A 1.5-terabyte external drive for $112.49 shipped

Lowest price ever on a 1.5TB drive.

(Credit: Seagate)

Holy massive storage, Batman! I thought a 1-terabyte external drive for $99 was a killer deal, but Dell is offering a 1.5TB Seagate FreeAgent USB drive for $112.49. No rebates, free shipping, smokin' bargain.

To get that price, you'll need to enter coupon code T4346M$Q6GRJB$ at checkout. The code is good until April 4, assuming that the drive doesn't sell out before then.

The FreeAgent incorporates a 7,200rpm drive and a USB 2.0 interface. Alas, no eSata, but I've seen few PCs that have that kind of interface, anyway. Seagate backs the drive with an impressive five-year warranty.

Alas, according to the specs, the FreeAgent is compatible only with Windows XP and later models of Microsoft's operating system. You may be able to reformat the drive to work with a Mac or Linux system, but I'm not an expert in that area. (If you are, hit the comments.)

Before you pull the trigger, you might want to peruse some of the user reviews on Amazon.com. It seems that a fair number of people ended up with bum drives, either out of the box or after a few months of operation.

So I guess that there's a slight risk here, though I think that holds true with any hard drive. At least you've got a solid warranty behind you. Consequently, I think this is too good a deal to pass up, if you need the storage and have a Windows machine.

[caiocc12]

"You may be able to reformat the drive to work with a Mac or Linux system".
Yeah, for sure. It will only fail to work on Linux or Mac if, instead of using the standard "USB Mass Storage" specification, they developed one themselves that needs special drivers. I think the only reason to do that is if they purposedly wanted to break *nix compatibility.

[cdxskier6]

I have the 500GB version of this drive, and I reformatted using my Mac Disk Utility with ease. The included software is exclusive for PC, but who gives a crap.

[kylebuttermore]

its $150...

[rickbroida]

As noted in the second paragraph, you have to use the coupon code.

[tech_junkie14]

It's super easy to format any external hard drive to work with OS X. All you do is plug in the drive via USB or FireWire, open Disk Utility, select the drive in the list and format it to Mac OS extended. It's that easy.

[Mr. Dee]

I am in need of a brand new external, the 300 GB Lacie I had my brother bought in Texas only has about 89 GBs of space left. I have backed up two Vista installations on it and about 50 GBs of applications and data. Will wait until a 2 TB comes out though.

[AdelheidBernstein]

Aw, I paid about $40 more for it a while back (though it was still a good deal at the time, compared to the regular retail price).

Drive mounted on Win2k Pro SP4, without any difficulty. Only the software wasn't compatible. But, that's fine. I never use pack-in software. The native Windows Backup, or a good 3rd party app works fine. I'm partial to GoodSync or Syncback for mirroring directories, and RAR + PAR2 command lines in the Windows Task Scheduler for automatically creating and updating archives.

I formatted it in NTFS with a larger cluster size, and it's been ultra reliable. It would have been nice if it had eSATA or LAN interface, but for the price, I can't complain. It runs cool enough that we were able to install it in our wired fire/EMP safe.

It's become my all-in-one archive drive, where I backup my backups. Yay for data redundancy!

[joshetanner]

Anybody else have trouble with the coupon code???

Maybe it's because of Safari on my iPhone:-/

[k_watanabe]

The Seagate 1.5TB has serious reliability problems. Just google the terms
1.5TB problem
and you will know why there's a (fire) sale

The only publicly acknowledge problem(s) by Seagate is a "firmware" issue that essentially affects the entire 7200.11 line (from 500G to 1.5TB). Personally I see the admission of "firmware" is a simple deflection to avoid the much more serious "hardware". The widespread problem deserves a recall, but that would simply "brick" Seagate itself. There are hints of more critical problems out there, but presently flying just under the radar (click-of-death et al...). Bottom line, Seagate drives are bricking themselves in large numbers (soft firm hard mush whatever-ware) leaving the users without access to data; and this is from desktop to servers.

The pricing is great, if it works, but statistic may not be on your side.

[viper396]

Let's be fair here. You don't have any solid facts to back up your exagerated accusation of "Seagate drives bricking themselves in large numbers". Googling for a problem is hardly a valid way to determine the reliability of a product since many of the hits are just duplicates of the same remarks. (People quoting other people, people repeating what other people have said, etc.) The fact is, people only complain when there is a problem and with any mechanical device such as a harddrive there is always going to be a percentage that eventually fail. If you google any harddrive capacity (or any product) you are certain to find a number of people with problems. That does not validate your speculation and conspiracy theories about mass failures of 1.5tb drives.

Just for the hell of it I did google '1.5TB problem" and as suspected only a handful of unique hits and dozens of repeats and redirects to the same old slashdot article or people quoting other people who are quoting others.

[sdfsfdswerfggre]

I can say that my seagate bricked itself without a doubt. I had to take it to ADR to get my data recovered. It was just 9months old and the hardware in the hard drive itself overheated. It had little do to with location or ventilation it just overheated. So I've really not trusted Seagate Freeagents or their "Go" line...Their normal internal hard drives are fine, but just their external ones are horrible I feel.

[i8246i]

Okay, since no one else did any REAL research, here:

http://news.cnet.com/seagate-fixes-7200.11-drives-except-when-it-doesnt/

It affected the Barracuda series of drives that had 500GB - 1.5TB of storage capacity, and it was mostly fixed by a firmware patch released later.

Note that this is NOT a barracuda drive, but FreeAgent.

I'm not in any way supporting a company that releases cruddy hardware, especially when it takes more than a week to provide a "fix", AND THEN the "fix" makes the problem WORSE. But DO YOUR RESEARCH before commenting.

Now, if there are seperate (or similar) problems with the FreeAgent drives, go ahead and post them. But do not compare one model's failures to the entirety of a company as large as Seagate.

[k_watanabe]

OK folks, I don't usually shoot from the hip, but the Seagate problem is just too large to ignore. I've done plenty of research; I'd suggest for all to do the same before taking the Seagate plunge.

FreeAgent Specific:
Seagate 1.5TB FreeAgent at NewEgg, check out the reviews:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148357
A Support thread on Seagate's FreeAgent Forum:
http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=freeagent&thread.id=4301

By the way, FreeAgent is just a brandname for the external line, guess what goes inside the external case? ... lately they are 7200.11... the same fish... The FreeAgent line was put on the list of affected drives, then removed, then debated, debating... The problem? Hint: the user can't easily update the firmware using USB (need access to bare drive)

As for my "...bricking themselves in large numbers" comment, RMA centers were reporting 30% to 40% failure rate
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/374/1050374/seagate-barracudas-7200-11-failing
Seagate customers swamped by Barracuda drive failures
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/16/barracuda_failure_plague/

Simple, Seagate's claimed AFR (annualized failure rate) of 0.34% for the 7200.11 is simply false.

[slichtma]

I purchased the 1.5tb hard drive from Dell. I had it one week and it already failed. I am upset with Dell for trying to 'unload' these drives. This is not a firmware issue, this is a hardware issue.

[cdxskier6]

Seagate has a 5 year warranty. Drive is fine if it's used exclusively for backups. For what its; worth, my 500GB drive has been going strong for 7 months.

[johnisnotcool]

Coupon doesn't work! "We're sorry, the coupon code you have entered has already expired or has reached the maximum redemption limit." to bad.

[fbny71]

Coupon has already expired or reached maximum redemptions!!! I was going to try it out too.

[zuney]

don't forget seagate offers free acronis backup software on the seagate sight..under downloads

[dlwearl]

Buy.com has a 1TB external hard drive for 89.99 with a two-year warranty and free shipping! Check it out!

http://www.buy.com/prod/fantom-greendrive-1tb-usb-2-0-and-esata-external-hard-drive-2-year/q/loc/101/208503758.html?adid=17070&dcaid=17070

[bsoten]

Can the drive be partitioned? I'm thinking of getting a large external that I can partition into three equal parts (Photos, Music, Video) to use on my PS3? Does anyone have any experience with this configuration? Any other recommendations regarding my specific questions would be great too.

[annemarieee]

Damn, and I just recently (less than 3 months ago) bought the similar 1 TB external hard drive for at least double the price. Oh well, everything goes down in price eventually.

[moishap]

Barracuda 7200.11 ( drive used in FreeAgent enclosures ) need to be have a "review" in a class action court, not on cnet ... 40% failures and Seagate claiming "affects a small number" and "low risk". Amazing !
I suggest anyone considering the purchase - follow this http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/18/barracuda_firmware_upgrade_and_recovery/ and http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931 links first and then Googling for "seagate barracuda class action".
I owe one ( thank got the internal one, which does not get powered down that often ) for less than six month and the so much familiar and unfamous timeouts started last week: kernel: ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen. Sadly, windoze users will never see them and won't get alarmed like I did and stumbled on this cheapskate trap doing the research. Shame.

[drumdog00]

the coupon code doesn't work. Cost is $149.

[overworkedx2]

The coupon code appears to be invalid. Please advise.