Entered CNET Catalog: 05/01/2007
SKU: S901603FGA1E1RK
Manufacturer: Seagate Technology Inc.
Manufacturer description
Ideal for letting you carry your desktop environment and your files anytime, anywhere, FreeAgent Go allows you to take your web browser, favorites, passwords, IM client and contacts, email client, cookies, settings and files with you. Save all your private information on FreeAgent, not on the computer you're using!Product summary
The good: Fast data transfer speed; file/folder sync capability; Ceedo lets you take your PC environment with you; generous warranty.
The bad: The Ceedo and Argo lists of approved programs are limited.
The bottom line: The Seagate FreeAgent Pro operates as both a hard drive and a portable PC environment, but even if you're not interested in the Ceedo program, the FreeAgent Pro offers fast speeds and good value.
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Rating: 7.5
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 05/25/2007
The Seagate FreeAgent Go drive is a compact portable hard drive that combines fast data transfer speeds with file sync capability and a portable PC environment. The bundled Ceedo software lets you take settings, data, and applications from your PC--such as bookmarks, passwords, and preferences--with you on the drive and access those items from any other PC with a USB port. Even if you're not moved by the Ceedo software--we wish there were more compatible programs--the FreeAgent Pro drive is a fast little drive at a competitive price: between $120 and $150 for the 160GB version we tested. If the Ceedo software is what you want and you already have a portable hard drive, keep in mind that you can purchase the software separately and install it on your drive, too.
Design
The Seagate FreeAgent Go is a sleek, compact hard drive that will slip easily into a briefcase or computer bag. It measures just 4.8 inches wide, 3.9 inches deep, and 0.7 inch tall. One of the short edges houses a mini USB port, and the other end glows orange when powered up and operating. The drive is bus-powered and comes with a Y-shaped USB cable that includes both a data-plus-power connector and a secondary power connector for USB buses that can't supply sufficient power through a single port (you'll need two available USB ports in this case). The FreeAgent Go drive is available in three capacities: 80GB, 120GB, and 160GB.
Setup is simple: just connect the drive to your PC using the included cable and a window will pop up on your screen, asking you what you'd like to do. At this point, you can install the FreeAgent Tools utility or the Ceedo software, both of which are stored on the drive. Or you can opt to do nothing--the drive can be used as an ordinary hard drive without installing any of the software.
Features
The included software is what distinguishes the FreeAgent Go from other ordinary portable hard drives. The Ceedo software is the significant value-added feature: it allows you to save aspects of your computer environment--such as bookmarks and software--to the drive and use those saved attributes on any other PC. When you connect to a PC, the little Ceedo toolbar sits at the bottom of your screen. When you click the Ceedo icon, it expands, and resembles the Windows XP Start menu. Here, you can start your Ceedo programs, or jump to various folders on your FreeAgent Go drive, including MyDocuments. When you disconnect the drive from the PC, it will leave behind no trace of your presence, as it saves temporary files on the drive itself. When you take the drive to another computer, you'll know if you're working in the Ceedo environment (as opposed to the host PC's environment) by the little Ceedo icon you'll find in the top right corner of the window.
When you first install Ceedo, the preinstalled programs include Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. If you'd like to install other programs, Ceedo offers a list of free programs, grouped by software type. You may not recognize a lot of these small programs, but a few of the major ones include Mozilla Firefox, Skype, and AOL Instant Messenger. Software types include e-mail clients, file-sharing programs, RSS readers, search engines, and IM clients, among others. If you'd like to install a program that's not included on Ceedo's free list, you can take advantage of the 45-day free trial of Argo ($30), which is a program that helps install programs not on that list. However, even Argo is not all-powerful: it can only install programs from a preapproved list, too. If you're thinking about purchasing the FreeAgent Go drive for the Ceedo functionality, keep in mind that you can purchase the Ceedo software directly from Ceedo's site ($30) and install it on any USB storage drive, including flash thumbdrives, iPods, and other USB hard drives. While we like the idea of Ceedo, we found the list of Ceedo and Argo programs to be lacking. Though they include lots of little utilities, they don't support larger programs.
The FreeAgent Tools utility lets you manage your drive (for example, you can run diagnostics and adjust the sleep interval), launch Ceedo, and most importantly, sync folders. The folder sync option works in real time: designate which folders you want synced between the drive and your host PC, and every time a file on the host PC is changed or a new file is added, the FreeAgent Pro sync folder gets updated as well.
Performance
The 5,400 rpm hard drive in the 160GB version we tested made fast work of writing and reading our 10GB folder of mixed file types. It took only 10 minutes, 33 seconds to write the folder and 8 minutes, 39 seconds to read it. The next fastest portable hard drive on our test bench was the Maxtor OneTouch Mini, which wrote the folder in 12 minutes, 37 seconds and read it back in 10 minutes, 18 seconds. Even if you're not interested in the Ceedo software, this drive is compelling for its fast transfer speeds alone.
Service and support
Seagate backs the FreeAgent Go with a generous five-year warranty. Seagate provides toll-free tech support on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. MT. You can also get live chat and e-mail support from the company's Web site, as well as a knowledgebase, downloads, installation assistance, and troubleshooting tool.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
User Rating: 
9/10
Good Quality; Reliable
Pros: Fast - This small zippy drive is very fast at copying files, I'm getting 26 MB write speed with a 5.2Gb file.
Bundled Software is a nice touch [Ceedo]
Very Reliable - I've had it for over a year now, no problems whatsoever.
Cons: It's not a major con, but it annoys me.
It's major Con is the fact that the drive uses TWO USB ports instead of one like the Western Digital Passport Series.
On my PC it can get annoying taking out the USB devices, to make room for my FreeAgent Go.
I knew I was getting a quality drive from a company that specializes with them ; Seagate.
NOTE: There is ALOT of people out there complaining about external hard drives, and how their drives are failing and the drives don't last long ETC, for any brand out there for external HDD's. It's a matter of taking CARE of the drive, not banging it all over the place, droping ETC, these aren't Flash drives, these are Hard drives which are not supposed banged around with!
If you are taking good care, the drive will last you a long time , like it has for me!
User Rating: 
8/10
Clean Speed
Pros: It is fast and efficient. What once took all day to back up my computer, now takes 1.5 hours to complete with the FreeAgent
Cons: It comes with non-driver software, but give 5 minutes and you can delete a better part of it. Be careful, some of the program is embedded and intersects with the driver function.
User Rating: 
10/10
The best purchase I've made!
Pros: The drive has around a 10MB/s writs speed(I tested on Vista), just enough capacity, and works well all of the time. Dont buy the other FreeAgent drives, buy this one.
Cons: The Ceedo software is annoying, I just don't like it.
User Rating: 
3/10
Garbagte, absolute garbage
Pros: Seagate product, thought that stood for something. Works like other small drives, can't say these are pros since all portable HDs do this
Cons: two cords instead of one
The two cords was a pain in the ass since day one. I'd much rather you make the damn thing work with ONE CORD, but NO you had to make two. Annoying. Junk, buy simpletech or WD
User Rating: 
2/10
Drive Life Not Impressive; Customer Service Even Less Impressive
Pros: When it does what it is supposed to
Cons: Customer Service Sucks
User Rating: 9/10
Ceedo is what makes the FreeAgent Go drive worthwhile
Pros: Ceedo keeps improving - Application support growing on an ongoing basis - Programs Directory only contains useful applications - Ceedo works without admin privileges in Win2K, XP and Vista
Cons: Argo should not be an add-on, but should be integrated directly into Ceedo itself
While this is a well written review on the Seagate FreeAgent Go drive and Ceedo, it lacks quite a bit if information about Ceedo itself.
To start with, Ceedo is quite simply the most useful piece of software I have ever used. I have a Seagate FreeAgent Go drive that came with Ceedo pre-installed, and I also purchased a full Ceedo license (Ceedo + Argo + Backup & Restore) to use on one of my other drives (Sandisk Cruzer Mini). The FreeAgent drive did not come with a license for Argo or Backup & Restore (B&R), but purchasing these two add-ons didn?t break the bank too severely.
The author of this review states that you can only use Argo to install applications from a pre-approved list. This statement is way off the mark. I have installed and tested literally hundreds of applications in the past year that were not on the compatible applications list for Argo.
I have also watched Ceedo go from strength to strength. When I first purchased Ceedo for use with my Cruzer Mini drive, Vista was not supported. Nor was Microsoft Office. Within months of my initial purchase, the Ceedo development team had made Ceedo run in Vista with full functionality. Also, Ceedo does not require admin privileges in either XP or Vista.
Office support came several months later. While spotty at first, this support has grown to the point where you can now install and run Office without any loss of function in both XP and in Vista. Ceedo supports Office 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007 in XP, and Office 2000, XP and 2003 in Vista. From my communications with Ceedo Tech., I believe that Office 2007 support in Vista is being worked on.
With regards to the Ceedo online applications repository, which Ceedo Tech. refers to as their Programs Directory (PRD), there were well over 200 applications available for download and installation at one time, but it seems that somebody over at Ceedo headquarters made the decision to cut the crapware from the list so that only useful applications remain. This is a good move because you know that when you visit the PRD, you will find only decent useful software that has been tested for full compatibility with Ceedo.
I can honestly say that I don?t regret a single penny of the money I have invested in Ceedo licenses. Everything I run on my home PC is now duplicated on my FreeAgent drive (now running the latest beta of Ceedo), and I use this drive both at home and at work. In fact, most of the software I use; MS Office, Paintshop Pro, Snagit, CoreFTP and Skype, to mention but a few, are no longer installed on my home PC. I run everything I need from my Ceedo drive, and have the bare minimum of software installed on my home PC. This overcomes sticky software licensing issues that would arise from having applications installed on ?more than one device.?
Ceedo is definitely worth it. To repeat myself, Ceedo is the single-most useful piece of software I have used in years.
I gave Ceedo a rating of 9 because I believe that Argo should be integrated into the base Ceedo package and not sold as an add-on.
User Rating: 8/10
works as advertised
Pros: fast fast fast, very small, ultra-cool package
Cons: programs' questionable utility
But otherwise, this hard drive is super fast, super compact, very sweet looking, and contrary to other reviews, works when plugged into a Kensington USB hub, as long as one plug is directly into my laptop. The Ceedo software could not be more easy to use but I have decided against installing any of the little utilities or programs as of yet. But as a simple, external hard drive for a cheap price, this is very hard to beat. Check out Seagate's generous warranty and tech support as well!
User Rating: 9/10
Great bang for your buck!!
Pros: Best warranty-5 YR, software, stylish and reliable protable storage
Cons: Chasis is plastic not metal and other useful Seagate software cost extra $$
User Rating: 10/10
100% Satisfaction
Pros: Virtual PC environment, Speed
Cons: Requires two USB ports
User Rating: 10/10
Seems Perfect For a Backup
Pros: Small & Easy
Cons: Maybe Could Use An On/Off Switch
This drive appears to have done everything I wanted the very first time with absolutely no issues. I took it out of the box, plugged in the provided cable to the drive and then plugged in the two USB connectors to available USB ports. My computer immediately saw it as my "J" drive and prompted me to install the Ceedo software, which I declined. I then went into Norton Ghost 12.0 and set it to do a complete backup of my desktop to the external drive. It then backed-up 116GB from the desktop to 43GB on the external drive in 44 minutes. I do have a very fast computer so your mileage may vary on the speed.
The end result was exactly what I wanted with no fuss whatsoever and compared to the cost and time of having done the same backup to 14 DVD's, this is extremely cost/time effective at the $99.99 price I paid at Fry's during a sale.
So for now this drive gets a 10 because for what I was doing it did everything perfectly right out of the box with my existing software. If any issues arise I will return and amend this as necessary.
User Rating: 
1/10
What a joke!
Pros: small size
Cons: Software that does not work!
User Rating: 9/10
Fantastic design... I love it!
Pros: Amazing design... small, sleek, simple and light. It fits in my back pocket.
Cons: Pre-installed software was highly confusing and disappointing.
The drive is very small... while larger than a cell phone, I was able to slide it into the back pocket of my jeans and walk comfortably, although it does stick out a little and I wouldn't want to sit down. It is also fairly light, feels solid, and only has one single tiny mini-usb port. The drive is a dark chocolate brown, and the only marking on its exterior is the orange logo, and a very small and minimized serial number / logo bar on the back. One entire side of the drive (the one opposite the mini-usb drive) is dark, but when you attach it to a machine it glows orange (it increases/decreases in brightness as it runs to show current usage). While the light is really kinda useless, it is neat (you can turn it off from the tools).
The usb cord is a short Y cable (about 24 in), with the mini-usb on one end to plug into the drive and two regular usb's on the other. I like that the cord isn't longer, as I would just complain about dragging around a long bulky cord. The drive has no buttons or switches... it is just a sealed box with one mini-usb port... so no access to it is necessary and you can place it anywhere.
The "Y" in the cord is closer to the mini-usb side (about 9 in off), so at full seperation you can get the two regular usb ends about 30 inches apart... more than enough to plug into opposite sides of a machine. The cord for one of the two regular usbs is thicker than the other (this is obviously the data cord vs the thinner extra power cord).
The drive is virtually silent... I had to hold it up to my ear to see if it made any noise at all. It barely vibrates whatsoever, and it gets maybe 5 degrees hotter than room temperature, max.
I am 100% happy with the drives exterior... it is everything it should be: small, sleek, simple, and light. Seagates product management and marketing teams get A+++.
The software didn't fare as well. There are very few options... only allowing you to select folders to synch and turn on/off auto synching, turn on/off the exterior light, and set the sleep interval. The synching option allows you to synch My Documents, Desktop, and the "C" drive. Unfortunately, under the C drive I only saw a limited number of folders. I couldn't turn it on for the whole drive, and the windows and program files directories didn't appear... so I couldn't auto synch personal data being stored there. Bad Bad Bad. I am not sure why they would do that... and I couldn't figure out how to get around it. The simplicity is good... but it was almost too simple, and I didn't feel like I had enough options or control over the synch. The two options are auto on/off, and whether or not it asks you before overwritting existing files. The synch status simply tells me on or off, which isn't helpful at all (I didn't know how long it would take to do the first synch or where I was at... I had to keep checking to see how many of my files were appearing. This was annoying). When you view the drive contents... you see a bunch of files and folders (the ones that came with it). There are way too many... they should have all been contained in a single folder with maybe an autorun file outside of it. The worst is that you see a "My Documents" folder with My music, My pictures, and such inside... but this ISNT the synched folders from your laptop. HUH??? Instead you have to go into a folder named "FreeAgent Synch", look for a folder with your computer's name, and go into that. HUH??? That stuff should be front and center when I view the drive... why do you think we are buying this thing? C- (and that's a gif) for Seagate's software development team.
The Ceedo application was awful and confusing. It almost took precedent to the Seagate install, and the instructions were very poorly written. I didn't really understand exactly what it was or how it worked. Clearly I had to install things to get them to work, but what if they were already installed on my machine... how did they play together? I couldn't easily figure it out, and Ceedo's website certainly didn't help. Their instructions failed to adequately explain what it was, how it worked, how things interacted, or give any full examples. All they did was repeately use their own product name over and over "Ceedo revolutionizes blah blah blah... Ceedo takes away the confines of blah blah blah... with the Ceedo Personal Ceedo Compact Creedo Management Bar, you can gain access to your computing identity blah blah blah" And this was in the help file!!! My god, just tell me what it does and how it works. Ceedo's tech writting team gets a D-. That being said, Ceedo looks cool, is easy to access, and it seems that when I get the hang of it, it will be cool. So I will give their product managers a B+ (they would get an A if it was more obvious how to use the thing and I didn't have to rely on their bad tech writters).
This product has an amazing design for such a small and powerful drive. I am very happy with it so far and highly recommend it for anybody looking for a little drive to port between work and home or to carry their data around in. Buy it for those reasons. If you are looking for something with powerful synching tools... eh. 10/10 on the hardware, 5/10 on the software. I'll give it an 8 overall... and a recommendation.
User Rating: 10/10
Small in size & Large on Cool
Pros: 160gb, cost, small size, trend setting, & weight
Cons: Needs better software for backing up.
User Rating: 8/10
Excellent Hard drive, unimpressive software
Pros: Perfect operation, handy, small, no external power supply needed
Cons: Software provided is unimpressive and annoying
1. Looks real cool !
2. Really light and handy
3. No ecternal power-supply needed
4. Easy installation - even a caveman could install this onto a computer
Cons:
1. The software concept is really nice, but in the process of trying to give it a good GUI, I personally thought it was not too impressive, seagate could have just kept it simple
2. The should have give some kind of soft carrying-case
3. The cables they have provided should have been a little longer
User Rating: 8/10
Good drive for cheap price
Pros: Small, large space, cheap
Cons: No Mac support, no included instructions.
There are no included instructions which means I had no clue why there was a dual cable until I actually read this review. Software is meaningless if you're running on a Mac since you are forced to delete it just to get the drive to recognize on the system. For an external harddrive is unacceptable now a days to not support both systems.
Of course, it does say that the software isn't supported on Mac but it still works great as a tiny portable harddrive. I can't tell the difference between this harddrive and my internal one. Next time I back up, this will make it a snap!!
Overall, great drive at a super low price but too bad the developers were too lazy to support both OS's with the software.
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