Seagate Up's The Ante Again

Data, it is the life’s blood of most business organizations, and my small (growing) computer consulting business that I run from my home is no different. Over the years I have gone through several backup solutions from external to internal tapes, internal hard drive storage and DVD’s. I finally settle on large capacity external USB/FireWire hard drive drives onto which I now save my data. I initially purchased one and then two Seagate 300GB external hard drives; these replaced a 40GB (compressed) Sony tape backup unit and 20/40GB tapes that was installed in one of my server. The tape backup unit had worked well in the past, but as I have added more storage capacity to my file server, the files stored therein have seeming multiplied overnight to where a full backup no longer fits on one tape.

But even the (2) 300GB hard drives proved insufficient (hey I download and store a lot of Beta software) so I purchased a 400GB Seagate unit. However, I came to the realization that I needed even more backup capacity, and moving to another tape back solution would prove far too costly in both hardware and software. Seagate once again provided a solution in the form of the 750GB external IEEE 1394a Firewire/ USB 2.0 hard drive. I recently purchased two.

In the Box

(1) 750GB External Drive
USB 2.0 cable
FireWire 1394a cable
AC adapter and power cord
Quick installation guide
Backup software CD
Hard Drive stand

The Drive

Product Description (From Seagate) Seagate external drives connect with USB or FireWire, for your PC or Mac. Highly advanced, yet easy to use, our external drives feature pushbutton backup, a convenient on/off switch and stunning good looks. They run much cooler than other external drives, because they're designed to dissipate heat. You can connect and disconnect your drive without turning off your computer. You can even stack your drive, thanks to the unique interlocking design. Seagate external drives are compatible with Microsoft Windows XP, Me, and 2000, as well as with Linux and Mac OS.
I like Seagate hard drives; they are comparable in price the trouble-prone Western Digital drives, but in my estimation, they represent a far more reliable alternative. And Seagate is a nameplate I can trust and have trusted for a very long time; the company has around since the beginning of the PC revolution. I choose a combo Firewire/ USB solution for flexibility; i.e. I wanted to be able to move the drive from computer to computer if need be, utilizing either connection technology.

The Seagate 750GB External HHD USB 2.0/Firewire is a high-capacity, compact, (fairly) lightweight, flexible, and durable, 7200-RPM drive with 16MB cache that meets all of my current—and, hopefully, future—backup needs. Seagate made the drive family stackable (horizontal), or standalone (vertical), making placement of the drive a snap and expansion of the drives easy and even desirable. Like all of its high capacity external drives, Seagate designed the 750GB HHD with built-in self-monitoring technology that continuously checks the hard drive for data safety and drive performance. This is a bonus for me since I do not routinely do a manual check on my servers, but rely on automated tools to warn me of problems usually via email.

The 750GB External HHD can be connected to your computer with either USB version 2.0 (No USB 1.1 backward compatibility I’m afraid), or IEEE 1394a FireWire; back-ups of your computer can be initiated with the touch of a button on the front of the drive (more on that later). Alternatively, one can use the built-in Windows Back-up software utility. And the 750GB External HHD is Hot-swappable, so you can connect and disconnect the unit from your computer without powering down the CPU. It would be wise however, to turn the hard drive off before moving it. I have attached all of my Seagate’s (400GB and 750GB) via USB 2.0 because of the versions’ faster throughput.

The 750GB External HHD is encased in a sleek rounded-square design with cooling slats cut into the enclosure to keep the unit running cool through continual use. The front of the drive is sparse; there is one blue LED and a push button. This is a change from the 300GB units that have two blue LED’s in addition to the push button, but operationally the drives are the same. Another change is the size of the drive; the 400GB as well as the 750GB units are a little smaller then previous drives, and this does prevent it from stacking on top of the drives I already own. So they are now all freestanding.

The single blue backlit push button serves two purposes; 1, it is the main power switch, and; 2. it allows you to initiate the automatic back-up via the included BounceBack Express software. Note: BounceBack Express is a rudimentary backup solution that will run under the Windows 9.x/XP or Macintosh environments only. The software is not compatible with Windows 2000/2003 server. BounceBack Express is designed for the user that desires little or no interaction with the backup, and or restoration process. Those who require a more robust backup solution should look elsewhere. Needless to say I did not install the software.

The back of the 750GB External HHD is adorned with (2) IEEE 1394a Firewire ports, (1) USB port, (1) power connection. A solidly fabricated base attaches to the bottom of the drive to allow it to stand vertically.

Installation

I attached this drive to my file server running Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition. I unpacked the neatly packed drive, attached the base, plugged in the power, and then attached the USB 2.0 cable into the port while the server was on-line. Under Windows XP/Windows 2.xxx (including server Network Operating Systems) there is nothing to the install; connect the drive and go. If you are connecting the drive via USB, Windows XP/ 2.xxx will detect the drive, install the necessary drives (if they are needed), and then assign the Seagate 750GB External HHD a drive letter. If you are connecting the drive via Firewire, Windows XP/ 2.xxx will detect the drive, and then assign the HHD the next available drive letter.

Out of the box the drive is preformatted FAT32; I reformat my drives for NTFS, because it allows for robust security and the file system uses drive space more efficiently. I say that but interestingly enough the formatted capacity of the drive is the same𥂒.5GB—no matter which file system is used.

Windows 95/98 users will not be able to utilize this drive because the Windows 95 (OS) does not support USB, or Firewire, and Windows 98/SE has no native support for USB 2.0. The drive may or may not work with Windows Me. There was an upgrade to Windows 95 that supports USB version 1.0, but it was released only to OEM vendors; and in any case the Seagate 750GB External HHD is not backwards compatible to USB version 1.0 or 1.1.

After the Seagate 750GB External HHD was assigned a drive letter by the OS, I reformatted it using NTFS and the initiated compression on the drive. I calculated that this should allow me to store two years worth of monthly (full) and nightly (differential) backups on the drive; I store (6) months of backup’s on each 750GB drive. As I stated above I elected not to install the included BounceBack backup software because I have my own full-featured back software already installed, which affords me much broader control over backup procedures. And in any case, BounceBack Express does not support Windows 2003 Server.

Note: be advised, that if you have a preponderance of mapped drives already on your computer, as I do, Windows XP may not assign the HHD the next open drive letter; this has happen to me. If after installing or attaching the Seagate 750GB External HHD and you get the message that new hardware has been found and is now available for use, but the drive is not assigned a drive letter, you must go to Control Panel /Administrative Tools/ Computer Manager/ Disk Manager, to manually assign the drive letter, or reassign the CD-ROM(s), a drive letter. Alternatively, you can right-click on My Computer, click on Manage and then click on Disk Manager.

Use

As I stated at the outset, I bought these drives to serve as a backup medium for my files. Using Veritas Backup Exec 9.1 for Windows Server, I setup a schedule to back-up my files utilizing both full (once a month), and differential (nightly) back-up schemas. The drives have no other use; I have set them up and now they just run; I leave them on continuously, though they are set to power down when not in use for an hour. This can be accomplished via Windows power options setting under the Display applet in control panel.

Individual throughput will vary of course, depending on which computer system you attach the HHD to, but in tests I was able to consistently copy 1.0GB of files from my computer to the Seagate 750GB External HHD via USB 2.0 in just 2 minutes, 27 seconds; I did not test FireWire. This translates to a transfer rate of a little under 500MB a minute; the fact that the drive was compressed may, or may not have affected throughput. A recent full system backup of some 60.6GB finished in 2 hours 18 minutes which translates to 30.3GB an hour, or roughly 500MB per minute.

The drives are attached to a Pentium 4 class computer with 2.0GB of RAM installed and two 120GB 7200 rpm internal hard drives, utilizing a PCI USB 2.0. The connection you use will depend largely on personal preference and what OS the computer you are attaching the HHD to.

Note: As I noted above the Seagate 750GB External HHD comes formatted FAT32. If your computer’s hard drive is formatted NTFS, as most are these days you might have trouble coping data to the drives. My advice (if your C:\ is formatted NTFS): reformat the drives NTFS and the problem will go away. How to check: right click on My Computer/ Click in Manage /Click on Disk Management under Storage. Find the drive and note the file format.

Conclusion

Since installing my (2) new Seagate 750GB External HHD’s over the weekend, the drives have performed flawlessly, and quite frankly I would not have expected anything less. Before switching to Seagate external hard drives, I struggled for months trying to put together the most affordable (under $600.00) back-up solutions for my particular needs; the (2) Seagate 750GB External HHD’s together with the Seagate 400GB External hard drive, fulfill my needs.

Seagate 750GB External HHD’s are high capacity, flexible, reliable (thus far), and highly transportable (if the need arises). The drives warrant serious consideration if you need to backup large quantities of files on a continual basis. And for those who might need a portable drive, the Seagate 750GB External HHD will most surely fit the bill.

Features & Specifications

Capacity (Native) - 750GB
Capacity (Formatted FAT32 and or NTFS) – 698.5GB
Compatibility - PC, Mac
Interface Type - IEEE 1394 (FireWire) / Hi-Speed USB
Connector - 4 pin USB, 6 pin FireWire
Data Transfer Rate - 400 Mbps (FireWire) / 480 Mbps (Hi-Speed USB)
Average Seek Time - 8.5 ms
Spindle Speed - 7200 rpm
Cache - 16MB
Power - AC 110/230 V (50/60Hz)
Manufacturer Warranty - 1 year warranty