Review on Seagate Barracuda Fast SSD 500GB Portable External Solid State Drive – USB-C USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, Xbox & PS4 - Includes 3-Year Data Rescue Service (STJM500400) by Sean Ceo

6/27/2020 This is a review of the Seagate Barracuda Fast SSD 2TB External Solid State Drive - USB-C USB 3.0 for PC that I purchased. I bought this desktop SSD which I built in 2010 on an Asus P7P55D motherboard with an early I7 processor. Released in 2009, the motherboard was made in Japan and was the top product of the time. I still use it every day. Seagate Barracuda does not work on an Asus desktop. I tried this on another desktop I bought from HP in 2016, an HP Envy with an I7 processor. The Seagate SSD worked great on this computer. It took me some time to figure out what the problem was. I also think some other people who bought a Seagate and complained that it didn't work actually had the same problem. The problem was that the old Asus P7P55D didn't have USB 3 controllers built into the motherboard. Finally, USB-3 was only introduced in 2009. I have found that Seagate drives are NOT backwards compatible. In other words, they will not work on a computer with older USB-2 drivers and controllers. The same situation was with Seagate external backup drives. They will NOT work on older computers that only have USB 2 controllers. At the end of the wire, can you tell if it's black, white, or red? If so, then it's probably USB-2. If it's blue, then it's most likely USB-3. But not always! On the old Asus P7P55D, the motherboard had two USB ports with blue latches. However, the Asus circuit diagram showed that only USB 2 controllers are installed in it. And the specification confirmed it. All Western Digital backup drives and internal drives have been proven to be backward compatible with USB-2. This is why I'm only now buying Western Digital (WD) My Passport drives. This problem only occurs when migrating from an SSD or regular HDD, Sata output to USB. If you're using the Seagate internally and swapping from the drive's SATA output to the motherboard's SATA in/out, you won't have a problem. The problem with internal drives is that you clone a new drive via a USB device so that you can install it on your computer after the cloning process is complete. If your adapter (sata-to-usb) is USB-3 and your computer doesn't have USB-3 controllers, then you're out of luck. I don't know the details of other customers who have accused this vendor of not refunding a failed SSD, but I suspect something like the above probably happened. In over 40 years of working with computers, I can tell you that a failed SSD is very, very rare. They have no moving parts. If they are damaged, it is usually because the person has not grounded themselves prior to the discharge of static electricity to their body. I am writing this review to let other buyers know that I have received a full refund from this seller. I sent them back a fully working SSD in carefully wrapped bubble wrap and shipped it via United Parcel Service (UPS), which in my experience is the most reliable and secure way.