Seagate has just launched a new external hard drive which in many ways may seem like a continuation of their FreeAgent or GoFlex series of drives minus the catchy nomenclature. The new drives come in a variety of colors and capacities, features the universal connector they have made popular over the last couple of years, and includes pre-installed software to make backup simple and more useful than ever.



The promotional image above shows the black 1TB drive we will be covering in this review. For those with different tastes / needs, the color choices include black, red, silver, and blue... While the capacity options include 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB. Before taking a closer look at the drive on hand, lets look at some published information on the drive, as taken from the listing at Newegg.com...

Features and Specifications:

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP3 (32-bit and 64-bit) operating system or Mac OS X 10.6 or higher support SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port (required for USB 3.0 transfer speeds or backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports at USB 2.0 transfer speeds)

» Form Factor: 2.5"
» Interface: USB 3.0
» Dimensions: 4.86" x 3.19" x 0.57"
» Weight: 0.44 lbs.

» Package Contents:
   » Seagate Backup Plus drive
   » 18-inch USB 3.0 cable
   » USB 3.0 interface adapter
   » Quick start guide
   » Seagate Dashboard pre-loaded on drive
   » NTFS driver for Mac pre-loaded on drive

No explicitly detailed in the information above is that the Seagate Dashboard will make your data backups simple, as well as expanding them to include things you might have not considered in the past. We have looked at Dashboard before, and will not go in to it again in this review, but the new feature allows for the automated backup of Social Media data.

The key site it supports at this moment is Facebook, and I for one can see the usefulness of what it can now offer. There have been many occasions when I have taken a picture on my mobile phone and uploaded it directly to Facebook. That is fine for sharing it with the people you are 'friends' with, but it doesn't give me a local copy of the file to share with people without access to my phone (everyone) or who are not on Facebook (including my wife). With the Dashboard able to be configured to go out on to Facebook through your Internet connected computer, it can silently archive all of your Facebook pictures for you.