Reviving the Portable Hard Drive: Seagate One Touch With Password Offers Style and Security in a Saturated Market

Portable hard drives have lost their allure – the distinctions between brands are minimal, leading most consumers to choose based on price alone. Nevertheless, everyone requires a hard drive for backups – even if you believe you don’t, you actually do. Some brands have attempted to innovate by changing their designs, yet there’s little variation possible with a plastic rectangle. Bundling backup and security software has also been a strategy to appeal to consumers, potentially influencing their choices. Seagate has explored both these paths with its latest One Touch With Password line.

Seagate presents its Expansion line of portable storage, which primarily focuses on essential functions – simply plug in and drag your files. At the premium end, the Ultra Touch models stand out with their slim profiles and stylish fabric exteriors, along with enhanced software features. Meanwhile, the One Touch series occupies a middle ground, offering high-capacity options paired with practical features. Do these aspects matter in the selection of a portable hard drive? Let’s delve deeper.

Design and Features of Seagate One Touch With Password

Instead of generic products, the new Seagate One Touch With Password hard drives come in six different colors – black, silver, and space grey featuring black accents, along with red, pink, and light blue which showcase white accents. The exterior is composed of plastic, topped with a brushed metal panel available in your choice of hue that wraps around the top and front.

This provides ample variety in terms of aesthetics – black on black is certainly the most subdued choice, while red on white stands out the most. The light blue model I received for review is visually appealing. It appears more like a metallic grey-blue than the pastel shade I anticipated from images on Seagate’s website and product descriptions, and the brushed metal texture lends it a denim-like appearance, nicely contrasting with the white frame.

It’s disappointing to see a Micro-USB 3.0 port on a product in 2021

On the other hand, the plastic construction had its flaws – I noticed a few rough spots, and there’s a slight gap where the metal joins the plastic. While this won’t be visible at a distance, it’s a product you handle frequently. I would also have preferred more rounded edges.

There are various capacity options available: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB. The first two options are 11.7mm thick and weigh 148g, while the latter two, featuring more platters, are 20.9mm thick and weigh 268g. A small white activity LED is located at one corner on the top, alongside a USB 3.0 Micro-B port at the back. It’s about time USB Type-C became the standard, yet most manufacturers remain committed to this less convenient standard for hard drives.

The package includes a single USB 3.0 cable – lacking even a secondary Type-C cable or an adapter – along with several leaflets. There’s a quick start guide that primarily instructs users to launch the Seagate software pre-installed on the drive; a separate sheet with codes for setting up and overriding your password should you forget it; and instructions for redeeming the complimentary bundled software offers. Buyers receive a one-year subscription to Mylio Create, a photo organization tool, as well as access to Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan, which includes only Photoshop and Lightroom, for four months.

The One Touch With Password derives its name from its AES-256 hardware encryption feature. To configure this, you must utilize the Seagate Toolkit software, which you’ll be prompted to download if you run the launcher app located on the hard drive. To establish a password, you will first need to input the 8-character Secure ID found on the leaflet in the box. According to Seagate’s documentation, this code should also be labeled on a sticker on the drive, but I couldn’t find it on my review unit, so it’s essential to keep the leaflet safe. Subsequently, you can generate a reset key associated with a Seagate/LaCie account, if available. If you don’t have one, you will need the 32-character reset code provided on the leaflet.

Once the password is set up, you’ll need to enter it into the Toolkit prompt every time you connect this drive to your computer. If you attempt to access it on a different computer, a small partition will be visible, necessitating the use of the unlock utility initially loaded onto it before you can reach the drive’s contents.

Seagate Toolkit also allows for the automation of backup routines and mirroring folders of your choice, enabling two-way file synchronization. Some users might be unclear about when to select Backup or Mirror to protect their files since the two concepts are similar yet have different implications. A bit more guidance on when to utilize each option would have been beneficial. Nevertheless, the process remains straightforward in both scenarios.

One of the most compelling aspects is Seagate’s offering of one complimentary data recovery attempt through the Seagate Rescue service at their lab. This can provide buyers with reassurance, as the thought of potentially losing up to 5TB of valuable data due to a hard drive failure is daunting. Seagate’s warranty information in India indicates that the company will send you a prepaid shipping label to return your drive to the lab at no cost, with the attempt potentially taking 15 business days. Seagate claims a 95 percent success rate, but there’s no guarantee your specific data will be retrievable.

Seagate’s software features might be quite useful

Specifications and Performance of Seagate One Touch With Password

As expected, Seagate does not advertise any read or write speeds for this hard drive – if you require fast file transfers, consider an SSD. Portable hard drives often cannot fully utilize a USB 3.0 connection, so brands no longer compete on speed. You receive a three-year warranty along with three years to make use of your Seagate Rescue data recovery attempt. Besides storage capacity and 256-bit AES encryption, there are no additional specifications to highlight. My 5TB unit was pre-formatted with the ExFAT file system, making it compatible with both Windows and macOS (although you’ll need to format or partition it if using Time Machine for backups on a Mac). The total usable capacity is 4.657TB.

The CrystalDiskMark benchmark showed sequential read and write speeds of 144.6MBps and 136.4MBps, respectively. Random read speeds were, as expected, lower. The Anvil benchmark reported read and write scores of 167.11 and 149.71, summing to a total of 316.82. These results are generally comparable to those of the WD My Passport (2019).

Final Thoughts

5TB offers substantial storage, and this level of capacity isn’t yet achievable with SSDs – even if it were, the price would be extremely high. If you need to store or back up large volumes of data, a hard drive is essential. For optimal backup security, having multiple drives that are kept in different locations is crucial. It’s evident that this category is still relevant, even if hard drives have become a commodity purchase.

Seagate has established a hierarchy for their products, categorizing them into basic, feature-rich, and aesthetically pleasing options. However, in retail markets and on e-commerce platforms, prices can vary widely, and many drives aren’t sold at their official retail price. Sometimes premium models are priced lower than basic versions – this is also true for their main competitor WD – so it’s best to choose what suits your needs.

The Seagate One Touch With Password is equipped with practical software, but the included data recovery service truly enhances its appeal and gives Seagate a competitive advantage. Although it cannot be tested directly and individual issues with drives will differ, it should provide some reassurance to buyers. Moreover, there’s at least one color combination that is sure to please everyone.

Price (MOP): Rs. 9,299 (5TB)

Advantages

• Valuable software package
• Data recovery service included
• Capacity of up to 5TB
• Variety of color choices

Disadvantages

• No USB Type-C cable or adapter included

Ratings

• Performance: 4
• Value for Money: 4.5
• Overall: 4