Product Comparison: Seagate Expansion vs Seagate Backup Plus Portable

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Seagate Expansion Portable 2.5 Inch External Hard Drive

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Seagate Backup Plus Portable External Hard Drive

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General Specifications

Brand

Seagate

Model

Expansion

Backup Plus (STDR5000100)

Origin

China

About the Product

The Seagate Expansion Portable hard drive offers an easy-to-use solution when you need to instantly add storage to your computer and take files on the go.

Seagate Backup Plus is an easy way to protect and share your digital life. Ready to go with up to 5TB of storage space for your most important files, the sleek and protective metal finish is available in classic black, silver, red or blue. Choose your flavor and join the millions of satisfied customers with one of Seagate’s most popular and trusted portable drive.

Key Specs

Storage Drive Type

Portable

Capacity

1000 GB

5000 GB

What customers say about "Key Specs"

Seagate Expansion Portable 2.5 Inch External Hard Drive

Great compact enclosures. I would suggest putting on some small rubber 'feet' on the base to lift it up and allow any heat to dissipate more freely.
I decided on this one purely because of the price point, the capacity, and the fact it was a Seagate!
This is my 4th Expansion 4 TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive but I have 7 more ranging between 1TB and 5TB capacity. The first I purchased in 2007 and have never looked back. All are going strong.
I bought the 2TB version. Usually, there's a tiny inaccuracy in the capacity. This version is actually 1.81 TB.
High-capacity HDDs are also a worry of course, because when they fail they take away a *lot* of data in one go, so these are only used for remote copies of data that is mirrored elsewhere on entirely different devices.

Seagate Backup Plus Portable External Hard Drive

I originally purchased this product for my Xbox One to increase my storage space, and it seems to work very well! The Xbox recognized the hard drive instantly and I had no issues setting it up. I simply plugged it in, and I was done.
A few years ago, the very idea of having 4 terabytes of storage on a single device seemed a ways off. But now having that much storage in a 2.5 inch diameter platter package is very satisfying. For a little over $100.00 that is very satisfying.
It is amazingly small and compact, not much bigger than my cell phone. It is an attractive blue color. It is good value for the money in terms of a full 4TB of storage. The packaging is very easy to open--no clamshell plastic.
I have 20 years of photos saved to this thing; it's about 1/4TB of space being used up.
I currently have two older EHD, and when I hooked this EHD to the same USB hub as them, my desktop PC would not allow me to eject this EHD. Worse, Windows would shut down, and I had to turn off the PC manually.
After 1 year, the device keeps telling me I need to reformat it. If I reformat the hard drive, I lose all my pictures. If I don't reformat the hard drive, I will eventually lose all my pictures due to a damaged drive. Lose-Lose situation.

Size & Weight

Color

Black

Height

0.58 in.

0.81 in.

Width

4.61 in.

3.07 in.

Depth

3.15 in.

4.51 in.

Weight

5.92 oz.

8.5 oz.

What customers say about "Size & Weight"

Seagate Expansion Portable 2.5 Inch External Hard Drive

Opening the box, the unit is very compact, but functionally has done everything we’ve asked of it.
This device is so compact and reliable you can take it anywhere. Excellent value for money. Highly-recommended.
I bought it because it was compact but wish I'd gone bigger or another one now because it does feel like the manufacturers did the minimal they could.
I’ve never had any data crashes or losses, and the hard drive itself it small and compact for the amount of data it stores.
Runs smoothly and is nice and compact.

Seagate Backup Plus Portable External Hard Drive

Quite compact and the front USB sockets are useful. Feet are on the end but no feet if you want to lay it down, but easy enough to add them
Really compact and easy to use (with MacBook Pro mid 2011, OS Yosemite).
It's super small and compact yet packs a strong punch performance wise.
A great compact HDD with tonnes of space for the money.
Aesthetically, it is a little bit plastic to the touch, but it is also very compact, light and convenient, and, to be honest, you are not going to be caressing it much.

Features

OS Compatibility

Windows 10/8/7/Vista

Windows, Mac OS

Interfaces

USB 3.0

Backup Function

Yes

Extras

Drag and drop file saving, right out of the box, Fast data transfer with USB 3.0 connectivity

Compatible with PlayStation 4 (Requires PS4 System Software Update 4.50 or higher), Sleek Portable Design., Auto Sync

Data Protection

Customisable Backup

What customers say about "Features"

Seagate Expansion Portable 2.5 Inch External Hard Drive

USB3.0 made loading the drive up for the boss a breeze. This feature is wasted on him, but will definitely benefit me down the line when adding new photos.
It could be quieter, but it has good power saving features such as shutting down when not plugged into a computer.
Works fine. Took a while to arrive. I can't give it 5 stars as durability and longevity are key features and I have just received it.
Note, this drive does not feature a Kensington slot.
Not too sure about the boasted feature that it doesn't need a power supply.

Seagate Backup Plus Portable External Hard Drive

Great disk, and what a value with 200GB of OneDrive. I was paying $4/month for 100GB OneDrive storage, so the 2 year free subscription is saving me $96 total, and I have twice the storage! Wow, I got the drive for free and got paid $40 to buy it.
That all being said, it's compact, it's a GREAT price for a TB of storage, the blue color is cute, and you get 200gb of free cloud storage for 2 years with purchase, so that's awesome.
It comes with a free copy of Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X (which only works on Seagate drives) which was a pleasant surprise. That software works so well that I've kept a large NTFS partition on the disk so I can also use it with my Windows PC and Synology NAS
Very small, much smaller than I thought, was thinking it was a larger form factor like the older archive drives I have. Nice.
Also be aware that if you, as I do, have an older computer with several outdated USB 2.0 ports, or a USB hub that is 2.0, this EHD won't work as well with them as with USB 3.0. If you need to use an extension data cable, be sure as well to buy 3.0.
After two months, the drive has started to beep when read attempts are made. No OS or computer can open it. We have lost several 100GB sized research projects. Linux, Windows, and OSX are unable to open it to reformat. Essentially, we have suffered exactly the kind of data loss we wanted to prevent

Included

Additional Accessories

USB 3.0 cable

Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive, Seagate Dashboard backup software, 18-inch (45.72cm) USB 3.0 cable, plug-and-play, NTFS driver for Mac, Quick start guide

Number Of Drives

Software

Seagate Dashboard software

Power

Power Supply

Via USB

USB 5V/0.5A

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

1 year(s)

Certifications

Other Information