Seagate5000 gb One Touch 5TB External Hard Drive HDD – Black USB 3.0 for PC Laptop and Mac, 1 year MylioCreate, 4 Months Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan (STKC5000410)

When I first got my hands on the Seagate One Touch 4TB HDD, I was thrilled by its sleek, minimalist design. It felt sturdy and had just the right weight—not too bulky but enough to feel substantial. Setting it up was a breeze: I plugged it in, and my computer recognized it immediately. It reminded me of the kind of reliable storage solution you’d need for decluttering your digital life. For under $100, it’s perfect for storing years of photos, videos, and documents. The included MylioCreate subscription was a nice touch for organizing memories, while the Adobe Creative Cloud trial offered an entry into creative editing. However, transferring files felt a little slow, especially when moving several gigabytes at once.Then came the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 4TB. This little device is a marvel of modern tech—smaller, lighter, and rugged. With its IP65 water and dust resistance, I didn’t think twice about throwing it in my bag for a weekend shoot in the mountains. The difference in speed was night and day. Files that took minutes on the Seagate transferred in seconds on the SanDisk, thanks to its lightning-fast 1,050 MB/s speed. It’s the perfect companion for creative professionals like videographers or graphic designers who need to work with massive files on the go. However, the $350 price tag made me pause. It’s a worthy investment for speed and durability, but it’s not for everyone.Comparing the two, the choice becomes clear depending on your needs. The Seagate HDD is fantastic if you’re looking for a budget-friendly way to store and back up a lot of data you don’t need to access frequently. It’s perfect for home or office use—think of it as your trusty digital filing cabinet. On the other hand, the SanDisk SSD shines for those who live life at high speed, whether it’s editing videos in a café or keeping your portfolio safe on adventures. Its ruggedness and speed make it indispensable for people who demand performance and reliability.In the end, I realized there’s no one-size-fits-all. For my everyday backups and archiving, the Seagate gets the job done beautifully and economically. But when I need to move fast and handle tough conditions, the SanDisk is my go-to. It’s a reminder that the right tool for the job makes all the difference—and in this case, choosing between these two drives is really about understanding your priorities and lifestyle.

Great amount of storage space. Very reliable. Easy to use.

I purchased the 2tb version. Admittedly, I just got it, but so far it's working perfectly.I was alarmed at first, because it was randomly disconnecting and reconnecting. I wasn't even thinking about trying to do a backup or even not returning it at that point, but after using the "safely eject" method in windows and moving the usb connection to a port on the back of my tower and waiting about a half hour to see if it would maintain the connection, I was satisfied that it was just the port on the top of my computer.To be fair, half of all the usb ports on all of my electronics do that eventually, especially if you connect and disconnect routinely.Anyway, I then downloaded the seagate disc wizard from their website, which seems to be a free "light" version of Acronis. I wasn't thrilled with their "toolkit" option that you get initially when you register. I suppose that's just a personal preference, but it seemed similar to mobile apps that you run across these days where everything is over simplified.I used the disc wizard program to do a full backup of my system drive and it took 10 minutes. My system drive is an m.2 256gb ssd. before I go to bed tonight I'll start a full backup including the D drive which is a 1tb hdd. If I find that takes hours and hours I'll just forego the d drive backups. The d drive just contains some games that I can re-download from steam anytime anyway and some documents that get backed up on a flash drive every 10 minutes by windows file history. I've got plenty of room to move those to the c drive if I want a second backup on the seagate drive without regular backups of the d drive.I don't see how the other reviewers are having all these problems with the speed. Maybe it will become clearer when I try to do a larger backup.I'm using a relatively new (1 year old) I7 premium specs system, and I imagine there are many bottlenecks that one could encounter if using an older or just plain lower spec system. Maybe that could contribute to some of the negative reviews? Not that that would be the reviewers fault, but it wouldn't be Seagate's fault either. I'm just sayin'.I plan to update this review in a few days

No issues, works very well.

I love that I can put as many ps4 games I want on it but it'd be nice if I could've put ps5 games on it

I bought this hard-drive to back up video files for current and completed projects. My initial plan was to buy a few from different manufacturers, compare performance, and buy multiples of that product for a long term storage solution. At this point however I will probably just stick with these unless problems begin rearing their ugly heads in the future.While I can't speak to longevity of this product as of yet, I will say that between its small form factor, visually pleasant brushed aluminum case (which also aids in heat dissipation), and read and write speeds, I'm pretty satisfied.IN REGARDS TO REVIEWS NOTING SLOW READ/WRITE SPEEDS:This is a HDD, not a SSD. As in it has an actual hard disk which stores all data that is written to it. HDDs top out around 200 mb/s, and I was averaging around 121mb/s when initially testing this drive. It took me 45 minutes to transfer 328gb. Potentially less, but I wasn't watching it too intently. For the price, I can't complain. If you're looking for faster read and write speeds, go with a SSD. I use one for files that I'm using inside of an active project, but prefer HDD for long term storage if for nothing more than how cost effective they are.