Customer Reviews

Buffalo Technology DriveStation 1 TB SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive with TurboUSB HD-HX1.0TU3

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Ok first thing I want to start off by saying is that this is the External Desk Drive, meaning that it must use a power adapter to work and not just from USB. It's kinda my fault for not doing the proper research but just to let you all know. If you're looking for a USB powered 3.0 one, try the Buffalo Cobalt Ministation.

Ok so now on to the review. My first impression of this drive is that it is very glossy. I knew it would be glossy, but not that much. As such, it is a HUGE fingerprint magnet. This may not be a problem for those that will keep it on the desk, but I'm making this function as my portable hard drive until I get the other one.

I'm not going to bore you with statistics on the write/read speeds compared to usb 2.0 etc.(there are lots of sites that has this information, google it)but I will say that thing is miles faster than usb 2.0. When I first used this I almost thought it wasn't working because nothing popped up that said the file was transferring, but that was just how fast it was.

There is software that comes with it. The software is a basic back-up utility that can autmatically sync and back up your files. This software is mehhh. It does its job, but i've seen better. It's up to you if you want to use it. There also is something called turbo usb or something that when activated makes it supposedly read/write even faster but honestly I haven't seen a difference and I think its just a gimmick.

Overall, I would definitely reccomend this if you have a usb 3.0 port handy (my notebook came with one) ,planning to install one or just wanting to be future proof. Its backwards compatible with usb 2.0 so no loss there. One thing I don't like with this product (although all companies do this now) is that it advertises 1.5 TB but not all of that is usable. I can't exactly remember how much was usable out the box, but it was a substantial amount and for who knows what. That being sad, SPACE IS NOT A PROBLEM. I have two full PC backups, LOTS of photos, music and video. LOTS of games and applications and many other files etc. and i still have close to a terabyte left! I'm trying to find things now to fill that up.

CLOSING
This is definitely a good buy, and I highly reccommend this to anyone in the market for one. Its quiet, small, pretty lightweight for the memory on this as I am still able to use this a portable drive with my big 16 inch notebook.

For the new kids on the block who have got USB 3.0 ports, like myself, go no further. This is the external Hard Drive your looking for. When I received the Hard Drive I immediately did a read/write speed test on it using HD Tune. I was shocked by the results. This external Hard Drive had out preformed my internal hard drive, which isn't a shabby hard drive (a SATA 7,200rpm 320gb Seagate Barracuda). I was getting speeds of about 90MBps on the internal drive. Here's the real shocker on the 1.5TB model I got (and I don't expect it to be different on the other models as well) I was getting speeds of 120MBps. So in laymen's terms this Hard drive is 25% faster then the internal drive. By the way these hard drives are 7,200rpm and not 5,400rpm (wasn't mentioned in the product description)so you really get the most out of the drive. The software this hard drive comes with is very useful, when you initiate the setup for the drive using the wizard you'll have to format the drive, but you can download the software from the buffalo website again so its no problem as well as the firmware updates which you should download anyway. On the other hand that might have just been a problem I had, I may have botched the installer by wanting to fly through the setup to test it out. Either way it's not a problem. I particularly liked the RAMdisk software that come with it, which allows you to transform a portion of your RAM space into a super high speed hard drive, for insanely fast speeds. The drive also includes 2 backup software you can use Memeo backup and the Buffalo Backup Utility. TurboCopy also speeds up file transfers when moving files around. To further improve things the drive comes with optional encryption software that you can use to totally encrypt your hard drive to prevent your data falling into the wrong hands. Can't comment on the TurboPC utility yet because I haven't played with it yet, but if its anything like the other software I am sure it's wonderful. My only regret is that I didn't get the 2TB model instead. Its not often that find a item that actually exceeds my expectations like this and can only be given a beaming review. I will update this review to post the speeds I get for the virtual RAMdisk (if HD tune will let me clock it) and to review the software TurboPC.

All-in-all Best bang for your buck!

UPDATE: Okay back with more great news. I turned on RAMdisk and was able to test looking at it through CrystalDiskMark. Believe it or not I got speeds for the virtual Ramdisk of ~600MBps!! To but that in perspective I also did a few quick tests transfered a 80.3MB MP3 album so fast the progress bar just flashed and was gone. TurboPC is another RAM converting program from what I make of it, but instead of making a virtual hard drive it makes a virtual buffer area, like the buffer on a hard drive to move files quickly, etc. You can change the size of the RAM the both RAMdisk and TurboPC use. Its a perfect way to utilize that RAM that your computer never seems to fully utilize. since RAM is volatile memory(gets erased when your computer is turned off) RAMdisk gets around this by when you shutdown the computer it can backup whatever is in your RAMdisk onto your hard drive, and when you start your computer again move it back. The software included is reason enough to buy this product, and the hard drive alone is well worth the price by itself. Get this one, you will not be disappointed!

This hard drive is super fast and did include a USB 3.0 cable so I did not need to purchase an additional one. I am very pleased wit the product and the vendor.

I bought the usb 3.0 2TB Drivestation. It worked out of the box without any set up chores. I am getting about 75mbs data transfer speeds using usb 3.0 adaptors in various computers running XP, Vista x64, and Windows 7 x64. A really big improvement over usb 2.0. I am getting a more stable usb connection using Buffalo 3.0 drives and adaptors that I get with usb 2.0.

I strongly recommend making the transition to usb 3.0 using Buffalo Tech equipment.

The hard drive is pretty fast, win 7 recognized it immediately. usb 3 is a huge boon. The only thing I dont like is that it has 2 partition and opens 2 drives, one with utils and one with rest of the drive. The utils drive is confusing but I do understand why it is there so ignore. Other than that the drive is quiet and fast. I have always used WD before but this one is right up there and cheaper than WD.

Nice drive and my first USB 3.0 device. Runs smooth, fast and quiet. The USB cable is fairly short so I ordered another longer one. Other than that, if you're looking for these attributes in a drive then buy this one! I think you'll be more than pleased.

Make sure motherboard BIOS supports drives having more than 1 TB. My Asus motherboard had to be replaced just plugging in this drive. I replaced motherboard and had to do a bios upgrade for this to work. (I replaced with MSI Motherboard and bios upgrades are simple, automatic, and online with MSI). I had a pci usb 3.0 installed on my Azus motherboard but all hell broke lose when I plugged in the Buffaclo 2.0.
The bios upgrade is not for usb 3.0 but for usb drives having more than 1 TB.

I'm happy with this drive and also upgrading motherboard to the latest and fastest MSI Motherboard!

I use this as my back up drive. It's fast and does the job well. I had to do a firmware update when I plugged it in since it wasn't running @ USB 3 speed. It's nice because if it's @ USB 2 speed - the light is green. When it's connected @ USB 3 speed - the light is blue. Drive functions as advertised! Super FAST!

Does the job very well. Connected via USB 3.0, it shows good transfer rates and dependability. I use it strictly for backups so dependability of connection is just as important as speed. It has always been available and I have no failed writes--something that seemed to plague my USB 2.0 drives periodically.

Got a notebook with USB 3.0 last week and I have about 300gb of music collected so I wanted a way to back it up faster. Moved a bunch of the files just pointing and clicking and got around 35mb per second which was excellent. Decided to install the included "Turbo Boost" software just to check it out. Not sure how it works, but it works. My transfer rate jumped up to an amazing 50.5mb/per second!!