From Kristin:

“Being a photographer is great. Having to move my entire life and mindset from film to digital was, well, not so great. I needed to purchase a workhorse of a digital camera as well as a new computer. And then of course there’s the all important task of backing up my data (an issue I had been dragging my feet over for some time…). So when Christine asked whether I’d be interested in testing Seagate’s FreeAgent Go, I couldn't say no.

The first thing I noticed about the FreeAgent Go was how compact and sleek it is; super small, thin, and modern looking. Love it! The second thing I noticed while reading the instructions was that it comes Mac Time Machine ready. This was a good thing because I had just learned that my Time Machine wasn't working at all because I needed an external hard drive to make it work. Whoops.

After working my way through the (seemingly adult-proof) packaging, I was presented with four cables, a docking station, and the hard drive. The instructions are in picture form with examples for installing via 800 FireWire, 400 FireWire, USB, or 800 FireWire + docking station. I tend to be clueless about cable-related matters but fortunately there are only four options. I opted to hook up the FreeAgent Go via the docking station + 800 FireWire cable, which worked on the first try.

I plugged in the docking station and connected the FreeAgent Go into the station; there were no lights or sounds to notify me that was something was happening but as I began to close the windows to see my desktop, low and behold, a notification popped up: "Do you want to use 'Free Agent Drive' to back up with Time Machine?" Yes! I clicked "Use as a back up disk" and another screen popped up, automatically turned my Time Machine on, and began the back up. I also was notified that my data would be backed up every 30 minutes! NICE!

During the back up process I was a little concerned that I couldn’t hear or see anything to indicate back up status, so I dug deeper into the Time Machine help menu, which revealed that it can take a few hours for the first back up to happen. I decided to walk away, go to bed, and see what resulted in the morning.

The following morning, I turned on my computer and my screen looked just as it does any other give day so I wondered, hmm, did it back up my stuff? I clicked on Time Machine, and there it was: all of my photos, music, and documents stored in this little itty-bitty silver box. Fantastic!

So here are the specs for this little miracle of miracles. The FreeAgent Go is Mac-specific and is available in 160GB, 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, or 640GB capacity. It’s super thin (and thus ultra portable) and you can sync data between computers by simply plugging in and updating. It comes in a variety of stylish colors and is available for $180 or less depending on which size you select.

Losing the contents of your hard drive – whether the material is work or family oriented – is a nightmare, yet it seems as if everyone either has experienced this directly or knows someone who has. I love how easy the FreeAgent Go is; if you’re on a Mac and are looking for an easy back up system, I highly recommend getting this gadget!”

Now, want to win a Seagate FreeAgent Go? Here's how: