Seagate Replica Backup Hard Drive System

Portable, Incremental Backup Drive For Windows

May 4, 2009 Chad Criswell

Backing up is important, and anything that makes the process easier almost becomes indispensable. The Seagate Replica Backup Drive may be one of those products.

With the growing amount of personal data, photographs and irreplacable video memories that are stored on hard drives in almost every home, having an easy to use backup solution is more important than ever.

Following in the footsteps of critically acclaimed backup options such as the Apple Time Machine, Seagate has released its new Replica backup drive, a portable hard drive with dock that can backup one or several different computers depending on the model being used.

What Makes The Seagate Replica Hard Drive Different Than Other External Hard Drives?

Portable hard drives are becoming almost a ubiquitous part of computer use. Small and cheap, they allow a user to carry hundreds of gigabytes of data with them from place to place with the convenience of just plugging in a USB cable to access it.

The Seagate Replica is similar to other types of external hard drive in that it provides extra storage, but the purpose of data stored on the Replica is provide a backup only. The Replica system backs up files incrementally, keeping multiple versions of frequently used files. Going back to a previous version is fairly simple, but all of the extra copies makes the hard drive fill up faster than it would if the user was making a single copy.

Users need to remember that the Seagate Replica is not a portable hard disk in the strictest sense of the term.

While files can be copied off of the Replica and onto the computer's hard drive, files cannot be manually dragged and dropped in the other direction. The drive fills itself with data as the files are edited or saved. That having been said, the Replica does one thing that most traditional portable USB hard drives do not.

The Replica makes a complete clone of the computer's hard drive, meaning that should the original drive fail the system can be easily repaired by restoring the image back to a newly installed replacement. Restoring a saved disc image requires booting the system to a special CD-ROM that is included with the Replica package.

What Do The Reviews Say About The Seagate Replica Hard Drive?

While the Replica scores fairly high marks for convenience and ease of use, not all reviews of the product were wholly positive. Some reviewers reported problems with certain hard drive configurations, particularly in netbook computers, that made it difficult to back up drives other than the C: partition.

Others felt that the fact that the drive's lack of drag and drop support was an issue, but remember that the intent of this backup drive is to essentially set it and forget it. The Replica is not intended to be a standard portable hard drive, and those requiring that degree of utility should avoid it.

Speed of the backup was also mentioned as a potential problem with the drive, but again the purpose of the drive is to backup files over the long term. If the drive is left plugged into the computer as it is intended, the initial backup may be slow but incremental backups thereafter will be much faster.

While there may be some quirks that leave some users wanting more from the Seagate Replica Backup Hard Drive, in general the drive seems to do what it is designed to do and do it at a reasonable price point. A single computer backup unit sells for around $130 while the 500GB multi-computer model sells for around $200.

Either is a worthwhile investment for those that want to have an easy to use, hassle free backup solution for their computer.

The copyright of the article Seagate Replica Backup Hard Drive System in Computer Hardware/Accessories is owned by Chad Criswell. Permission to republish Seagate Replica Backup Hard Drive System in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Seagate Replica Hard Drive

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May 6, 2009 7:35 AM

Guest :

Sounds great but it lacks some important features for me, since I mostly backup external HDD, network drives and USB drives from both my Pc and Mac. Most providers don't have these features but this wasn't a problem for SafeCopy (www.safecopybackup.com). It allows me to do the above features plus I can share the same account for both my Mac and Pc. I'm very happy with it and it's worth checking out.

Jan 21, 2010 3:35 PM

Guest :

I found it helpful. I am a novice and so had trouble deciding on an external hard drive. What I had read before indicated that Replica restores only to computers with the same operating system, so I was reluctant to buy it, thinking if my computer went down I might get a different model, but apparently that is not an issue. One need only download Replica software. Another concern was from what I had read before you couldn't select stored files when restoring to a new computer, but apparently you can do that. As the writer indicated, I am not interested in backing up files manually and separately but would like to do that if a restore were necessary. For example, I restored to a new computer the operating software wouldn't be needed, but I would like to keep my favorites. So I'm thinking I will get the Replica instead of the Free Agent. I'm thinking I will disconnect it while using the computer, and reconnect it when I'm ready for the backup. My computer seems to run pretty slow as it. The sort of information is totally valuable to novice user like myself and I certainly appreciate experts taking the time to present the information online with a minimum use of technical language or with definitions if the language is needed. Thanks.

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