The
Seagate
Backup Plus Fast portable drive is performance-heavy mobile device that
provides users a plethora of storage and is the first portable drive that
offers 4TB of storage space. Backup plus Fast is fully USB powered, allowing
users to bring along their videos, music, and pictures without having to carry
an extra external power supply while on the go. Also included is the Seagate
Dashboard, which offers users the ability to schedule and automate backups for
their computer, social networks and mobile devices.
Seagate’s
website claims that their Backup Plus mobile drive boasts up to twice the speed
of other portable hard drives fast USB 3.0 interface with its transfer speeds
up to 220MB/s. Those are extremely good numbers, especially compared to other
portable consumer drives such as the LaCie Rugged and G-Technology G-DRIVE that are
limited to a single hard drive inside. So how does Seagate’s new drive reach
this performance level? Well, the device actually contains two 2TB 9.5mm
Samsung drives in RAID0 (striped) to account for both the speed and 4TB
capacity. The Samsung drives have appeared in Samsung branded externals prior,
but Backup Plus Fast is the first product to leverage the drives in this
creative way.
Also
available in conjunction with the drive is a free Seagate Mobile Backup app for
the iOS and Android mobile devices. The app allows users to back up all of
their content to the drive, when on the same network, or to the cloud when on
the go. Additionally, users can use the Save and Share features to download and
upload content from social network sites such as Facebook and Flickr. To make
sharing the drive between multiple systems more convenient, when the pre-loaded
NTFS driver is installed on the on a Mac, Backup plus Fast can be used between
Windows and Mac computers without having to reformat the drive.
The
Seagate Backup Plus Fast Portable 4TB is shipping now with a street price of
$269.99 and is backed by a limited 3-year warranty.
Specifications
·
Capacity:
4TB (STDA4000100)
·
Performance:
220MB/s
·
Product
Colors: Black
·
Length:
116.90mm
·
Width:
82.50mm
·
Typical
Weight: 0.307kg
·
Seagate
Dashboard pre-loaded on drive
·
Contents
·
18-inch
USB 3.0 cable
·
USB
3.0 Y-cable
·
Quick
start guide
·
Warranty:
3-year limited
Design and build
As
is the case with many Seagate devices, the Backup Plus has a simple design with
the company logo on the bottom corner. Its smooth metal enclosure (top and
bottom covers, middle section is plastic) helps resist scratches and
fingerprints and easily fits into a laptop bag or backpack. The side end of the
drive houses the USB 3.0 connector port and the top cover has a small drive
activity light.
Overall,
the Backup Plus is well built; but is not user accessible, which is not
uncommon for portable drives. If a drive fails, the user will have to RMA the
entire thing since they can’t swap one drive on their own without damaging the
enclosure. Opening up the drive exposed two Samsung 2TB M9T hard drives
connected through a dual-SATA to USB 3.0 adapter.
Usability
The
Seagate Dashboard is included with the entire Backup Plus family, and with it
users are able to have a simple, streamlined method of ensuring that all of
their content is backed up. Overall, we find the Seagate Dashboard is very
simple to use as it allowed us to easily protect, share and save data.
The
Dashboard software is located on the Backup Plus drive itself, so there’s no
need to download it. To install the Dashboard software on your computer, you
simply have to double click the file (.dmg for Mac users, .exe for PC) and
follow the onscreen instructions.
If
you're using a Mac, you will eventually be asked to select whether you’ll be
using your drive on the Mac, PC or both. If you select the only Mac option, the
drive will reformat itself to integrate with Mac applications such as Time
Machine.
After
installing the software, users will see a very simply layed out dashboard with
the connected drive listed on the left; we were impressed with its simplicity
and easy navigation. The "Social" section allows users to log in to
their account for each site and the backup up all of their images and videos;
these can be initiated automatically. The Dashboard also allows users to share
their photos and videos located on your Backup Plus drive directly to their
Facebook, Flickr or YouTube accounts. This functionality worked seamlessly.
With
the growing number images and videos stored on smartphones and tablets, backup
is something that is becoming very important for these mobile devices. The
"Mobile backup" section allows users to back up their movile devices
that have the app installed on their phone. Additionally, once you set up the
backup plan in a few quick steps, backing up your phone or tablet is automatic.
iOS users can find it on iTunes while Android users can find it on the Play
Store.
Performance
Using
our Consumer Testing Platform, we measured 2MB sequential speeds. The Seagate
Backup Plus clocked in at an impressive 237.2MB/s in the write column and
183.4MB/s for read activity. By comparison, the recently reviewed LaCie Fuel
(USB 3.0) measured 98.3MB/s read and 109.1MB/s write. To approach Backup Plus
Fast's performance numbers, we have to compare it to a DIY solution like the
Newer Technology Guardian MAXimus Mini. The MAXimus Mini (RAID0) measured
sequential speeds with an Hitachi 7K500 array of 213MB/s read and 213MB/s
write. In aggregate, pretty similar performance, but the enclosure approach
doesn't include the software or cloud features, though it does allow for
physical drive
management and optional RAID1 configuration.
When
testing with 2MB random transfer speeds, the Seagate Backup Plus measured read
and write speeds at 90.0MB/s and 135.8MB/s respectively. The LaCie Fuel
measured read and write speeds at 71.2MB/s and 79.7MB/s respectively. The
dual-drive fast again tops the performance table as expected.
It
is worth noting that the Backup Plus Fast uses RAID0 to achieve it's high
speeds and capacity, something that is not without risk. In a RAID0
environment, there is no parity of data, so if either drive fails, the entire
RAID fails and data loss is certain. The drive then makes for an excellent
backup target or media file repository, especially when combined with Seagate's
software for cloud backup, but it should not be relied upon as a primary data
storage volume for backup or files.
Conclusion
The
Seagate Backup Plus Fast Portable drive with USB 3.0 provides consumers with a
very durable and fast 4TB mobile hard drive; it is also bus powered, meaning
that users do not need to pack those pesky AC cords with them when they are on
the go. Consumers working on the go will find that the Seagate Backup Plus fast
especially useful due to its plethora of space and speedy write activity. Under
the hood, the Seagate drive contains two 2TB drives in RAID0 to account for the
speed and high capacity, giving it a substantial boost in performance. Using a
RAID0 configuration comes at a cost, however, as it allows for total data loss
if one of the two internal drives fail. Users should thus be wary of that fact
and we recommend that users are backing up their data to something else on a
regular basis or use Seagate’s cloud option and apps to backup. This all said,
this is a common issue for most mobile drives so it's not too much of a
surprise or hindrance.
One
thing that we really found handy is that users can share and manage files
between Windows and Mac computers without having reformat the drive; a very
welcomed feature for users who cross-platform often (eg. work vs home). The
included software bundle, which adds an app for mobile device backup too, is
one of the more comprehensive available in the market today.
As
far as performance goes, we measured 2MB sequential speeds at an impressive
237.2MB/s in the write column and 183.4MB/s for read activity, which is much
higher than other premium mobile drives for only around $60 more. The extra 3TB
of data, which is significantly more storage than most portable storage
solutions, more than makes up for the slightly higher price for many users.
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