Pros: Compact

Seems well built and sturdy

Large capacity

Fast on USB 3, OK on USB 2

Lots of backup features (Time Machine, Flicker, Facebook, portable devices)

Small while LED on top for power notification (not too bright at all for once, does not flash when accessing)

Cons: need separate driver for it to work on Windows.

Other Thoughts: The separate driver issue is not enough of a con to take an egg off for (it is a software/OS/formatting issue), but a bit of a hassle if you switch between mac and PC. I had no download/install issues with the software like another review did.
Problem I see with this is if you use a Mac at home and save files then bring it to work that only has PC; if you can't install the needed driver due to install restrictions on the work PC, you can't access the files.

If you only have PC's, then just reformat the drive and your good to go on any PC. (what I ended up doing, I don't have a Mac).

Transfered almost 1tb of files and drive was barely warm, and is inaudible from 18 inches away (and just a minimal whisper 6 inches from your ear).

I am using this for a server backup device, my old drive ran warm and made a little buzzing noise most of the time.

If your looking for a great out of the box Mac compatible drive for Time Machine plus a few extras, then this is a great drive for that. If your a Windows/Linux user that does not need the extra features, there are cheaper options out there for you.

Pros: -2 TB Hard Drive in a nice casing
-USB 3.0 connection
-Easy to use with Macs
-Can be used with Windows with a free driver download
-Backup from social media is nice

Overall, I am very happy with this product. I have a Macbook from my office that I use on occasion, and this is great for moving files back and forth from that to my Windows desktop. Beyond that, the Macbook has a limited 128 GB SSD, and this gives me the space I need. The case has a very nice look and a sturdy feel to it.

When it was initially plugged into the Macbook I use it was very easy to install the software for it off of the hard drive itself, no need for a download or anything. Beyond that it instantly was able to be used as a time machine backup. For a Mac, this hard drive is spectacular.

I personally like the feature this drive has of being able to do a backup from social media. Its very simple to do, just a few clicks and it will back up all your photos from online onto your drive. So, if anything were to happen to the photos on your social media account, it would be nice to have a backup.

Cons: -Short cable
-Initial difficulty downloading Windows driver

The cable to connect the drive to a USB port is only about 1.5 feet long, which can be a bit short for some set ups.

When I was first attempting to use this on my Windows PC, the download link for the driver would not work. This made it so that I could not use the drive with my Windows PC. Luckily the download link was functional again the next day and since then I have not had any issues at all. This drive is great and does an excellent job with helping to manage files between Macs and PCs. This only appeared to be down that first day, see other thoughts.

Other Thoughts: My biggest complaint was something to do with a website error where I had to wait a day to get the Windows drivers. I have checked multiple times since then, just to see the reliability of it, and other than that first day, it has been available for download every single day, so I don’t think that is an issue.

The speeds on it seem great. I was able to back up 90 GB worth of data in 16 minutes, which is pretty nice.

Overall this is a great external drive and I highly recommend it. My cat agrees as well.

Pros: Seagate 2TB 3.0 slim backup plus is quite small, silent and appears to be built robust enough unless it was dropped from a long distance.

The top is brushed metal, bottom half is plastic but it still has some heft to it.

Power draw is low.

Read/Write (avg)3: 2.3W
Low Power Idle (avg): 0.7W
Standby (avg): 0.18W
Sleep (avg): 0.18W

Highlights from Seagate:

SATA Native Command Queuing feature
TuMR/PMR head with FOD technology
Load/unload head technology
ATA Security Mode feature set
ATA S.M.A.R.T. feature set
SilentSeek
NoiseGuard

This drive arrives formatted for MAC and is time machine ready.

A quick format to NTFS and the drive can easily be used with windows as well but not at the same time without HFS4WIN which has it's limitations.

Tear downs show the current drive inside as Samsung M9T, 32MB cache, 3 platter @667 running at 5400RPM.

USB data/power cord is 18 inches long, ideal for laptops which this is directed at but may be on the short side for tower PC's or if your USB front ports are higher up.

Runs fairly cool under light load but does get warm with very long transfers like any portable without airflow will, still only warm to the touch.

Seagate states 60C [140F] as the max which is doubtful to be reached.

Fast for 5400K.

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 X64

50MB Read/Write:
Seq: 124.3 / 146.2
512K: 61.40 / 155.10

4000MB Read/Write:
Seq: 129.1 / 129.7
512K: 35.93 / 147.30

HDTune 5.50

Minimum 54.3 MB/s
Average 92.4 MB/s
Maximum 121.5 MB/s
Latency 18.1 ms

Cons: 2 year warranty vs 3 years for WD passport slim.

Price is higher then WD for the same size but it has come down from the original MSRP.

No included carry case like WD passports. It's marketed as portable and protection while in transit would be ideal.

Other Thoughts: Seagate dashboard software included has many helpful backup features for windows but is useless for MAC, that is where time machine comes in. It can be downloaded from Seagate so not sure why they even put it on this MAC version.

The software can allow you to change sleep, adjust the LED and test the drive.

Also included it has the ability to sync photos from your Facebook and Flickr accounts.

The main portion is for PC backup in which you can choose what you want to backup instead of just the entire C drive so it gives you some choices.

Just as easy would be to use windows to create an ISO in case of disaster so you can use recovery.

Dashboard does not include any security option to protect the content of the drive against unauthorized access.

Overall a nice fast 2TB portable drive with a small and slim footprint.

Pros: I've worked in the storage industry as a Software/Firmware engineer for about 12 years, there is a lot I don’t know – but I probably have a deeper knowledge than most. Time is the real judge of how good the drive is and I can only comment on how it worked now – new just out of the box. As I have seen backup drives with a warranty as short as a year, I’m more confident in this as the warranty on the STDS2000100 is three years. The reason the warranty period is important is that it is calculated on MTBF – drive manufacturers usually set the warranty period at a period where they feel confident that they will only have a statistically small number returned and it won’t impact their bottom line in a meaningful way. In short the drive will probably last well over 3 years. Most people care about the data more than the device which holds it – so something that will likely go the distance is worth more than saving a few bucks to almost anyone.

The drive seems well suited for its purpose – as solid and rugged small drive that works. I used it for it’s advertised purpose and backed up a Mac Pro. I used it on a 8 year old Intel 4 processor Mac Pro running 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard ) and an older version of Bombich Carbon Copy Cloner I backed up a 750 GB drive about half full. It backed up 383 GBs in 5 hours and 30 minutes or about 1,160 MB per minute – or about 19.3 MB per minute. As this is a mechanical drive, not an SSD, so the speed is okay for a backup drive where it’s usually not a time critical issue. Everything worked perfectly. It should also be noted that the drive is USB 3 and the Mac I used was USB 2 so even though the mechanical drive(s) themselves probably caused most of the latency – not using USB 3 contributed.

The drive came with a cable with micro B USB 3 on one side and standard USB A connector on the other side. The drive itself has only a micro USB 3 connector. The drive case is fairly sturdy and the drive feels like it could withstand some abuse – though I didn’t abuse it.

One of the main features claimed I haven’t tried so I can’t comment on but it’s worth mentioning; that the ability to backup Apple and Google devices (tablets, phones, etc.) via Wi-Fi using Seagate’s application.

Cons: I would have been really ecstatic if the drive had a 5 year warranty, but a 5 year warranty is usually only found on enterprise drives made to use in servers where high reliability (and higher cost) is the norm. I think it’s worth complaining about as the loss of data is usually catastrophic for most people and most people don’t backup a backup. Like I said earlier – at least it’s not one year warranty. I would subtract an egg for this but for the price that wouldn't be fair. Enterprise drives usually cost significantly more.

The cable was very short – probably about 1.5 feet, not enough to plug into the USB on the Mac Pro and let it sit on the top. This is such a non-issue, probably other reviewers will be complaining about it being too long. Just sayin.

Other Thoughts: As most of the backup drives I've previously used are larger form factors. The small, compact cardboard box the drive came in is perfect storage for me. I just wrote the backup date and computer on the box and threw it in a drawer – it didn't take up much spaces and I know I won’t be looking for cables when I have to back up again. Seemingly small design functions add to the value of the drive. I’m probably going to pick up another on for a Windows 7 laptop I have – so yes, I would recommend this to a friend as the 2 GB size is great for most people. Given I can run a VM on my Windows 7 PC where I run a couple versions of Linux and OSX with lots of applications - and I can do that all under 1 TB, a 2 TB backup drive gives you lots of room to expand.

Please not my rating is on the drive as I have seen and used – assuming it functions the way it does many years to come I would stand by it.. but when it fails (and everything does eventually) make a big difference in what my real rating would be – at this point I have no way of knowing that.