SimpleTech by Hitachi SimpleDrive 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive SP-U35/500 (designed by Pininfarina) by SimpleTech
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Digital camera reviews of SimpleTech by Hitachi SimpleDrive 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive SP-U35/500 (designed by Pininfarina)
Digital camera Review: Beware - Horrible Customer Service and Poor Quality
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this product last year. I loved it at first, but soon started getting errors and notices the drive was corrupt. I put in a service request with SimpleTech, but have NEVER been contacted by them. I have tons of files and photographs on this drive that I am unsure I'll ever get off. I purchased this drive because I had used SimpleTech memory for years with great results. However, I will never purchase anything they make again.
Digital camera Review: Beware fine print, gotacha!!
Summary: 1 Stars
Item came without power AC adapter, haven't been able to use. Wrote seller asking for adapter. Seller wrote back that I should have read fine print, that it did not have an adapter. Seller also suggested I go to electronics store and buy AC adapter for a few bucks. I have not been able to find an adapter to fit and they do not cost a few bucks but $20 to $70. Tried to contact SimpleTech, they do not answer E-mails or telephone. My suggestion is to do what I have always done and buy from a reputable dealer and to buy complete in original box with stated return policy and guarantee. My first purchase on Amazon.com and my last.Digital camera Review: Beware: Product details inaccurate - Not powered by USB!!
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this item based on the Product Details which state:
"Powers via USB or FireWire connection"
This is simply false! The drive comes with an AC adapter which it needs for power, and connecting the USB cable alone does not power it.
Also, while it has a USB port, I see no FireWire port.
Moreover, calling this drive "portable" is a bit of an exaggeration. This drive is comparable in size and weight to the Iomega silver series drives which are not advertised as "portable". Truly portable drives are drives such as the Smartdisk Firelite, which are lightweight and pocket-sized, and really do power through the USB with no AC adapter.
I should have known it was too good to be true - nobody is selling an external hard drive with capacity beyond ~250 GB that is powered only by USB. All 500 GB drives require an AC adapter and are well beyond pocket size.
Digital camera Review: Big, but very capable
Summary: 4 Stars
First of all, you should understand that SimpleTech makes two size drives with the same name (and virtually identical appearance). They have drives based on 2.5" drives (the 120,160,250) and the 3.5" based larger hard drives. I own one of the smaller (160gb) drives and I like it and have had no problems with it. It's portable and seems rather sturdy.
This drive is large and only portable in the sense that it's not difficult to pick up and plug it in somewhere else. It's not a notebook drive that powers off the USB. I wouldn't know about the long term reliability as I've only had it a couple of months. Also, I haven't tried rolling it down the stairs or anything, so I can't comment on its toughness.
That said, I've got 2 other external USB 500MB drives and one 1TB drive. This one is by far the fastest. Why that is, I don't know. I haven't changed any setting on anything. Just plugged it in the way they came out of the box, and there they went. This drive came with NTFS. 2 of the others did not. Was that the difference? Anyway, out of the box, this worked much better and faster with XP and Vista than my Iomega 500GB or my LaCie 1TB. It worked a little faster than Seagate Free Agent 500GB, but the Seagate stands upright on a wobbly stand.
Finally, I gave it only 4 stars because of the design. Yes, it's slightly prettier than some other drives, but I don't like the tapered front end. And also, this drive won't stack terribly well. If you're like me, you don't have too much desktop space (of course the other 3 drives don't help). If I can't stack external hard drives, at least it would be nice to be able to occansionally pile a few DVD or something on top of the as emergency desk space. The top of this drive is too rounded to utilize its surface.
UPDATE:
I rolled it down the stairs (not deliberately). It still works.
Digital camera Review: Black 120 Gb flavor, owned for one year, no problems, picks up as XP drive plug-n-play.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have two of these SimpleTech Pininafarina portable devices in the solid black (no blue ring) 120 Gb flavor.
I have had one of them for about a year and so far no problems. But I only use it to backup my data files once every couple of weeks or so - it's not getting 'heavy' usage. (Some of the reviewers around have lodged some failure complaints.)
Looks very cool. Simple to use. Red light for power, blue light for read/write. Comes with some software on a disc that I trashed. XP recognizes it as a drive no problem-o. I didn't do any formating nor did I have to install any drivers. I can't speak to speed since I am actually running USB 1.1 on my machine right now. No case provided, but I picked up black Case Logic PDHC1 Portable Hard Drive Cases for about $10 each. The drive and the cable fit easily.
The thing runs off of USB plug (just as advertised, not requiring AC current as one reviewer says). They have a plug in the back for a 5 VDC, 1.0A external power adapter (not provided) if you want to use that. The USB 2.0 to mini-B wire that does come with it actually has TWO USB 2.0s on it, strung in series. The instructions say that if the first USB is not giving up enough power, then plug the second one in for additional juice. I used wire ties to tie off the second USB plug. It is power only and if you use it by mistake as the primary plug, you'll be wondering why the thing is only working halfway. For me, the thing runs just fine powering off the one primary USB.
Perhaps the earlier reviewer bought a larger capacity version of this drive that requires AC adapter use. Or perhaps the reviewer bought the non-portable version and it requires AC usage. That version is physically larger, but the style/shape is exactly the same. SimpleTech has a website, so anyone unsure can go check the specs on any flavor of the product.
I respect Seagate quality, but it comes with software and I couldn't tell from the box whether I HAD to use it or not. It sort of reads as though I might. I just wanted an easily recognized drive to burn my data folder onto. (I rotate 'em - one off site, one on site, so if one fails, I basically still have another set of backups spread over time on the other one to fall back on.) That - and the fact this drive was about half the price - caused me to pass on the Seagate. If I were using the drive on a routine basis or for critical application, I would have tried to rely on Seagate quality first (and hoped the software was non-essential) without price being a concern.
But, again, so far this thing has worked without a hitch.