From my sponsor: latest hard drives from Seagate

I really like the model design, package design and the pricing on the latest Seagate FreeAgent External Hard Drive. However it is designed for PC. You need to do your own formatting for Mac. I am forced to buy another brand that support both PC/Mac without extra work. Seagate is going to lose users that like to switch between PC & Mac.

(tounge in cheek)

Now I'm *sure* that previously we all decided that Seagate aren't your personal sponsor, but a sponsor of PodTech...

(tounge removed)

In any case, I was quietly impressed when I saw their stuff at SXSW, looking forward to seeing just how well the portable bluetooth drive works with the current range of smartphones.

Ewan: well, Seagate has a few PodTech sponsorships, but, yeah, they sponsor my show pretty specifically.

Bess: hmmm, I must have missed that. I'll ask Rocky in the morning about the latest drives -- he uses them on a Mac.

I too almost lost all my photos 2 days ago, because of a Hard Drive Failure(Though it was 5 years old). Anyway, hope that the hard disks get cheap enough for folks like me..

This blog reads like an infomercial. I'm not joking.
Why doesn't seagate just do an infomercial with Scoble on TV?

Air it on off-color cable channels at 1AM and sell them direct with an 800 line?

If they do it, they should at least credit me with the conceptual part in the credits.

This is exactly like an infomercial except there is no 800 line to sell direct and Scoble's audience is tiny compared to cable.

It's not even worth pulling the marketer out to do the interview for that small an audience.

My suggestion to Seagate. Splurge and do a real infomercial with the whole 9 yards, set up an 800 buy direct number, and have Scoble go and tell planet earth how his 15 years in IT has all lead up to his marvelous experience with the new line of Seagate products.

It'll work and you'll thank me later.

I thought Wordpress didn't allow ads. :-)

eSata? Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? Anyone? Anyone?

Hello!

eSATA = external SATA
http://bleedingedge.com.au/blog/archives/2007/0...

Here are two lovely eSATA 2.5 Welland enclosures (ME-940J and ME-942J):
http://www.welland.com.tw/html/enclosure/25.html

Regards, Roman

Bess & Robert-

Yep, I use the FreeAgent drives on a Mac. No, the pre-installed software doesn't work on a Mac and yes, you do have to reformat the drive. With Disk Utility, It takes only a few seconds to do so. Not that big a deal. I just wish they'd make the GO drive in a 7200 rpm version.

Rocky-
Scoble Show Editor

http://www.rockvideos.us

This reminds me of the AOL internet from 1995. Good times. I also have a pretty large recording studio. All on Linux with a 36 channel board, 3 adats, RME hammerfall hdsp 9652 and loads of rack gear. Most of it is new. Congrats on the mix magazine spot. Your website could need an update though. BTW, I pay out lead referrals for our 1y SLA at 2k per signup.

Sure, you get sponsorship from Seagate. Whether those payments positively influence your opinions of Seagate products or not is a matter for your own conscience. What matters to me is that (unlike some less scrupulous bloggers), you have been upfront and routinely point out that you are sponsored by Seagate, to let us make our own judgements.

I think it's ok to be sponsored by a company if you have a good blog. Now as long as you don't lie about a product just to get money, then it's perfectly fine!

Free Agent backsup up sub-folders.. but it has some sort of an issue with backing up files within the root drive.

So, if you ask that you backup your D drive, it backs up all of its sub-folders - but files in the root of your D drive don't get backedup ? Don't know why !

On the contrary, this problem does not exist with the MY DOCUMENTS folder

If anyone knows how to correct this (or if there is an update to the software), pls let me know.. ! Thanks

I just bought the Free Agent desktop and wondered if I could download a game from a CD onto it and then run the CD in my laptop (required to play most games now) and get it to work. Also, what about downloading Google Earth and running it from the Free Agent? Any help available?

Hi Hank,

I came across your posts and I think I can help! To do what you are asking you will have to use the “Argo” add-on. You can get it by clicking on the “Try Argo” link from the Easy-Access Menu. We offer a 45-day free trial so that you can see if your games will install and work properly. As for Google Earth, with Argo I was just able to install and use it with no issues so far. To learn more about Argo, follow this link: http://www.ceedoready.com/addons/argo/index.php


Jay Pechek
Seagate Technology

The 5 year warranty initially encouraged me to lean towards the freeagent desktop 500gb for my approaching purchase of storage device. But in reviews at NewEgg, I find a disproportionate number of negative comments relative to total number of comments (about 30% if you subtract the "average" ratings). Presupposing folks who have had a bad experience with a given item have a higher propensity to submit reviews might account for this skewing. So, can somebody tell me how many of these units have been produced/sold since introduction?

I'll try to find out, but since Seagate has about 60% market share, I'd expect that there are a LOT of them out there.

Hello Frank,

I’m reading that your question is more about customer satisfaction than the number of units that Seagate has sold. I’ve not read the comments that you’ve seen on NewEgg, but I believe that the 5-year warranty speaks to the quality of Seagate’s drives. This warranty is unprecedented in the hard disc drive industry and speaks to the company’s commitment to provide superior product offerings to our customers. I would hope this would provide you with the confidence needed to make your purchase decision.

Nathan Papadopulos
Seagate Technology

Nathan;
Actually there are 11 scathing reviews alleging product failures in months, weeks, days and indeed hours. It's hard to know for sure, but some smell a little fishy. Like this one;
"Cons: Failed within 1 hour of first using it, which resulted in the loss of quite a bit of data. "

Leads me to wonder how much data he/she could have loaded on it in one hour. In any case, I placed my order for three today. I hope I'm not a sucker. frank

I raced home and was so excited about my FreeAgent Go 160gig purchase only to be disheartened to learn (too Late) that it doesn't go back and forth between Mac and PC. I found this tidbit on Seagate's site:

For the highest performance and compatibility, we recommend you reformat the drive using the Mac OS Extended format. However, if you will be transferring files between a Windows system and a Macintosh, leave the drive in the FAT32 format, you will have to either:

*
Limit the FAT32 Volume sizes to no more than 32GB in capacity.
*
Format the drive with a Mac OS Extended Volume. Use a Third-Party Utility that allows you to view (read/write) Mac Volumes from a Windows PC. Click here for more information.

BUT THEN I FOUND THIS:
Problem:

Sharing an external hard drive between Windows and Macintosh systems has been an issue that has caused much difficulty in the past. End-Users that delve into both the Windows and Macintosh system see this problem on a daily basis; they cannot share files between their Windows PCs and Mac Computers.

Cause:

The problem stems from the fact that the file systems used by Windows Based PCs (FAT, FAT32, NTFS) differ from those used by Macintosh Computers (Mac OS Extended, HFS+). These differences make it a difficult task to share files between Mac and PC users.

Resolution:

Click here for ways to use Windows formatted external drives with Mac Systems. It is worth mentioning that Mac OS X (Panther 10.3.x) can now read NTFS Volumes; this means that you can copy files from an external drive (formatted with NTFS) to a Mac running Panther. However, you cannot write files from the Mac to the NTFS Volume.

The following 3rd party software products are available that allow external disk drives formatted in the Macintosh file system (Mac OS Extended, HFS+) to be used on Windows systems.

MacDrive from MediaFour

SO ..... How can I do it or not? And why would limiting my storage capacity to, how did they put it.. "Limit the FAT32 Volume sizes to no more than 32GB in capacity." What does that mean in layman's terms? Please advise. Thanks.

Ps. It's so darn cute, I just want it to be friends with my MAC at school, even if I did have to limit my storage.

After you get past reformatting, it turns out that sleep mode doesn't work with Linux and Mac OS X. The drive goes to USB 1 speed after waking up. It's too bad that Seagate quality is going down.