Seagate Backup Plus 3TB USB 3.0 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive STCA3000101 Black

Pros: Very fast over USB 3.0. Quiet. No stability problems that I can detect. Even without a fan, these drives stay relatively cool.

Cons: The included software is not very flexible. I encrypted the drive with TrueCrypt and the included software was no longer able to back up to the encrypted disk. Western Digital gives you a version of Acronis that doesn't mind if the disk is encrypted, as long as a Western Digital drive is connected.

Overall Review: I was a Seagate-only customer for a long time (a few dozen drives per year) but stopped buying Seagate drives a few years ago after a series of failures on both internal and external Seagate drives. I took a chance on this drive due to a promotion and was pleasantly surprised. I now have four of them, one running 24x7 and three rotated for off-site backups. It's been only 4 months but I'm happy with them so far.

Pros: It's the Seagate Barracuda ST3000DL001 Hard drive that is actually in the unit. It is also amazingly easy to take apart. Better yet, it's the standard SATA connectors on the drive and adapter part, so you literally plug any HDD into the enclosure

Cons: I don't have USB3. That's the only issue I can think of... other than it runs a bit hot, but that's expected!

Overall Review: If you don't mind voiding your warranty, these are usually the same price or cheaper than the drive that comes in it. Which means you get the HDD, and an external enclosure for free!

Pros: This review is aimed at the people who want to assess the viability of purchasing this unit for its internal hard drive. I've been finding this situation often where a retail store like BBY sells these external hard drives at a $30-$40 discount compared to the same size retail-boxed internal 3.5" drive. I have no idea how this is even possible, but more to the point..... This is a great external unit to buy if you want to pull the internal 3.5" drive out of the enclosure and use it for another application. It's just a straight-up Seagate Barracuda 3TB drive inside. No firmware trickery like some other models, just a plain, usable drive. The other nice thing is that the bottom portion of the enclosure with the USB and power connectors pops right off so you could essentially use this piece by itself to test out and pull data off of any 2.5" or 3.5" hard drive at high speed USB 3.0 speeds.

Cons: The external enclosure is screwless so if you want to crack open the case you need a spudger or two if you want to salvage the whole case to repurpose it. I'd say that's the only problematic thing.

Overall Review: As stated above, I wanted to write this because for anyone looking to buy a higher capacity hard drive to put in their rig or NAS device, etc., this is a great choice to save a couple of bucks if the external enclosure happens to be cheaper than its stand-alone HDD counterpart. I'm currently using this drive in my Drobo FS NAS with no problems. There was no prep work necessary as the Drobo FS automatically formats, RAIDs and populates the drive. I've had it in the Drobo for several months 24/7 and it's still healthy. And yes, it works fine if used for its intended purposes as an external USB hard drive.

Pros: A lot of storage at very fast speeds with USB 3.0

Cons: It runs hot. By hot, I mean > 60C. I was in the middle of backing up my files before noticing that my HD Tune noticed me of a drive failure. Turns out the maximum temp on this drive is suppose to be 55C, but when I was backing up my 1TB hard drive, the temps went to 62C. I immediately turn it off, because I know that 60C is not the right temperature for a hard drive to be operating at. I had to wait 2 hours before the drive cooled back to 30C.

Overall Review: Despite what the name says, you should not use this for backup of important files. The enclosure is designed with little functionality in mind. The vents don't do much to help cool the drive. If I used it for backing up files, I would expect drive failure within a year.

Pros: Bottom portion where the usb and power plug in very easily pops off to serve as a HDD dock. When bottom is removed the hard drive in the big black case has its sata and power connections directly accessable so you can install this into your computer as an internal drive None of this will void warrenty Hard drive was 100% funtional in a constant 15hour test/benchmark with reading and writing and then proved to have no bad sectors and consistent speeds. Max through usb3.0 transfer speeds were 150MB/s and down to approx 70MB/s across the drive. Most likely a very reliable and long lasting external drive if it is not abused.

Cons: On forums there was mention that the dock must have a hard drive with 4k sectors/blocks. I have not tested this. DID NOT HAVE ST3000DM001 internal drive as expected but had "ST3000DM003" Drive is a 5900rpm drive and therefore SLOWER than the ST3000DM001 by approx 25%. Speculation: As the model number of the hdd is only off by the last digit i believe that this IS the ST3000DM001 but its firmware has been changed to operate at 5900rpm instead of 7200rpm. I expect that this change improves the devices lifespan and decreases temperatures.

Overall Review: All in all a very reliable drive and fairly fast for an external or internal drive. Just remember its a 5900rpm drive. Bought it local at Costco for more $ because i wasn't patient :( As always buying an external drive is a shot in the dark on what is inside. I hear the STBV3000100 is almost a sure bet on it being a ST3000DM001 inside

Pros: Unit is great and does wounder.

Cons: wish it was a little better on the build quality and cable length.

Overall Review: People need to stop complaining and do some research. Yes its a 4k and yes windows 7/server 2008 r2 cant use the drive correctly if you dont do a few things. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510009 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466753 read and learn.

Pros: Looks great, lots of space, quiet, fast, and USB3. I am using it for scheduled nightly backups from a system with several drives that is always on. I like that the drive shuts off after it is done and becomes idle, so there is less wear and powered-on time.

Cons: Included backup software has a serious flaw. It is constantly accessing all of the internal drives to check for changes, even if the real-time backup feature is disabled. I have several internal drives and it caused audible drive noise constantly, in addition to extra wear on the drives I didn't want . Seagate support suggested I downgrade to the older Seagate Manager software, which they provided to me free. It has less features, but I only need a once per night backup of specific folders and it works perfectly in that regard.

Overall Review: Only subtracted 1 egg for the software, the hardware has been great and Seagate support resolved my concern with the software. Wish it had a 5 year warranty.

Pros: It talks about being a backup device but I tossed all the software and just use it as an external hard drive and it works flawlessly. Cheapest 3TB external I've seen in awhile. (I got this on sale) Very quiet Backup software could be incredibly useful for someone looking for automatic backups or something along those lines. Media server points to it and runs great through it.

Cons: There are some hidden files on the drive that are required for it to work properly. I deleted these files not realizing they were important and I could no longer access the drive but I was able to unplug the drive and plug it back in and it restored those files with literally no problem.

Overall Review: Super happy with my purchase right now but as we all know it's all about lifespan with these drives and only time will tell if it holds up.