Customer Reviews

AcomData PureDrive 640 GB USB 2.0/eSATA External Hard Drive PHD640USE-72

5 star:		(92)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(45)

 

 

It's a cool looking quiet drive + it is priced reasonably. Also, while it was working with our Direct TV HD receiver, I was a happy customer. Then, after just 1 month, it died taking all our recorded shows & movies to the zone of "no return". The lights are still on, they even go from red to violet and then blue - yes, very entertaining and pretty ;), but the drive is unrecognizable. I bought a new eSATA cable, I rebooted my HD receiver numerous times, (not suspecting that a drive can possibly fail just after 1 month), I tested it on 2 different computers w XP OS & Vista + I used 2 different types of connections: USB and eSATA, but both computers failed to see the drive.

The worst part about this experience, (besides wasting money, energy & time) is non-existent AcomData's customer support.
Try calling (909) 786-4280. You have to press 1 for a technical support. Then every minute you will be prompted to press 1 again in order to continue to wait for the next agent, otherwise they automatically redirect you to their mailbox. You can't even turn on a speakerphone and do something else while waiting for somebody to show any signs of life at that company, because they want you to act as a monkey by pressing 1 as soon as you hear that their agents are busy helping other customers. Also, 2 times, after I had presses 1 ~ 5-6 times, while waiting for that mysterious customer support, I got disconnected. How more obvious can they be with this system? They could have put *do not disturb* banner on their web page & prerecorded a message, which would say: *we will try to make it very difficult for you to reach us, so hang up right now & thank you for understanding*. Email this company & see how long it will take them to respond, especially if you're requesting RMA number.

Very poor customer support, so you're taking a huge risk by buying any drives from them... If your drive breaks, it will take too much time & energy to get a replacement. I still haven't heard back from them & something tells me that it will take forever to receive a working product from them.

I would wait before buying anything else from this CA based company. I will stand by my 1-star review for now. I understand that sometimes things break, but when your product is under a warranty, I expect to have it replaced in a prompt manner.

If you decide to go forward with this purchase anyway, please back up everything you will be storing on this device.

TO MAKE A SAD STORY SHORT:

This died on me in three days.

TO MAKE THE STORY LONGER:

Even the best electro/mechanical equipment does fail occasionally and early failures are usually some kind of manufacturing defect that may only affect a very small percentage of devices that come off the line. Once a device makes it past a week or so there is a good chance nothing is wrong with that particular sample. So, there is a really good chance that this failure is atypical.

TAKE A CHANCE?

If you want to take chance on this drive (and if you do, the odds are in your favor) consider the following:

1. Almost any drive you look at on Amazon, if there are more than a few reviews, you will see reports of failure.

2. This drive is reasonably priced so if you get a good one you are getting a good deal. Be sure to look over to the right hand side of the product page and pick the seller with the best deal. As of this writing it could be a difference of $20.

3. The drive is easy to install and use. For USB it is as easy as plugging in any USB device (memory stick, SD card).

4. The drive does support eSATA (first generation, 1.5 Gb/sec).

BUT FOR ME PERSONALLY:

Once bitten twice shy. So a two star review. Let those who have had better luck give it the five star reviews. Things will average out. This attitude did cost me as I replaced this unit with something more expensive in the hopes that it will be more reliable: LaCie 301442U d2 Quadra Hard Disk 1TB eSATA/FireWire800/FireWire400/USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (Aluminum).

I now have a review posted for the LaCie drive.

I bought two of them from Amazon late November 2008 and used them as backup drives. They are all dead now.

Avoid this drive!

An update: sent an email to Acomdata support on their website and did not get a response after a few days. called their tech support at (909) 786-4280 and got an RMA immediately.

I actually bought this on sale to pull the drive out and use it in my computer. I ended up liking the case itself so much I put another drive in it and use it all the time.

My only complaint is that the activity/power light is REALLY bright, which seems to be more and more common on externals now. I fixed that by sticking a piece of black electrical tape over it and leaving a sliver at the top so I can still see activity without being blinded.

The drive stays cool by spinning down when idle and is fan-less, but the case is aluminum for heat dissipation.

I have been using external drives for years and I have had drives fail from all the big names. I am sure this one will fail eventually too. I no longer expect a hard drive to last forever. Having such expectations will only bring you anguish when the drive gives up the ghost and you lose precious data. No matter the brand of hard drive, you *must* back up your data. AcomData drives are quiet, small, fast, simple (no bells and whistles), inexpensive and solidly built. I have had my AcomData 1 TB drive for about 6 months. This drive has more than exceeded my expectations and I will most certainly be buying more.

I have purchased 2 accomdata ext hard drives and BOTH have failed after a year of use. I never bang them around and only keep them near the pc. What good is the storage if you lose it after the drive fails? I have lost precious data due to these unreliable drives from this company. I have a Seagate drive that is over 5 yrs old with no problems.

If I could get this to work under e-sata than it would get 5 stars. But that is most likely Windows or a hardware on my end, I couldn't get a Western Digital e-sata to work, either. So it is most likely not Acomdata's fault. Works great under USB2, and you really never need e-sata speed except for editing or copying massive amounts of data.

I have been using Acomdata products for 5 years now, about 2 drives I used their enclosure to house my drive and 4 other Acomdata drives have hummed along perfectly for years now.

Both the 1 TB and 705 GB use a Samsung internal drive, a HD brand I have not had much experience with. But 6 months out, they seem to run great. Overall, the drives run quiet and the enclosures stay pretty cool. A real nice and solid feel, too.

This device failed after 3 months, losing important data. I have always treated this device with "kid gloves" so can only assume that it has been a manufacturing defect. Up until this point I have been pleased with the drive. However, let's face it, if it cannot do what it is expected to do it lessens the impact that fast data transfer and large capacity will bring.

I get "cyclical redundancy" errors and prompts to format the drive when I try to copy to it more than half the time. It does this on multiple computers and many different files. When I'm actually able to copy something to it, I seem to be able to play it back. However, it's frustrating to only be able to successfully write to the drive around half the days I want to use it. It did this the first day I had it in January and continues to do this randomly today. I've had a 250 GB phantom drive for a couple of years and NEVER had this problem. I'll never buy another large drive again.

I researched hard drives for about 2 months before I bought this one. I'll be honest, I bought it based on the reviews. My worry was that I would get what I paid for, that it would be made of inexpensive material and just feel "cheapy." Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't know why this drive is less expensive than the others, I'm sure there's some technologic reason, but it suits my needs perfectly.

I use it for backing up pictures, home movies, documents, etc and it works perfectly for that purpose. As the other reviewers have mentioned, if you have massive amounts of data to transfer, it will run hot due to the fact that is has no fan. The upside is that it's dead silent. You can hear it power up, but after that it's absolutely silent.

It also feels solid and is heavy. This helps me know that it's not going to break easily or fall apart on me. It's also visually appealing. And last but not least, it's very compact for a 1TB drive. It's roughly the size of a 5x7 picture and about an inch thick. How can you go wrong with that? Believe the other reviewers, this is a very good, inexpensive hard drive.