Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 160 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive STM901603OTA3E1-RK by Seagate
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Digital camera reviews of Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 160 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive STM901603OTA3E1-RK
Digital camera Review: Great external storage
Summary: 5 Stars
Compact external drive easily connected by an USB port enables backing up a computers entire hard drive in minutes. Installation is very simple. Protects against loss of system or personal data, photos etc. Can be used to transfer files from old to new computer. A must have product.Digital camera Review: Great little drive. Seagate Momentus 5400.3 drive inside
Summary: 5 Stars
I just picked up one of these drives yesterday, and am happy to report it works and powers up with just one USB port on our 13" MacBook (1.83CD) & 17" MacBook Pro (2.16CD). I also tried it with a USB 2.0 cable from a Canon SD600 and it worked fine. I was also very happy to discover that the one-touch button can be configured to launch a specified app other than the Maxtor software, which is awesome if you want to use something else.
Then once I know it everything worked, against my better judgment I opened the case to look inside (using a plastic card, thinner than a credit card, to gently release the latches on each edge- and yes, VOIDING THE WARRANTY), and was happy to discover a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 SATA drive. These are solid, low-power drives- so I promptly swapped it out with the Apple OEM 60GB SATA internal drive. I snapped everything back together and it all still works like a charm.
Digital camera Review: Great physically small drive for a decent price
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this drive to create a clone of my iMac hard drive. I chose this model because it has the same capacity as my internal drive (both have 149GB formatted) and is small enough to go in my safe deposit box at the bank. Want to have a clone off site in case of a robbery or fire.
It has worked like a champ. Since I'm using a Mac, the software that came with the drive was of no use to me so I can't say anything about that. But the drive itself ran quietly, cool, and perfectly. Obviously, since I have only had it for a short time, I can't comment on it's reliability.
This drive uses two USB ports in order to get enough power. A twin ended USB cable is supplied. One of the ends is for both data and power, the other is used only for additional power. This way the USB port can supply all the power to run the drive without an external power supply. Cool! But bad news if you forget your cable, probably can't pick one up at your local store.
Digital camera Review: Lacks conformity to standards
Summary: 3 Stars
Sure, this is a great little item and it's very useful, but there are problems with the Maxtor Onetouch4 Mini that keep it from being perfect.
First, it doesn't use ISO-8859, meaning that any non-English letters aren't allowed in file-names. I certainly know it's possible because I have tons of files of classical music on my computer. I had to manually change file names and sync the files to make sure that they were all transferred. Special characters from other languages weren't allowed, which is a little strange these days. Secondly, For some reason folders and files would become invisible. This problem was solved with Microsoft's chkdsk program, but had I been a little more computer illiterate I would have lost these files forever. Third, this drive isn't very Linux friendly. I think that once I get around to moving the files I have on my Onetouch, I will reformat it with a better file-system like ReiserFS or EXT3 (it currently uses NTFS). Fourthly, it has an automatic shutoff that I don't know how to turn off. It only does this when it's been idle for a long time, but this "feature" is a pain in the butt because of my computer using habits.
Some praise I do have for this drive is that I don't even have to use 2 USB ports to use it. Although, the 2 USB ports was kind of a surprise for me when I opened up the box because that bit of information wasn't publicized.
All in all I would give it a C+. Maxtor made a useful product, but it didn't bother to polish it. The shortcomings of this drive will keep me from buying similar Maxtor products in the future.
Digital camera Review: Maxtokr Mini-hard drive
Summary: 5 Stars
This drive is easy to use; plug and play and it worked well right away. Very useful for business road trip back ups.