Others say...

"No Bells, No Whistles, No USB"
500Gb for under $100 wasn't too bad a deal, but I am disappointed that this unit has no on/off button, no other buttons, and especially no additional usb connection. So bottom line is you get to use up another usb port, and with today's hardware demanding the usb ports, it causes me to have to buy a usb hub. it also has a light bar indicating read/write activity that spans the whole front side of the unit and is totally unnecessary, and sometimes distracting. And the light just pulses with no rapid or direct indication of the read/write. But with that said, I have had the unit a couple of weeks and so far so good. Let's see if it does better than the comparable WD My Books that crashed on me after less than 6 months. So bottom line, if you want 500Gb cheap this one should do.

"TRASH"
1st Problem. Not a true 500 gig, It's a 460

2nd Problem. I had it 2 months and it croaked. No Power, Nothing.

(Before it croaked, I transfered all my data. Pics, MP3's, contracts EVERYTHING.) So, I contacted Seagate warrenty dept. I sent it off to data recovery. They said, It's going to cost between $500 to $800.00 to get all my info back. Warrenty doesn't cover lost data. But I can return it for an exchange. (NO WAY, I have way too much data) I asked if the HD was bad, they said no, the case was. So, I'm having the case changed out locally.

PLEASE, DON'T BUY THIS TRASH :-(

"Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Hard Drive "
I needed a straight-forward backup drive to protect my documents on three computers. While this drive can be plugged into a single computer and programmed to perform regularly scheduled backups, it can also be easily moved from computer to computer to backup all your household computers.

"BE CAREFUL, THEY DIE EASILY!"
Well at first it was awesome, with the amount of space it held, but be warned. Mines died after 1 year and well... let's say I had A LOT of priceless pictures of my family and the sort, and it all just went away. DO NOT flip the drive upside down, it will start clanking and boom you're doomed. Good Luck but I'll never buy another seagate.

"Good,Fast, and Inexpensive Solution for Storage"
I find the Seagate FA 500GB to be easy to use and quickly backed up the files on my 2 computers. That's what I needed and thats what I got. You can keep it connected to do a daily update. I just hook it up from time to time, click on the latest document and photo folders I've accumulated and in less than a minute it's done. Feels much safer knowing I've got all that info stored somewhere other than the computer. In my son's world- the world of late teens and early 20's, there seems to be some real threats to a person's hard drive. He has the same Seagate and uses it more often than not to reload his entire load of files after someone or something crashes his computer online. Mean world out there. Good to have one of these.