GoFlex

When it comes to storage, you definitely don't want to risk getting stuck with a lemon. That's because, unlike other commodities like a car or a TV, when a storage device breaks down, chances are you lose a lot more than just the drive itself. It's a painful experience to see your invaluable data vanish. Take my word for it on this.

But you likely don't want to spend too much, either, and want your storage device to be easily accessible, especially on the go since there's not much use for your data if it always has to stay at home.

Bearing that in mind, compact and portable external hard drives are arguably the most popular form of storage. They have room to hold lots of data, often more than your laptop or ultrabook can, without being big or heavy. Following is the list of the top five portable USB 3.0-based drives that are the best among their peers, offering great performance, large storage space, compact design, and sometimes even the kind of toughness that will withstand drops and submersion in water. Most importantly, you can easily find them for less than $100. Have more to spend? You can get larger capacities that cost more.

Note that these drives also work with USB 2.0 (MacBook Air owners, you're included here) and they are all bus-powered, so you don't need a separate power adapter to use them.… Read more

As promised at CES 2012, Seagate announced the latest major firmware upgrade for the Seagate GoFlex Satellite today.

When first released almost a year ago, the Satellite was effectively the first wireless storage expander for the iPad as well as other mobile devices, allowing for streaming digital content it stored to up to three mobile devices via its built-in Wi-Fi network. One of the few drawbacks of the device was the fact that it couldn't relay the Internet access from another Wi-Fi network, making mobile devices remain offline when connected to its Wi-Fi network. … Read more

Finally, you now can have access to a Thunderbolt storage device without having to sell an arm and a leg, but maybe just a little finger.

Seagate's latest adapter for its superflexible external hard drive, the GoFlex Desk, now supports the Thunderbolt standard and costs just $190.

While $190 is not a small amount, the GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt adapter, when coupled with a GoFlex Desk drive (which costs another $250 for the top 4TB capacity), still comes out at least $100 cheaper than any other Thunderbolt storage device, including those with much less storage space.

To add icing to … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Seagate's super flexible GoFlex external hard drives just got even more flexible.

The storage vendor unveiled today at CES 2012 its support for the Thunderbolt connection by showcasing the Thunderbolt adapter for its GoFlex family of external hard drives.

In case you're not aware, Seagate's GoFlex lineup of external hard drives, first introduced in May 2010 with the GoFlex Go, has been the most flexible solution for directly attached storage to date. This is because, unlike external hard drives from other vendors that come with a fixed type (or types) of connectivity, Seagate's GoFlex external … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you own a GoFlex Satellite from Seagate, I have some excellent news.

Seagate announced today at CES a new firmware that turns the wireless storage expander for mobile devices into another much superior device. This is by far the most significant upgrade to the product.

First of all, the upgrade will give all of the existing GoFlex Satellites the capability to connect itself to an existing Wi-Fi network and share that connection with other Wi-Fi clients connected to it. This means, when your iPad is connected to the Wi-Fi network of the Satellite to stream content from it, you don't have to disconnect and reconnect it to another Wi-Fi network to gain access to the Internet. You'll have both the expansion of storage space and the connection to the Internet at the same time, as long as you use the Satellite in an area of another Wi-Fi network you're authorized to access. … Read more

It's been a little over a year since Seagate Technology announced the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk, which offered up to 3TB of storage, and today, the company once again broke the storage barrier by introducing its first 4TB single-volume external hard drive, the 4TB GoFlex Desk.

Four terabytes of storage is equivalent to about 160 Blu-ray Discs' worth of storage space. When used to host compressed digital content, the new drive can store about 2,000 HD movies or millions of digital photos.

Other than the substantial increase in capacity, the new GoFlex Desk is very similar to the previous … Read more

If you've been in the market for a portable hard drive, you've surely heard of Seagate's GoFlex family. These portable drives offer not just storage space and portability, but also flexibility that others can't even come close to.

Today, the company adds another member to that series, the GoFlex Turbo Performance drive.

The new portable drive is similar, if not basically the same, as other drives in the family, such as the GoFlex Pro and the GoFlex Ultraportable, with one big difference. Its internal drive now spins at 7,200rpm (as opposed to 5,400rpm or slower as with previous models). Seagate says this helps boosts the drive's performance.

I got a hold of one a couple of days ago, and in our testing, the drive was indeed faster than previous models via USB 3.0. It wasn't the fastest we've seen, however, and when used with USB 2.0, the drive could use some improving. To make up for this, Seagate, for the first time, bundles with the drive's two-year warranty its SafetyNet data recovery services, similar to what ioSafe has for its disaster-proof external hard drives. … Read more

Seagate announced today that its first wireless storage expander for the iPad, the GoFlex Satellite, now also supports Android-based mobile devices.

The company added a new native app for Android called GoFlex Media that can be downloaded for free from the Android Market. Prior to this, Android devices, as well as computers, could access the GoFlex Satellite using an Internet browser. The native app, however, makes accessing the Satellite much easier.

The new Android app for the GoFlex Satellite offer similar functions to the iPad counterpart: You can access your media library (video, music, photos, and documents) stored on the … Read more

Running out of storage space on your iPhone or iPad? Then you may want to take a look at Kingston's new Wi-Drive.

Now available for sale through a variety of retailers, the Wi-Drive stores content that iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users can access directly on their devices. So you can house documents, music, videos, e-books, and other files on the drive and then wirelessly stream that content onto your iOS device. You don't even need a local Wi-Fi connection; the drive uses its own built-in Wi-Fi to communicate with up to three mobile devices at one time.… Read more