Seagate 200GB Push Button External Hard Drive

July 12th, 2004

Pros: High-quality parts; very flexible connections - USB and Firewire; flexible placement - horizontal or vertical; backup software is self-configuring.
Cons: Not truly portable; FireWire 400 connection not reliable; backup software lacks compression; short warranty period.
Verdict: All in all, this drive is a great first effort from Seagate and a worthy product.

The new Seagate External Drive series encompasses three separate products: 160GB Hi-Speed USB drive; 160GB Hi-Speed USB & Firewire 400 (1394a) drive; 200GB Hi-Speed USB & Firewire 400 (1394a) drive. The 200GB model was put to test in this review. The new Seagate external drives seems to have followed the lead of the other drive manufacturers in creating a one-button backup external USB drive. What may be different in Seagate's case is that each facet of the drive is absolutely top-notch. The enclosure supports Hi-Speed USB and Firewire (IEEE 1394). The drive itself is both a 7200RPM drive and also sports 8MB cache memory for faster sequential transfers (backups are sequential in nature).

Package Content
- Drive enclosure containing a 7200RPM 200GB drive w/8MB cache memory
- AC adapter (inline-type)
- 2m Firewire/1394 cable
- 2m USB 2.0 cable
- CD containing "BounceBack Express" backup software and Seagate's DiskWizard 2003.
- Plastic base for standing enclosure on end.

Form Factor
The enclosure can be stood on end, laid flat or actually stacked flat thanks to a "ring system" which interlocks firmly. The cables supplies are all top quality. Even the AC power supply is a two-part super rugged unit not unlike laptop adapters - except for the fact that it uses a standard heavy-duty 3-prong grounded AC cable on the AC end of the adapter. The drive end of the power cord uses a 4-pin PS/2 type connector.

Sizing It Up
The front edge of the drive has two blue LEDs - one for power and one for hard drive activity. The rear edge has the aforementioned USB port, two Firewire ports (for serial or "pass-through" connections of other Firewire devices), and power connector. It also has an on/off rocker switch. It a wee bit crowded back there, but it all fits nicely. This is not a portable drive - it's a bit large for that. Besides, Seagate states in no uncertain terms that all power should be removed before moving the drive at all. These drives are all more fragile than we know. It's best to treat them gently.

Software and Drivers
Installing the drive and software was easy. Connect the chosen interface cable in Windows Millenium, 2000 and XP and the drive is detected an installed automatically. Mac OS X should work the same. Older operating systems will require specific drivers. Although Seagate says that the drive is supported in Windows NT 4.0 and Linux, they do not have the drivers on their web site yet. NT doesn't even support USB at all, so Seagate will have to pull off quite a coup to provide both USB drivers and backup software that's compatible. Seagate make no claims about the backup software being Linux-compatible.

Making It Fly
Once the drive is connected and working, one has to just run the BounceBack Express (backup software) setup. The software will size up your drives and configure it all for backup. That's overkill, but the user can easily change the folders and items they wish to back up. Once that's done, they can schedule the backup for later or perform it right away by pressing the single button on the drive. Remember that this one-button backup can only be performed on the interface that was used when BounceBack was installed.

Since all backup software seems to be difficult for the novice to understand, I won't critique the BounceBack interface. In some ways it's easier than most, and in some ways it's so simple that it's hard to understand. Put it this way - it's as good as any in that respect. I will, however, fault the lack of compression used to shrink the backups (every backup program I know of offers compression - varying degrees of it). What BounceBack does is simply copy the folders to the backup location. File verification is a feature - very nice for double-checking the veracity of your backup before you commit to relying on it.

Performance
As expected, the Firewire interface outperformed USB 2.0 - significantly. For some reason the Firewire interface was a bit inconsistent, but nothing bothersome. There were no issues at all with the USB 2.0 interface. It was dead reliable, if a bit slower. The below benchmarks were obtained with SciSoft's Sandra Filesytem Benchmark.

SiSoftware Sandra USB interface Drive Index : 19MB/s Benchmark Breakdown Buffered Read : 18 MB/s Sequential Read : 20 MB/s Random Read : 17 MB/s Buffered Write : 27 MB/s Sequential Write : 25 MB/s Random Write : 23 MB/s Average Access Time : 10 ms (estimated) Drive Drive Type : Hard Disk Total Size : 186GB Free Space : 184GB, 100%

Firewire interface Drive Index : 35MB/s Benchmark Breakdown Buffered Read : 30 MB/s Sequential Read : 41 MB/s Random Read : 30 MB/s Buffered Write : 29 MB/s Sequential Write : 29 MB/s Random Write : 26 MB/s Average Access Time : 8 ms (estimated) Drive Drive Type : Hard Disk Total Size : 186GB Free Space : 184GB, 100%

Wrap-up
What we have here is a new top-flight entry into the external backup drive wars. The Seagate is a lovely unit and works via USB 2.0 very well. The backup software is as good as any and the hard drive itself is the famously quiet Seagate Barracuda V 7200RPM 8MB cache unit. They don't get much better than that. Western Digital offers an 8 in 1 flash memory reader and a upstream USB 2.0 port (WD calls it a "hub") in their "Media Center" drive series for a comparable price, but I doubt that it would outperform this Seagate. The Seagate External 200GB drive is thus recommended.

- William DeVercelly, Contributing Editor

Where to buy Seagate 200GB Push Button External Hard Drive?


User Review(s)

"Hard drive went south in just two weeks of purchase" Not sure if it is just me, but this hard drive worked for about 10 days from the date of purchase and then it gave a weired whirrrinnng sound, then my pc stopped recognizing the hard drive. I'll return it to the store tomorrow, since it is still within the 30days of store return policy. But i have lost almost 100gb worth of data. From Balaji Bhaskaran, January 10, 2005

"All Data gone after power failure!" Arrrrgh! I had LOVED this device, but I just had a power failure and lost all my data on this drive. All the other drives on my Mac (10.3) were fine. I don't yet know if this is a problem with MacOSX or the Seagate drive, but I've lost a horrible amount of data. If this drive is that unreliable that a PF can wipe data, I can't recommend it. From A User, December 12, 2004

"So far this Seagate series is great!" From right out of the box, to capturing DV footage with FCP 4.5 on Mac OS 10.3.5, for the last four or five months, both my 200GB Seagates have exceeded my bang-per-buck expectations. This is consistent with my 8-month or so experience with the 180GB version. From my experience (so far) I'd say that this is a safe purchase. From John Greer, September 11, 2004

We're currently upgrading our user review system; so we won't be accepting new reviews for now.

200GB Push Button External Hard Drive Specs

Interface(s)	Hi-Speed USB, FireWire 400
Released date	February 2004
Platforms	Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, MacOS 9.1, MacOS X
Capacity	200GB
Rotation speed	7200 rpm
Average transfer rate	--
Seek time	8.5 ms
Buffer size	8MB
Software	CMS BounceBack
Internal drive type	Seagate 3.5"
Integrated battery	No
Extra?	--
Dimensions	7.1" x 2.5" x 7"
Weight	2 lb.
Power source	Self-powered
Warranty	One year

Extras
Turn on and off this self-powered device automatically with your PC.
Lost a USB cable? Get a replacement USB cable.
Running out of USB ports? Get an extra USB hub.
You may need a new USB card to achieve Hi-Speed USB speeds.
Confirm with our USB 2.0 FAQ if you have Hi-Speed USB on your PC.