Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STBX1000101) (Old Model)

Since I bought this external hard drive for my wife, her review of it follows:My 500 GB Seagate Expansion Portable Drive has been a great tool to store unwieldly huge data files that would otherwise have been impossible to store on the servers at my work. This Seagate drive has been easy to use as the files can be readily saved in folders that can be easily categorized. I found that each day, I find it easier to locate files on the Seagate than on my personal computer, because the Seagate demands a folder to be named as it is created and has directed me into saving files both by date category and also allowed for many sub-folders.The beauty of this device is that I can leave work with just the Seagate and then go home after dinner and plug it into my laptop and continue working on a project without having to power down a laptop from work and then reboot and start up again. It has been easy to carry the Seagate back and forth from work rather than worry about packing up a laptop, unpacking the laptop and also avoiding damage to the laptop from exposing it to more bumps from transport. When I provide Power Point presentations to clients, the 500 GB storage means I can upload huge files and just transport the Seagate and not even have to bring a laptop if the client already has a laptop set up in the conference room.In the past, I noticed that I often worked around the data storage capabilities of my laptop and then had to triage which presentations I had to delete in order to create a new one. I no longer have this worry since with 500 GB, I can upload and save all my presentations without having to worry about which ones will have to be eventually eliminated. Also recently I have attached the Seagate to my new Verizon Tablet and was delighted that it easily worked with the Tablet which means my tablet now has much more utility for me. It is wonderful to carry around just the Tablet and the Seagate instead of a heavy stuffed computer bag. I would highly recommend the Seagate 500 GB Portable Drive as it is reasonably priced, lightweight and easy to use.

This external drive is simple. It comes in a small case, not much bigger than the drive itself. It requires no external power supply and uses a single USB 3.0 cable. While it won't allow me to copy files as fast as I can copy between internal drives on a fast computer, it allows me to copy files from other sources to itself at a consistent speed of over 100MB/sec. With a USB 2.0 port, you speed will be limited by your computer's port, not by the drive itself. Read speeds weren't much faster in my tests (about 5%) when copying to an SSD that can support much faster writes.For many users, the need for large external drives is based on the need to store large multimedia files. For practical purposes, a drive needs to be fast enough to stream smoothly and potentially stream several files at once, and possibly even record multiple TV programs at once. It's also helpful if large files can be copied quickly. Although a 7,500,000 KB file for a one hour recorded TV show might seem big, when you stream it in real time over 3600 seconds, it means reading well under 2.5 MB/sec. So using this drive to record four television programs at once while watching a previously recorded one and simultaneously streaming a video to another part of the house in real time will still leave plenty of overhead. And the ability to copy a one hour HD recorded TV show in under 40 seconds makes it practical to use in that capacity without getting bogged down. My tests were made using Microsoft's native WTV format, so if you are using common formats such as MP4, which take up much less space, you will have much more capacity and will be able to copy recordings of similar lengths in a fraction of the time it took me in these tests.The bottom line is that it won't be as fast as an eSATA drive, but makes up for it in practicality, compatibility with any computer with a USB 2.0 port or above, it means that you can use it with just about any current laptop. You will need a USB 3.0 port to get full speeds, and the speed you get might be more or less than what I got, depending on your computer. But if it's less, it's not because of an inherent limitation of the drive.

I bought two of these to extend my Xbox One's space. I didn't plug them into a PC at any point so I can't speak to that. Both Xbox Ones immediately recognized the drives and asked to format them. Formatting was finished in seconds and I had 2.3TB of total storage between the internal and external drives on my console (with nothing installed). This is a very small drive, it fits in my hand. I like that it is powered over the one USB cable. They drives are quiet, I can only barely hear them running when I'm within 2 feet of the drives and the room is silent around me. I've permanently stored them behind the consoles so they are essentially silent even when my rooms are quiet. There is one small blue status light that blinks when its being accessed. Luckily its a pretty faint light so it shouldn't be an annoyance in dark rooms. I've been running them for about 2 weeks now with no glitches or issues. The drives seem fast which is a must for gaming, I chose this drive because of other's reviews showing they usually reach their advertised speeds. My only complaint is the short USB cable, its probably 1 foot long. If you're using it on your desk with your PC or just looking to extend your Xbox One's storage it should be fine.Pros:-Small-Quiet-Works great with Xbox OneCons:-Short cable