Back-to-School? Back-Up Your Data!

Remember when cell phones and laptops and digital cameras were reserved for the "rich and famous"?

It wasn't that long ago actually.

high-school-friendsNo one I knew had a laptop in high school (see left: a friend and me on our senior class trip at Disneyland). Not even the teachers. Our "computer lab" consisted of a row of gigantic monitors with equally huge boxes underneath the desks (where we could insert our CDROMS). And, of course, there was no Wi-Fi.

I wrote most of my essays on paper with pencils (wow, that seems so archaic now). My teachers marked up the essays with pen.

At home, my family had one computer, where we used dial-up to check our Juno e-mail account (we had one e-mail account for the whole family) and to play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego.

We used old cameras and we developed film at Costco and Walgreens.

We talked on a corded phone, attached to the kitchen wall - where everyone could hear everyone else's conversation. My mom would snap her fingers in our direction if we started to get too loud when she was on the phone.

Things were a little bit different in college, but only a little bit. I got my first cell phone, but there wasn't texting on the plan and there certainly wasn't a camera or anything like that. I took a photography class, but everyone still had film-cameras (no SLRs or anything like that).

Now - things are different. I'm immersed in blogging, Twittering, texting, Facebooking, googling, and photoshopping. I have a laptop, an iPhone, and a wireless internet connection. When I have a problem, I google it. When I want to invite a friend to lunch, I send a quick text. I use Facebook to remind me of upcoming birthdays. My life is simpler now (and more complicated too, I suppose...it depends on how you look at it).

Technology has changed a lot in my life time (that's the understatement of the year, I think) and I'm only in my mid-twenties. Things for my children will be much different. Education will be much different. It already is.

If you have a tween, teen, or college student heading to school this fall, they probably have a cell phone and use the computer daily. The computer is where they connect with friends, store their pictures, watch movies, listen to music, and...do homework.

Needless to say, computers store LOTS of valuable data - and you don't want to be stuck in a hard place if your computer (or your child's computer) crashes. There's nothing quite like losing a 10-page term paper, a resume, pictures from the senior class trip, and a million other important documents and files...all in one fell swoop.

Be prepared this school year by BACKING UP. You've heard about it. It's been on your to-do list. Now, you just need to do it. Before it's too late.

When you do, consider Seagate's FreeAgent Go an/or Go for Mac (depending on your computer of choice) for your back-up needs.

If you have a PC, consider...

freeagent-go-seagateThe FreeAgent Go comes in 10 different colors and 5 different sizes (160-640GB), and ranges in price from $89.99-$199.99.

If you have a Mac, consider...

freeagent-go-for-macThe FreeAgent Go for Mac comes in sleek and stylish silver, is available in 3 different sizes (250, 320, and 500 GB), and ranges in price from $99.99-$149.99.

As you do your back-to-school shopping, don't forget to add a back-up drive to your list (along with crayons, calculators, and capris...).

Keep your documents and multimedia files safe and secure this school year with Seagate. I think you'll be very glad that you did.

seagate logoWIN IT! There will be two winners. Each winner will receive a FreeAgent Go {in his/her choice of color} OR FreeAgent Go for Mac by Seagate. To enter, leave any topic-related comment on this post prior to Tuesday, August 11th at midnight (Don’t forget to follow the rules…all generic comments like “Enter me!,” “Love it,” and “Cool stuff!” will be disqualified.).

*UPDATE* The winners are #62 Heather S and #117 damon. Congratulations!

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236 comments on “Back-to-School? Back-Up Your Data!”

  1. Thank you so much!! I am so excited to be a winner!! I posted how I had problems with my laptop and lost data. This will help me preserve all my pics and documents. It is very needed and appreciated. Thank you for the great contest!

    Heather

  2. I just woke up and the first thought was I need to start looking for a notebook. No kidding! First things first...looked at your site and saw this comment. I've previously bought, and had great experience with Vision Computers. Thanks for opening the playing field with your selection. I need my teenagers off my laptop!
    Thanks Stephanie!

  3. The FreeAgent Go would certainly be a great item to have! Last year, my computer crashed and my hard drive was fried...it was awful. I only had a few photos and files saved on my flash drive, so I ended up losing so many precious photos that still makes me sad thinking about it. I definitely never want that to happen again and I'll have to look into getting one of these.

  4. I would use the Seagate to back up all my personal documents. I lost a ton of important documents last year when my PC went on the frizt.

  5. The last time my computer crashed I lost all the photos I had taken just a few days before. Forgot to back them up.

  6. My computer is on its last leg and all of our digital photos are on my computer. I could really use this.

  7. Thanks for the giveaway... A SEAGATE FreeAgent Go for Mac is a great, must have, for any Mac user; perfect compact size for travel, school, or office use to back up & store data. Although Macs ARE the perfect computer (!!!), even they need to be backed up...

  8. I try to get back up our files regularly, but I tend to forget. Once when our nearly 8 year old mac hard drive died we lost a bunch of our kids photos and had no replacements, I was so disappointed. It would be great to have a FreeAgent Go for mac for this very reason. Thanks for the chance to win one.

  9. This would be super useful for me to archive my photos, I take tons of pictures and would love the assurance that they are safe!

  10. I somehow never can get myself to delete old files and such...even if it's music I never listen to! I have an extra hard drive and it's already almost full!

    As for the mac vs. pc thing...I've never owned a mac, and every time I use one, I end up totally confused!

  11. I lost all my data on an old laptop from college. I thought I was pretty cool to have a laptop, then. Most students didn't. Mine was an old one from my grandfather's workplace. They upgraded and I got his old one. It was great until it crashed and I lost all my term papers. I was supposed to be backing up on a Zip disc. I also had a cell phone, which was almost the length of a brick and heavy.

    I would choose the Mac version. Thanks!

  12. Somehow I haven't lost any data yet - not really sure how as I am pretty lazy when it comes to backing things up which is rather embarrassing. This would really help.

  13. This is great because in this computer age you really need to back up the information on your computer. You could have a computer crash at any time and lose all of your needed data.

  14. seagate has some great products i always worry about losing my pics those are the only thing i really worry about because family pics cant be replaced if that crash happens like it just did on my other computer thank god i had backed those up

  15. Wow, your college experience was much different from mine. Computers were unheard of except in movies. There were no phones in the individual dorm rooms, just one main switchboard with a phone in the hallway. Now mind you that was in 1958 - eons ago!
    Now I have cable internet, a cell phone, iPod, laptop and so many other gadgets it's amazing.
    One drawback, no one, especially businesses seems to know how to do anything without a computer. Sad.

  16. ooh these drives sound great. My computer is about 5 1/2 years old and has suffered through two power supply replacements a hard drive replacement and a destructive restore(after being hit with a virus). I'm sure I lost stuff; I just don't back it up often enough. Winning this drive would encourage me to do more frequent backups!

    Thanks for the giveaway!

  17. This would be great for my daughter who just had her new baby yesterday and is still in the hospital. She is going to have lots of pictures and this would sure come in handy!

  18. I feel so old. We used slide rulers in college. When Texas Instruments made the first scientific calculator, only the college professors could afford them. They came with a lock and key and were bolted to the professor's desks.

  19. Backing up photos, files etc is one of those things on my to-do list that never gets done!

    And how is it that you look the same as you did in high school =)

  20. I really enjoyed this article, and I can so relate to when technologies like cell phones and laptops were only for the rich and famous, and in such a short time look how far we have indeed progressed. Truly, the sky is the limit when we think about where technology will be when our kids are our age, it blows me away to blue sky that one! The FreeAgent Go for Mac is what we really need. I am still in the dark ages with how I back up our files, still use CD's to back them up so having this FreeAgent Go for Mac would bring us into the 21st century for sure! Thanks so much for the chance to enter!

  21. I have seen many friends lose all their photos, videos, etc without any backup and it's always such a shame.
    This is a terrific solution to data storage backup needs.

  22. I work at best buy and let me tell you a huge thing we get is people coming in with crashed computers. They lost all their photos, word documents, music, everything! Its sad to see something like that because I went through the same thing a few years back before I switched to Macs. Now I back some stuff online and on my boyfriends portable hard drive but I need one of my own! I take a ton of photos and this would be so helpful!

  23. Oh this is great, we were just discussing that we need to get a new external hard drive to store all of our data. I remember once in high school I lost a huge paper that was worth 80% of our grade - and I lost it the night before it was due. It was an absolute nightmare!

  24. I'd love to win a Freeagent Go for my PC in Ruby Red, it'd match my computer (which is named Ruby!). I've already had one external HDD full of backed up pictures die catastrophically, I'm always looking for a reliable backup device!

    It's dreadfully ironic when your backups die and your originals are all intact.

  25. The FreeAgent Go, in Ruby Red, would add some color to an already color-whelmed desk -- I missed the part about just which storage size is available...

    Oh, BTW -- never can tell whether "Midnight" is at the beginning of the day, or at the end of the day... 11:59:59PM of a specific day would uncon-few-zzle your attentive public!

    Thanks for the chance!

    (and I'm struck by your Disney-memory photograph -- you've matured gracefully -- very awesome!)

  26. it's funny how we say we're going back up or data and then when we come real close to losing it we are frantically trying to get it together. i still have only my pics on back up. the other stuff well i'll guess if it goes it goes. or maybe not if i win. lol

  27. well i have an old hard drive i use to backup but it is old and slow and annoying so i tend to push off doing it which is really bad if something goes wrong and i'll lose everything.

  28. We just got married this summer and have lots of pictures from the wedding, which got us to start thinking that we really need to back them up! It would be terrible to lose them if something happened to the computer. Right now they are just stored on the hard drive. The Free Agent Go for Mac would be great for us! Thanks for the giveaway!

  29. I'd have a few hard drives go down on me. This would definitely spare at least some important data.

  30. I love that they have that many color varieties, my favorite would probably be the Ruby Red one.
    As for my backup system right now, well it consists of usb stix and dvds lol.

  31. My current data storage scheme is pretty laughable - about a half dozen flash/thumb drives and my Yahoo briefcase, as well as a few dozen data CDs, hold all of my photos, files, music, and documents. Would love the chance to win a Seagate to centralize my back-ups and stop the insanity - thanks!

  32. I need this so badly - I worry all the time about losing my stuff but other things are on the need-to-buy list first!

  33. My computer just came back from being fixed and I lost all my photos and documents, stories my daughter typed on my computer:(

  34. My first computer had a tape drive. I also remember learning to do calculations on a slide rule. Now I couldn't live without my laptop.

  35. We need a backup for all of our photos. We had an external harddrive, but my son dropped it and it broke! Love that I can choose the color.

  36. This would be very useful for us, either one, I use PC and my husband is a Mac fan. And his birthday is next month... :)

  37. I'm going back to school next semester and this would be wonderful! I would love to be able to make sure I don't lose any of my hard work! Thanks for the chance.

  38. I have been pretty lucky in that I haven't lost any data yet. It would be wonderful to have the seagate to back up my information.

  39. hubby has a maxtor for work - I have nothing for our personal files. Would love to be able to keep our stuff safe with a new red seagate freeagent go.

  40. Dude, I played the same thing- Where in the World Was Carmen.. I beat that game finally by the 8th grade :) I remember when 'games' on those monsters consisted of printing out cool pictures!

    I would love to win the Seagate FreeAgent Go for Mac. Thanks for the opportunity to win!

  41. Wow, you haven't changed much since High School, lucky! I'd love this to backup all our family pics. Thanks for the chance!

  42. I haven't had my laptop for that long (about 3 years) but it is fairly sketchy. Always has been. It's not like we bought a crappy one, this one just has always had its issues and lately it freezes up or needs to be restarted even more than before. I'd be devastated to lose everything I have stored on here though, I really should back things up.

    And hey, what's up with making fun of Juno? I still have an account through them and it works just fine, thank you very much!

  43. We just got a new computer a few months ago and we never think that anything will happen to it, but you never know! This would be great to back up the important stuff :-)

  44. I use external drives for backup as well as for shared file storage. I use multiple laptops for work and for the kids and this is the best way to maintain files, barring a real disaster.

  45. I'd love to be able to back up easily! Last month I got a bunch of trojans on my laptop and we just replaced the hard drive and started over! It would be great to make sure I could have all of my stuff if it happened again!

  46. Sadly, last summer my old laptop hard-drive crashed on me and I lost everything. I wish I had a back-up then. Which should probably be a lesson to me to have a back-up now, I could really use the FreeAgent Go for the PC, especially to back up my school papers and my precious pictures that I don't want to lose a second time around. Thank you so much!

  47. Either one of these would be wonderful to have! Living in Houston where we get hurricanes and have to evacuate every now and then it would be great to have something to back up important documents and all of our pictures and be able to take it with us if we do have to evacuate. No more worrying if those things are going to be ruined!

  48. My computer's hard drive doesn't have very much space left on it, so a portable hard drive would be pretty useful to have. Plus, they look really cool.

  49. My husband has been wanting one of these to back up his music and pictures. I would love to win it for him.
    Thanks!

  50. I really need this because my laptop is getting older and i'm so afraid I'm going to lose everything on my hard drive and I dont have anything to back it up.

  51. We lost all of our pictures twice before my dh would back up our data. A hard lesson to learn with something you can't get back.

  52. I keep postponing backing up my data. It would be suc a tragedy to lose all the pictures of my kids which are all on the computer. We rarely print any pictures these days..

  53. I am obsessive about backing up my pics, but currently have to do it to dvd. But my question is why aren't there more colors for mac available?! :)

  54. I could definitly use a Free Agent Drive - I'm looking at laptops now and know that all my pictures will not fit on the laptops hard drive...this may be my solution!

  55. Ugh. I have lost pics before and they were priceless. They were pics of my parents only visit to NYC. I am now probably overly cautious, but photos are sooo important to me.

  56. This is such a painful topic for me right now. On Friday my hard drive died, taking with it all of my photos, and every bit of work I've done in the past year. I'm a freelance writer so I've lost manuscripts, articles, everything. Back up? Yes - we have 2 external storage drives. Sadly, we found that my back up program was not working correctly and had not backed up in a year. I now have a shiny new laptop, a large bill looming for data recovery, an external drive for back ups and an online back up system set up. You can never be too careful.

  57. You have *fabulous* giveaways! My husband is an artist/writer and I have continually thought about buying him a backup drive, but never find the extra$. This would be great.

  58. I need all the technological help I can get because I am an internet user who tends to be cluttered and organized.

  59. I really need to back up my pictures. I have some on cd's but they could get scratched. This would be a better way to go.

  60. I would love the FreeAgentGo (in pink). Recently my Inspiron Dell laptop's harddrive crashed. I lost everything! Artwork, scripts, and tons of treasured photos. It was very sad, but I did learn a lesson. As an artist, photographer, and writer I have a lot of files! I could REALLY use this! Great blog and thanks!

  61. I am nervous about losing my data. I have tons of pictures and I manage a reunion mailing list for my Navy neighbor. My husband also has a lot of music. I would love to have a Seagate to back-up everything. Thanks.

  62. I would love to have one of these so I don't ever lose my pictures. Pictures are the only thing that we can look back on with our kids and remember the day they were took.

  63. YES! I would love to win the Seagate FreeAgent Go for PC in light blue. In fact I would love to win it in ANY COLOR!!!

  64. I recently had a trojan on my computer. I knew it was there because it was blocking my anti virus software from working.

    My first order of business, before handling the trojan, was backing up my pictures and music. I couldn't even stand the thought of losing them.

    Trying to do all of this on numerous little thumb drives was absolutely ridiculous. Having one of these drives from Seagate would be great!

  65. My husband and I were shopping for a external hard drive for me right now and I logged onto your website because I remembered a previous review of these babies. What do you know- you are so "relevant" that I only had to scroll through a few posts to find the info I was looking for! Needless to say I am desperate to win one of these:) My ancient PC is sooo slow and we are hoping that by storing big files elsewhere we won't have to drop the cash on a new computer just yet... just wasting too much time waiting for this thing to catch up. My husband's ibook is looking better everyday...

  66. Most of my photos are backed up to cd's but my newest stuff is not. I totally know better, I have had a couple of crashes at home that have lost my music AND I also had two at work that I lost everything.

  67. We live 1200 miles from our oldest son and the rest of our siblings and parents. Needless to say the don't have pc's. My son has a mp3 player so when we go to visit he wants us to bring our pc so he can download music from ours to his, well our laptop is on its last leg and i would really hate to lose all our music and pictures that happened a while back when somehow my daughter got a virus/worm that messed up our pc and everything was lost we just started getting all our stuff built back up again. I know the prices are coming down on the portable external hard drives but since we are a one income family and have kids in school that need the pc for school work most of everything is out of our budget. So having the FreeAgent in the darker blue would be one very very important worry and stress off of me.

    Thank you so very very much

    camper223[at]live[dot]com

  68. I can't believe how cheap these portable drives are these days. I remember about 5 years ago when it was amazing when internal hard drive prices came down to $1 per GB. Now we have these small external drives that hold 500GB for $100. I could really use one of these for backup purposes too. My current external drive is only like 100GB and it has been pretty full for a long time.

  69. My hard drive crashed and burned last year and I lost tons of photos and all my iTunes; I was crushed. I still don't have a reliable back-up system besides using DVD's to backup at least my iTunes.

  70. Technology is certainly changing. I need new technology to back-up my data stored on my technologically old laptop. Thanks for the contests.

  71. You are so right, backing up my computer has been on my to do list for over a year and I've never gotten around to it. My son is starting his school next week and I think it would be a great idea to get into the habit of backing up everything on our hard drive, especially his papers.

  72. After recently deciding to go back to school to learn a new career I'm finding myself looking at purchasing a device to "backup" my school work. Things are sure different than they were 20 yrs ago when I was in college, no laptops, just good ole pen or pencil and lots and lots of paper filled notebooks. I'm looking forward to going back to school now with all the technology available to make things easier to learn.

  73. Hard drive karma glitches await those computer jockeys who feel it "will never happen to them". These HDKGs have weird senses of humor and I suspect somewhere in their planes of being they watch videos of the faces of those they pranked with their presence filmed at the very moment their antics were discovered. Priceless!

  74. I would love to have the FreeAgent to save my pictures and music. I've not been good with backing them up and would hate to lose them.

  75. Man do I need one of these! My Mac suffered a death (my old Mac a I guess) and took all of my files, photos and songs with it. So sad :(

  76. I think you are making a good point with adding this to a back-to-school discussion. I have not thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense. Even for people without kids, it is a good reminder to do this just in case. Better safe than sorry. If I am the lucky winner, I would use the one for regular PC's--I do not own a mac. Would be fun to pick the color too (probably go with blue...) Thanks!

  77. I've taken to storing my external hard drive in the fireproof safe as an additional precaution - an additional way to make sure all that stuff I've backed up will stay safe in case of an emergency. I work as a graphic designer so I have lots and lots of files to back up. I've been thinking about getting another external drive in order to back up personal files (mostly pictures of my kids!) and business files in two separate places. Winning this would be the cheap way to do that!

  78. You can't even begin to imagine how much I need one of these handy-dandy gadgets. My job requires extensive internet research and I am forever creating endless spreadsheets, documents, etc. It would be devastating to lose all of my work.
    I have read several excellent reviews for the Seagate FreeAgent Go. Thanks so much for the generous giveaway -- I would be SO thrilled to win!
    Aimee
    sierranelsby (at) gmail (dot) com

  79. When I was in HS they taught us typing. No computers at all. Imagine if we were taught what these kids are taught now??

  80. This is awesome info. I lost a lot of my work when I was in college once and had to take my laptop to someone to recover it, and I lost all of the pictures of my son before the age of 1 which I still cry about from time to time. So I am a big fan of backing up info. I have been using silly little usb backups just cause they are cheap but I have to buy so many that I think it is pretty ridiculous.

  81. I love the dark red Seagate 500 GB backup drive. This would be a great boon for me (and my computer).
    Great prize!

  82. I'd love to win a Seagate 500 GB backup drive. It would ease up my computer space and allow it to run better. How neat. Nice contest.

  83. It is amazing the heartbreak you feel when your computer dies and takes all your pics and files with it. I had a laptop that did this to me earlier this year. I haven't had the $ for a back up system and I think about it every day! I kept the hard drive in hopes that some day I can pay someone {somehow} to retrieve the info. It has all my son's baby pictures from birth to almost a year and a half! {Heartbreak}
    webleane{at}yahoo{dot}com
    Winning this FreeAgent Go would make my life so much better by just relieving the stress of '...what if my computer dies today...' kind of thoughts/emotions!!!
    I remember the days without any of these technologies and I am amazed at all the advances. The FreeAgent Go is just one more step in technology that makes life better. Losing your memories on your hard drive is devastating! This is an awesome giveaway! AND one that is much needed, not just in our house, but by anyone with a computer.
    If I won, I would love to have my FreeAgent Go in Green. {{Green means GO, right?!}}
    2 winners is very generous. Thanks so much for this giveaway!!!

  84. I have to say I love my 500gb Go drive, it is easy to use and fast as heck but my husband kind of commandeered it for his own storage purposes and I am going to be going to finish my degree this fall and would love to have another one I can bring with me to school and it would be great to get it for free instead of buy it! Though if I don't win I will probably buy one anyway lol. I love how you can set it up to automatically back up the stuff yu choose automatically and you can set up how frequently you want it to back up your files and at what time. I love it.

  85. Funny to hear you mention not having a laptop in high school. When I was in high school (late 70's), I remember writing programs saved on paper tape. The Seagate you're offering would be a lot more durable and convenient!
    Thanks!

  86. I recently got a virus on my computer and the only way possible to make it work was to take it back to factory settings.
    It was so bad that there was no way to retrieve personal information from my computer before doing so. So I lost everything.
    All of our vacation pictures,my childrens pictures,wedding pictures,work items etc.
    It is truly one of the saddest days that I have had in a long time.
    I have put a backup device on the list of things that I need. But it just hasn't been possible yet.
    Thank you so much for the chance to win.

  87. I am that person that has lost everything because my hard drive crashed/died and still I have not learned my lesson and made a backup of all my music, documents and photos.

  88. I have SOOOOO many pictures on my computer that it has seriously slowed down my computer to the point where it takes an hour to boot it up! This would help me tremendously!

  89. Oh, yeah. I so remember the good old days. I remember our first car phone. They weren't called cell phones way back when because they were too big to actually go anywhere other than your car.
    I've actually been looking into getting some kind of back up. I back up my pics, but I'm running out of space and need more.

  90. I have been wanting one for a while because I have to do a system restore often for some reason, and never have anything to backup my data its really a pain

  91. We finally have back drives for our computers, but I'd love to win one for my mom. Anyone thinking Christmas gifts yet?

  92. You got me to thinking about how the internet has changed since I first started college. Okay, there WAS NO INTERNET when I was an undergrad. Then in Grad school they started having email. Still no websites with HTML and such. I remember typing out stilted messages on my computer and feeling so modern when I got a response. Feeling old now...

  93. Wow! My DH would absolutely love one of those! He has just been on a kick recently on backing up everything from scanning in documents to be able to have a copy on a smaller unit or backing up some kind of file that he has. It has been interesting, but it would be nice to have a back up unit of my own.

  94. This would be excellent for storing so many important things we have. I love how you have these things on your blog, I learn things that I would never know about. Still my husband and I are considering different options. He starts school again in a few weeks and this would be really nice to have. Thanks Stephanie.

  95. I returned one of these to Costco because my husband couldn't figure out how to get it working. I suspect there was an update or something on the site he could have looked for, but he's way too impatient. I was going to take a look myself, but if I were to get it working when he couldn't... I decided to pick my battles, LOL! I just got my first laptop (a Mac) and was planning to buy one for myself. winning one would be so much better!

    *I agree with #89, purple would be fantastic!

  96. I would love to have one of these to back up my computer! I have so many pictures and music that it would be great to have it backed up.

  97. You can never have enough space to back stuff up - this looks like a great little device. Would love to win the PC silver one.

  98. I'm really bad at backing up our photographs. It seems like I never get around to it. Every now and then, I upload them to a site that I can get them printed up.

  99. This would be so awesome to have. I had a computer crash and lost everything! I do not ever want to go through that again! :)

  100. We lost our hard drive on our main computer not too long ago. Would have been a lot less stressful if we'd had everything important on one of these too.

  101. We just backed up all of our photos on CDs to put in the safe deposit box. I'd love to have a cute back up that holds all of our data though! Thanks.

  102. I am so amazed at all the latest technology. I am only acquainted with a fraction of it, but I do understand the necessity of backing up! I would love to win this for a PC in black.
    [email protected]

  103. This is such a great idea using the FreeAgent Go to do backups. For the longest time, I have been backing up the family's important data on CDs. This would make things so much more simpler and easier to do.

  104. We finally got a my book device to back up our stuff. I take a gazillion pictures though so it would be really nice to have a backup for just me!

  105. I have been looking for an external hard drive for backing up my photos and music. I worry about a crash, after all, I have Windows LOL. The problem is deciding which one to buy. As I search through reviews & opinions, I see pro's and con's for every major maker. "It's the best" "It's the worst" for every one. A knowledgeable cyberpal says Seagate is the best. So this would be a great one to get!

  106. I'd really like to actually start backing up my computer... I keep delaying! If I win, please send me the green PC version!

  107. Our son is in college and could use one of these for his MAC Computer! He does a lot of homework and tests online. Please count me in.
    Many thanks, Cindi

  108. This is just what I have been needing for the past year. I have had three failed hard drives already and I need a separate one just for backup data

  109. I wish I had some sort of backup system set up before my main computer stopped working a few weeks ago. When it's working again, I will definitely want something to protect my files so that I won't have to worry anymore!

  110. I would love to have a way to backup all of the videos files that I edit. I end up with all kinds of little clips of video that are very time consuming to backup to DVD or CD so I don't do it as often as I should. This would definitely solve that dilemma.

  111. I'm a new-ish photographer and I've got WAY too many files that would kill me if they decided to one day wake up and get lost. This would be fabulous!

  112. We definitely need something like this in our house. My three daughters use the computer for school work constantly!

  113. Just seeing this prize makes me feel guilty that I haven't backed up my important stuff lately. My MP3 player only holds 1/10 of the music on my computer and I'd die if I lost all my embroidery designs!

  114. I would love to win this, currently me and my brother use a small usb drive to move items back and forth alot of times.

  115. I hope that I win this...it seems like it's easy to back up my photos onto it. Since it's easy...I'll then start to backup.

  116. The is a necessity for anyone with a computer! I've learned the hard way, as I suspect most have, to back up regularly! My oldest daughter has her own laptop, and my youngest will be getting one for school next year. Thanks for the offer!

  117. This item is a must for anyone in college.You do not want to lose hours of work especialy if it is a paperthat you have to turn in.

  118. I learned the importance of backing up your data when my laptop had a problem with a windows update. I had backed up some but not all of my data. I had to do a restore on my computer and lost some pics and games. I was not a happy camper. So I am looking for a good backup system to make sure that never happens again. Thanks!

  119. I need something to save my photos. Our PC is getting old and I am worried that some day I will lose everything I have stored on it over the years

  120. The thumb drive I was using to back up my data was too small to save everything, and it crashed in May. I've been paranoid ever since, so I would love to have the FreeAgent Go for Mac. Thank you for the offer!

  121. I recently dropped my computer and busted the screen, so I sent it in to get fixed. They said that they might have to clear the hard drive in the process of fixing it, but I got it back today and they didn't have to! Thank goodness, but I could have used a nifty external hard drive to make sure everything was safe and sound!

  122. Wow! I love the photo! Makes me miss those days a little bit :)
    Isn't it crazy how quickly things have changed? It really wasn't that long ago that we were in highschool... and now... wow. Perhaps we will see as much change in our lifetimes as our grandparents did in theirs. I can't imagine.

  123. Oh man, I *reeeeallly* need to do this. I back-up our photos on a 1st-gen. iPod, but my poor Mac needs something like this for client files. My old hard drive is configured for my PC, which now RIP and I haven't bit the bullet yet and bought one.

  124. I would love to protect my daughter's schoolwork on this drive... The best thing about it is she can do research on any computer available and have all the info she already has just a wire away...

  125. 640 gigs would be overkill to back up my school data, however the additional storage space would allow me to back up ALL my data. The sleek design would attract the attention of my classmates and give me the opportunity to tell them about how reliable my new Seagate FreeAgent Go is, in addition to looking so attractive. I could tell them about the optional features really enhancing their experience when they buy the Seagate FreeAgent. Go wireless!

  126. Except for my system restore, I have no backup-so this would be an amazing product to own. Think pink is sooo pretty, that's my choice. Freeagent Go...to me!

  127. These are great for saving the day sad for me I had to learn the hard way to back up for my computer crashed really bad twice andI lost everything

  128. well do to nature and wearing out one laptop had to get another and I got a mac- oh no! oh well this would be great-

  129. I've been wanting/needing an external hard drive, its just so hard to put money away for it! I do use a jump drive, but that doesn't back up much -- do you have a mac or a pc? Are they pretty identical?

  130. My sister just moved internationally and backed up all her computer info on something like this. It was kind of convenient that she was able to have all her info at my parents where she stayed 2 weeks before she left even without her computer. I should really get one to back up all my info and pict especially with my first grader playing on our computer.

  131. I just visited the Seagate site...great colors! Love the electric blue, green, and the pink....maybe I need to get one of each....in my dreams! :-) I remember the first time I used a computer, I was so clueless. A friend suggested a site and told me to type the url in the address line, huh?! I had no idea what a url was, nor where to find the address line. I have certainly changed, now other teachers come to me when they are having computer problems!

  132. My twin sister owns a MAC and has a ton of picture and music files! I'd love to give her one of these! Thanks for the chance!

  133. I've seen these drives at school before, and they're very simple to use. i'd love to have the one for PC. I'd choose Royal Blue.

  134. I had the worst month ever about 2 months ago. My laptop crashed and I lost everything. Lucky for me I had a few photos uploaded to photobucket and some on my memory stick but I lost a ton of important stuff. Then about 2 weeks later my dad fried my macbook harddrive which had been the spare computer and I lost another giant heap of pictures. I have learned my lesson and could use something to help me back things up. :(

  135. The 500 GB green would be great for backing up my school work, photos, and such. It's such a pain copying and burning to a cd that only has like 300 MB.

  136. I have a mac and would so love to have something to back up my music files and photos. The FreeAgent Go for Mac would certainly do the trick!!

  137. My husband and I use both PCs and Macs. He's a software engineer.

    One thing that you have to remember about backing files up is to keep two copies! Keeping just one on a portable hd isn't a backup. It is always a good idea to back up your files on dvd as well as have them on an external drive. That way if the external one crashes you will still have one copy. Mmm another helpful tip - if you don't have to drag the portable hd with you when you take your laptop out, then don't. Portable doesn't equal super durable. A hd manufacturer sells a drive for internal use with for ex. a 3 year warranty. The exact same drive, when placed by the manufacturer in their own external case has a much more limited warranty (year at most).

    Tips for making sure your external portable hd has a long happy life (They are really useful and the last thing you want is for it to die)

    1) If it doesn't have to travel, leave it at home
    (If you know you need files from it to work on, copy them to a usb thumb drive)
    2) When traveling, package it securely in a cushioned section of your laptop case, avoid excessive movement
    3) Don't leave it or your laptop in the hot car

    :)
    Best wishes

  138. My computers have my whole world on them. I keep meaning to back stuff up, but never do. I've started almost exclusively using gmail accounts because at least that way, I can access my email from anywhere and don't have to worry about them.

    I'm moderately computer savvy, but I've got three computers, and only one of them is working right now. I have an old imac that's about six years old. That's ancient in computer terms, and it was getting slow, but it still worked great. I cried when it's power supply died for the fourth time a couple weeks ago. My laptop died a while ago and I've just not had time to fix it. So now I'm down to a lowly pc running open office. All of my stuff is on my macs. My system admin brother is on his way over right now to yank out my hard drive and find a different way for me to access my files. And I will be working hard all night to get them backed up to Mobile Me.

  139. Oh my gosh, I cannot even tell you how weird this is. Our old hard drive crashed last night. Luckily, we were able to back up everything on my laptop, but what a headache. We desperately need a new one, in fact, I was just scouring this site looking for the one you recommended months ago!

  140. with two kids in school and a husband working out of the house, we really should have a backup solution just in case.

  141. I didn't have a computer until after college when I could buy one myself! I had a word processor to write papers in college and it would store your paper and then when you were ready to print you loaded the paper and press print and it typed it out like an old typewriter! My neighbors thought I was a really fast typist for a long time!! We sure could use this to store our precious photos!

  142. I literally lol'd when I read the part about Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego! I remember signing up on the play list at elementary school during free time, lol. The list was always a mile long, and no one got a turn very often, lol! Oh, that at The Oregon Trail. Times have changed! ;)

  143. I would love to have one of these as I have tons of pictures and documents on my PC that have NEVER been backed up. I just haven't had the extra money to purchase a backup device. Thanks.

    kport207 at gmail dot com

  144. These are cool. I have not seen one of these. I love macs. I got to have a mac lap top when I taught in the Vail School District, but had to give it back when I left to stay home with Logan. Sad :( Do you remember when you actually had to go to the Library and check out books to do a report. Now everyone just uses the internet.

  145. Things really have changed. When I took computers my freshman year we still had gigantic floppy disks and I'm not that old, 33 so I guess that depends on who you talk to if that's old or not. Anyway I really need to back up more often. If I were to loose Lily's pictures I would be devastated.

  146. i'm always looking for ways to save my pictures. they always seem to get deleted from my memory card, before i get a chaance to print them

  147. Nothing like the good old days! It was exactly the same for me growing up. In the summers, we were "forced" to spend 15 minutes a day learning to type. I hated it at the time; it seemed completely pointless. Little did I know what a useful skill it would be. Nowadays, it seems like kids don't even need formal training to learn to type. They're around computers all the time, and they just pick it up somehow. No effort at all.

  148. If my computer died today, I would be weeping like a maniac. I keep saying I need to backup, but I don't really even know where to start with something like that. I definitely need help!

  149. i seriously need to back up my data from the old laptop that i have just neglected since i got my new Dell! i have a ton of info..and very little time to do it :( always the case.

  150. I really should be more active when it comes to backing up my computer. As a Graphic Design student and someone who takes thousands of photos, I need to be on it like crazy. xD;;

  151. Hey we had the same situation. I always played Carmen San Diego on our clunky old computer. I love that game~!

  152. I am SO terrible at this! I used to copy all my photos on a CD or a DVD every few months just to free up space on my computer and to ensure they were "safe." But ever since we got this new computer with a HUGE amount of memory I haven't been forced to do this nearly as often as I should. I would be DEVASTATED if something happened to those photos!

  153. There is always so much work to save with the wife and I both in college. It also helps to save work done in classes that the other spouse will take in the future as a later reference. This would allow us to free up space on the hard drive.

  154. I've really been wanting to get a FreeAgent. I've read such positive reviews about these. A few months back, I had gotten a virus in our computer and needed to dump everything. I lost so many family photos and am still heartbroken about loosing them. This would be perfect to help prevent this from ever happening again.

  155. You were totally adorable, and you haven't changed a bit! Timeless beauty.

    I didn't have the internet/computer until I moved in with my husband several years ago. We didn't even have cable TV!

    I still don't have a cell phone, although I did used to have one. I just use my husband's pre-paid (yep!) cell phone when I need it.

    I do wish like crazy that I had a laptop. It would make working much easier. I'll keep wishing.

    I'm so bad at backing up, but I know I need to now that I'm taking as many pictures as I am. I'd hate to lose them all!

    Nell

  156. Since first accessing the internet in 1994, I have gone through 4 computers. Two of them died horribly, taking everything I had stored on them with them ! I learned the hard way how important it is to back up my info and pictures.

  157. Very good point. I didn't use computers alot in high school. But, I do remember one time not saving an essay and I had to retype to whole thing. Not fun.
    I could actually use one of these for my stuff at home.

  158. Back up is so important. I have lost things before on the computer and it's a terrible feeling. I might be crazy but I have 3 different backups for my stuff. Two are off site and one is Western Digital but we are looking to change that one out.

  159. I remember my family being all modern when we got our Vic20 and our Beta machine. Wow. Looking back, all I can do is laugh. We have so many photos and videos and music stored on our computer and we're horrible about burning them onto CD or DVD or backing them up some other way. A while back, our computer crash, as they all do inevitably, and we were so worried we lost everything. But did we get any better at backing up? Not a chance. Hopefully this would help us...

  160. It's amazing how much technology has changed in our lifetime. I remember when we got our first computer too. LOL, I even remember when we got our first VCR. My husband and I keep talking about getting one of these for our Macs.

  161. I completed high school without knowing anything about the internet--it's the first thing I'll be able to tell my kids about "the good ol days." I got my first aol account in 1998, a year after graduating.

  162. these thing are great for backing up pictures and movies.Even better if you have a large music collection

  163. My husband got me a 250G seagate (pink) for only 79.00 so you can definitely find even better prices than listed here. He wants one for his Mac now. They're quite spiffy and I'm loving the security of having my stuff backed up. My laptop died a horrible death 2 days after he bought it for me. I'm back to using my netbook until I have enough $ for a new full-powered machine, so I needed the storage something awful.

  164. I was going to say that you and i must be a similar age because all of your memories you mentioned reminded me of when i was younger (i'm 29) and what things were like "back then."

    last year i went through a nightmare of a computer crash and lost everything. it's awful!!!!!

  165. I should have been smart and done what you've said...instead I'm mindlessly sitting here watching the spyware scanner go through the computer trying to make it work again! I don't know why I always wait till something goes wrong ~ I'm embarrassed to say that this would have been a life saver and I could just scrap this junky computer! Live and learn (the hard way) ~ bummer!

  166. so, i have been trying to be better at backing up my pictures... this seems like it would make it so much easier since it has automatic backup. i also like that it is portable since i share pics with my family sometimes (like after we're all on vacation together)... i could bring the drive and all of my pics with me.
    i used to love playing carmen san diego, by the way. and i would love to take a digital photography class since the one i took was also so long ago.
    thanks for the chance to win : )

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