Customer Reviews

HP Personal Media Drive 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive HD5000S

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Uncharacteristic of the Squonk, this review will actually be pretty short. If you've read some of my other reviews, you'll know what I mean. In any event, the 500 GB HP Personal Media Drive is a fantastic product. This is largely because the concept is so ingenious, yet so simple. Traditionally, external hard drives have been somewhat cumbersome things--they require their own power source, for one. Also, no matter how small they are made, they still rob desk space. The solution? HP decided to develop a drive that combines the best features of internal drives--no need for a separate power source, no space wasted on the desk--with the data security and portability of external drives.

The 500 GB capacity comes out to 465 GB formatted/corrected for actual capacity (i.e. a gigabyte actually contains 1024 megabytes, and a megabyte actually contains 1024 kilobytes; however, in their capacity ratings drive manufacturers round off the extra 24 units in each case, the result being that the actual capacity of each drive is less than advertised). This is simply gigantic. I imagine one could archive every book ever written on this drive and still have room for the first five seasons of Family Guy. This capacity is ideal for archiving digital media, important files, and just about anything else you can think of.

Installation is a snap. If you have an HP Pavilion Media Center PC with a Personal Media Drive Bay, then it's simply a matter of sliding the drive into the bay. NOTE: The Personal Media Drive (PMD) is NOT the same as the Pocket Media Drive, also made by HP--the latter is for the standard Pavilion line. In any event, if you do not have the PMD bay, then the supplied USB cable and power adapter are no problem to use. Either way, there are no drivers to install. The PMD itself contains some installation files for added functionality, along with a bunch of folders containing several programs in each of about twenty different languages. These take up almost 700 MB of space, and when I realized what they were, I quickly moved them to my HP m7640n's native hard drive--I might need them for some strange reason. Note, however, that the one folder with a name longer than three letters is required to install the drive's extra software. Leave this folder and (re)move all the others.

Data transfers are fast enough. USB 2.0 has a maximum transfer speed of 480 MB/sec, so that's what the PMD will do. I haven't noticed any instances where that speed is in any way lacking.

Other that this, there isn't much more to say. The device is somewhat larger than I might have expected, though this is reassuring--it looks and feels solid, and it sports a case of tough plastic and brushed aluminum. The status LEDs are matched to the current Pavilion line (i.e. a blue static light and an amber access indicator), and the device fits flush inside its bay. It looks like a dream in there, and though the little plastic door on the m7640n's front panel can close over the PMD, I usually leave it open so I can see the extra lights.

All in all, I would recommend the 500 GB HP Personal Media Drive to those who own an HP Pavilion Media Center PC. For all others, it's just another external hard drive, and there exist other such external HDDs that are much cheaper per GB than the HP PMD. You pay a premium to enjoy the dual functionality offered by HP's product, and for that extra benefit I am happy.

Hard disks will fail - the only question is WHEN. A reasonable life expectancy, fine; but 3 months?

I have 3 of these, used for backups, shuttling data between computers, and extra storage.

The good: It fits inside the HP case in the designated bay, eliminating desk top clutter with no external footprint. Even when used externally, the case has a nice, sleek, solid feel to it, without being bulky. HP does market a nice carrying case for $20. But it's REAL attraction, worth the extra money (for some), is the internal fit.

The BAD: one of the 3 drives failed, with NO warning, after 3 months of LIMITED use. For the last month, it had been left in a media center machine (i.e, constantly on), with 1 heavy session of 350 gig writes (moving data from the internal disk to it). But that's about all.

Then, this morning, Vista Home Premium SP1 started reporting that a usb device had failed. The drive's blue power light was lit, with the yellow access light CONSTANTLY blinking (but nothing accessing the drive). The real clue to failure was just plugging it in using the external power supply, without a usb connection - constantly blinking yellow light (normally, the flashing yellow light goes out after about 10, 15 seconds).

On the plus side, HP support did respond within an hour, though it was obvious they had not read my FULL explanation of troubleshooting (e.g., failed in 2 different computers, another identical drive worked in both).

So their 1st response was worthless, as to re-installing usb drivers, using a different usb port, etc., etc.

After I again pointed out my troubleshooting and conclusion, they agreed the disk had failed, and quickly offered a REPLACEMENT drive.

THUS: any data on the failed disk is GONE (at least for you). Because it cannot be accessed, there is no way of wiping the disk before returning it. No telling what will happen to YOUR disk on return - no doubt rebuilt, but during that process, will they wipe the disk before returning it to the refurbished pool? Any personal information could be in the public domain...

So use, just be careful what info you put on the disk, and even if it's within its warranty period, you will have to make a tradeoff between security/money.

HP HD5000S Personal Media Drive 500GB Unit works just as described and when inserted in the CPU keeps the work space clear, which is a plus if you have limited area. The price is about $100.00 more than you might spend for a comparabily sized external drive, but the product is well built and very simple to install and remove without worrying about cabling. Plus it is made by a company that I have come to trust in computing hardware. Finally, the greatest benefit for me personally is that I can remove the unit from my home PC and link it externally with any other USB PC. I hope this has helped you with your selection.

The HP Personal Media 500 GB External Hard Drive is great. It works fine whether it is inserted into the Personal Media Drive Bay on my HP Media Center desktop computer, attached to a USB 2.0 port on that same computer, attached to a USB 2.0 port on my Toshiba Pentium 4 notebook computer, or attached to my wife's Dell Pentium 4 desktop computer. All three computers are running Windows XP with SP2. When attached to a regular USB 2.0 port, you do need to power the drive through the included AC adapter with power cord.

Unfortunately, I have had major difficulties with the Roxio Backup MyPC 7 software that comes loaded on this external hard drive. In particular, the instructions contained in the external hard drive User Guide that pertain to installing the backup software on your PC are ambiguous or totally incorrect. I found that you have to use trial and error to determine how to install the backup software. I was able to install the software successfully on my HP desktop computer by double clicking "setup" within the folder titled "PMD." This took me to a screen that allowed me to install on my computer the Backup MyPC software and its User's Guide. The software worked fine in backing up the Drive C from this computer to the HP 500 GB external hard drive. On my Toshiba notebook computer, it appeared that I was able to install the backup software applying the same procedures. However, when I tried to use the installed software to back up some files to the external hard drive, a "Product Registration" screen came up that said that the backup software was already registered, but the screen would not let me cancel the registration, register the software again, remove the registration screen, or even access the backup program. I tried all kinds of procedures to remove the registration screen and to access the software. I finally had to restart the computer to get rid of the product registration screen. Since I am unable to use the backup software on my notebook computer, I uninstalled it on that computer. On my wife's Dell Pentium 4 desktop, I had to go to the "setup" file within the "BUMP" folder to install the software. The "setup" file within the "PMD" folder came up on the screen but provided nothing to click on to install the backup software or the software User's Guide.

I love HP Personal Media External Hard Drives. This is the second one that I have purchased. The first was a 300 GB HP Personal Media Hard Drive that I purchased two years ago. It has been working flawlessly on all three of our computers. It came with Sonic Backup MyPC Special Edition for HP (which is actually version 5 of Backup MyPC--for which the Roxio version 7 is a newer version). The older version of the backup software works great on all of our computers whether using the older HP 300 GB external hard drive or the new HP 500 GB drive. The differences between version 5 and version 7 seem to be mostly cosmetic. However, the older version seems to be more stable, and I believe that it is easier to navigate.

I highly recommend the HP Personal Media 500 GB External Hard Drive. However, don't be surprised if you have difficulties using the Roxio backup software that comes with it.

My only "negative" comment about the drive is there is noticible fan noise, really not bad though. Otherwise, its worked just like I'd expect a USB2.0 hard drive to. I purchased the 500gig model (would have bought 1TB if available and affordable) to put in the media bay of my HP PC since didn't want to buy an external drive that would require its own power source, with yet another power cord to worry about.

I purchased this to act as my media library. Since I bought a video iPod last Christmas and some related software I've joined NetFlix and get 3 DVD's at a time to copy to the PC, then keep in iTunes to be available for the iPod. I record the movies at different qualities so the file size is anywhere from 500mb to 2gb for each movie - that chews up hard drives pretty fast since I generally keep both a large and small file for each movie in case we choose to watch it on TV instead of the iPod - the small 320x480 file size that is good for the iPod looks pretty bad on a 65" TV! I figure I have enough disk space to last till next April, then I'll have to buy more drives which will be an inconvience since its nice to have it built in to the PC. So far, this hard drive has been great, watching movies on it I experience no jitter, it plays the files just fine.

The order was processed efficiently by Amazon.com. The unit arrived as scheduled. If you have a HP desktop the installation is easier than boiling water. Just open the PM bay and slide the drive in making sure the connector is positioned properly. Now when you power up your computer and after the system boots up you have 500GB of additional disk space. Enjoy. Very well designed unit. The fan noise is a little annoying but not really that bad.

Cheap, high-capacity storage. I just use it for backup periodically in case of failure of our primary drive. Also easy to pull out and go if we ever have to evacuate (not likely, but who knows? Would hate to lose all the kids' pictures!).

Only beef: as soon as the rear touches the computer contacts it turns on (i.e., you don't have to press it firmly to engage). Unfortunately, this means you can't close the bay door without turning it on. So, mine is continually sticking out a bit from my computer and I have lost the sleek HP look as a result!

I bought this drive thru Amazon on Sept. 18, 2008 and it stopped working on January 9, 2009, just a few days past the 3 month warranty period. I get message that the drive is not recognized, try disconnecting it and reconnecting it, and if it still does not work replace it. I tried this and also, connecting it with the external power source and also tried it on another computer. My computer says that the drive is malfunctioning. I am very disappointed. I do have 3 other HP personal media drives, 160, 500, and a 750, and so far they are still working. Two are older that the one that stopped working. Of course, it is past the 30 day return period with Amazon and it is several days pass the warranty period with HP.

This is a great way of expanding the storage capacity of your PC, HP has come out with newer version for Windows Vista. I reccomend PC users who have windows Vista to get the one that is Vista Compatible.

If you have an HP computer that this drive will slide into, this is the best external hard drive you can get. No extra plugs or cables and changing between multiple drives is easy as cake. USB 2.0 limits speed a little, but other than that it's almost like having a quick change internal drive. Highly recommended.