Seagate FreeAgent Go External Hard Disk

May 3, 2010

Technology Editor Bill Wong checks out Seagate's 500 Gbyte FreeAgent Go USB 2.0 external hard disk.

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FreeAgent Go USB hard Disk

Seagate’s FreeAgent Go USB 2.0 external hard disk comes in a range of sizes up to 500 Gbytes. The 5400 rpm drive comes in a thin, stylish package, your choice of colors, and is designed to plug into a mini USB connector. The drive is typically connected to a mini USB cable, a Seagate FreeAgent Go Dock or a Seagate DockStar (see Pogoplug and DockStar Are Internet NAS Boxes) . The latter is a NAS (network attached storage) device that looks similar to the Dock. Both allow the FreeAgent Go drive to be plugged in vertically. The drive needs less than the 500ma USB limit so a single cable or connection is all that is needed to link the drive to a PC or laptop.

The FreeAgent Go top of the drive has a brushed metal finish while the flip side is not as smooth so it will not slide around. The top center exposes a status light that looks slick at least initially. The light is especially effective when the drive is plugged in vertically to the Dock or the DockStar. The drive has an 8 Mbyte cache. It does well on performance compared to other drives in this category although overall the performance is more limited by the rotational speed. The drive has a five year warranty.

The drive comes with a Quick Start Guide and the bundled software targets Microsoft Windows platforms. The drive works well with Mac and Linux platforms since the bundled software primarily backup, synchronization and encryption services that are already included on those other platforms.

I have found the FreeAgent Go to be very handy. It fits in a pocket or laptop bag. Mine has found a home in Seagate’s DockStar.

Seagate

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence.