Product Description

Designed with a smaller hard drive inside (2.5-inch) to offer up to 100GB of portable storage in a sleek and very small footprint for your desk, the Seagate Portable External Hard Drive is the smallest desktop external hard drive offered by any of the leading hard disc drive suppliers. This high-capacity, USB bus-powered portable external drive offers low power consumption, high shock tolerance and a compact footprint - it's the ultimate solution for consumers and business travelers who want to take their digital content with them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35094 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Seagate
• Model: ST9100801U2KEY
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Hard Disk: 100GB

Features

• Compact 100 GB drive weighs less than a pound for ultra portability
• Chrome-plated, aluminum-alloy enclosure and internal design keep the drive cool
• Supports speeds up to 480 Mbps, is hot swappable and powered by the USB bus
• Rugged, durable design resists scuffs and scrapes
• Comes with USB 2.0 cable, quick connect guide, and utilities CD

Amazon.com Product Description
Carry up to 100 GB of digital music, video, photos, and data files in your pocket with the Seagate Portable External Hard Drive. This handy little drive weighs less than one pound, and is as stylish as it is compact. Plus, it is designed for durability, with a rugged chrome-plated aluminum alloy enclosure that resists scratches and scuffs while also keeping the drive cool.

The drive is hot-swappable and there is no need for power cords or adapters. Simply plug the drive into two free USB ports on your computer with the supplied cable and it is powered and ready to go. The whisper-quiet 5400 RPM drive gives you even greater performance than most 4200 RPM drives, so you can enjoy your digital audio or video without the distraction of a loud drive.

The Seagate Portable Hard Drive comes with a one-year warranty, and you'll also get free technical advice after your warranty ends. It comes with with a USB 2.0 cable, quick connect guide, and utilities CD.

Customer Reviews

Nice, Fast Drive
I purchased this hard drive for use with my Dell Inspiron 9300. I was looking for a large hard drive that I could use on the go, without requiring any extra power cable. This hard drive fits that bill and more.

The hard drive is NICE AND FAST. I have a 4200 rpm internal to the computer, and for some disk intensive operations (such as a 6+ minute build of a software engineering project), this hard drive is actually FASTER than my internal by about 5%. I was expecting it to be a little slower, due to the fact that it is external.

Once up and operational, the only drawback with this hard drive is that it requires 2 USB ports (one to suck extra power), and puts a noticable dent in my battery life.

Setting up the hard drive initially was a little more difficult that I would have liked. When I first got it I plugged it in, and it appeared to work just fine, but I couldn't copy some 'larger' files to it - this was because it was formatted with the FAT file system. I reformatted it NTFS, but it took several reboots before it would let me, saying things like "This drive cannot be formatted now because it is in use".

The drive is also rather expensive compared to the per gigabyte cost of most other drives these days. For me, the ability to use it without an additional power cord was worth it. Your mileage may vary.

Excellent
Just got my Seagate HD few days ago. I was too excited that I opened the box before the UPS man makes it to his truck :-)

I used to own several Maxtor and WD drives, and let me tell you, the Seagate is FAR more superior Hard Drive.

First of all, the HD was very small that it would fit in the palm of your hand. The built of it is very nice and sturdy. You truly get the feeling that it's a quality product just by touching the exterior of it, very solid and sturdy. The drive has openings all around it for get cooling air, yet these openings are the nicest thing in the HD, they look very stylish and got a purple light beneath to show you that the drive is working.

Setting it up was a breeze, no software to install if you are a new operating system like XP (only needed if you use DOS, but who does), you just hook it up and you are ready to go. It has a Y shaped 2 USB plugs, one for (data+power) and the other is strictly for (power) You can use only one to run the drive if you have the advance USB outlet which can send data and power as well, (I believe most laptops got this USB type) Nevertheless Seagate just put the extra cable if your USB hook does not support (data+power) at once, which I believe is uncommon.

The unit comes already formatted to FAT32, but you can format it to NFTS. However, I really have no preference for one over the other, they both seem to work just fine.

At the end, I think it was a very good purchase, and I'm very pleased with it.

A Good Buy Item for a Mobile Storage
DATA TRANSFER (COPY) SPEED: Good thing that it runs at 5400rpm. I've downloaded 16.4GB from this Seagate portable drive to my laptop (Toshiba Satellite M35-S359: 768MB of RAM; 60GB hard drive running at 4200rpm (rotations per minute); Windows XP Home Edition) via USB 2.0 port in about 18 and half minutes. Just one USB 2.0 port was used for powering the drive and data transfer (green USB connector of the supplied Y-like cable). At the same time I was downloading from the internet Yahoo Messenger Beta. I'm not sure if this affected the USB 2.0 transfer speed. During this data transfer CPU usage (Intel Centrino Processor at 1,4 GHz) was ranging from 10% to 29% and an average operating memory usage during these two processes was up to about 320MB out of 768MB of RAM.

DATA TRANSFER (WRITE) SPEED: Just for testing purposes, I sent the same 16.4GB data folder now from my laptop back to the Seagate portable hard drive. It took less, about 14 and half minutes perhaps because it was the only process running on my computer. Or perhaps because writing was being performed actually on the Seagate portable hard drive itself which has the speed of 5400 rpm (rotations per minute), which is faster than the speed of internal hard drive of my notebook (4200 rpm only).

CAPACITY: Note your computer will be showing only 93.1GB (or 99,994,927,104 bytes) as the capacity of the drive. Seagate explains it as they, like any other memory and hard drive manufacturers, view 1GB as 1 billion of bytes not like a 1024MB as it suppose to be. I know that none of the hard drives show precisely their advertised capacity. I just don't understand then why this portable hard drive can't be advertised as 93.1GB, as it shows on all computers? Or why can't the manufacturer just add some extra bytes so that the drive was showing exactly 100GB and thus please all customers.

SIZE: Size is ok but not very small. Just to give you idea, imagine two pack of Marlboro cigarettes put together. By this analogy I can say it is NOT pocket hard drive but can definitely confirm that it is portable. Although it can be fitted in a deep pocket as well, like of a coat.

WEIGHT: I weighed it on my digital jewelry scale it showed 307.1 grams or 10.83 ounces.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: From my experience, I've noticed that you may receive the drive that is made either in Singapore or China. The drive that is made in Singapore appears to be like it was made with a better QC (Quality Control) than those, which were assembled in China. However, the drive which was made in Singapore had a sharper and strong toxic scent coming from the inside of the drive. But they both have such a scent. It smells like a burned out power cord or melted rubber. Perhaps it's just a smell of brand new plastic and other components inside the drive but I found it as a turn off. Because the scent was like it's really toxic. Also while the drive assembled in Singapore was almost absolutely quiet, the one that is made in China is a little bit louder than the first one. Perhaps you may think that it's just my prejudice against Chinese workmanship but I'm just sharing my first impressions, which you may opt to disregard. The black rubber-like Seagate sticker was not correctly attached on the front of China assembled drive! This fact made me to assume that perhaps inside of the China assembled drive not everything is perfectly put together like in those drives, which were made in Singapore. I assume first series have been made in Singapore because I saw them in Wal-Mart (a 40GB version), where they've been on the shelf for a long time. I've ended up with having the drive made in China, my second Amazon replacement, but so far it works ok. However the first Amazon replacement hard drive, which was also made in China, didn't shut its blue light off after I stop it through Safely Remove Hardware Option. Perhaps it's not a big deal but raises concerns about quality of Chinese assembly factories. Thus, if you have options, I'd suggest you purchasing the drive that was made in Singapore!

MINOR ISSUES: Sometimes the drive can't be stopped from the first attempt and takes two attempts to stop via Safely Remove Hardware. It says, "The device `Generic Volume' cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later." But not always, sometimes it stops right even from the first attempt. Even if you stop the drive the blue led light will remain powered on until you disconnect the USB cable. Also, as I mentioned above the drive has some kind of toxic scent like a burned power cord or melted plastic. The scent comes from inside the drive. Perhaps it's just a scent of a brand new plastic, strengthened by vacuum sealed package, but it was a turn off for me.

STRENGTHS: Relatively small; quite fast, running at 5400rpm (rotations per minute); looks sturdy; no adapter needed for USB 2.0; comes with BounceBack Express back up software; good capacity; good brand.

WEAKNESSES: Expensive; shows only 93.1GB; big ventilation holes; a bit heavy; takes two USB 1.1 ports for older computers; no case supplied; only 1-year warranty; no FireWire jack.

CONCLUSION: If you disregard some minor issues, such as size and expensive price and others, it looks like a quite sturdy portable hard drive. Pricewise it is much better to buy this Seagate drive than small USB flash drives or CD-RW for data backup. However, for the same price (if you select 120GB) or even cheaper (if you choose 100GB) you can purchase a very small internal notebook hard drive (ATA6 or other suitable interface) and aluminum enclosure (supplied with USB cable, slim carrying case, and screwdriver set), put it together and make a perfect portable external hard drive. This will be definitely smaller in size and a more strategic investment. If you purchase the notebook hard drive, which is compatible with your laptop's interface, one day you may just upgrade your notebook. Otherwise, I think Seagate put inside a proprietary hard drive, which is can't be used for your computer upgrade needs. Also, internal notebook hard drives are usually provided by 3-year warranty and some even by 5-year (Seagate Momentus hard drive) but Seagate provides you only with a 1-year warranty, so keep that in mind as well. Won't you be sorry for your purchase if the drive crashes after a year of use losing all your data and invested money?

But for the people who don't want to deal with a hassle of choosing appropriate internal notebook hard drive and putting it in the USB enclosure, this Seagate portable 100GB hard drive is a very good option to consider, especially given the fact that it is ready to use right out of the box and also comes with a data back up software.

However, for this price, Seagate could integrate a FireWire jack as well, which would be much faster option than USB 2.0. Customers who don't have USB 2.0 port but have only USB 1.1 port could appreciate if Seagate included a power adapter. Otherwise they need to connect both ends of the Y-like supplied USB cable to two USB 1.1 ports, so that the drive can get enough power from the computer.

I haven't used supplied BounceBack Express data back up software, so I can't comment on it but it's nice that it is included in the package.

A carrying case should definitely be included because the drive has a bunch of ventilation slots through which the drive may be exposed to dust.

Overall, considering the price, quality and performance it is acceptable purchase (I'd say a good buy item) but not a superior unless the above noted issues and recommendations were anticipated and taken care in advance by the Seagate. With a pace of technology progress that we have nowadays I'm sure that price for this hard drive will drop soon. Especially because the market will be soon offering much better portable hard drive solutions with a higher capacity, faster transfer speeds (FireWire), lighter weight, and smaller size.

Thanks for attention and I hope this review was helpful in making your purchase decision.