Your Chance at a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Drive

By  |  Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 8:17 am

On Tuesday evening in San Francisco, we threw a party we called SpringThing at a cool art gallery called 12 Gallagher Lane. Our cohost/sponsor was Seagate, which gave demos of its just-announced line of FreeAgent GoFlex external hard drives. The folks in the photo above (by Ken Yeung) all look so attentive because they’re watching the giveaway drawing we did for five GoFlex drives. We can’t recreate the whole nifty SpringThing experience online, but here’s the next best thing: we’re replicate the giveaway drawing.

Courtesy of Seagate, we have five 500GB FreeAgent GoFlex Pro drives up for grabs. They’re compatible with both Windows PCs and Macs, and we’ll give them away in a random drawing.

There are three ways to enter:

  1. Add a comment to this post talking about the most important data you’ve got–whether it’s essential documents, beloved photos, your music library, or something else. Please use a real e-mail address so we can notify you if you win. (It won’t be displayed, and we won’t use it for any other purpose.)
  2. Go to Twitter and tweet your thoughts about your most important data. Use the hashtag #goflex so we can find your entry, and follow me (@harrymccracken) so we can direct message you if you win.
  3. Go to the Technologizer page on Facebook and add your important-data thoughts as a comment on this post.

We’ll accept entries until 5pm PT on Wednesday, May 12th, and will conduct a random drawing and notify winners by Friday, May 14th. Please enter only once. Good luck, and have fun. Oh, and there are more SpringThing photos here and here.

 
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145 Comments For This Post

  1. Ediedi Says:

    Most important data: work documents.

  2. Nathan Watkins Says:

    I’ve got lots of photos, mostly weddings and photos for non-profits in North Africa.

  3. sfmitch Says:

    Most important data: pictures of my family & friends

  4. Joel Says:

    My most important data is the photos I have of my children. Of course, we have the important document such as taxes, work, and email.

  5. Mike Shaffer Says:

    Number one important archive: almost 30,000 digital photos, going back to the late 90’s…from my Apple Quicktake no less… Then work documents and projects..

  6. Paul Says:

    photos and music

  7. joinertek Says:

    Most important data: All the ripped media on my storage drive.

  8. Steffen Says:

    Most important data: Pictures of my newborn!

  9. Janmark Joseph D. Garcia Says:

    Most important data: IRC chat logs that I’ve kept since my high school IRC chatting days. This includes all the private messages and channel chats. Every once in a while I open some of these, read em, and sometimes get a good laugh while missing the old times.

  10. Brian Says:

    Most important data. Pictures of my dog!

  11. Mark Says:

    Family photos for sure!!!

  12. Kyle Says:

    My most important data: (that I’ve lost twice thanks to unreliable external hard drives) is my recording session files/lyrics. I’m a weekend warrior musician, who for fun records song ideas etc etc. I’ve got roughly 150 GB of recording ideas/song lyrics, I’ve lost em TWICE. Right now they’re sitting on a friends old desktop hard drive. Hopefully it the data doesn’t corrupt before I *crosses fingers* win a Free Agent.

  13. justag33k Says:

    My most important documents would have to be Photos. I can re-download music and I can rewrite programs/documents but the events captured in my photos will never happen again. The fact that they can never be replaced if lost makes my photos the most important thing I have on my system.

  14. Scott Says:

    I need more room for my digital backup of 100s of my DVDs/Blu-Rays/Digital Copies

  15. Amit Sharma Says:

    Most important data: Memories (Pictures/videos) of my 8 month old son.

  16. John Baxter Says:

    Most important data: everything that I notice vanishing in the next crash if not backed up. (I will very likely switch to goflex for disk purchases that don’t require something else. I like the idea.)

  17. Mike Bouchard Says:

    Most important data would have to be my pictures. I learned a hard lesson after I lost 3 months worth of pictures of my oldest.

  18. Milcah Says:

    I’d have to say my pictures. So many things are replaceable, the can be bought again, they can be done over, but once you lose pictures or they get damaged there’s no do over.

  19. Matthew Says:

    My most important data would be my blog post drafts and ideas, as well as my passwords and personal, non-replacable data such as pictures and documents.

  20. Chase Says:

    Definitely my photos, severely in need of an external, RAW files are eating up my hard drive space (at least 100GB+ on my laptop).

  21. David Says:

    Our most important data is our home financial documents – we’re trying to go paperless!

  22. Jack Says:

    I could use it for backup, and storing the files I need to help fix computers for my friends and family. Thus making it, The Uberdrive.

  23. Rishi Says:

    Most imp data is family photos and financial documts

  24. Pierre-Luc Belzile Says:

    My most important data is certainly the scads of digital photos I have on my computer. Reviewing them once in a while really brings back some memories and shows me how much the people around me and I have changed through the years.

    Second to that: My music and all the work I’ve done digitally (I keep almost everything I do, even if it’s garbage!)

  25. Dan Someone Says:

    Most important data? Everything my wife lost when her MacBook HD crashed, including months worth of kids’ photographs and years of tax and financial records. Other important stuff: GBs upon GBs of music.

  26. Mike Says:

    Financial docs, Family photos and movies.

  27. Nick Says:

    The most important information I have on my computer…I think digital photos are a given for most everyone these days. My music library is important, which is in the ball park of 50 GB now. My other important information I find necessary to backup are digital financial records, whether they are scanned PDF documents of loan details or receipts for large ticket items. I also back up my Keepass database of passwords for all my unique passwords.

  28. Prakash Says:

    The most important data is our memorable pictures and videos.

  29. Daniel Says:

    Pictures are absolutely the most important (and most irreplaceable) data that I have to back up (and boy, do I have a lot of them..)

  30. ReynaldoRiv Says:

    The MOST important documents on my Computer are my school notes.

    Meticulously written in MSOneNote, they include Graphs, annotations, sounds, charts, Scans, and Charts.

    Second to that would be Family Photos from Puerto Rico, And third would be my PS3 GameSave Data.

    Everything else like Music, and videos can be re-obtained through the internet or from my CD/DVD collection, but those three listed, are irreplaceable.

  31. Andy Maslin Says:

    My most important data is mostly family photos, with some medical documents thrown in. The games and music? Not so much.

  32. Robert Says:

    I’m a pastor and writer, so I write books, articles, and sermons that need storage. I also have family photos (a duplicate copy!) on my computer. I wish I had a device that could sync all our pictures over a network and back them up at the same time. I wonder if this would so that?

  33. Larry Blakely Says:

    I’ve collected 50 years of photos and video (old movies converted) to document my parent’s 50th anniversary and our family’s history.

  34. OppositeNorth Says:

    Most important: thousands of photos. Next important: many, many work documents.

  35. Devin Says:

    I have all my videos and photos of my 1 year old son from birth. We also have our 2000+ pictures from our trip to Egypt and family videos that are irreplacable.

  36. Glenn Says:

    My pictures and home movies can’t be replaced. 7 years worth of tax documents is important too.

  37. Stanley Says:

    I’ve got a delightful collection of memorable fashion zingers attributed to Ella Fitzgerald that would be suitable for this lovely Seagate product.

  38. Russ Turley Says:

    I have thousands of digital photos that my wife thinks are backed up and can’t be lost. I could use such a drive to actually make that happen. She is scary. I don’t want to sleep on the couch for the next…I don’t know…lifetime if anything happens to them.

  39. Mike Says:

    On my drive, my most important data is the backup of all my other drives. A backup is the 2nd copy of all my digital files, never the only copy.

  40. Camaliche Says:

    Of course my photos and video of my family, my music, and important projects I am working on.

  41. james Says:

    I have to say family photos, CV & contacts of friends.

  42. Dan Says:

    most important data? Easily photos – irreplaceable. Next would be finance info – mostly in Quicken files and the associated attachment folders.

  43. TGJ Says:

    Digital negatives of all my photo albums, for all the reasons already mentioned!

  44. Rafael Cintron Says:

    The photos of my children (12 & 9) and my mp3 collection.

  45. kidTruant Says:

    My photos are critical, as are copies of my freelance work and personal writings. Always backup your stuff!

  46. Sanjeev T Says:

    What better use than to store memories in shape of phots and videos, especially hi-def formats with huge file sizes and modified cropped/trimmed copies.

  47. Ranganathan Says:

    my precious data are my personal files and HD Movies

  48. Jim W. Says:

    My most precious data is my photo collection as well as my financial and budget documents. Having them on backup media such as DVD is important, but there’s nothing like having them stored online for ease of access.

  49. John P Says:

    My most important data (in order of importance):
    1. Pictures/photos
    2. Music
    3. Movies/DVD backups
    4. Various documents

  50. Mark Casson Says:

    My children’s pics

  51. Fred Says:

    A picture of my son and I in my old college dorm room just before it was torn down. This picture was actually stored on a old hard drive on an eMachines computer that died, and Windows wouldn’t let us access it. The son figured out how to access the drive via Linux.

    Time sure does pass.

  52. OwenP Says:

    The most important data I’ve got, has to be the baby photos of my daughter. Got ’em scanned into the computer just before they went up in a little fire we had here. Now got ’em backed up in 3 different places to be sure!

  53. drew Says:

    most important data is 5 years of lessons plans, assignments and PowerPoints for my Pre-AP/AP class.

  54. JP Vann Says:

    I’ll use the drive to store and protect videos and pictures of my brand new grandson!

  55. Richard Huemer Says:

    My digital photos and videos are irreplaceable, and they bring back happy memories, so I’d have to say they’re the most important data. Next would be original manuscripts, because finding and scanning all of them from publications would be a pain.

  56. Sleepydude Says:

    My photos are what I need to insure to backup. Most specifically, my wedding and honeymoon photos. Thanks for the contest. Love your blog.

  57. Pat Says:

    Photos and my school files (notes and programs and the like)

  58. Jacob Nahin Says:

    The most important data I have: pictures of my family, girlfriend, and dogs. I could use another backup solution for these precious memories. Just sayin’ 😉

  59. Muhammad Panji Says:

    Right now is my blog posts draft and video tutorials that I produce. having another external drive will be great

  60. Craig Says:

    I always need more storage. I backup everything I do all day.

  61. David Says:

    Most important data: Family photos

  62. AJ Says:

    I’d love to win this drive. There is a lot of data I’d like to back up like the most important data is the years of photographs (in raw format) that I’ve taken using my dSLR which runs into 200+ GB already.

    Next would be a lot of my code and email correspondences and lastly my music collection, which is my life..

  63. Dattatray Jadhav Says:

    My most Important data: Photos of me with my friends at Goa. Unfortunately, those friends died in a crash while we returned home. Only two of us survived. So, these photos are really precious as i cant see my friends anymore.

  64. Mark Knudson Says:

    The most important files I have are the scans of statements, receipts and other docs that are in my “paperless” file cabinet.

  65. André Says:

    My most important data are scanned Super 8, Video 8 and VHS (H)DV-movies of my own childhood. I lost the originals partially in a floodwater in our basement.

  66. AOK Says:

    That’ll be the raw footage from my video cameras.

  67. Rob Says:

    Like so many who posted already: photos, taxes, music, e-mail, etc. There’s a lot!

  68. RFG Says:

    I’ve got a video of my Mom, a few months before she died, reading to to my son. That’s worth more than money to me.

  69. TP Says:

    My most important data is my terabyte of V0 mp3s.

  70. Michael Butts Says:

    Photos

  71. Dan Says:

    I agree that photos are absolutely the most precious. I was reminded of that recently when my college roommate died and I found pics for a photo montage shown at the wake.

    But for me the most valuable, time-wise, would be my Ph.D. work and dissertation. I don’t want to spend six years, write hundreds of papers, and collect thousands of articles and references for nothing!!!

  72. Kent Says:

    My Harry McCracken Shrine.

  73. Rajesh Says:

    I have lot of data on my laptop and i think all of them are equally important. but what i care for most is my 1 year old videos,photos , all happy moments with my family. Apart from that i have also stored my bank account details, credit card details, user id and password in pc using truecrypt software.

  74. APeer Says:

    All my life docs

  75. BPearce Says:

    I work as a book designer — backing up my working files is not only absolutely important, but difficult when I have a number of large projects active at any one time. So the more storage, the better!

  76. theInnocent Says:

    The most important pieces of data I have is the poems I write. You can always take new pictures. Music, movies etc can all be required over time. But my personal artistic works are impossible to replace. I remember once I wrote one of my best pieces in a long time and I was finishing up the last paragraph word crashes on me me. I sat there in shock for a few minutes after realizing i did not save it and there is no way to reproduce something like that from memory.

  77. SoahmZ Says:

    My most important data are the digital photos of my family and friends that I have accumulated over time, and all the miscellaneous school work I have saved so far.

  78. Riles Says:

    Photos and videos of my family are by far the most important data I have.

  79. heyyou Says:

    most important data is home videos of my new born, the memories are just priceless

  80. Saif Says:

    My school documents. Mostly my essays

  81. Paul Says:

    Photos of me and my daughter. Irreplaceable pictures need backing up.

  82. Warren Hiramatsu Says:

    My most important data consists of my pictures of the family, especially my wife and daughter. Then there are the various documents which I have accumulated over the years, some of it business related and some of it not. The newest addition to my data has been a growing number of videos. Most of the videos are TV shows I’ve archived from my dvr pc while some are just short web videos I’ve found or my friends have sent me. Like pictures, they remind of how the times were when the video came out.
    A personal note to you Harry: I was one of the winners of one of your first giveaways; The Real DVD software. At least until the courts and MPAA quashed that idea. I hope this time if I’m picked as winner, I might get the prize for a change. Thanks for Technologizer.

  83. Quisicosa Says:

    I work from home so my work pc setup is crucial to backup. Also, my crossword collection keeps me sane.

  84. Max Says:

    My most important data would have to be my web design work and scripts. Following that is my music collection 🙂

  85. Stilgar Says:

    Most important: Baby pictures, duh!

  86. Mostafa Says:

    Most important data: Thousands of pictures from my high schools years. Friends, school trips, tournaments, gatherings, graduations. Definitely my most cherished moments.

  87. Balazs Says:

    Most important data: my photo collection
    I have several copies at several places but keeping it all up-to date is a challenge.

  88. Camyyssa Says:

    The windows backup. And music. And pictures, the backup for all my pictures together… :). And a backup for the projects going on now. That would be awesome. And some audio books….

  89. Chuck Says:

    My most important data: my ebooks

  90. Patrick Says:

    Wedding photos and baby pictures – 6 month old has a LOT of pictures!

  91. Relyt Says:

    As everyone else, I have essential pictures, videos, and other media stored on my hard drive. My family stores all of our memories on this aging, 60GB, 4+ year old hard drive that has under 2GB of free space left. In addition, our large and long-in-the-making music collection (~10GB) is on this hard drive along with some financial info from years past. Having a backup/more space disk drive would be cool and greatly help us and our aging computer last longer!!!!

  92. Rich Says:

    Wife’s photos, of course!

  93. Vickie Bartlett Says:

    I have a few personal files and settings that are important, but also my photos.. and my music, I wouldn’t want to have to redo everthing

  94. Paul Judd Says:

    My important data is all of my photos and documents – stuff that I have accumulated through my years of data accumulation – I would be devastated if I lost things like that – I nearly did once but I got really lucky before.

  95. randy maltaverne Says:

    most important data: music

  96. Copper Says:

    Well I used to work as a consultant specializing in backup systems so all data is important, but these days (despite the snippets and files I have going back 10 years) I’m a photographer so of course those are the most important things to me. In my past life the most important data I ever worked with was in a DR system for a group of hospitals – where you’d (theoretically, thankfully) measure downtime in loss of lives instead of loss of revenue. I didn’t sleep real well during that engagement.

  97. Eric Dtrick Says:

    I usually say my videos and music, but at the end of the day the most important data for me is my photos. You can download music again, but you can’t buy back memories on iTunes.

  98. Doug Says:

    My most important data is my photos of my family I have taken over the years.

  99. Robert Says:

    The most important data on my pc are 20 years of pictures; resumes; personal writing; and step-work re: my sobriety.

  100. Michael E Says:

    Most important data… Home pictures and videos. Oh… And the rips of all my home DVDs.

  101. Cantor Says:

    Most important data? Personal pictures, Docunents and .. code code code!!! 🙂

  102. Gino Says:

    My most important data is the random seasons of TV shows I have (At the moment it’s Chuck, Breaking Bad, and Party Down), my Hack-A-Wii Kit (All the programs/files I need to get it done), and my Insta-Antivirus (Several programs I use all in one handy place, for fixing relatives and friends’ computers). All of this is on my keychain.

    I’d really love the GoFlex Drive though… 🙂

  103. Aaron Says:

    My most important data are the pictures of my baby daughter. That’s why I keep 4 copies of each file backed up.

  104. Jon Says:

    I’m a marketing recruiter, so resumes are the most important item I currently have on a drive. I have resumes going back 7 years and often pull old resumes to see if people are still on the market for a new position.

  105. cassandra Says:

    I am a mother of 4 and the data that matters to me most are pictures and home video of my family and friends. I have had some internal drives go bad on me and I lost so any of my picture projects and home videos. It would be great to have an external drive in my home.

  106. Elliot Says:

    I have pictures of my family, my main computer, and my video production company files all on my external drive. It’s extremely important to me that all of those files are safe and secure.

  107. Joyce Nichols Says:

    My picture and personal files are the most important. Freeing up hard drive space on my computer is also important.

  108. Patrick Says:

    I once had a HD fail on me – and lost 3 years of personal financial information. None of which was backed up. Ever since, I’ve been backing up on a regular basis!

    Five years ago I got rid of my desktop and replaced it with a laptop. The HD I got then is only 100GB, and I have another 160GB of data on an external drive. I’m starting to run out of room, and this drive would come in VERY handy!

  109. Ash Says:

    With all my computers changes over the last 15 years, I’ve managed to bring all my files with me. I used to do hard drive to hard drive copy, then Iomega Zip backup, then USB backup. Switched from PC to a Mac (main computer) after being on a PC for nearly 25 years. The new Seagate GoFlex drive would be perfect for me. I use a Mac as my desktop but keep a PC Netbook when I travel.

  110. Andrew Says:

    Most important data I have is our family photos..

  111. Ankit Says:

    Most Important data: Pictures of my friends and near ones but I like to be organised and I never run out of space but I would like to avail this opportunity to have a dedicated drive for my games for my nintendo WII

  112. Aaron Says:

    My most important files — as I found out when both my laptop’s hard drive and my backup drive failed within days of each other last year — are my family photos, my browser bookmarks, my receipts and invoices from my side business and my largish music/movie/tv library.

  113. Will Says:

    Music, and schoolwork!

  114. Keith Says:

    it all about the photos! definitely the most important. gigs and gigs of them!

  115. Ogo Says:

    For me, my family photos and work documents. Sure, this hard drive will be ideal for storing these for a very long time.

  116. Ernesto Lopez Says:

    Most important data is my precious customer database.

  117. Arquebusier Says:

    I’ve got a ton of old games/movies/documents on my hard drive. If I ever want to read the stories I wrote in the 8th grade, they are here ;D

  118. Steven Says:

    Photos and videos of my son going all the way back to his first ultrasound.

  119. Esen Says:

    movies and the saved games, i wouldnt like to lose my huge arcanum saves!!

  120. Christian Says:

    The most important data I have got are photos. I can’t imagine loosing them.

  121. Dave Says:

    Pictures of my kids. Lots of them. Too many good ones too!

  122. Pete Borini Says:

    My most important data is the collection of pictures my family’s amassed over the past 20 years. My wife is an avid scrapbooker, and likes instant access to all 20 years! I need more space–please let me know if I’m lucky enough to win!

  123. Camilo Says:

    My documents from work and school, since I was in fourth grade. Quite a lot of stuff!

  124. Arthur Says:

    Photos are the most important for me. Time is one thing you cannot get more of and photos help you hold onto time and moments from your past. A way to recharge and reflect.

  125. Jeromey Balderrama Says:

    I’ve got over 40GB worth of Photos, including our professional wedding photos. In addition, I also have my band’s original master recordings that I need to preserve.

  126. reva skie Says:

    I have a ton of data for a lawsuit I am embroiled in. My attorney let me put some sweat equity into it, so I have spreadsheets and lots of documentation that is very valuable to me.

  127. Tom Lothian Says:

    I could really use one of these drives. My old drives are filling up with all of our pictures and all of our music. Consolidating to a single drive would allow me to create a central place on the home network to get to it all.

  128. Brian Says:

    As a business owner all documents are critical from Accounting to Media. I was just told to get a Seagate by my brother who is an IT guy because my Maxtor (craptor) drive failed and although most I have most things backed up I did make the mistake of storing a few critical files on the drive itself.

    I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives. I will back-up my HD and not store critical info on portable drives.

    You get the picture!

  129. Matt Says:

    Most important documents: photos and finances

  130. Brewmaster Says:

    Like most people, it’s obviously my photos. They capture a moment in time that will never come back, show people who will never again be that age or that perhaps I’ll never meet again, and places I may never go again.
    Then there’s the archive of my computer BBS that I ran for about 10 years during the golden age of BBS’s, from 1987 to 1997.

  131. Eric Says:

    Most important: home movies of my two little girls.

  132. funtime42 Says:

    Digital archive of Mom’s and Dad’s military service during WWII consisting of enlistment papers, photos, every letter my father wrote home (including censored letters from the front), and six hours of video interviews about FDR, Pearl Harbor, VE and VJ Days, etc.

  133. DGentry Says:

    My most important data is thousands of photos of my kids and family. They are backed up, but I still wonder if there is more I should do to safeguard them.

  134. SebG Says:

    My most important data is stuff that I can obtain again or can’t recreate. Photos are an obvious one, but so are email archives, financial documents, etc. A critical one that comes to mind are sketches, designs and diagrams that I have created over the years. I often refer back to them, but I could never recreate – the original thought process could never be fully recovered.

  135. Aaron Says:

    Most important data is back ups of thing that cant be replaced
    Photos and Video of family and personal records

  136. Marc Says:

    My photos and my wife’s art are the most essential data I would like to save. Irreplaceable things. Also, financial documents are a must and my music library is fairly extensive and could use a backup copy.

  137. Marc Says:

    Finding my CDs after having just moved would make recovering my music library very time consuming.

  138. ddfar Says:

    Definitely not docs. Photos probably, though music would be a HUGE pain to try and recover.

  139. hegar Says:

    my work data and sons photos of my kids

  140. Gary Berg Says:

    My most important files are my photos – all those memories are very important to me…

  141. Christian Says:

    I would say my most inportant data is pictures of family and friends. closely followed by backups of my system and my phone

  142. Jon Says:

    As a Photographer who uses both MAC, and PC, this HD is ideal!! Photo’s for me are the most important. (obviously)

  143. Ron Blessing Says:

    My most important data would be family pictures.

  144. Deep Says:

    everything is important for me…including movies and songs……….but i dont hav enough space to accommodate more……..

  145. Dipro Mondal Says:

    WELL To me my most important data are all my applications and my account numbers and profiles which I will lose if my HDD crashes.It had crashed twice one one year back when I lost about 70Gb of my data.So I cannot risk.I need to put my data into some Ext HDD till I update it.

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