import the pictures into Lightroom or Photoshop. I have had the blue drive for several months and have really put it through the paces spending several hours nearly every day storing and organizing my pictures and it has worked perfectly. These drives are small enough to put in your pocket and fit perfectly in the Case Logic EHDC-101 Blue Hard Shell Case for 2.5-Inch Portable Hard Drive with their cables. I also have the Drive Logic DL-64 Portable EVA Hard Drive Carrying Pouch (Pink). The drive does fit in the pink case, but there is a good amount of extra room. The case does have a cushion on the side where the drive goes that helps it to fit snugly and cushion it. It is big enough to fit two of these hard drives with the cushion and with extra room around the top and bottom and because it has an outside pocket, you could probably manage to fit both cables as well.

In the evolution of the hard drive market, there can be no denial that there has been a climate change, and external drives available today are better than ever. Earlier this year, I became disenchanted with the backup product included for free in Windows 7 (after one too many Windows cannot find any backups messages - and after encountering one too many photos of ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer - hes even less attractive than me... I think...) and the novel idea occurred to me that, just perhaps, free or bundled software products (such as Windows backup and a certain ubiquitous music player from a giant non-tax-paying corporation) are, after all, no bargain when one considers the quality of the product compared to paid software. I may be stepping out on a limb here, but, perhaps paying software development workers a fair wage for a good product is a better system than the something-for-nothing angle so popular in the earlier days of the interwebs. So I bought a dedicated audiophile-styled music/media player and re-ripped my CD collection using new encoders and higher bit rates. Now is the winter of our disc content made glorious. (This all started when I bought a rather inexpensive, yet very impressive digital-analog-converter for music playback.) Not wishing to be denied access to my glorious refurbished music library and newly improved playback arrangements for any technical reason, I also purchased a dedicated backup program and this Seagate 2TB external USB 3.0 drive to use with my Windows 7 64-bit OS. The slowly suffocating techno-nerd within me will likely never completely expire, and he reports he is pleased to enter the world of USB 3.0 speeds. A free utility (what did I just say?) from a popular tech website indicates that the throughput I am getting on this drive is 80-100 MB per second which I would rate as stellar. STELLAR! (Stanley Kowalski - A Streetcar Named Desire. Thank you!). So far as aesthetics are concerned, the metallic blue case feels sturdy - better than plastic - and is just right for that elegant evening on the town. The form factor is appealing. Its about the size of a pack of cigarettes in length and width, and about half in that depth, although I dont recommend carrying it around in your rolled-up t-shirt sleeve). It is silent in operation, or at least, unobtrusive. I have no comment on the included backup software, as I have not tried it. The USB 3.0 cable that comes with it is a bit short, but I have a feeling that is a limitation of USB 3.0 hardware implementation and not under the control of the manufacturer. All in all, so far it has worked well for me.

Amazing capacity drive. I installed this in a MacBook Pro 17 inch, Late 2011 laptop as the primary (and only) drive. The drive comes with a rather cheap plastic enclosure, no screws. The enclosure is held together by small plastic tabs and (believe it or not) tape, but the drive itself is high quality. The drive will probably be released by Seagate to OEM manufacturers in the very near future, but you can get one now! The drive works perfectly fine as an external backup drive (Seagates intent), but it also works great as an internal drive. The drive is 9.5 mm thick and so should work with practically any laptop (PC or Mac). Specifically, it will work with all MacBook Pros which comes with a DVD drive. The newest Mac laptops (MacBook Air, etc.) that do not come with a DVD drive are probably too thin for a 9.5mm drive. In any case, they come with an SSD drive, so you would want to use this drive as an external drive. There is a Youtube video that shows how to get the enclosure open without tearing it up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6eV3pEXKgo If you take your time and be gentle, you can avoid tearing up the enclosure and so end up with a temporary enclosure that can be used for other drives (I would not use it an a permanent enclose, because it really doesnt hold itself shut after the first opening). For MacBook Pro users, it is easiest to swap old for new drives if you use Apples reinstall process on the new drive first while it is in the enclosure, choosing to reinstall OSX onto the new drive before swapping the drives around. Some trivia, back in 1986 this amount of storage in a hard drive would have cost in excess of $34 million had it been available as a single unit (it was not).

UPDATE 2/26/2017: While the original review remains true for Windows XP 32-bit, shame on me for not researching the 2 TB limit with XP. I dont know what happened with OS X and GParted before, but today I tried again and I was able to delete that problem partition (on both drives) using GParted by: - booting from the GParted disc (which I had done previously) - selecting the (tiny) partition and going to Partition/Manage Flags - de-selecting LVM (if any other type was there, I would have deselected it too/instead) and selecting FAT 32 - I dont remember if I needed to Apply the changes or if it automatically did it but if it did require it, I did do it - then the partition became unlocked and I was able to delete it - at this point, there was one 3.64 TB of unallocated space (the ENTIRE usable space) I will be testing one drive in Linux and the other in the NAS, but I do not anticipate any problems. While it was my fault for not knowing that XP couldnt use them as one full-capacity drive, there was still the problem of running the Windows/OS X programs (from that tiny partition) requiring the internet to continue. I am NOT taking a star off, the reason being that I was finally able to remove the partition and use the entire drive. NOTE: As I am updating this review, I decided that before I test them as mentioned above, I will try to use GParted to create a 2 TB partition (actually 2 TB -1 MiB (2097151 MiB total) because of MBR limitations) to see if it then becomes usable in XP 32-bit. With a GPT partition table (for spits and grins)- as expected, nothing. With an MBR partition table, however it was NOT what I expected/hoped - nothing. Im probably doing something wrong so dont go blindly on my tests. I cant test every possibility because I am not going to use it in XP- I was only doing it to try and help others. The bottom line is that as long as you understand that Windows XP 32-bit (not sure about XP 64-bit) cannot use all 3.64 TB as one drive (i.e., one partition, if it can even be used at all), then this is a very well-priced and sturdy drive. Im sure that it will perform up to its specs and will be reliable. If not, I will update this review again. Original Review: I attached this drive to Windows XP. It was only recognized as a mass storage device. Disk Manager did not show anything. OK, plug it into OS X. I saw three files: an executable for Windows, an executable for OS X, and a pdf. I ran the OS X app and it wanted to connect to the internet but my firewall blocks it. It had a message box for Retry or OK (maybe it was Quit). It then proceeded to close. WHAT??? It wont run unless it can get to the internet? BS* OK, so Disk Utility showed two partitions- one very small and grayed out and the other was the space that I wanted but could not get to. Disk Utility said it was deleting that small partition (as per my actions) and it just tried and tried and tried. I then booted GParted and it, too, could not delete that partition thats holding my drive hostage. I bought two of them and all of them are going back tomorrow. I was considering this drive and the WD but for some unknown reason, I went for the Seagate. I am ordering four of the WDs. I have 12 WD drives in my NAS and the only corruption Ive experienced was due to a bug in the NAS. I guess all of the success stories are from people who dont care that one of the primary partitions is unusable to them. And Im assuming that newer versions of Windows can read the drives because OS X, GParted and Mint can all see it. *And because of the necessity of calling out on the internet I will never, ever, ever, and then some, buy ANY Seagate products from now on.

I bought this drive in Aug 2019, and have been using it for 9 months (as of this writing). So far it works perfectly. Of course, I treat it like its made out of glass. (Ive had bad luck with these little USB drives in the past--they dont handle bumps or drops very well.) This one is 5T--which is very useful. Im a photographer, and need a place to dump my image files. This drive works perfectly for that purpose. My only complaint is that since its a spinning disk drive, its slow when compared to SSDs. Im saving up for a larger scale SSD storage unit. Until then, spinning disk will have to do. I realize slow is subjective--so let me tell you what I mean: I import my raw image files directly from my cameras SD card, right into this USB drive using Lightroom. The reason I do this, is because my Lightroom library catalog is massive. My laptop only has a 1T SSD drive in it--which (while faster), isnt large enough to accommodate the whole library, plus all the other software Ive got loaded... So--my tradeoff for keeping my laptop from getting clogged is a slower, external, USB drive--but its 5T. So theres that. I think next time, Ill have to splurge and pick up an SSD drive--for a couple of reasons: 1. The can survive getting dropped or bumped--so I wont be so stressed about dropping it 2. SSDs are much, much faster than spinning disks--so my workflow will measurably speed up If you dont drop or bump this little Seagate drive though, itll do you just fine--and 5T of storage is pretty vast. You probably wont fill it up anytime soon.

I purchased this drive on 29 May 2016 and use it extensively almost everyday for adding to, and playing, my massive inventory of media files collected in numerous formats over the past 25 years. It has worked flawlessly during the past 5+ years. 2 points. 1) Never move your files from one place to another but rather copy them until you can verify the copied files and drive are workable. If you move the files and there is a problem you have no means to get your files back. 2) Treat all media storage in accordance with the value you place in what is being stored. If you throw your storage medium around or do not handle it gently it will most likely break your heart. Our 7 yo grand daughter learned this easily. I actually have 2 of these drives (2tb, 1 silver, 1 black) and both have performed just as Id expect and am happy with my purchases. Highly recommend.

I purchased four of these (5TB) in 2019—two for auto backups, two as external drives. They all sit undisturbed on a desk and are not carried around. In 2022 the external drives seem to be functioning as required. One backup drive failed at about 18 months, the other failed about a month ago. Neither was even near capacity. Seagate was accommodating about the first failure even though for reasons I cant recall now the drive wasnt eligible for free data retrieval, but they retrieved data and replaced the drive at no cost to me. (It was during the pandemic, maybe they felt the need to be kind.) I havent even tried to do anything about the second failure. Like a lot of people, I just want something that works without me having to think too much about it or investigate or troubleshoot. So Ill be looking at other brands when I replace that second failed Seagate backup drive. Three stars because 2 of the 4 original drives continue to work, the replacement backup drive is good so far, and good customer service.

Basic summary: the first 2 TB drive suitable for laptops -- eminently so. Its fast and all but dead silent. I bought this to scavenge for the internal drive (oddly enough, this sells for less than the bare Seagate M9T drive it contains). The fact that I got a compact USB 3.0 enclosure is a plus. I simply copied my data onto it, opened up the case (opens easily enough with a small slot screwdriver to pry the aluminum top away from the plastic bottom, peel back a few pieces of aluminum tape, carefully pull the drive out, pull the USB adapter off the standard SATA connector), put the new drive in my laptop, and put the old one in the enclosure. I replaced the aluminum tape as carefully as I could. The adhesive holding the case togethers shot, but it snaps together solidly enough. The only potential problem is whether the aluminum tape is part of the thermal management, and if it will overheat. Worst comes to worst, I roach an old 500 GB disk that I dont care too much about and still come out ahead in the bargain. But at least initially the repurposed enclosure works fine. Its considerably more convenient doing the drive swap without a USB enclosure. While my laptop has two drive slots plus an mSATA, it would have been a multi-step process involving opening the laptop three times to shuffle disks around. The disk itself is all but silent. Even when copying lots of small files onto it and doing a diff (both of which tend to make the drive seek), I had difficulty hearing it even when I tried hard (the drive it replaces is louder). Performance-wise, looks fine. As a SATA drive, the sequential read is a bit faster (128 vs. 106 MB/sec) and sequential write quite a lot faster (98 vs. 57 MB/sec). Its possible that that difference is due to the operating system (mounting USB disks as fully synchronous for safety), though. Its a little faster than the 1 TB drive it replaced, perhaps less so than might be expected, but Im not seeing any evidence that the firmware was crippled on it or anything.

Update: After having the drive for a few weeks, Im giving up and returning it. Out of 12 PCs I work with regularly, only 2 consistently worked well with this drive. 10 of them would fail to read or transfers would fail often that making using this drive became a risk/unreliable. Possibly a lemon Original review: This drive is amazing - 4tb in about the space of my previous 1tb external drive, as well as being inexpensive for what youre getting. The price dropped 10.00 two days after I bought it, too, har har Amazon The only issue I had was starting computers up with the drive plugged in. There is a little bit about this issue if you Google, but nothing that really helped me. Here is an outline of what I discovered, I hope this helps. When I first got the drive, I immediately formatted it to exFat, since I intended it to be used with both PCs and Macs. The reasons for and against doing this: - PRO: exFat lets you read/write on both without doing anything special (OS X wont write to NTFS drives without 3rd party intervention) - CON: Windowss built in Backup and Restore wont backup a system image to exFat without some tricks I found I couldnt boot two of my PCs while the drive was plugged in, except randomly on one of them (see below). On one, the PC stops at the BIOS splash screen before even getting to the point where you can press keys to get into the BIOS. After letting it sit for an hour, I had to power it down (keyboard unresponsive, so no ctrl+alt+del). Without the drive plugged in, the computer boots as normal. Once into Windows, I could plug in the drive and use it fine. On the other PC, it does one of two things randomly: It will let you get into the BIOS, but wont detect any other drives (internal or external) after this point, so wont boot; or it will detect other drives and boot, but all other USB devices (keyboard, mouse, wifi adapter) will be disabled while the drive is plugged in. Once Windows was up, if I unplugged the drive, my other USB devices came back. This was with the various USB devices plugged into ports all around my PC - wifi in the front, keyboard/mouse dongle in a USB 2 port on the back, the Seagate in its own USB 3 port on the back, etc. Suspecting some kind of power draw issue, I tried plugging the drive into a separate, powered USB 3 hub, with no effect. After some searching, I examined my UEFI settings in the BIOSes of both machines, but they were already set as the forum posts I found suggested. Solution (found by accident): After giving up, I intended to return it to Amazon. I had put some data on it, so I plugged it back into one PC and proceeded to do a full (not quick) format, using NTFS. Some time after this completed, I needed to restart the computer for something else, and rebooted it, forgetting the Seagate was still plugged in. It booted fine. Wondering what was going on, I tried it in the other PC as well, and this one also booted. I quick formatted back to exFat, and both PCs reacted as before - without booting or acting crazy. Quick formatted back to NTFS, and no issue. >>> I dont have any explanation for the above behavior, but that is the symptom and what resolved it. <<< For me, this isnt much of a resolution, since I really wanted to use exFat on it given the drive will be floating around between platforms. Im still on the fence about whether to return it, but I left 4 stars since it mostly does what it is supposed to, has a ton of space, and a good price.

Obviously this external hard drive can be used for numerous applications but for me I solely purchased it to add storage to my Xbox One. Anyone that has an Xbox One knows how quickly the storage can go just after a had full of games and the monthly downloadable games. I suggest this drive as 2TB will most likely last the entire span of the Xbox Ones life (unless youre a huge collector) to where 1TB may get filled up and then youd have to end up buying another drive and most 3TB drives are way bigger and require a power source so that would just be one more cable and one more device to plug in and draw power. The drive has a nice enclosure, a good length cable that isnt too long nor shot, and is packaged well. The hard drive was immediately recognized as a storage device on my Windows 7 laptop so I went ahead with setting it up on my Xbox One which was easy and I had no issues with. I bought this on Black Friday so I ended up saving a decent amount of money but its still worth the listed price for the storage size. If youre really into speed then you might be better off with a 7200RPM or even a solid state drive as this is 5400RPM but then expect to spend much more and probably not get one thats 2TB unless you have a lot of money to spend. Overall this drive works just fine for me and Im totally satisfied with it. I did make a tutorial on how to set up the hard drive on the Xbox One in case you want to see the process before trying yourself: www (dot) youtube (dot) com/watch?v=Lh57lIw12l0