Seagate Rugged STFR5000800 5 TB External Hard Drive, Portable

The Seagate Lacie Rugged 5TB External Hard Drive (STFR5000800) is the definitive choice if your primary concern is physical data protection. Wrapped in its iconic orange rubber bumper, this drive is built like a tank, offering excellent shock, drop, and rain resistance. If you are regularly throwing your drive into a backpack, traveling, or working in unpredictable environments, the sheer peace of mind it offers is worth the premium. At 5TB, the storage capacity is massive, easily swallowing large media libraries, project archives, or full system backups. Setup is completely seamless with the included USB-C cable, working out of the box with modern laptops without needing an external power brick. However, it is crucial to understand what you are buying: this is a traditional, spinning platter mechanical hard drive (HDD), not a solid-state drive (SSD). While it is perfect for massive cold storage and continuous background backups, it is not built for lightning-fast file transfers or editing heavy 4K video directly off the drive. For a set-and-forget vault for your data, it excels; just don't expect SSD-level speed performance. The Pros: Unmatched Physical Durability: High-grade drop, crush, and rain resistance make it perfect for field use and travel. Massive Capacity: 5TB of space provides an enormous amount of storage for large archives and backups. Bus-Powered USB-C: Connects and powers directly through a single USB-C cable with no bulky wall adapter required. Rock-Solid Reliability: Mechanical architecture that handles long-term archival storage reliably. The Cons: Mechanical Drive Speeds: Transfer speeds are limited by standard HDD bottlenecks; large file transfers take time compared to portable SSDs. Bulky Footprint: The protective rubber housing adds noticeable physical bulk and weight to your bag. Premium Price Tag: You are paying a premium for the ruggedized branding and protective shell over standard, non-rugged desktop drives.

I first discovered the LaCie drives during a music video shoot in the middle of nowhere. The DP would dump his footage into the drive. Which in turn was dumped into a computer later. The DP chose the LaCie brand because he used it in rough climates and places without failure. Today, I chose this drive for the same reasons. 3D creation produces massive amounts of data. I needed a drive that could hold all that data and take a beating if it were dropped. Backing up to the cloud is okay, provided I have an internet connection. But, using the cloud as a server came with problems. Reality Check I needed an external drive that could hold more data than my computer. The drive would act as a server for the computer. The drive must be rugged. There would be times when it would be used in the field. The lack of funds left me looking at HDD models instead of SSDs. Nonetheless, this drive has not let me down. And because it is a 5TB drive, it can handle my data storage needs. What I like Compatible with my Macbook Pro Plug-and-play technology Rugged No overheating problems Plenty of data storage I recommend this external drive for the budget conscience, graphic, or 3D editor.

These HHD are always my go to when I run out of storage. They are easy to stack and store. From all the HHD’s I’ve bought, these have lasted the longest. It’s a super friendly product and it works straight from the box. As I travel a lot, I’m not afraid of dropping it. It looks big but it fits in all my bags. When transferring data it’s not the fastest so I don’t recommend editing off of it. I usually use these to store raw footage and final product. You can not hear the HHD spinning.

Used it for backups and storage for photo and movie editing. Suddenly stopped communicating when all I was doing was file retrieval. Purchased in Nov 2022, Amazon closed the return window in January 2023 and now have only had the external hard drive (used on Apple Mac laptop) for only 9 months!

This was a better gift, more storage, fast, excellent value for the price and quality, and allows him to carry the drive, download his files, and gain fast access versus cloud. He can upload to the cloud when back to the house. He loved it.

This drive is very small, despite it being 5TB! Great value for what I paid for and it is still holding up to this day. It does not get super hot and it performs great. I use it to store large logic and Final Cut projects as well as photos…so I put it to great use. Highly recommend!

This drive stopped working after about six weeks. It stopped mounting. The light on the drive would come on, but nothing else would happen. No internal noise. The drive didn’t and doesn’t appear in the Finder, Disk Utilities, DiskWarrior, TechTools or even in Terminal on my Mac. It’s sat on my desk since I bought it. No drops, no water, nothing. Other USB devices work just fine. I contacted the manufacturer, Seagate (LaCie is now owned by them). The drive was under warranty and could be replaced by them. They also said, "Data recovery is not covered under the warranty." They gave me a link on the Seagate website (Seagate also runs their included 2 year DataRescue plan). I clicked that link. Here's what that site says: "US $49.00 Engagement Fee & US $650.00 Recovery Fee with return media ENGAGEMENT FEE DUE NOW (NON REFUNDABLE) FINAL PRICE MAY INCLUDE LOCAL TAXES RECOVERY FEE AND OTHER ADDED OPTIONS WILL BE DEDUCTED AUTOMATICALLY UPON SUCCESSFUL RECOVERY FINAL PRICE MAY INCLUDE LOCAL TAXES" I'm not in the position to lend Seagate almost $700 to rescue the data from a drive that cost under $200. Yes, I might get some of that back, but the drive lasted only about SIX WEEKS. Undaunted, I got the box out of the closet and found the brochure about the Data Rescue plan. It also has a link. That website has lots of information about the plan and purchasing the plan. There's nothing about actually using the plan. UPDATE: After discussions with Amazon, the vendor and Seagate, they didn't charge me the $699 or the $49. They told me that they would recover the disk under the included Data Rescue plan. So, I sent them my disk to be recovered. The sent me back a BLANK DISK. When I asked Seagate what was going on, they told me that my original disk was still being recovered. Um... I really wish that they'd told me that. Getting a blank disk with no note attached that explained things led me to logically conclude that my files were gone for good. At the very least, Seagate could have emailed me a note that gave a status update. They didn't. I took me writing them, politely letting them know that I wasn't exactly happy, to get updated status information. That disk was the replacement for my crashed disk. AND WAIT, IT GET'S BETTER: It's now October 4. I purchased it on March 28. They sent me back a drive that arrived today. It supposedly has my recovered files on it. This drive is password protected. The original wasn't. I can't access the files without the password, but did they send it to me? Nope. Once again, I'll have to spend time on the phone and write emails. It seems like they're really trying hard to blow it every way that they can. Update: On Saturday, October 5, I sent an email to the CEO of Amazon and the CEO of Seagate about this ongoing saga. I didn't expect to hear from either of them until Monday. Amazon called me within 20 minutes, even though it was a Saturday!!! Amazon was willing to bend over backwards, but the problem clearly is with Seagate. Have I heard from Seagate? Of course not. I'll send them a certified letter in a few days. October 8, 2 pm: After contacting Seagate yet again via yet another email, they sent me a text and an email with the password. I also got a call from them. Yes, the nightmare is over, but I will NEVER buy another Seagate/LaCie product.

I have generations of LaCie drives and love them. My previous one was 2TB drive that I filled up already. I decided to get 5TB as the next model. I am disappointed because 5TB model only includes USB-C cable (in comparison 2TB model included both USB-C and regular USB cable as two options). I essentially have to poach a cable from my 2TB drive to be able to connect the new one to the computer. Additionally, 5TB is bigger in physical size of the drive (you can say, duh, but 2TB was actually the same size/weight or even slimmer than previous models with less capacity). I also experience inconsistent performance from it on Windows 10. 5TB model takes longer to pop up in File Explorer. The transfer speeds are all over the place from 1MB/sec to 40MB/sec with my older 2TB model always around 30MB/sec on average. Bottom line, I still recommend LaCie, just not their 5TB edition. In retrospect I wish I just ordered another 2TB.

Excellent

I have another LaCie, which I love. For some reason my computer would not accept this unit there was some type of conflict. I tried it on a friends computer and it worked well.

Very good quality!

muy compacto y sencillo de usar

I am pleased to experience that this backup hard disk is quite resilient. It bounced all over my bag and so far I have not encountered any read or write error. ALso its bright color makes it easily identifyable.