Our Seagate FreeAgent HDs Just Cheaply Constructed?

[W. eWatson]

I've had a 1TB FreeAgent drive for 3 months and have used it very
mostly, but now as I transfer files and folders to a new machine have
used it more and it's working fine. However, when I first bought it, I
was surprised to find that it had 4 little plastic feet to support it in
a flat position. They fall off easily. There is, as far as I know, no
on/off switch. This strikes me as something that was cheaply built,
which started me wondering if the innards might not so great. Of course,
maybe there's a solution to the feet, and the on/off switch. Maybe the
latter is really obscured.

Interestingly, when I asked the people where I bought it, they had no
idea how to mount the feet, neither did Seagate when I talked with their
tech people on a different matter. Glue anyone? Should have talked to
them both about the switch. Comments?

 

[W. eWatson]

Re: Are Seagate FreeAgent HDs Just Cheaply Constructed?

Corrected Our spelling.
W. eWatson wrote:
> I've had a 1TB FreeAgent drive for 3 months and have used it very
> mostly, but now as I transfer files and folders to a new machine have
> used it more and it's working fine. However, when I first bought it, I
> was surprised to find that it had 4 little plastic feet to support it in
> a flat position. They fall off easily. There is, as far as I know, no
> on/off switch. This strikes me as something that was cheaply built,
> which started me wondering if the innards might not so great. Of course,
> maybe there's a solution to the feet, and the on/off switch. Maybe the
> latter is really obscured.
>
> Interestingly, when I asked the people where I bought it, they had no
> idea how to mount the feet, neither did Seagate when I talked with their
> tech people on a different matter. Glue anyone? Should have talked to
> them both about the switch. Comments?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

W. eWatson wrote:
> I've had a 1TB FreeAgent drive for 3 months and have used it very
> mostly, but now as I transfer files and folders to a new machine
> have used it more and it's working fine. However, when I first
> bought it, I was surprised to find that it had 4 little plastic
> feet to support it in a flat position. They fall off easily. There
> is, as far as I know, no on/off switch. This strikes me as
> something that was cheaply built, which started me wondering if the
> innards might not so great. Of course, maybe there's a solution to
> the feet, and the on/off switch. Maybe the latter is really
> obscured.
> Interestingly, when I asked the people where I bought it, they had
> no idea how to mount the feet, neither did Seagate when I talked
> with their tech people on a different matter. Glue anyone? Should
> have talked to them both about the switch. Comments?

"used it very mostly" for... what? In what way? What does that mean?

The small plastic feet are annoying and generally useless - although one
could put a spot of glue on each and stick it on for better mileage.

No on/off switch is normal for most external drives.

You did not get the top-of-the-line. It's sort of like getting a base
vehicle, you don't get all the perks. You got what you paid for. A Seagate
hrd disk drive (1T inside of a case that allows you to connect it to a
computer likely just with USB. Nothing more, nothing less.

You could have paid a little more for something with a few more accessories.

FreeAgent Desk
FreeAgent XTreme

There used to be several others - some with permanent stands.

FreeAgent Go
FreeAgent Go Special Edition

Not even going into the BlackArmor series (which are very nice, IMO.)

The vertical stand is generally better for the less expensive/base model - I
have found - than the feet. The XTreme gives you more connectivity options
(like eSATA.)

As far as the switch - over-rated IMHO. It's a PORTABLE drive, admittedly -
no so much as the GOs - since it has external power and they do not.
However, having a power switch does very little for you. Don't want it on -
don't plug it into USB. Yes - it's probably doing the vampire power thing
in either case - but I don't believe the drive spins up until it detects a
connection to the computer.

I have several (4+) seagate external drives, several western digital ones as
well as ones I assembled myself. The NAS devices generally have power
switches/shutdown sequences - the older or custom ones might or might not
have a power switch. There's not much to an external drive, to be truthful.
It's essentially a conversion from one type of connection to another at its
simplest form.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

 

[W. eWatson]

Shenan Stanley wrote:
> W. eWatson wrote:
>> I've had a 1TB FreeAgent drive for 3 months and have used it very
>> mostly, but now as I transfer files and folders to a new machine
>> have used it more and it's working fine. However, when I first
>> bought it, I was surprised to find that it had 4 little plastic
>> feet to support it in a flat position. They fall off easily. There
>> is, as far as I know, no on/off switch. This strikes me as
>> something that was cheaply built, which started me wondering if the
>> innards might not so great. Of course, maybe there's a solution to
>> the feet, and the on/off switch. Maybe the latter is really
>> obscured.
>> Interestingly, when I asked the people where I bought it, they had
>> no idea how to mount the feet, neither did Seagate when I talked
>> with their tech people on a different matter. Glue anyone? Should
>> have talked to them both about the switch. Comments?
>
> "used it very mostly" for... what? In what way? What does that mean?
>
> The small plastic feet are annoying and generally useless - although one
> could put a spot of glue on each and stick it on for better mileage.
>
> No on/off switch is normal for most external drives.
>
> You did not get the top-of-the-line. It's sort of like getting a base
> vehicle, you don't get all the perks. You got what you paid for. A Seagate
> hrd disk drive (1T inside of a case that allows you to connect it to a
> computer likely just with USB. Nothing more, nothing less.
>
> You could have paid a little more for something with a few more accessories.
>
> FreeAgent Desk
> FreeAgent XTreme
>
> There used to be several others - some with permanent stands.
>
> FreeAgent Go
> FreeAgent Go Special Edition
>
> Not even going into the BlackArmor series (which are very nice, IMO.)
>
> The vertical stand is generally better for the less expensive/base model - I
> have found - than the feet. The XTreme gives you more connectivity options
> (like eSATA.)
>
> As far as the switch - over-rated IMHO. It's a PORTABLE drive, admittedly -
> no so much as the GOs - since it has external power and they do not.
> However, having a power switch does very little for you. Don't want it on -
> don't plug it into USB. Yes - it's probably doing the vampire power thing
> in either case - but I don't believe the drive spins up until it detects a
> connection to the computer.
>
> I have several (4+) seagate external drives, several western digital ones as
> well as ones I assembled myself. The NAS devices generally have power
> switches/shutdown sequences - the older or custom ones might or might not
> have a power switch. There's not much to an external drive, to be truthful.
> It's essentially a conversion from one type of connection to another at its
> simplest form.
>
I've used it mostly for a decoration. Messed up sentence, "most now
for ...". Other models? Lack of guidance at the store. It's USB.
Couldn't they at least get four feet that stay on the stand? I have
another one like it, but it's vertical. Maybe another $4 would have
gotten me good feet?

 

[Twayne]

In news:uW4RCepoKHA.5508@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl,
Shenan Stanley <newshelper@gmail.com> typed:
> W. eWatson wrote:
....
>
> No on/off switch is normal for most external drives.
>
....

That's true, though I see the situation changing slowly. With two external
terabyte drives, soon to add a third, I'd really like to see accessible
power switches on all of them. The power cable connecting in back is OK but
I'd also like to see the data cables in some sort of protected (recessed)
area near the front or even on the front of the drives.
I only want or need one at a time to be connected 24/7, and that's for
nightly backups. I put together an A-B box to switch the power cables open
on one and closed on the other, and vice-versa when it's switched over. But
the Seagate/Maxtor has no power switch so I must use a power bar for that.
The other drive is an Acomdata and has a switch that's handy to reach. One
of these days I'll hack the Seagate too and put in a switch there too. I
hate messes of power bars and my powercenter is way past maxxed out. Pretty
sure I'll go for Acomdata for the third one, too. For some reason I've had
a really bad run on WD drives the last couple years.

I suspect there are quite a few others like me that would like an easy way
to isolate their drives from the machines when they're not in use. To do
that you have to control both power and the data cable though.

My 2 ¢ on the subject anyway,

Twayne

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Twayne wrote:
> That's true, though I see the situation changing slowly. With two
> external terabyte drives, soon to add a third, I'd really like to
> see accessible power switches on all of them. The power cable
> connecting in back is OK but I'd also like to see the data cables
> in some sort of protected (recessed) area near the front or even on
> the front of the drives. I only want or need one at a time to be
> connected 24/7, and that's for nightly backups. I put together an
> A-B box to switch the power cables open on one and closed on the
> other, and vice-versa when it's switched over. But the
> Seagate/Maxtor has no power switch so I must use a power bar for
> that. The other drive is an Acomdata and has a switch that's handy
> to reach. One of these days I'll hack the Seagate too and put in a
> switch there too. I hate messes of power bars and my powercenter is
> way past maxxed out. Pretty sure I'll go for Acomdata for the third
> one, too. For some reason I've had a really bad run on WD drives
> the last couple years.
> I suspect there are quite a few others like me that would like an
> easy way to isolate their drives from the machines when they're not
> in use. To do that you have to control both power and the data
> cable though.
> My 2 ¢ on the subject anyway,

I'd say things are moving away from such storage and more towards NAS
devices or just cloud storage for those trusting enough to store their data
elsewhere. It's getting very easy to have wired/wireless storage attached
to your home network now - inexpensive as well. Then you have access from
all of your computers without getting up from your current location.

Such NAS devices *do* have shutdown switches (shutdown because they have an
OS in most cases.)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

 

[Twayne]

In news:evwcDgqoKHA.5776@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl,
Shenan Stanley <newshelper@gmail.com> typed:
> Twayne wrote:
>> That's true, though I see the situation changing slowly. With two
>> external terabyte drives, soon to add a third, I'd really like to
>> see accessible power switches on all of them. The power cable
>> connecting in back is OK but I'd also like to see the data cables
>> in some sort of protected (recessed) area near the front or even on
>> the front of the drives. I only want or need one at a time to be
>> connected 24/7, and that's for nightly backups. I put together an
>> A-B box to switch the power cables open on one and closed on the
>> other, and vice-versa when it's switched over. But the
>> Seagate/Maxtor has no power switch so I must use a power bar for
>> that. The other drive is an Acomdata and has a switch that's handy
>> to reach. One of these days I'll hack the Seagate too and put in a
>> switch there too. I hate messes of power bars and my powercenter is
>> way past maxxed out. Pretty sure I'll go for Acomdata for the third
>> one, too. For some reason I've had a really bad run on WD drives
>> the last couple years.
>> I suspect there are quite a few others like me that would like an
>> easy way to isolate their drives from the machines when they're not
>> in use. To do that you have to control both power and the data
>> cable though.
>> My 2 ¢ on the subject anyway,
>
> I'd say things are moving away from such storage and more towards NAS
> devices or just cloud storage for those trusting enough to store
> their data elsewhere. It's getting very easy to have wired/wireless
> storage attached to your home network now - inexpensive as well. Then you
> have access from all of your computers without getting up
> from your current location.
> Such NAS devices *do* have shutdown switches (shutdown because they
> have an OS in most cases.)
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP

Hmm, good catch.