Seagate today announced the Fall 2008 lineup of the company's FreeAgent family of external hard drives. This new generation of the Seagate FreeAgent family includes desktop and mobile options, for both Mac and Windows operated PCs. Mac drives are both formatted for use with Mac OS X out of the box and are Time Machine ready with FireWire800/400 or USB 2.0 connectivity.

Seagate FreeAgent Go

Seagate's flagship offering, the FreeAgent Go portable storage solution, is the slimmest external drive available today. At a height of only 12.5mm, the new FreeAgent Go fits in a pocket while still including shock and vibration protection. The new FreeAgent Go is also offering a docking option.

With up to 500GB of capacity, the FreeAgent Go bridges the gap between standard portable solutions and desktop solutions with enough storage to carry entire libraries of movies, pictures and music.

The drives will be available as of September 2008 in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific for a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $119.99 USD for 250GB, $149.99 USD for 320GB and $239.99 for 500GB.

Seagate FreeAgent Go for Mac (FireWire 800/400 interface) is available this month for a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $159.99 USD for 250GB and $189.99 USD for 320GB.

The FreeAgent Go desktop docking station is sold separately and comes paired with a black leatherette carrying case. The drive is now available in a variety of colors, including silver, black, red, and blue. The drive also ships with a thin USB 2.0 travel cable. The dock and case will be available in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific for a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $29.99 USD.

Seagate FreeAgent Desk & XTreme drives

The FreeAgent Desk drive and FreeAgent XTreme drive are the family's two 3.5-inch high-capacity desktop offerings, and provide up to 1.5 Terabytes of storage. The modern design of these drives provides the flexibility to sit horizontally or stand vertically. The FreeAgent Desk drive is a brushed aluminum high-capacity solution with a USB 2.0 interface. The FreeAgent XTreme drive is a black, brushed aluminum high-capacity storage solution with a triple interface of eSATA, USB 2.0 and FireWire 400.

The FreeAgent Desk drive is available as of this month in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific, for a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $129.99 USD for 500GB, $149.99 USD for 640GB, $229.99 USD for 1TB and $279.99 USD for 1.5TB (available in October 2008).

The FreeAgent Desk for Mac is available this month for a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $169.99 USD for 500GB, $269.99 USD for 1TB and $349.99 USD for 1.5TB (available in October 2008).

The FreeAgent XTreme is available worldwide for a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $159.99 USD for 500GB, $179.99 USD for 640GB, $259.99 USD for 1TB and $299.99 USD for 1.5TB (available in October 2008).

Seagate FreeAgent drives come equipped with Seagate Manager software, an application that provides scheduled automated back-ups and multi-computer synchronization. The FreeAgent drives for Windows also offer security in the form of software-based AES-256bit encryption and Seagate DrivePass password protection for drive access. The utilities help save energy by putting the drive in sleep mode once it has been idle for 15 minutes. Seagate FreeAgent hard drives include Energy Star 5 rated AC adapters and are now packaged in 100% recyclable materials. They are backed by Seagate's five-year limited warranty.