Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Modular Interface External Drive Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2011-05-08
·
1,979 words · ~9 min read
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So today's unboxing is a pretty unique product. I've never seen anything like
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this. It involves five boxes for one
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thing. And this is the Seagate Free Agent Gooflex
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ultra portable drive. Now when this was first explained to me, um it was
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basically said that it's a an external
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hard drive that doesn't come with any cables. And I went, well, that's not
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really very innovative, is it? But it's actually a little bit different from
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that. What it is is it's an external hard drive that doesn't have an
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interface. So, it actually has a modular interface and the bridge chip and cable
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is all part of one adapter. So, here why
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don't we take the ESAT one for example and let's open this up really quick. So,
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oh, I sure wish I had a knife today, but
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I appear to not have one. So, what I'll be doing is I'll just be kind of like
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shredding the boxes open because that is how I roll. So, let's just open that up.
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There we go. So, this is the ESATA one, and it's advertised right here as up to
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six times faster than USB 2. So, this is for Glex and Goflex Pro ultra portable
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drives. Okay. So, right here, this is what it looks like. This is a powered
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ESATA port, I believe. Yep. This is a powered ESATA port. So, as long as you
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have powered ESATA, then all you do is you plug this into the back of the
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drive. So, it's got a SATA interface right there. Plugs in, clips in with the
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clips right here. And then you've got an ESATA cable and that's it. So the whole
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thing is is all attached as one unit rather than having a hard drive
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enclosure and then a bunch of interfaces on the back that you plug cables into.
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So this way you'll never lose the cable, I guess, is one benefit. Okay, so why
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don't we do the next one? This is USB 3.0. So this is a USB 3.0 to SATA
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adapter and bridge chip. So the chip is
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actually inside here. So, it's inside the bottom of this and then you just
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plug in your SATA and then it goes right to a USB 3 port. Now, USB 3 actually
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provides a substantial amount more power than USB 2 did. So, it should be no
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problem to power a 2 and 1/2 in drive off a USB 3 port. I believe it's what is
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it? I think it's three times the power of USB 2, although I could be wrong. I
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could be mistaken. The next one we have is the USB 3.0 kit. So, what makes it a
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kit? It's an upgrade cable kit. includes everything you need to upgrade your
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laptop to USB 3. So, this is not only
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the H. Okay, why don't we see what this is? So, first of all, you've got the
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same cable we had last time. So, you got a USB 3 end there, and then you have a
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SATA interface here, both power and data. And then in the back, you have a
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manual. You know, they probably all come with manuals. These talk about your warranty. It's in about 25 different
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languages. Then you've got a quick start guide. Okay. So, there's an express card
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in here somewhere. Where is it? Oh, here it is. So, in the back of the plastic
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tray, there's an express card for your laptop.
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So, you can upgrade your laptop to USB 3.0 and then you can plug it in.
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Oh, okay. This is interesting. Okay, so the laptop will actually need external
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power from a USB port and then you will
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use that as well as the power coming
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from the Express Card port. So you plug Okay, here here's how this works. You
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plug this in here. You get one USB 3 port. This plugs into a USB 2 port. So
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you're taking power here and you're taking power here. And that's what's going to run that port. So that would be
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a good one if your laptop does not already support USB3, which most of them
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out there do not right now. So then last
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but not least for interfaces, we have FireWire 800. And I actually don't know
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if FireWire 800 provides um decent
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power, but they're advertising FireWire 800 as up to two times faster than USB
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2.0. And it looks like they've managed to find a way to make FireWire 800
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deliver power for the drive because I don't see any external power adapter.
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All right, there we finally did it. We unboxed all of the different
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adapters that you can have. Yeah, see I
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dropped one. So, they all are identical on this end. They are all just SATA
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power, SATA data. And then at the other end, we have a couple USB 3.0. We've got
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an ESATA, and we have a FireWire 800. So, these are all much faster than USB
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2.0. But that doesn't mean that if you buy the Gooflex that you're just um
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stuck with no way to plug it in. It actually comes with a USB 2.0 adapter.
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So, that means you can buy it for the price of a regular USB 2.0 no drive, but
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if you have higherend hardware that allows you to take advantage of uh
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faster transfer speeds, then you just plug it in. So, this is a 1 TBTE drive.
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Actually, you know what? Let's spend a little bit of time on this. So, it's USB
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3.0 upgradeable. They're calling it the world's most upgradable hard drive. It
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comes with easy backup software as well as secure data encryption.
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Ultra portable. It's 1 TBTE USB 2.0. It's plug-and-play. Inside the box,
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you've got the GOX ultra portable drive backup with encryption software
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preloaded NTFS driver for Mac preloaded on the drive. You have the USB 2.0
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interface adapter as well as an 18-in USB 2.0 cable, a quick start guide, and
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a 2-year limited warranty. Uh, I think
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that pretty much covers everything here. Upgrades your digital life, add-on
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accessories sold separately. Okay. Okay. So, let's get it open then
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and have a look at what is inside.
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So, this is the Free Agent Gorlex. I
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don't think No, this isn't the Pro one. So, I don't actually know what the
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difference is between the Pro one and the not Pro one. And apparently, oh, I
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thought the cameraman was reaching for a snack there, but it turns out that that
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is not what is going on. Okay, so it
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comes wrapped in plastic and it's very, very shiny. So that's uh a shiny
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enclosure. So what I'm guessing, and this is a pretty safe guess, is that
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there are actually two 2 and 1/2 in drives inside here. Two 500 gig drives.
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And that's what gives you the 1 TBTE capacity. You got a Seagate logo here.
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And then the sides are just kind of a standard uh shiny plastic. And then on
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the bottom, it's matte. So that way when you actually put it down on the desk,
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which is how you're likely going to use it, you're not going to scratch it up
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too bad. as long as you're careful to um protect the top, which is probably
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pretty easy to scratch and a bit of a fingerprint magnet, but what can you
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really do? So, here we are. Here's our USB 2.0
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interface cable. And this is going to show us how to plug in the modular
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interface cable. So, just take the plastic covering off here so that I can
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show it to you in its shiny plastic glory. It's actually feels quite well
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built. It's quite um like it feels solid
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without feeling overly heavy and yeah,
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it doesn't move around or anything. So, that's a good sign. So, you just plug that in like that and then it looks like
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that. There's your USB 2.0 Oh, that's interesting. Hold on. Oh, that's weird.
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None of the other ones um actually have a removable cable, but the USB 2.0 one
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does. So, there you go. For whatever reason, uh let me just double check
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that. Yeah, none of the other ones have that, but this one does. So, why don't
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we just sort of plug it in and see if it works.
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Plug it into my computer here. Take it one step further than I normally do in
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an unboxing. Put that on the ground.
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There we go. It works. Excellent. So,
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now that I have absolutely no room on my desk to move my mouse, I will attempt to
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use my computer. So, it comes with a bunch of stuff on it. It comes with a
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USB 3.0 PC card adapter driver folder.
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It comes with a Seagate folder, which is registration as well as the Seagate
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dashboard. And then it also has a setup,
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which is may or may not be for Mac because there's a Mac installer. DMG and
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I don't know how to install stuff on a Mac. I forgive me please. And then
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there's also Goflex. So, that's just an icon. So, why don't we run setup and see
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what happens? Feel free to tune out at any time. The unboxing is over. Thank you for watching my unboxing. Don't
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forget to subscribe and all that good stuff. But then um beyond that, I guess
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we can also register our product or we can not do that. Uh never register this
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drive. And then oh okay, it wants to find Seagate dashboard.exe.
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Okay. So, what I think I've managed to do is screw it up already within about 2
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seconds of plugging it into my computer, which is a big part of the reason I
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often do not try to use the product on camera because usually I screw it up
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and Okay, I plugged it back in. So, we're going to go back into the Seagate
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folder and we're going to install the Seagate dashboard this time in English,
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which is good. I live in the United States, sure, close enough. Okay, so
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here's the Mimo instant backup. Simple 60-cond backup and then Oh, you can
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install the instant backup which comes with it or you can install the premium
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backup trial. So, free trial software.
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Okay, install. Sure. Doesn't take very long to set up by the
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look of things. My cat really likes this drive though. You can see that he's
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decided that it is his to lord over here
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because it's shiny. And oh, he also likes the plastic.
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Yeah, he wants to fight it.
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There you go. Okay. And it's not done installing yet. So, my distraction has
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completely failed.
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Oh, now he's attacking it some more. You
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know what? Forget it. This is really boring. So, you install the software and
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then you use the drive. Or you don't bother installing the software and you just use the drive. Thank you for
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checking out my unboxing and attempt at using the product. And don't forget to
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subscribe once again.