This article is for informational purposes only and no longer being updated by Seagate. How do I make my GoFlex drive work with my Mac? The Paragon driver is a utility that is offered with the GoFlex family of external drives and enables MacOS to mount NTFS volumes (partitions), read from them,. Seagate GoFlex for Mac Ultra-portable Drive - Quick Start Guide, Installation, Troubleshooting Tips & Downloads. The driver provides read and write access for Seagate external drives in Windows without having to reformat. Changing interfaces on the FreeAgent GoFlex for Mac units. FreeAgent Drive/Seagate Manager - Frequently Asked Questions. These questions are broken up into categories. And a Windows computer frequently results in a corrupted partition, which means you have to erase and reformat your drive. FreeAgent Go for Mac is not supported in Windows at all. The Seagate Thunderbolt adaptor driver is only needed if you are using 3 TB or 4 TB drives with the Thunderbolt adaptor and plan to change drives with other GoFlex adaptors (such as USB or FireWire).
FreeAgent Go for Mac Drive - Quick Start Guide, Installation, Troubleshooting Tips & Downloads. FreeAgent Go Tools - Seagate Encryption Software Overview and Limitations. Hard Disks Do Not Turn Off After Your Computer Has Been Idle. USB Device causes XP system to hang on reboot. FreeAgent Go Tools - Drag-and-Drop Encryption and Decryption found with Seagate Encryption FreeAgent Go Tools - Seagate Encryption Software Overview and Limitations How to defragment a hard drive in Windows.
The FreeAgent Go for Mac is an external hard drive built by storage giant Seagate that promises fast FireWire 800 transfer speeds, spacious storage, and a stylish (if bulky) white and aluminum design meant to compliment the Mac.
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The FreeAgent Go comes formatted for the Mac, is Time Machine-ready right out of the box, and is available at 250GB ($160) and 320GB ($190) capacities. We tested the 250GB FreeAgent Go Drive equipped with FireWire 800 and USB 2.0; while it lacks a FireWire 400 port, the FreeAgent Go does include an adapter cable for connecting the drive's FireWire 800 port to a FireWire 400 connector on your Mac.
Once you get through the unwieldy packaging, it's easy to pop the drive into its little dock station for use. The dock plugs into the computer via a FireWire 800 cable and functions much like an iPod or digital camera dock would. Alternatively, you can bypass the dock and plug in the drive directly to your computer using the USB 2.0, FireWire 800, or FireWire 800 to 400 cables.
We tested the drive using FireWire 800, USB 2.0, and FireWire 400 on a MacPro. In our Copy 1GB test, the drive took 41 seconds on average with the FireWire 800 connection, 51 seconds for the FireWire 400 and 45 seconds with the USB 2.0. Compared with other drives we've tested, the times are only slightly slower than desktop drives but marginally faster than competing portable drives.
The duplicate test results were even more impressive. It only took 50 seconds to duplicate a 1GB file with the FireWire 800; 1 minute, 16 sixteen seconds with the FireWire 400; and 1 minute, 31 seconds with the USB 2.0 connection. These times, along with the low memory Photoshop test results (FireWire 800, 1 minute, 38 seconds; FireWire 400, 1 minute and 45 seconds; and USB 2.0, 1 minute, 48 seconds) are not only faster than most portable drives we've seen, but comparable to many larger desktop drives.
Macworld's buying advice
The FreeAgent Go's compact size (it's small enough to take with you but a little too bulky for a pocket) and wedge-shaped design make it easy to write off as a stylish but substance-free toy. But it offers satisfying speed and plenty of transfer options with its multiple ports and adapters. I personally didn't find the dock necessary, but some users will be thankful it helps reduce the amount of clutter on your desk. It's also really easy to throw photos, music, or other files onto this little drive and then pack it up to go. Maybe style and substance can have a happy marriage after all.
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$239.99
- Pros500GB capacity. Five-year warranty. Hot swappable. Convenient optional docking station.
- ConsWindows-only software (in this model). Dock is optional. Software is document-storage-oriented.
- Bottom LineThe Seagate FreeAgent Go is a great portable hard drive with its 500GB capacity, innovative dock, simple design, generous five-year warranty and included software. It gives you just about all you need from a portable external drive—most important, an easy backup solution.
The Seagate FreeAgent Go ($239.99 list) is a new breed of portable hard drive: one with a prodigious capacity—500GB is larger than many internal desktop drives—as well as a convenient ability to dock the drive to a PC like you might with an iPod. The Go has a wealth of features that make it easier to back up your data than other drives do, which is one reason why I'm giving it the Editors' Choice for portable hard drives.
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The Go's tapered silver case deliberately evokes last year's FreeAgent series of drives. Seagate has spent a lot of money on branding, and the design ID carries over to the company's desktop-class hard drives and the drives they're building for Mac users as well. The Go is available in 250GB, 320GB, and 500GB capacities and a choice of silver, black, red, and blue—colors no doubt designed to pop on the store shelves and complement other consumer electronics products like the iPod nano. The Go's optional dock is worth the additional money. It lets you easily connect the drive to your PC and keep it connected via a very long dual-head USB cable. The dock kit also comes with a slipcase for the drive, so it will stay relatively scratch-free in your travel bag. One big plus with the dock is that it is hot-swappable: You can remove the drive without having to use the 'Safely Remove Device' command in Windows.
The Go comes with a relatively easy-to-setup Seagate backup utility, and like many similar programs, it defaults to saving your files to the My Documents folder. You can customize the backup routine and set the system to automatically back up most folders on the PC. The drive also comes with a folder sync utility, which lets you designate a folder on two PCs, which the software and drive will then keep current on both machines. That way, you can bring your work folder home with you and keep up-to-date copies of its contents with you at all times. I would've liked to have seen a disaster-recovery software package, like the one on Maxtor's OneTouch 4 Mini drives, but for most external drives it's not a deal breaker.
The Go comes with a dual-headed cable, which gives the drive additional power when you use it with a laptop. (Some laptops have trouble powering certain power-hungry drives through the USB ports; the dual-headed cables ensure against that.) The newer, larger-capacity portable drives tend to need more power than they can get through just a single USB port. Nonetheless, I was able to power the Go from a single USB port on both my test beds, an Apple MacBook Pro and Dell desktop.
The drive is a speedy one: Dragging and dropping our 1.2GB test folder took only 56 seconds, and the Seagate backup utility was right behind at 1 minute. PCMark05 returned a hard drive score of 2,779 points, which is par for a portable 2.5-inch hard drive. You shouldn't have any trouble waiting for the drive to complete your backups; you'll likely just leave it in its dock so it's always ready.
The Go is a little more businesslike in its design than competing drives, such as the SimpleTech Signature Mini Black Cherry. (We reviewed the 320GB model, but SimpleTech now also offers the 500GB capacity.) The SimpleTech comes with a free online storage subscription, but it's only 2GB. The Western Digital My Passport Elite is also stylish, has a built-in port protector, a capacity indicator, and comes in several colors, but with its dock ability, the Go's trumps the other two. The WD and Seagate have long-life five-year warranties, but the SimpleTech is shorter at only three years.
The Seagate FreeAgent Go (500GB) is the portable hard drive to beat. Its innovative dock, stylish design, generous five-year warranty, and included software give you just about all you need from a portable external drive. Half a terabyte is more than enough to back up a computer or two for most average users. The dock and software make the backup process easy—and the easier it is, the more likely you'll use this often ignored but very important safeguard of your digital life.
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• Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch
• LaCie Mobile Drive
• ADATA HD710M Pro External Hard Drive
• ADATA HD830 External Hard Drive
• WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD
• more
Seagate FreeAgent Go (500GB)
Bottom Line: The Seagate FreeAgent Go is a great portable hard drive with its 500GB capacity, innovative dock, simple design, generous five-year warranty and included software. It gives you just about all you need from a portable external drive—most important, an easy backup solution.
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