Conclusion:

Overall, the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex brings quite a bit to the table. While more and more people are buying Macs and have multiple computer households (many of which have both Macs and PCs), the need for a product such as this is growing.

The concept behind the GoFlex system is very good especially if you have a mix of Firewire, eSATA, and even USB 3.0 compatible computers. The design and simplicity of the system even allows you to hook up a spare laptop drive to the cables for emergency data recovery or quick data transfer - although Seagate does not recommend this as you could potentially short out the drive board.



The FreeAgent GoFlex drive in the configuration that we reviewed is currently available at Newegg.com for $89.99 with free shipping. The eSATA cable, Firewire800 cable, and Desktop USB 3.0 Kit are all available starting at $19.99, each. The price of the drive alone is very appealing, although adding too many other connections will fix that rather quickly.

With all that's been said, including the issues we had with the eSATA connector, I would still recommend the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex series drives as they are quite a good value, offer respectable performance, and the flexibility offered between supported connections and operating systems is a great idea. Therefore, the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 500GB ultra portable drive earns the Bigbruin.com "Recommended" and "Great Idea" awards.



Pros:

» Ultra-portable design makes it easy to carry a ton of files anywhere
» PC and Mac read/write out of the box makes it great for multiple platform families
» GoFlex cabling system is ideal
» Additional docks and media player add to the versatility
» Attractively priced

Cons:

» Could not get the eSATA to work
» Encryption key is stored in an unencrypted XML file
» Firewire and USB 3.0 kit are quite expensive.

Please drop by the Bigbruin.com Forum and feel free to post any comments or questions.