Our preliminary acquaintance with the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex series of external hard drives took place last summer - immediately after their official announcement. The main points were reflected in the corresponding article, but concerned only the theoretical part. Now is the time to get down to practice, namely: studying the portable GoFlex and “related accessories”, which contain the main highlight of the collection - the use of different interfaces for connecting to a computer.

FreeAgent GoFlex

We have already written about the appearance of drives. Logically, the ruler is divided into two parts by size: it includes VZDs with dimensions of 125×83×15 mm and a weight of 150 grams and 135×89×22 mm and a weight of 280 grams (the manufacturer indicates a 15 mm shorter length, but this is only true for “ main module”, to which you will still have to attach the interface module to connect to the computer). This difference is due to the fact that compact models have hard drives with a capacity of 320 or 500 GB, while larger ones have 750 GB and 1 TB, which themselves are slightly larger. Accordingly, as recording density increases and hard drives become smaller, we can expect that the former will become more numerous due to the development of large volumes, and the latter will become smaller. As has become a good tradition, all options are available in one of four colors: black, red, blue and silver. What’s bad is that all this wealth will be in demand only if you use a drive with a “standard” interface - and additional interface modules only come in black. Otherwise, the device makes a pleasant impression: compact and stylish. True, glossy plastic will inevitably collect fingerprints and even scratches. Therefore, it would be nice to have a case, which was available for previous series as an additional accessory, but has now disappeared.

Out of the box, most devices (theoretically, you can also find an option without an interface on sale, which is relevant, for example, for the FreeAgent GoFlex Net extension or for using the “carrier module” in the GoFlex TV player) is similar to other VHDs: transition between modules are barely noticeable, and the “standard” one is equipped with a regular USB connector (in our case, the traditional USB 2.0 mini-B). Accordingly, the kit also includes a cable. Short - only about 40 cm, fortunately laptops are now widespread, and there long cables will only get in the way. Well, in conjunction with a desktop computer, it still makes sense to use an extension cord so as not to climb to its back wall.

FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cables

Although these accessories are called “cables,” in fact, in addition to the cable, there is also a wider part that is docked to the VZD body, to which the cable itself with a connector for connecting to a computer, 50 cm long, is rigidly attached. To connect to the VZD, a completely standard SATA-pair is used. connectors - interface and power. But! Don't expect full compatibility. It will not be possible to connect such a module to a regular internal hard drive due to the protrusions that secure the connection to the HDD. But connecting the external hard drive itself as an internal one will be difficult, since the connectors in it are hidden quite deep, so not all cables will fit (especially for power supply). However, we managed to find a suitable one, with the help of which everything worked, although there were rumors that the contacts in the connector had been rearranged in order to completely kill the Kulibins’ hopes. However, there is still no practical sense in such experiments. Of course, the idea of ​​using “cables” for other purposes is attractive, but for this they will have to be modified with a file. Why, if there are external modules on sale with any interfaces that will also provide mechanical protection for the drive?

Let’s better understand what the presence of several options for interface modules gives us when used for their intended purpose. And it gives a lot - an HDD with a USB 2.0 interface can be easily converted into a device with USB 3.0, FireWire 800 (especially important for users of Apple products) or Power eSATA. The latter is generally very interesting, since the choice among USB drives (of any type) is large and is increasing all the time, with eSATA it is rather large and does not plan to decrease, but the vast majority of available options require the use of two cables. And here is what eSATA users have long dreamed of - just one. All in all, a good idea.

But its implementation has two noticeable drawbacks. The first one has already been mentioned above - there are no colored “cables”: only black ones. So if you want to use them, you will have to buy a black drive - otherwise it will look ugly. The second drawback is the connection itself. You should not count, for example, on the following usage scenario: one cable (say, USB 2.0) is constantly connected in the office, the second (say, Power eSATA) is at home, and we only carry the drive itself, connecting it to one or the other. The connection is secured using spring-loaded metal plates, so to disconnect the interface module it must be pulled with great force. Then forcefully connect the new one. If you do this a couple of times a day, then, obviously, over time the structure will become loose. Thus, the most correct way would be to immediately buy what you need, “assemble” the drive and not touch anything else. This is a pity, since a more correct solution with interface switching could be more flexible and, therefore, interesting for potential buyers.

Functionality

The company's approach to equipping its devices with software (which is traditionally written directly to the VZD) changes from generation to generation. In this we returned to the Memeo software, as in the year before, but with a significant change. You can only use Memeo Instant Backup for free, which differs from the version we described in that backup can only be performed to disks (there is no network support) and only for files located on the “C” drive, and there can be only one copy plan. The full version, where there are no restrictions, as well as the Sync utilities (previously included with the first version of Seagate FreeAgent Go), Share and Send are also available on the disk, but only in the form of a trial with a free period of use of only 30 days - if you like it, for their further use you will have to pay Memeo. This is a standard thing for world practice, but in Russia this approach will definitely not add popularity. However, in our country, the majority of users do not consider bundled software worthy of attention at all (sometimes quite rightly, sometimes in vain), so in general everyone remains “to their own.”

Hardware base

The line includes four modifications, differing in the capacity of the installed hard drive - from 320 GB to 1 TB. We tested a 500 GB modification, which revealed a Seagate hard drive (it would be strange to see something different :)) Momentus 5400.6 ST9500325AS. By default, the HDD is formatted as NTFS. The controllers used (different depending on the selected interface) do not in any way prevent the reading of SMART attributes using specialized utilities.

Testing methodology

The technique is described in detail in a separate article. There you can get acquainted with the configuration of the test bench and the software used. To test peripherals with a USB 3.0 interface, we only added an ASUS U3S6 host adapter to the test computer.

Competitors

This time we decided not to take other external hard drives for comparison, but to actually test the interfaces - with the same mobile drive, but connected via USB 2.0, USB 3.0, eSATA and FireWire 800.

Lavalys Everest 5.0

But here the picture is fundamentally different, since it is the performance of the interface that we measure (albeit a little roughly in some cases). The obvious outsider is USB 2.0 - in theory it lags far behind other competitors, and in practice, as we see, too. FireWire 800 was once considered as a way to ensure maximum performance, but that was a long time ago :) However, based on the results, we can assume that this will be quite sufficient for portable drives. The leaders, of course, are eSATA and USB 3.0. Even though their specific implementations are still far from theoretical maximums, this is quite enough.

IOMeter

And again, there is no dependence on the interface bandwidth - the speed of truly random operations performed by “classic” hard drives is too low.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

It looks like the company didn't use the most successful USB 3.0 bridge, which made this interface in the fastest mode (reading data in one stream) slower than it could have been. However, for competition (or rather, lack thereof) with the previous version of the standard, this is more than enough. And it’s not so far from the theoretical abilities of a hard drive.

But USB 3.0 “plays out” in data recording. However, there is no particular point in ranking three high-speed interfaces - the main thing that is observed is the gap between any of them and USB 2.0.

The performance of hard drives on these templates is below the theoretical maximum throughput of all interfaces, which makes the picture quite interesting. In particular, USB 2.0 is still a bottleneck, but the transition “from USB to USB” gives a noticeably less effect than using more technically advanced interfaces. Naturally, SATA looks the best (albeit in an “external” modification), since it was originally designed for universal loads, and not just for simple copying of information back and forth, but FireWire is not bad either.

Prices

For the first six months, representatives of the new FreeAgent line could be purchased in Russia only in stores of the M-Video network - it was with this network that the manufacturer entered into an exclusive agreement. However, it expired on January 1, 2011, so buyers now have more choice. Therefore, as usual, the table below shows the average retail prices of all modifications of the device and accessories in Moscow, current at the time you read this article:

Total

As for directly comparing connection interfaces made under the same (as far as possible) conditions, everything is simple: USB 2.0 has long been outdated, but all the others are quite relevant for portable HDDs. As expected :) However, it is obvious that FireWire 800 is already working at the limit of its capabilities, but “for” does not mean “for”. So the answer to the question of which interface is better is very simple - the one that your computer supports!

It would seem that such a formulation of the question should inevitably make GoFlex a market leader - after all, it supports everything. However, the idea is good, but its implementation was somewhat disappointing. Firstly, changing the interface module is not such a simple matter; secondly, they are not cheap (at the level of external boxes for hard drives); thirdly, they support only one interface at a time. The combination of these factors will inevitably lead to the following: if anything changes, it will be USB 2.0 to USB 3.0, which is what the user will calm down :) Well, there is still some chance that a person who constantly lives in the world of Macs will choose FireWire 800, but this chance is very small - USB is a more universal solution. But eSATA, and even in the Power eSATA modification, is not available everywhere. Now, if this interface module came with a cable already familiar to us for creating such a port from one “regular” and one USB, it would be more interesting. It would be even more useful to provide both this module and the FW800 with an additional USB component, which would make them universal. And it would hardly have had a significant impact on the price - it is already high. In the current version, the ability to change the interface looks good in advertising, but in practice it is not very interesting. It’s very possible that Seagate took this into account - it’s not for nothing that hard drives come in different colors, and modules are only black (that is, their mass sales are not really planned - they just showed that they exist).

However, be that as it may, the idea is interesting (even if not entirely original - Smart Family from ViPower appeared more than five years ago), so it deserves an award. Its practical implementation is lame, as has already been said more than once above. On the other hand, within the framework of the new Seagate concept, when an external drive is not necessarily a self-sufficient solution, but can be used simply as a data drive in a digital player or NAS, separating the interface into a separate module was inevitable, so the idea was to offer the user at least some the possibility of his replacement was clearly in the air. Even if, as it seems to us, it will not be in demand very often in its current version. Well, if we consider GoFlex simply as an external hard drive, then it is no better or worse than its competitors - just another solution from a wide range of products on the market, with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Are you a power user who needs to carry data from multiple devices with different interfaces? Then Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-Portable Drive This is exactly the hard drive that will perform this task well. Using additional adapters it can be connected to USB 2.0/3.0, FireWire 800 or eSATA interfaces. The drive can also be “taught” to automatically create backups. Optional adapters make the FreeAgent GoFlex one of the most versatile drives on the market, and the innovative GoFlex connector makes the drive one of the most innovative. If you are a demanding user, then all signs point to this disc being useful to you.

# Technical Summary

Device type: External portable storage

Volume: 500 Gb

Interface: USB 2.0

HDD: 1pc, 2.5"

Housing material: Plastic

Nutrition: USB

Dimensions: 83x114x111 mm

Weight: 150 g

# Design and features

With dimensions of 83 x 114 x 111 mm, FreeAgent GoFlex looks like a regular portable drive. It is offered in 4 colors: silver, black, red and blue. Initially, the HDD comes with a USB2.0 adapter, but as soon as you disconnect the drive, we will see the GoFlex connector, to which

You can also connect USB 3.0, FireWire 800, and eSATA adapters. To be honest, GoFlex is a regular Sata interface, the same as the HDD inside the case, however, it is not recommended to connect this drive directly to the motherboard; the depth of the connector is slightly greater than that of a regular Sata

Initially, Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex comes with a USB2.0 adapter; each additional adapter is purchased separately at a price of 450 to 800 rubles. The least expensive adapter is eSata, but FireWire costs more than the others. This difference is most likely due to the presence of additional chips in the adapter required to convert the Sata interface to FireWire. There is also a USB3.0 ExpressCard kit for laptops not equipped with a USB3.0 interface along with a USB3.0 cable, but the USB3.0 adapter for HDD itself is sold separately from it. If a USB3.0 interface is available, then Seagate can offer a USB3.0 adapter along with bundled software that will allow automatic backup to disk, which may be useful for novice users. All adapters are black, despite the fact that the discs are available in 4 colors. Black is a universal color, but if someone is not satisfied with such a multi-colored range, then it is better to purchase a black disc. The drive can also be installed in an additional slot, a docking station from Seagate. There is a USB 2.0/3.0 adapter that comes with the FreeAgent GoFlex Pro version of the drive, which is designed for installation on a slide inside the Seagate media center - GoFlex TV HD. This option makes FreeAgent GoFlex a more flexible device

FreeAgent GoFlex comes with software from Seagate and Memeo that you can install the first time you connect. Can the hard drive be used for backup via Windows utility? via Apple's Time Machine on Macs (but then you'll need to format the drive to the HFS+ file system) or use the Memeo utility to create an instant backup of your system drive

The drive is initially formatted in NTFS, but it also comes with a utility that allows you to work with data on Macs without formatting. The installer will also help you synchronize FreeAgent GoFlex with various utilities and configure data encryption and many other features that the Memeo Premium backup utility offers. The premium version provides more features, such as online backup. The premium version has a demo period for review, after which you are offered to buy the program if you are interested in its capabilities. This trial program is one of the few that are generally available on disk; it would not be bad if it was fully functional out of the box.

# Performance

Performance was measured over three interfaces: USB2.0, USB3.0 and FireWire. There was no eSata adapter at the time of review. The FreeAgent GoFlex performed respectably in the PCMark05 test, scoring 2,873 parrots over USB2.0, 3,967 over FireWire, and 4,794 over USB3.0. In a typical file transfer test, the device took 44 seconds to process 1.2Gb of test files via USB2.0, 29 seconds via FireWire, and just 21 seconds on USB3.0. FreeAgent GoFlex works slower over USB3.0 than the HP Portable External Hard Drive with a capacity of 1Tb. HP's drive scored 5,423 points in PCMark05 over USB3.0, and took 19 seconds to write the same amount of data. HP is faster, but few will notice the difference between 19 and 21 seconds

# Conclusion

At the price, FreeAgent GoFlex is a profitable portable drive, the cost of one gigabyte is just over 6 rubles, but the drive from HP is even more profitable - just over 5 rubles per gigabyte. Although the HP is a slightly better value, it is not as flexible and versatile in use as the Seagate drive. If you currently have a USB 3.0 interface, FireWire ESATA on your PC or plan to upgrade in the future, then buy FreeAgent GoFlex, and a rich list of adapters will not allow the drive to become outdated for quite a long time. For advanced users who understand in which cases which interfaces are best to use, it is also recommended to purchase a disk from Seagate

Review from pcmag.com magazine translated and supplemented by RabinoVich. Minor inaccuracies possible

As practice shows, disk space has been a very scarce resource throughout the history of computer technology. It’s not that it’s necessary - it’s just that no matter the volume of disks, the user will always find something to occupy it with. Although, in principle, over the past few years the minimum requirements have not increased (with the result that many often get by with a single 200-300 GB hard drive), not everyone likes to feel limited, so they are increasing the amount of space on hard drives. Unfortunately, in recent years, in addition to the usual financial (high-capacity hard drives always have a higher unit price for storing a gigabyte of information than their mass-produced counterparts) and technical (the maximum capacity is determined by production technologies), software restrictions have also been added.

Not for the first time, it should be noted - over the past 20 years we have already overcome many barriers: 32 MB, 528 MB, 2 GiB, 137 GiB and the like. And the “fatal” for many still popular systems, such as Windows XP, the 2 TiB barrier is also not fundamental: it is enough to change the operating system to something that supports not only the outdated method of MBR partitioning, but also the “new style” in the form of GPT . Support for such partitions is also available in Windows Vista, and even more so in Windows 7. True, 32-bit versions of both systems can use “large” partitions only for storing data, but not for loading, but add a large-capacity drive to the system as a it doesn't interfere with anything else. But what should those who are satisfied with Windows XP do and who don’t want to change it in the near future (and more than half of the users in our country are like that), but who really need a capacious hard drive?

In principle, software manufacturers have worked on this problem, so in some cases you can use a 2.5 or 3 TB hard drive in a computer running Windows XP. Some of the ways even allow him to be the only one. But sometimes you have to tinker, which we will talk about in one of the upcoming articles. Is there an easy way? Eat.

Where did the 2 TiB limit come from? The number of sectors is expressed as a 32-bit number, i.e. there can be a little more than four billion in total. The standard sector size for many years has been 512 bytes, which gives the total addressable disk capacity of 2 TiB (in more conventional decimal units - 2.2 TB). What happens if you simply increase the sector size? In the case of internal hard drives, manufacturers do not agree to this - there is a possibility of encountering a “crookedly written” low-level utility that strictly relies on the half-kilobyte sector, despite the fact that the possibility of using larger ones was introduced back in the days of MS DOS. This is why even hard drives with 4K byte physical sectors (Long Data Sector, also known as Advanced Format) in practice emulate support for a “standard” size. In general, one compatibility problem leads to another.

But in some cases, compatibility can be abandoned. As some of our regular readers may have already noticed, many models of external hard drives work directly with 4K byte sectors. Initially, these were found among products based on hard drives with 1.8-inch platters, but as Advanced Format spread, “larger” devices began to appear. Today we received a stationary high-speed railway with this feature. How is it useful? To understand this, just re-read the previous paragraph - increasing the sector by eight times allows you to increase the addressable capacity eight times even when using archaic partitioning structures such as MBR. Are there any problems? Theoretically, yes, and in practice most operating systems that support USB Mass Storage are smart enough to handle this situation correctly. And so do most of the programs running under their control. In any case, so far we have not heard anything about problems with high-speed railways without emulating “short” sectors. But the disk capacity can exceed 15 TB when working in conjunction with any (or almost any) operating system, including the popular Windows XP, which is enough not only for today - it also provides some reserve for tomorrow.

Apparently, Seagate was guided by these considerations when releasing high-capacity HDDs in the GoFlex Desk family. Moreover, this approach, in principle, allowed it to relatively quickly start selling 3 TB hard drives - the company was in no hurry to put the corresponding internal models (which are precisely what are used in such drives) on wide sale, artificially holding them back until Windows 7 took more -a less noticeable market share, and programmers from third companies were able to develop “crutches” that allow the full use of capacious hard drives in computers running outdated OS. But the external models did not need either one or the other, so they entered the market ahead of their “filling” :) Moreover, quite recently the company took the next step, introducing a 4 TB VZD, and in an updated design. But for now you won’t be able to find this “monster” on sale in our area, but 3 TB is welcome.

Design

Competitors

At the moment, we have tested three HDDs with a USB 3.0 interface. The first, Buffalo HD-HU3 USB 3.0 External HDD, was built on the basis of the Samsung HD103SJ hard drive. The second, Western Digital My Book 3.0, contained a Western Digital HDD (it would be strange to see something different :)) Caviar Blue WD10EALS. The third one to be tested was the Verbatim USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive with a Samsung HD103SI inside. All three mentioned hard drives have a capacity of only 1 TB, and they are older than the older modifications of the Seagate Barracuda XT, but we have not yet accumulated other competitors, so we will compare them with these. Naturally, only when connected to a computer using USB 3.0 - we abandoned the outdated interface when testing portable models, and stationary ones are even more productive (at least in theory).

Lavalys Everest 5.0

Most terabyte hard drives do just fine without long sectors. On 3 TB, everything is somewhat worse - generally speaking, the ST33000651AS also manages without them, but to make the VZD compatible with outdated operating systems, Seagate had to significantly modify the firmware. As we have already seen, 4K sectors without “standard” emulation sometimes do not interfere with obtaining normal results in the recording access time test - but sometimes they do, and today we have just the second case. With reading, everything is as usual.

IOMeter

On random operations, everything was as expected after studying the results of access time tests - good when reading and mediocre when writing.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

On one stream, Seagate wins over everyone - naturally, since the hard drive inside is the newest. At four - also a victory, but not so unconditional. But on two, the behavior is slightly better than that of two Samsung models, but a noticeable loss to the Western Digital drive: the company has recently been very good at optimizing the firmware of its hard drives for such a load. Occurring in practice, it should be noted, is not so rare.

Here our hero behaves like a solid average in the good sense of the word.

On application templates everything is a little worse, but within acceptable limits.

Prices

The table shows the average retail prices of all device modifications supplied with native USB 3.0 support in Moscow, current at the time you read this article:

Total

As you can see, the speed characteristics of the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk are at an average level, but this, in general, is not the main thing. The main thing is that this is a compact (for a stationary version) high-capacity drive, fully compatible even with already “outdated” (but still very popular) operating systems. Add external storage to your computer for as much as three, or even four terabytes, without significantly changing or reconfiguring anything - what could be more attractive? That is why Seagate receives another award from our website for its original technical solution.

But in almost every barrel of honey there is a fly in the ointment. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen without her this time either. In an effort to make the drive compact and attractive in appearance, it seems to us that the designers went a little too far. Still, the Barracuda XT has never been a highly energy-efficient hard drive, and in this case the hard drive is packed very tightly in plastic, so its thermal conditions under load leave much to be desired. For such and such capacities (which quite recently were achieved only by multi-disk drives) it would be worthwhile to provide active cooling. Or at least improve the passive. Perhaps, of course, this is reinsurance on our part, and in fact the user will not have any problems throughout the entire warranty period, or even longer, however... Even if changing the cooling scheme brings an exclusively psychological effect, this, it seems to us, will be already a lot.