Seagate FreeAgent Pro USB/eSATA/FireWire external hard drive (500GB)

Pros: Sleek, quiet

Cons: No 64-bit software support, akward power plug, no eSATA cable included, must swap out USB/eSata to use FireWire

Summary: Let me preface this by saying: I've only owned this drive for about a day. Therefore I can't fairly review its performance. This review only covers my out-of-the-box issues with it. I might give a performance review once I've owned it for over a month.

The issues I have with the drive are pretty minor, but they are really irritating because they could have been easily avoided and are just lame and a bit ridiculous on Seagate's part.

First of all, it does not come with an eSATA cable. I don't understand this. It's an eSATA drive, and it comes with a USB cable and a FireWire cable. So why not an eSATA cable? Thanks Seagate, now I have to go out and spend $25 on an eSATA cable. So those of you hoping to use this feature might as well tack on $25 to whatever you are paying for this drive.

Second: In order to use the FireWire port, you have to unscrew the USB/eSATA port module and screw in the FireWire one. I didn't see any reviews that mentioned this, and it's pretty impossible to tell from most pictures. I don't see why they didn't just have a FireWire port along with the other two on the same module. That would've made a lot more sense. Especially since you are essentially paying $30 more to have FireWire capability included. I'm pretty sure I could've gone out and got some cheapo FireWire adapter for less than that if I had really wanted to use it with just the USB/eSATA version.

Third, and this one's also a pisser:
The included software and backup apps (FreeAgent Tools) will NOT install on a 64-bit OS. I'm running Windows XP Pro. 64-bit, and it told me it basically supports everything else. Thanks a lot. I'm pretty sure the actual program would work fine if they just let it install, as plenty of other 32bit apps work without issue on this machine. There's probably just some dumb line of code in the installer package that wont let it. Whatever the reason: GET WITH THE TIMES SEAGATE!
So 64-bit users can also go ahead and tack on the price of a drive backup program they will want to go buy.

One other minor annoyance: the power plug is an odd rectangle shape -- horizontally, not vertically. Imo, this is even worse than a regular fat plug, because even on fat-plug specific sockets, you have to use up 2 spaces unless you put it on the end slot. Also something that could've been easily avoided I'm sure.

Finally, I'm not sure if this is an actual issue or not. This drive is cooled by a heatsink as opposed to a fan. I have no issue with this theoretically. Just so you know though, because of this, the base gets VERY hot, even when not in use. When in use, it begins to smell like burning metal. I'm not sure if this is the standard for heatsinks on drives, or if it's just due to cheapness.