Tech Olive

You might already be familiar with Seagate’s FreeAgent Go lineup. It’s been the company’s line of portable storage for several years now. However, they’ve recently made some updates and tacked on the “Flex” at the end, but we’re not just only talking about a new, updated look to these drives. Seagate has completely overhauled the new lineup and really changed the way we connect external storage to computers with the GoFlex bunch. Seagate sent over their new GoFlex ultra-portable drive and we’re here to tell you all about it.

First and foremost, the new look is really tasteful. We’re digging the curved edges. I never really did understand why the previous look on the FreeAgent Go was somewhat tapered at the top, but I really didn’t mind. Seagate also ended up getting rid of the cool status light array in favor of a more subtle status light, but it still oscillates when it’s being accessed, which I always thought was better than just blinking status lights.

I really want to talk about the main feature of these new drives. Basically, you can use different interfaces with the same drive, such as USB 3.0, FireWire, eSATA and of course USB 2.0. All you have to do is switch out the proprietary transfer cable that connects to the drive via a SATA connection. A USB 2.0 cable comes with the GoFlex drive, but if you want to use USB 3.0, FireWire, or eSATA, you can purchase these proprietary cables known as “upgrade cables.” USB 3.0 is $30, FireWire is $40, and eSATA is $20. You would usually spend this much on a decent enclosure anyway, so the prices are pretty fair and reasonable.

So, how useful are these interchangeable connectors? It’s not too shabby. It’s really convenient to simply switch out interfaces if you end up having access to faster speeds or if you’re at a computer that only has USB when you’ve been using eSATA at home. What we find weird is that the USB 2.0 cable can be disconnected from the adapter, but the other upgrade cables cannot. Also, these cables only come in black from what we see, so you won’t be able to pick the color to match your drive. The USB 2.0 cable that comes included is the only cable that will match your drive.

Another significant feature of the GoFlex drives is that they can be used on both Mac and PC. Macs cannot write to the NTFS file system, only read. If you happen to have a PC and a Mac, you’ve probably encountered this problem before. Seagate was smart enough to include a Mac driver that allows it to write onto NTFS. Simply connect the GoFlex drive to your Mac and double-click the .dmg file included on the drive to install the driver necessary to use the GoFlex drive on Apple machines.

Software included on the drive features Memeo backup software and the Seagate Dashboard, where you can view recent backups and setup future backups quickly and easily.

The GoFlex Ultra-Portable Drive comes in 320GB, 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB flavors starting at $100. Head over to Seagate’s website to see all of the size and color options.

Scores

Price: 9
It’s a pretty good deal when they’re currently priced the same as the older FreeAgent Go drives. The upgrade cables are reasonably priced as well, since they cost the same as most decent enclosures.

Setup/Install: 9
It’s obviously easy to setup on a PC, but the dead simple driver install for Mac is what really counts here.

Ease of Use: 8
Seagate’s been known recently for easy-to-use drives and software and they certainly haven’t backed down with the GoFlex lineup.

Performance: 8
We didn’t really do any real benchmarking, but the drive transferred files with average speeds that we usually see with any drive (with USB 2.0, that is).

Features: 8
The upgrade cables are obviously the biggest feature here and it’s something that we’ve never seen before. It’s a pretty clever idea and it saves users from having to purchase and switch out enclosures or even buy another external hard drive with a different interface all together.

Overall: 8 Olives