Review: ST310005FJA105-RK, Quiet, Quick, and Easy

Overall Rating3.333.333.333.333.33

Quiet, Quick, and Easy

The Seagate FreeAgent Deks 1TB for Mac (ST310005FJA105-RK) is a 1TB external drive Seagate is marketing for the Mac fanbase (though the drive could be re-formatted for Windows). I purchased the drive because my iTunes Music folder had soared to 120GB in size, and I needed to move the folder permanently to an external drive to free up space on my internal drive.

The drive is 2.2 lbs and measures 7.28″ in H x 1.48″ in W x 5.98″ in L . It comes with an AC adaptor, a Firewire 800 cable, a Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 cable (for those with older iMacs, like me, who only have 6-pin Firewire 400 ports), and a USB cable. The FreeAgent Desk itself sits on a small white stand with a rubber pad on the bottom. Unless I’ve missed something, the stand cannot be removed from the external drive itself. As a result, it must be placed upright. Seagate provides a 5 year limited warranty, so keep your receipt. The FreeAgent Desk is formatted for Mac and Time Machine ready. The brushed steel exterior, plastic white trim, and white cabling complement the iMac’s appearance. The cache size isn’t readily ascertainable, though the spin speed is 7200 RPM. Details on the drive from Seagate’s website can be found here:[...]

After taking it out of the box, the FreeAgent Desk requires only two steps to set it up. First, plug the AC adaptor into the drive and power supply. Second, connect the drive to your iMac using the appropriate cable. I chose the Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 cable because Firewire transfers (even for a Firewire 400 port) are reportedly faster than a USB 2.0 transfer, and because I need my USB ports for other devices. Because I plan to keep the drive constantly connected, I placed it only about 6 inches from the computer itself.

Mac OSX Leopard immediately recognized the drive. The preferences window for Time Machine, which I hadn’t used before, popped up on its own and asked me whether I wanted to use the external drive as the backup drive for Time Machine. I did, but before I completed the Time Machine setup, I wanted to move my iTunes Music folder so the first Time Machine backup would mirror the internal drive as I wanted it to be, not as it was. I turned off Time Machine in the “preferences” window, printed out and carefully followed the instructions I’d previously found online for moving my iTunes Music folder to an external drive, and waited for the 120GB transfer to complete. I didn’t time the transfer, but it took between 30 minutes and 1 hour or so. After the transfer was complete and my iMac’s hard drive no longer had dangerously low space, I re-opened Time Machine preferences, turned it “on,” and allowed it to do its magic. After heading out of the room to watch a Christmas movie with my wife and children, I stopped back in and found Time Machine had already completed two backups to the external drive (now only 57 GB of data).

As other reviews have noted, the drive, when active, has a white light emanating from the bottom of the unit, creating a pool of light under the drive and on top of the foot of the stand. Also, the Seagate logo on the front of the drive is backlit by a white light. Both lights go off when the drive goes to sleep. The drive is extremely quiet. It sits on my desktop near my computer and generally cannot be heard. I can hear it spin up as it comes out of sleep mode (a faint, high-pitched sound, followed by a click), and, if I listen closely, can hear a low background hum after it finishes spinning up and begins actively working. I was concerned about noise level since the drive sits directly on my desktop, but so far the noise level is fine.

My media (both music and video) streams perfectly from the FreeAgent Desk through iTunes, although there is 3-4 second lag in start time if the FreeAgent Desk is in sleep mode when I click “play” in iTunes. Once the external drive spins up, the media plays as if I were running it off the internal drive. We also have an Apple TV which is synced to our iMac, and we were able to play a movie now residing on the FreeAgent Desk drive through Apple TV without a hitch. Now that Apple TV and iTunes are using the iTunes Music folder on the FreeAgent Desk, I can continue adding media without worrying about the amount of disk space it’s taking up on my internal drive.

All in all, a great purchase. Sleek, quiet, and a ton of space. Note: If you use your external hard drive both to back up files (i.e., Time Machine) and to store active files (i.e., iTunes Music folder), just remember that the active files on the external hard drive are not being backed up. You may want to have a plan to ensure these files are backed up as well.

Update (9/4/2010): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen.

The featured review for this product, FreeAgent Desk for Mac - Hard drive - 1 TB - external - 3.5″ - FireWire / FireWire 800 / Hi-Speed USB - 7200 rpm - silver Electronics, was written by J. Holbrook.

Related posts:

  1. Review: WDH1CS10000N Western, works great
  2. Review: Apple Mac mini MC238LL/A, Makes a great media center
  3. Review: S7054501B Swingline, all right by me !!!
  4. Review: Jet JW1047 4-Inch Quick, Turn me on …
  5. Review: Samsung DVD-1080P9 1080p, Solid player for the money

Reviews (3)

Kay B

January 17th, 2010 at 7:26 am    


Overall Rating11111

Mounting problems
The hard drive "dismounts" when put in my iMac to sleep and I get an "Error - external device is not connected properly. The hard drive has to be removed and then the computer to start the drive to be remounted. I spent 45 minutes on ice with Seagate service before talking with a technician. Although nice, it was no help in resolving the issue. Although the product is "MAC" to show other blogs that Mac users have had the same problems. Wish I had read earlier. I can not recommend this product. Read the 5-year attention. If as a substitute, it may be a "refurbished" product.


J. Holbrook

January 21st, 2010 at 4:42 am    


Overall Rating55555

Quiet, Quick, and Easy
Rated 5 stars.


Michael

February 26th, 2010 at 12:42 am    


Overall Rating44444

Roomy, Fast, Light Too Bright
Since my Mac Mini came with an 80GB hard drive, I was desperate for more storage. After much research, the Seagate FreeAgent 1TB external hard drive was the best solution for me. The drive is clad in brush metal and white plastic trim, which matches the color of most Mac Desktops. It transfers data pretty quickly through the Firewire.

Besides unpacking the drive, you only have to do two things to get this drive up and running, plug in the power cord and connect the drive to your Mac. It couldn’t be any easier. The connectivity of the drive gives you a few options. There are 2 Firewire 800 ports and 1 USB 2.0 port.

Here’s where the details matter. Seagate included all the necessary cables so that you don’t have to spend extra money or extra time to get running. It’s a really nice touch considering the high price you have to pay for FireWire cables from the local electronic store.

There is one flaw with this drive. There is no on or off switch. The drive simply goes to “sleep” when not in use. This becomes a problem if your Mac, line mine, is your media center in the living room. When watching a movie, the drive can come back to life and glow in the background. There isn’t a way to disable the lighting effect on the drive too. Trust me, I’ve looked. I think another reviewer had the same issues.

Conclusion: 1 TB of storage is more than enough for my Mini. Will the drive work with a PC? Yes it will. Just use the USB port. I would recommend this drive to anyone looking for additional storage.

What’s in the box:
Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1TB drive
1 FireWire 800 cable
1 FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 cable
1 USB 2.0 cable
Power adaptor
Documentation


Leave a reply

Overall Rating

Name *

Mail *

Website