Seagate Portable Hard Drive 2TB HDD - External Expansion for PC Windows PS4 & Xbox - USB 2.0 & 3.0 Black (STEA2000400)

Pros: Sleek attractive design. Small and lightweight, USB 3 is a plus. No power adapter needed since it's a 2.5" drive. Speeds are pretty decent for the 5400RPM disk (Lower rotational speed = less power but slower speeds. See Other thoughts for better specs).

Cons: Only a 5400 RPM disk is in the enclosure, greater speed would be achieved with a disk of a higher rotational RPM. Nonetheless, this isn't a slow drive by any means. The USB 3 interface does make it a bit quicker than the USB 2 interface. Wish it came with some sort of a carrying case and rubber feet on the bottom, but it's fine for what it is.

Overall Review: I've never owned a Seagate drive that hasn't failed on me, so I'm weary of the quality. I'll update this review when the drive fails because I'm curious to how long it's going to last. I'm using it as a mirror on my laptop, so it's runs a little over 40 hours a week. Current power on time is 194 hours and 65 startups. Temperature stays around 90*F with the ambient temperature being 70*F and the max temp reached under heavy stress was 109*F.


Done with HD Tune Pro:

USB 3:
> Read Min: 50 MB/s
> Read Max: 108.6 MB/s
> Read Avg: 85 MB/s
> Access Time: 17.4 ms
> Burst Rate: 2849 IOPS / 178.8 MB/s
> Random Access: 41 IOPS / 21.144 MB/s
> Random Seek: 56 IOPS / .027 MB/s



USB 2:
> Read Min: 26.3 MB/s
> Read Max: 32.5 MB/s
> Read Avg: 830.6 MB/s
> Access Time: 17.7 ms
> Burst Rate: 508 IOPS / 31 MB/s
> Random Access: 29 IOPS / 14.738 MB/s
> Random Seek: 48 IOPS / .023 MB/s

Pros: Portable and plenty of storage space for the physical size.

Cons: Hard to trust content on any hard drive these days.
I am not sure but the warranty period appears to be based on the date Seagate sent the drive to the retailer and not the date I purchased it according to the warranty look-up tool.

Overall Review: I run SMART tests regularly just as a rule. I was using this to backup my files and had it 80% full when it started failing the basic test about 4 months of occasional use to perform backup file transfers. It was still under warranty when it failed (by 3 months) but it has to go back for a replacement and I have to pay shipping to return it.