WARNING - Seagate FreeAgent Go 500gb 2.5" USB drives use the crappy Samsung HM500LI drive. Beware.

Hello, A warning to all.

I just purchased the Seagate 500gb FreeAgent Go 2.5" USB drive. Was planning on pulling the 500gb drive out and using it in my laptop. To my disappointment as soon as I opened the USB enclosure I see "SAMSUNG"....I was like WFT????? NO Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500gb drive inside like I was expecting! Unbelievable.

I cant believe they dont even use their own drive. Instead they use the awful Samsung HM500LI drive which is 3 platters and runs hot and slow compared the all the other 500gb models.



Im returning this crap.....

 

Noted, TYVM

 

Are sure that you can return it now that you opened it?

 

The cover of the enclosure is simply stuck on with double stick tape. No screws. I just stuck the cover back since its still very sticky. Going to return tomorrow and pickup the western digital unit. I may even give Seagate a call about this BS.

 

Yeah someone had already opened one on here and found the same.

I bought two knowing what would be inside but the Samsung's were awful - noisy and slow. Ended up flogging them for a profit and buying the WDs

EDIT: Just seen that you've found the thread.

 

Call them for what?

Seagate doesn't sell their portable external drives, expecting people to rip them apart to use the intended external drive inside of a notebook.

The Samsung works fine as a external drive.

 

This is kind of funny that seagate does not use their own or maxtor drives.

 

I've got a Seagate FreeAgent External HDD 500GB, and from the reviews I've heard about it, apparently if it falls over even once, your data is stuffed Wish I had known about that before I bought it. Anyhoo.

I keep it wedged between my subwoofer and printer

 

watergate, travelgate, monicagate, troopergate, irangate, and now...

SEAGATE.



It's not a big deal. The interface is a bottleneck and what's the retail price of both drives.

 

The point is this is a WARNING to anyone out there looking to buy the FreeAgent Go 500gb just for the internal drive. Often times its cheaper to buy the external USB drive and pull the harddrive than to buy the bare drive itself.

 

I take your point and that idea has occurred to me.

I just wouldn't know what I'd be getting.

Personally, if I were to think with my business hat on, I would probably stick in my previous gen. discs or over runs in my inventory. And if I were out, I might have to buy a competitor's at cost.

Gives you a good idea of what goes on in business.

The thing is, the next shipment may have that drive you were expecting.

 

Does anyone know if this also applies to their external 3.5" FreeAgent external drives?

 

No, they have plenty of their own 3.5" drives.

 

You keep your hard-drive next to a giant magnet?


0.o

 

Sorry, but this does not make sense to me at all...

-- Did Seagate promise to you what drive they would use in their FreeAgent models???

-- FreeAgents are supposed to be used as external drives and as long as they have the proposed size, you should be alright. FreeAgent's are not sold for the purpose that some alerts will break it up, extract the HDD and use it somewhere else according to their needs...


In summary, I don't see any problem here (except you!)...

 

I use ONLY Samsung HDDs on my notebooks, and I recommend them to everyone who asks for my advice.

"Crappy HDDs" in terms of noise and heat I experienced from Fujitsu and Toshiba.

 

Woohoo, it's an external HDD, and that's how it's supposed to be used. It doesn't matter if the HDD is slow or something like that - the USB interface will limit it's speed.

How about stop complaining, do some research before you buy, or just buy an internal drive if that's how you intend to use it.

 

I agree with everyone's points...

but if Seagate makes... would it not be cheaper for them to use their own drives?

 

So we think, but that's obviously not true otherwise they would use their own drives.

 

Hi.

On a similiar note i have bought a number of Sony branded PC items , and most of them are not made by Sony , a DVD-RW made by Lite-on

It happens all the time. , I still gets me angry though.

Regards

John.

 

You know that the 500GB Samsung uses 3 platters? More platter gets warmer, noisier and vibrates more and not only that, slower than the competitiors 2 platter versions of these 500GB 2.5".

I don't say that the other samsung-drives are bad, just that their 500GB model isn't like the other ones, previous samsung drives may not have these disadvantages!



And i agree with many other posts, if you buy a seagate you want (and should expect) a seagate/maxtor, not any other brand! If you buy a sony, you should get a sony, and so on. I buy things from different manufacturers because i want what i choose, not any surprise inside.

 

The Seagate 5400.6 is a bit faster than the Samsung HM500LI but still has slow acces times.

WD5000BEVT performs a lot better. It's the only 500GB I would recommend, next to the soon to come out 7200.4 ofcourse.

 

you see it all the time in other industries, they use what is most cost efficient.

Unless it states that it has a seagate in it, they are not obligated to put their own product in it. Resale license is there for a reason.

Honestly wouldnt it have been cheaper to just buy a 500gb internal drive? i know new egg sells external enclosures with their drives for 2 dollars more.

you see it all the time with "Rebadged" products

 

For all of you who have had trouble or are worried about externals falling over...

lay it down on it's side.

 

Where can you get a 500gb laptop drive for $99 ????? Besides I have Best Buy gift cards to use up.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148371

120 and you know exactly what you're getting.

 

I said where can you get a 500gb drive for $99 not $120. I guess math is not your strong point as $99 is less than $120....

 

Well, your strong math ended up with buying a 3-platter Samsung drive...

 

That's nothing you could count on though.

 

I returned the drive today and pickup the western digital 500gb like I should have done in the first place. Seagate should ashamed of themselves. This is fraud advertising a seagate manufactured drive when in fact its a samsung.

 

for how much?

 

im willing to shell out 20 dollars more to get something im 100% sure of. dont even start insulting me because im not the one who's wasted time buying an external and whining about how its not whati thought it was on a forum.

so good day to you and i hope you get hit by a bus for being a total jackass.

 

I wouldn't say it's fraudulent. What would a Ford Taurus SHO be without the Yamaha motor? Nothing.

Anyway, open it up. Let's see what it's got.

 

Please do not bash products, the samsung hm500li is a good drive. It was the first 500gb 5400rpm drive, and it sure set the precedent for capacity for some time. The new 500gb drives are faster because they have a higher data density.
The Hm500Li has three 166Gb platters while the new 500gb drives have two 250gb platters.
The higher data density the faster the drive.
Please do not knock the hm500li, because it is still a very fast drive.

K-TRON

 

Im sorry but the Samsung hm500li DOES deserve a little bashing and I will explain why with all my knowledge.....

1. Samsung wanted to be bold and deliver the first 500gb notebook drive. The technology was not available (high enough density disks to create a 2 platter design) to PROPERLY implement the solution. So Samsung went ahead and created a 3 platter design that runs hot, eats battery power for a snack, and vibrates causing more noise. Thats NOT good engineering.

2. Seagate and Western Digital are not STUPID enough to Mfr 3 platter notebook drives with such operation characteristics like the Samsung hm500li and this is why they both are the leaders in hard drive technology. If they created a drive similar to the Samsung hm500li their reputation would be RUINED. There is absolutely NO reason to buy a Samsung hm500li for your notebook.

3. If you cant implement a 500gb solution with 2 platters then DONT implement one at all else be prepared to lower your reputation in the hard drive market. Samsung can care less as their hard drive Mfring operation is just a drop in the bucket of what they Mfr.

 

The HM500LI is an awful hard drive. I've had 4 in total and they were all the same. Really noisy and unbearably slow.

 

hancock, you should do some research on harddrive manufacturing. Today, all of the harddrive platters are made by Toshiba Samsung Storage Technologies.
Your wonderful Western Digital and Seagate drives do not have platters made by WD and Seagate respectively, their platters are made in Samsung cleanrooms in Thailand.
The HM500LI uses a little more power than other 5400rpm drives but that is because it requires more energy to keep three platters spinning at a constant speed. This additional power drain may only cut battery life by a few minutes, so do not blame poor battery life based on the harddrive alone. The harddrive power requirements only represent a small portion of what the laptop uses as a whole.
At the time of release the highest data density was 166gb per platter, so this drive was still running with the best on release.
Now like 6 months later the harddrive technology pushed to 250gb per platter, so obviously a two platter 500gb drive can be made.

K-TRON

 

You cant really compare new technology to old technology....

 

i get the point that seagate can put whatever they want in their seagate freeagent case,

but logically speaking one of the 2 top HD manufactures using another company's HD is letting down, doesnt matter how u lk at it.
if ppl. are buying seagate freeagent they expect seagate to be inside aswell.


but somehow this is the only forum where ive read this and googling it doesnt give me anything else on this matter which is strange.

 

I would point out that the bulk of this thread was posted at a time when the only 500GB 9.5mm thick 2.5" HDD was the Samsung HM500LI. Starting October 2008 500GB 9.5mm thick units have been released by WD, Seagate and Hitachi (and maybe others).

I would expect recent production of the FreeAgent Go 500GB to use a Seagate HDD. However, if there's a box that has been sitting on the shelves for a few months then it could contain the Samsung HDD.

John

 

Japan's Showa Denko Group also make harddrive platters.
http://www.sdk.co.jp/html/english/index.html

 

I have the same drive in my laptop and have no issues. It is funny Seagate is not using their own drives.

I had to have the drive replace after I hit my laptop after it locked up. It was my fault.

 

Sony is makes all kinds of stuff, so it's not a surprise that they're LG OEM.
Seagate held the status as one of the top drive manufacturers, so I can understand why it's a shame they're slowly moving away from that business and try to sell just on brand.

Brands.. what consumers fall for. Most consumer electronics bearing the well known legendary brands, like GE, RCA and Sylvania are no more. They're just "brand licensing" allowing manufacturers to use the well recognized brand for a fee.

 

Hmmm. I don't know about Samsung making all the HD platters.
This is what I have found... I have 2 desktops:
one with a WD 'Blue' 640GB Hard disk
one with a Samsung 640GB F1 Spinpoint(or what every they call it)

the WD is more the 20MB/s+ FASTER than the Samsung.

I don't know if the Notebook market is diffrent but that seems like a big difference to me.

 

I don't know that I can believe that Samsung makes all platters based off of the one post on here either. However a lot of different things could make the Western Digital faster than the Samsung like the cache size as well as the interface the drive uses. I don't know a lot about hard drives but I would think other than one drive having more platters than the other they shouldnt affect the speed.

 

I bought seagate 500gb freeagent go like a month back, and its absolutely fantastic, had a deal with free cradle.
the HD works fine with only 1 usb powered through the usb port of the comp.
ive tried it on 3 diff. laptops and no problem powering it up, for the cradle i need too usb slots on the laptop, and its preety much soundless.

the transfer rate is around 25mb/s. and as long as its works the way its working right now, and doest die on me, i am satisfied.

also i was tempted but i dont think i am gonna open the case to see if its seagate or samsung

 

There should be a warning about WD My Passport drives now too

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4855085#post4855085

 

I know, but they are both 2 platter AFAIK, and they definatly have the same SATA interface. I don't know the cache size, I'm assuming they are both 16MB...

but even then there is the WD Cavier Black 640 which is even faster yet!

 

Hi there everyone, this is my first post.

Thinking of buying one of these Freeagent Go 500gb for my son; the best deal in the UK seems to be here:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/6561128/Seagate-FreeAgent-Go-Portable-ST905003FGD2E1-RK-500GB-USB-2-0-External-Hard-Drive-Silver/Product.html

I reckon that's about $130, which is pretty reasonable considering it includes the dock pack sold separately for between $20-30.

Is there any way to tell what kind of HDD is inside from the product number (in this case ST905003FGD2E1-RK ) ?

To be honest, I have the 320gb version and have been delighted with it, but I want the better option if available.

Toppam

 

Most likely seems Seagate 5400.6 by now. But there's no certainty.

This one is cheaper by the way: http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?origin=gbase21.4&prodID=B178980