Seagate 1TB Backup Plus Review

Working on the amount of projects that I do (humblebrag), I need to make back-ups of my work on a regular basis just incase anything bad happens. To assist with this, Ebuyer sent us a Seagate Backup Plus 1TB, so let’s put it to the test!

The Seagate Backup Plus 1TB comes in a surprisingly small package which, as you would expect, details information about the product to its target demographic. Gone are the days of RPM and model numbers. Bask in the glory of the Facebook-era, where the need for a 1TB external hard drive is merely to backup your holiday snaps in Facebook-reduced quality! Besides this boast of social-connections, the device does display it’s storage space, two year warranty period (the details of which can be found in a PDF on the device), USB 3.0 connection, as well as both Mac and PC compatibility. The packaging also shows a 1:1 scale replica on the side as to how slim the hard drive actually is (at only 12.1 millimeters in height).

Inside there is a quick start guide (which effectively serves to inform the user of how to connect a USB to a computer in twenty or so different languages), the device itself, and a cable to connect it to your computer. The hard drive itself has a satisfying matte finish to it and whilst it isn’t heavy, the weight does feel solid. Much like most devices these days, the Seagate Backup Plus’ exterior is nothing but a sleek black oblong, with a port for the cable to connect to and a light on-top to show you it’s receiving power. Whilst this has a USB 3.0 connection (as indicated by the blue USB connector), it can still be used via a USB 2.0 connection as well, however, you will receive a slower transfer rate to and from the device.

When plugged into a PC, the contents of the device are instantly displayed on your computer alongside your other hard drives. The only two things of real importance to you at this point are the Warranty PDF and the Seagate Dashboard Installer which gives access to the additional functionality of the drive. Whilst you don’t need to install this software, as the hard drive will function just like any other drive would without it, I suggest installing the dashboard as it helps with the management of the device, as well as adding a selection of additional functions to it.

If you do install it, there isn’t a lot to manage, but you can switch the device’s light on and off, test that it’s working correctly, and set it to power saving mode. Also from within this dashboard, you can add in ‘Cloud services’ such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Once you’ve added a Cloud service, you can then use the Seagate Dashboard to backup to these services too.

From the main menu, you have the options to backup your PC, mobile, and social media, as well as restore data from a previous backup. In the PC Backup section, you have the ability to use a default setting which will backup anything in a specified directory when a file is changed, provided the hard drive is connected. You can also setup your own schedule and decide what gets backed up and when. This was a nice addition for me personally as it is rare that I want to back absolutely everything up as I have run seven different internal hard drives which total about 3 TB.

My current backup solution is Dropbox so, as a test, I transferred a 2GB file to both Dropbox and the Seagate Backup Plus 1TB to see which one stored the file the fastest. Transferring to the external hard drive took approximately 20 seconds transferring at ~100MB/s - Dropbox took approximately 25 minutes uploading at ~1MB/s so quite obviously, it is a faster solution, but then also doesn’t have the benefit of Cloud-based storage. I tried these tests a few times at different points in the day to remove any anomalies.

Overall, the Seagate Backup Plus 1TB is a viable backup solution at a price point of approximately £55. The device itself is very compact and lightweight but still feels like a well built, solid unit. Due to its USB 3.0 connectivity, it ensures transfers at a very high speed making transferring large quantities of data a breeze. The accompanying software is light on resources and I particularly liked the addition of cloud-based storage. If you’re currently in the market for a backup hard drive, this is a valiant contender in the field!