Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim 2TB Portable External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 Gold + 2mo Adobe CC Photography (STEH2000101)

Seagate is a reputable brand for Hard drives. I own a few of them and they are reliable and of a good quality.I bought this one because I wanted to replace an older model that was apparently starting to fail me. In fact, it was the cable that was starting to show signs of weakness.In any case, I do not regret this acquisition because I can fit 2 TB of data on one simple external USB 3.0 drive that is small enough to fit in one pocket.Speedwise, I got some true life reading speeds of a max of 110MB/s with an average of about 97MB/s.Not too bad for a regular disk plate drive.Now, remember that these things are still fragile. Do not shake or drop while using or it will get damaged.Do not use as a primary source of storage. External hard drives should only be used as backup or as a mean to carry physically data geographically on a temporary basis.If you really want some portable solutions that are resistant to shock, get an SSD. You will get much faster transfer speeds, a much better reliability but it will come at a cost.As for this unit, 2TB for about 70 Bucks is a very good deal.

I had 2 300 gigabyte external hard drives that are about the size of a cigar box. This hard drive is about the size of a pack of cigarettes a little longer maybe but only half as thick. It is easy to use. It doesn't require the use of any special software and it is incredibly fast. In fact you can work right off of it for most purposes using it as a primary drive rather than just using it for storage. The price was much lower than the 300 gigabyte hard drives I have had for about 8 - 9 years. I am a believer. It makes it very practical to store and retrieve paperwork and pictures that you would otherwise not bother storing. With this external hard drive and a fujitsu Scan Snap ix500, a paperless office is feasible for even small time operators like myself.

Over the past two years, this external hard drive has worked perfectly for backing up my laptops. The 2TB size is sufficient for full backups of two laptops with room to spare. I only use the drive for backups, but I anticipate it would work well for any data or media. I typically use this hard drive once a month, and so far there have been zero issues with data loss, corruption, etc.I strongly recommend this hard drive and would definitely buy it again. At around $66, it was a great value.

I bought this drive about 2.5 months ago. Since then, it's seen relatively light use. I've stored a few hundred GBs of movies and tv shows on it and haven't had any issues. The transfer speeds have been pretty decent, so no complaints there. I recommend reading the following article for more information on the speed comparisons with similar Seagate drives (this one is faster)[...]Having said that, the reason this gets 4 stars and not 5 is the lack of confidence inspired by the reviews and comments here on Amazon. I read through the reviews prior to buying the drive and, like with any drive, some people had had negative experiences. However, looking back now, more negative reviews/comments have popped up and not as many positive ones as I would like to see. The Wirecutter cited a 4.2% failure rate based on user reviews which is actually pretty good. But I suspect (based on reading the most recent reviews here) it may actually be a bit higher.My own experience so far after 2.5 months of light use has been perfectly satisfactory. Likewise, given that I've only been storing movies/tv shows on the drive, I haven't been too concerned with it failing because (although very inconvenient) I wouldn't be losing anything important. However, I'm now hesitant to store personal photos/videos on the drive because of the non-negligible possibility of losing my data. Other reviews have cited the drives suddenly failing 4-6 months after purchase without any mishandling. That really doesn't inspire confidence in the integrity of these drives. Even though I still have plenty of free space, I'm looking into more reliable alternatives such as buying a smaller size, external SSD to store important files I can't risk losing. Of course, I'll probably still backup those same files to this drive as a secondary backup since I still have plenty of space.In conclusion, I recommend this drive for storing generally unimportant/replaceable data such as movies or tv shows. The 2TB of storage is more than enough for most people, and the read/write speeds do seem to be higher than those of the competition. The form factor is also as good as it gets. However, for storing important or irreplaceable data such as photos and videos, I suggest investing in something more reliable and using this only as a secondary backup.

Okay. So this took a minute to wipe and start fresh to be able to seamlessly use on my MacBook. Doesn't take a genius but your 45yo mother might have a hard time unless you get it ready for her in advance. There was some sort of data saver plan by Seagate. I don't see myself using it so that's why I wiped it. It's easier like that.What I like:i) the color matches the aluminum of a Mac.ii) it's slim. It's not an eSSD but it's also not priced like one and also it's not fat like a standard eHDDiii) 2TB is a lot of space. It'll last for a lot of 1080p downloads. More than most people need by a Longshot if you add in already existing internal spaceiiii) as I said the price is agreeable.What I would improve:Add a 90 degree angle cable. The one included protrudes very far making it not great for casual laptop use