https://everprice.weebly.com/blog/torch-browser-for-mac. Apr 14, 2017 How to set up seagate external hard drive on Macbook pro, Mac mini, Mac laptop, apple computer This process will work with all: Seagate backup plus, Slim, C. Vuze for mac. Coreldraw for mac free. What is the maximum altitude at which a Seagate hard drive will function? Pdfelement pro for mac. Mac OS 10.9.4 Time Machine Updates; Will my Seagate drive work with macOS 10.15 (Catalina)? Will my Seagate drive work with MacOS 10.8 (Mountain Lion)? Firmware update for Seagate Backup Plus and Seagate Slim USB 3.0 in MacOS; Can I backup multiple PCs to one external drive?
Seagate has long sold a line of Backup Plus external hard drives that offer large amounts of storage space at a reasonable price, and in June, the company announced two new features added to all hard drives in the Backup Plus line: 200GB of Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage and the Lyve photo and video management app for automatically backing up photos. Seagate also announced a new high capacity Backup Plus Portable hard drive, with 4TB of storage and a 20.5mm form factor, priced at $240. Seagate invited us to test out its newest hard drive to test the Backup Plus hard drive and the new Lyve app and service it ships with. Seagate's new Backup Plus offers the same 4TB of storage that the Backup Plus Fast offers, but it's less expensive and it is a single 4TB hard drive instead of two external drives in a RAID 0 configuration. It's also got more storage than the Backup Plus Slim, which caps out at 2TB, allowing Seagate's newest offering to fill a void between the two existing products (Fast and Slim) in the Backup Plus family.
Design and Features
Seagate's been selling its Backup Plus line for years. Design wise, the 4TB Backup Plus looks like any standard 2.5-inch portable hard drive. It measures in at 4.5 inches in length, 3.1 inches in width, it's .807 inches thick (20.5mm), and it weighs 0.54 pounds. In terms of usability, those dimensions mean it's slim and easy to slip into a bag or a backpack. The Backup Plus has a traditional black casing that's half metal and half plastic, with the metal plate located on the front of the drive. An LED on the front lights up when the hard drive is plugged in, and there's a single USB port on one side. There's a large but subtle Seagate logo on the back and another small logo in silver on the front. The Backup Plus is USB 2.0/3.0 only and ships with an 18-inch USB 3.0 cable, which is an adequate length for use on a desktop or while on the go.
Software and Performance
Seagate ships the 4TB Backup Plus in an NTFS format, so to use the drive without formatting, users will need to install Seagate's NTFS driver for Mac. With the driver, the Backup Plus can be used interchangeably between Windows and Mac computers without needing to reformat. With the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, we saw write speeds of 119 MB/s and read speeds of 114 MB/s, which is comparable to many other similar hard drives on the market. I also did standalone tests transferring 10GB chunks of photos and videos to and from the Backup Plus and saw similar but slightly lower average speeds of 97MB/s read and 99MB/s write. While conducting these tests, the drive got warm, but not hot. There are multiple options for using the Backup Plus for backing up files, including the Lyve service, Microsoft OneDrive, and Seagate's own software, the Seagate Dashboard. Software doesn't come pre-installed on the drive, but can be downloaded from a link in the setup instructions. The Seagate Dashboard is Seagate's standard backup/restore software. It can be used to automatically backup files on a Mac, iPhone or iPad, and social networking sites, and it can transfer important files to a cloud service like Microsoft OneDrive for extra protection. Purchasing the Seagate Backup Plus entitles users to create a free OneDrive account with 200GB of storage, which will last for a period of two years. Backing up files from an iPhone or iPad will require the Seagate Dashboard app on the Mac and the accompanying Seagate Backup app. Files can be transferred via WiFi when at home or stored in the cloud when away from home using Google Drive or Dropbox. Photos and videos can be uploaded automatically from the drive to Flickr, Facebook, or YouTube, and photos from Facebook or Flickr can be downloaded from the social networking sites to the drive. There's also an option that will continually download photos from social networking sites whenever you upload them, which is a useful way to make sure you always have multiple copies of your photos. I set up the Seagate Dashboard so my iPhone and iPad photos would upload automatically to the Backup Plus, which in turn uploaded those files to the Microsoft OneDrive account that I set up. I use iCloud to store my photos so the Seagate Dashboard to Microsoft OneDrive option seemed like overkill, but if you don't use iCloud Photo Library and store your photos in the cloud, it's a good option. It's also a solid solution if you need something that's going to work across Windows and Mac devices. Lyve is a separate service that works with the Backup Plus. Lyve is designed to sync with specific apps or folders on a Mac, continuously importing all new photos and videos that are added. For example, it can sync with the Photos app, transferring each photo uploaded to the hard drive. In my testing, Lyve was easy to use and it worked quickly. When synced with a folder on my Mac, every photo I uploaded to the folder was synced to the Lyve service and then uploaded to the Seagate Backup Plus. For people who only need to back up photos from a Mac and would like something automated, Lyve is even simpler to use than the Seagate Dashboard and it works well as a tertiary backup for iCloud Photo Library. Lyve and Seagate Dashboard can be used in tandem. As of July, all hard drives in the Backup Plus family, this one included, ship with the 200GB of OneDrive storage for two years and Lyve integration, bringing these backup options to all of the hard drives in the line up.
Bottom Line
The 4TB Backup Plus is a solid option for people who want a high capacity external hard drive that's compact and easily portable, plus it's one of the first 4TB 2.5' drives available. It's priced at $240, but sites like Amazon and Best Buy are selling it for $170 to $199, which is a much better deal and makes it a worthwhile purchase. Along with a high storage capacity, the Backup Plus offers features that can't be found elsewhere. With Seagate Dashboard, it can backup files across a range of devices, including mobile devices, and it's able to backup the photos you upload to sites like Facebook and Flickr in a way that's fast and hassle free. Performance is average and on par with other similar hard drives, so there's nothing special there, but the addition of Lyve makes this useful for people who want to use to automatically backup photos, and having 200GB of Microsoft OneDrive storage is also a nice perk, as it provides a way to make sure important files and photos are backed up on the drive and in the cloud. Pros:
High capacity
Slim, portable design
Classic look with minimal branding
Lots of software options
Microsoft OneDrive storage
Cons:
Pricier than some of the larger 4TB external drives
Performance is nothing special
How to Buy
The 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable has an MRSP of $240, but it can be purchased from Amazon.com for $179.99.
Tags: review, Seagate, Backup Plus Portable Hard Drive
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Seagate in January announced an updated lineup of its popular Backup Plus hard drives, debuting the Backup Plus Slim and the Backup Plus Portable, both of which are now available for purchase and are ideal for those who need lots of storage space at an affordable price. The Backup Plus Slim and the Backup Plus Portable are your average, run of the mill hard drives. The Backup Plus Slim is the thinner of the two models as it has less storage space, measuring in at 4.5 inches by 3 inches with a thickness of just about half an inch. The Backup Plus Portable is about the same size but it's close to an inch thick and about twice as heavy (eight ounces vs. four). Neither one of these drives takes up much space, so they're ideal for backup or other purposes and can be tucked away in a drawer afterwards. Design wise, the two hard drives are made from a black plastic material with a brushed aluminum front plate. The test models I have are in silver, but these also come in black, a light blue color, and red. The Backup Plus Slim offers 1TB or 2TB of storage, and the Backup Plus Portable is available with either 4TB or 5TB of storage space. Both are formatted to work with either Mac or Windows.
Seagate - Backup Plus Slim For Mac 1tb External Usb 3.0 Portable
These hard drives are using standard USB-A cables to plug into a computer, which means that you're going to need a USB-A to USB-C adapter if you want to use them with one of Apple's modern Macs. USB-C hard drives aren't much more expensive than these Seagate Backup hard drives, so it's maybe not even worth picking one of these up if you have a USB-C machine unless you're swapping files between computers and continue to have a Mac or Windows machine that uses USB-A. For older machines that still have USB-A ports, these hard drives will work well, and functionally, they're fine with an adapter on a USB-C machine. There's nothing special about the transfer speeds of the Backup Plus Slim and Backup Plus Portable. Seagate says they can reach transfer speeds of 120MB/s, and in my tests on a 2016 MacBook Pro with USB-C, I even saw transfer speeds a little bit higher at about 130MB/s.
Backup Plus Portable on left, Backup Plus Slim on right
You're not going to want to use standard hard drives in situations where you need fast file transfer capabilities, but for things like backups where you have hours to let a backup take place, these drives work well. Both hard drives come equipped with links to register them on Seagate's website, as well as options to download Seagate's Toolkit software for automatically syncing files between mirrored folders on the drive and on your Mac. You can use these with Windows and Mac machines right out of the box without the need to reformat.
Backup Plus Slim
Seagate Backup Plus Slim For Mac Not Working
Seagate sells these hard drives with a one-year Create plan for Mylio, photo organizing software that lets you upload photos to the cloud and access them on multiple devices, but after that year, it costs $50/year to use.
Backup Plus Portable
There's also free two month access to Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography plan, which costs $9.99/month to use after the trial period. Both Mylio and Creative Cloud are optional, so you don't need to sign up for them if you're not interested in those services.
Bottom Line
If you've made the swap over to USB-C and only have USB-C machines, Seagate's Backup Plus Portable and Backup Plus Slim probably aren't the best option for you, because you'll need a dongle. If you still use USB-A machines or a mix of USB-C and USB-A, however, these hard drives are an affordable way to get a lot of storage for things like Time Machine backups, offloading photos, and more.
How to Buy
Seagate's Backup Plus Slim is available from Amazon, with 1TB of storage priced at $55 and 2TB of storage priced at $70. The Backup Plus Portable is also available from Amazon with 4TB of storage priced at $110 and 5TB of storage priced at $125. Note: Seagate provided MacRumors with a Backup Plus Portable and Backup Plus Slim for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.
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