Introduction
As the biggest hard drive manufacturer in the world (after their acquisition of Maxtor), it's only natural that Seagate would have a hand in the external hard drive backup market. That is a very lucrative market as it allows hard drive companies like Seagate to create value-added products from hard drives that have essentially become commodity products.
So, what are external hard drive backup solutions? A relatively basic type would actually be the ubiquitous external USB enclosures that convert hard drives into external USB storage. When used as a backup solution, they provide a fast and cheap way of backing up your data.
While cheap, external USB enclosures are manual backup solutions. You have to manually copy the files you want to back up, or use a third-party software like SyncBack. That's where retail backup solutions like Seagate's Pushbutton Backup come in.
These external hard drive backup solutions are basically complete backup solution. They usually consist of a hard drive sealed within a special enclosure (often with an integrated fan, sometimes even with a battery) and a custom backup software that works together with a hardware button or switch. What such backup solutions allow is an easy way to start backing up your data out of the box. Everything you need is in there.
Today, we are going to take a look at a good example of such integrated backup solutions - the Seagate 750GB Pushbutton Backup.
Packaging
Like all Seagate retail products, the Seagate 750GB Pushbutton Backup comes in very nice packaging. It consists of a box with an outer sleeve. The outer sleeve has pictures of the Pushbutton Backup and its key features while the box itself is black in colour.
The back portion of the sleeve is where you can read up on the specifications of the Pushbutton drive and the contents of the box.
In case you are worried that you may be buying the wrong capacity due to the use of a wrong sleeve, you can always check the black box itself. There is a large label that shows you exactly what you are buying. Note also that this drive was assembled in Singapore.
Contents
The contents in the box were arranged in two tiers. The first tier holds all the accessories, including the cables, adapter, stand, manual and CD.
Underneath all those accessories is the Seagate 750GB Pushbutton Backup drive itself. It's covered on both top and bottom by plastic trays which serve to buffer it from shocks. The drive is further covered in a plastic bag.
All in all, these are the components that you will find within the box :
- One Seagate 750GB Pushbutton Backup external hard drive
- One Seagate 750GB Pushbutton Backup stand
- One power adapter
- One power cable
- One Firewire (IEEE: 1394) cable
- One quick start guide
- One USB cable
- One bundled software CD
- One technical support and warranty guide