If you talk to your favorite geek, he or she will ask you if you backup your data regularly. In an age where more and more of our precious memories and records are completely digital, it is crazy not to make backups of your data, so you might want to consider the Seagate 4TB Backup Plus External Hard Drive as a part of your backup strategy.
In the box you get the drive itself, a power brick, a USB 3.0 cable, and a quick-start guide.
Note that the drive’s case is plastic, with sharp edges and corners, so it’s not meant to be a portable backup solution — it’s meant to sit on your desk. Also note that the unit does not have an on/off switch — it’s always ready for backup.
There are PC and Mac versions — if you are comfortable formatting a hard drive, then one tip is to pick whichever PC/Mac version of the desired capacity is cheaper, then format the drive for your particular computer. For example, I chose the PC version of this drive since it was cheaper than the Mac version, then formatted it using my Mac laptop so I can use the drive for Time Machine backups.
In the video I take a close look at the drive and what’s in the box, as well as how to format the drive (if you have a Mac):
In use I found the drive to be relatively quiet with fast data transfer, and the drive seemed to do a good job of heat dissipation — the drive casing was only slightly warm after hours of heavy use.
So I’m happy with the drive and have incorporated this into my backup strategy.
Pricing and Availability: Seagate 4TB Backup Plus External Hard Drive (aff)