Seagate Backup Plus Slim 500GB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0, Black STCD500102

Some Background: ive always been an seagate user since my old external drive that nedded power to work burnt on a voltage overload and it survived! the overload just fried the case of the drive all date was there! THANKS SEAGATE! 1TB back in that time was like A LOT!. and now i hook it into my pc and use it as a regular HD. been more than 5 years since that overload and i just took it out of my pc not because it failed, just because i bought an SSD. so it worked flawlesly! now lying on a desk with some old data. In the meantime i bought one seagate backup plus 500GB red, ill never forget because it had the ability to swap the usb cable from USB 2.0 to 3.0 with a little upgrade. it worked great until some guy decided to stole it... Ive had a few other internal drives of course. So as you can see ive been a long time seagate user. Actual Review: This drive performs great! just as the USB 2.0 version i had back in the day... some might think that 500GB its not to much, and i agree, but as i learnt after my last HD got stolen, NEVER EVER USE AN EXTERNAL DRIVE AS A BACKUP OF YOUR STUFF! never do this! you can drop it, lose it, broke it... and if you do use it for backup keep it always stored safe, dont use it to traverl and transfer all kind of things all the time. I bought this version because im always moving data from a pc to another, and since theres almost no archives larger than 500GB i figure this would be enough. been with me like 1 year and no problems at all i really recommend seagate as a brand, the pricing is ok and they have nice warranty on every product.

Awesome product, great price! In USB 3.0 (super-speed) mode, you can get 100MB/sec transfer rates. That's about the speed of most internal hard drives these days. This product is reliable, small, and lightweight. It supports ATA security features as well. If you don't have SS USB, it works in USB 2.0 (high speed) mode. I'm not a masochist, so haven't tried it in full speed USB mode, but I wouldn't doubt it would fall back to that mode if that's all that was available. I've tried using this product with a USB 2.0 hub and also with a USB extension cable: it does not work with either. I'm not taking away a star for that, just an observation.

I just purchased this drive for my personal use and the G Drive Thunderdrive for my work computer. This drive was half the cost of the G Drive Thunderdrive that I purchased on the Apple website. This drive was half the cost but also took 10x longer to back up the computer. Granted, I do have more files on my home computer (photos, etc) but it took really, really long to back up via TimeMachine. I would recommend the Thunderdrive G Drive over this drive if you can afford it as the Time Machine backup takes 2-3 seconds and the initial backup takes a couple of minutes. The USB is pretty slow but I still give it 3 stars because the price is pretty good for the amount of storage that you get though it takes a while to backup.

This drive is great! The included software I would rate around 3/5 because for me it isn't needed but I do see a good use for it, that isn't where the 4 star rating comes in though. First the good. This drive is small, crazy small, I didn't expect it to be this thin, small, and light. Regardless of this it still feels very sturdy and isn't a fingerprint magnet. The front and back of the drive aren't glossy and won't attract much in the way of smudges. The small sides of the product are glossy but not enough to do anything to the look if fingerprints get on them not very noticeable at all. The front can attract a small degree of fingerprints but in my opinion it isn't bad and doesn't cause many problems. The reason I gave this 4 stars is because of the speed... There weren't any specs that said a speed I should expect but I just felt it was a little low for me. Read and write speeds were both around 100MB/s this isn't bad but my USB 3.0 Flash Drive gets around 240MB/s. Again though this drive is fast for an external hard drive, and 100MB/s isn't slacking at all at that speed you can still transfer an HD video in under a minute easily. That fact coupled with the size of this drive is pretty good quality, I definitely recommend this drive. As soon as Seagate upgrades this model to a faster speed I will easily give it 5 stars, right now I give it a 4.5. Very great drive! Highly recommended. Pros -Small -Thin -Light -High Quality -High Storage for Price -Not Glossy -Great Drive Cons -Could be faster Highly recommended 4.5 stars! *Image with disk speeds in customer images Update: 7.5.2013 This drive is still going strong just want to comment on something I said earlier, I said it doesn't attract fingerprints, but actually it does. The front of it (Black Model) does attract smudges, not fingerprints persay, but to much oil on your hands or dirt and it will show a little. The pattern of the casing does make it not so noticeable though. Not to mention it is black, and either way it does wipe off very easily, still a great good looking product!

This is a fantastic drive. I am a major hardware geek, especially when it comes to drives (desktop, mobile, SSD, whatever). Your life and work (or school) are stored on drives, so I keep many around, usually in pairs -- one of which I keep in a fire safe at all times. I also have this drive in the larger (thicker) dual-platter size, and I don't like it nearly as much. Although the price difference is small between the 500GB and 1TB drives, I like the 500GB better. It is plenty big for OS and files -- about anything other than video. The 500GB drive is just super slim and SUPER quiet. It is about 9mm versus the 12mm listed on this page. I am burned-out on loud drives, and this sleek, thin drive is not only quiet but well-built and handsome. I got this as part of the VINE program, but I subsequently purchased a twin silver one in 500GB. I then purchased the 1TB (thicker), but I don't like the 1TB drive nearly as much. It is thicker and louder. The tops of these are real metal with a nice machined logo on them. The sides are shiny plastic which I don't like as much because it scratches easy and shows fingerprints. The bottom is a nice, matte, textured black plastic. The LEDs are white and in a slit which has a nice effect. The slimmer 500GB also minimizes the black sides while emphasizing the nice top. I have not had any problems with any of these. I was tempted to buy some of the 2TB drives, which are a fantastic price, but they are even louder, and you basically destroy the nice case if you try to extract them. In fact, the 2TB drives are louder than my WD Green desktop drives. So, despite the price, the 500GB is really my pick of the litter. They also make a Mac version in silver which, instead of a brushed silver finish, comes in a matte silver finish.

I bought this over a year ago; it worked perfectly fine when I moved data from one laptop onto it, and then transferred that data to a second laptop. 14 months later I tried using it for the third time ever and it would not be recognized on two different Windows laptops (one 7, one 8). After plugging it into the laptops the device would just blink. Seeing as how it's been over year since the purchase I don't really have any options in terms of a warranty or return, and frankly I'm not interested in the hassle of experimenting with my computer to try to get it to work, or contacting customer service. This product gets 1 star for not doing what it's supposed to do, plain and simple. If I get it to work through some other means, it still gets 1 star; it's supposed to be a simple plug and use device and it just simply failed in that regard. Waste of money, and my data is probably lost forever. THANKS, SEAGATE!!

I'm amazed at the size and performance of this thing. For 500 GB backup storage in a rugged, portable USB self-contained device, no bigger than a nice metal cigarette case (I don't smoke, but I have friends who do ... lol) just blows my mind. I have another older external 500 GB storage drive for my desktop that is about the size of a good-sized book, weighs in at about the same, requires a separate plug-in AC adapter to operate, and runs much warmer than this Seagate Slim. It exceeds all the expectations I had when I ordered it. I easily transport multi-megabyte files among three desktops and an ASUS netbook, not only as a "backup" per se, but as an actual active drive imaging the larger external drive described above. And I carry it in my pocket! As for speed? It's a modern USB 3.0 -- what more can be said? It's great! Get it.

Thoroughly impressed with how small and FAST this drive is. Getting write speeds of over 140mb/s on USB3.0, so it's quick. The drive is super small and looks very well built. Great looking drive. A first for me is the fact that I like the included software- a lot. The Seagate dashboard is worth installing and looking at even if you're predisposed to not like "included software" with most hardware items- like I am. I gave it a shot based on high praises from trusted tech friends and wow. Seagate got the included software right with this drive. Excellent overall package and highly recommended. (The backup and share features are a photographer's dream.)