Seagate FreeAgent keeps your friends close, and your data closer

Seagate is attempting to shed its image as a stodgy, traditional hard drive company and is going for a new line of pocket-sized drives called FreeAgent. These new drives include a set of software designed to keep track of your online passwords, settings, email and pretty much any piece of data that you can think of, thereby allowing you to sync stuff from your home PC with any other PC out there (we're guessing that these drives aren't Mac-friendly). We still think that most folks who want to carry around that much data would just as soon keep a laptop or a PDA within arm's reach instead of dropping anywhere from $140 to $420 to get their hands on one of these 12GB to 750GB FreeAgent drives; but hey, Seag' probably knows a bit more about this industry than we do. The company is also touting its new online storage service to host a half gig's worth of photos and other files, which will be free for the first six months -- that is, starting when all this stuff debuts next month.

[Via CNET]

[akijikan @ Jan 8th 2007 1:31AM]

just what I need something easy to lose with my passwords and what not on it!

[KC @ Jan 8th 2007 3:01AM]

Pocket Porn!

[Dave @ Jan 8th 2007 3:17AM]

I read something about a year ago where apple had an idea kinda like this that was supposed to be tied to the iPod. The way it worked was like, it stored all your music (or however much you wanted), photos, bookmarks, settings, etc etc etc.. and you could plug into any mac running OS X and it would prompt you if you want to run as a guest or something. If you said yes, it would basically turn into your computer. Any changes you made would then be sync'd back to your computer at home next time you plugged it back in.

It really sounded like a great idea, but was only for macs. If seagate and MS could do this via Vista, I think it would be HUGE!

[eyl @ Jan 8th 2007 8:43AM]

This site is going down the drains. Who is the idiot that wrote this piece, not understanding at all what he read. The idea is that instead of carrying a laptop all you would carry is what you personalized in the laptop, that is, your hard drive, and you can then use any computer for its processor and internet connection as your own, securely.

[CaptSaltyJack @ Jan 8th 2007 11:07AM]

Yeah, I don't normally complain about articles, but please get your facts straight.

This isn't a sync device. It will plug "into any terminal or PC wherever you go and work on your files and applications via a VPN connection." Plus, you got the pricing a bit off. The $199 to $419 range is for the Pro lineup which is 320GB to 750GB. The "Go" lineup is 12GB to 160GB, and I'm sure that will be cheaper.

[Isaac @ Jan 8th 2007 11:25PM]

Sorry to say, Engadget, but yes, I'd have to say that Seagate (and most of the rest of the world) probably do know quite a bit more about the industry than you do, apparently...

Judging by the size of the USB connector, I'd say this thing is proooobably just a little smaller than your average PDA and a LOT smaller than a laptop. What I have to wonder is simply: "one of these 12GB to 750GB FreeAgent drives". 750GB? In that size? Really? Wow! Tempting... Haha, yeah, I know, that little one only goes up to 12GB. Still respectable, I could fit some ISO's downloaded at work on there to be brought home to burn... and $140 for 12GB versus $40-$70 for your standard 1-2GB flash stick these days... I'd say it's respectable.

I dunno though, from what I can tell looking at Seagate's FreeAgent site, the larger sizes just look like standard external USB/Firewire drives with really cool looking enclosures (I think anyway). Unfortunately, unless I'm missing something, the site is pretty devoid of specs.

[mokk84 @ Feb 16th 2007 7:32PM]

I just bought a 320 gig version of this drive and connected it to vista... it did not come with any software on board and I had to use Vista's backup feature. When I called Seagate support to ask them why I was missing these features and if it had to do with me using Vista the agent basically said that the mobile software discussed in this article is really only available in the smaller drives. The larger ones just work as regular hard drives and you have to get software that is capable of giving you those features elsewhere....

So much for that huh.

[TK @ Feb 27th 2007 10:08PM]

Just an FYI for everyone, the one pictured is kind of misleading in size...if you take two standard books of matches and put them back to back, it's about that size...maybe a little bigger. about half or less of a PDA. Great device, yes the larger is a "eye candy" external...nice thing about it is the interchangable connection to go from USB/eSATA to FIREWIRE. They are all really nice though.

[QuickITguy @ Jan 28th 2008 10:32AM]

Hi All
Very interesting product, This article gives no justice to its true form, The big picture is when its plugged in it creates a new desktop for your files, everything you do is on the drive, installs configs what ever, try for example mojopac its free to try then you buy, the seagate software you need to buy the drive. but appears to work in the same fashion.