Customer Reviews

Hitachi SimpleTOUGH 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive ST/320GB (Carbon Fiber)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

***** WARNING: THIS DRIVE IS GARBAGE - DO NOT BUY - DO NOT BUY - DO NOT BUY - DO NOT BUY *****

I picked up one of these a couple of weeks ago. The concept of a good ruggedized portable USB hard drive for the consumer market is LONG overdue. The 500GB SimpleTough worked fine the first few times I used it, plugging the fold out USB ribbon cable into a laptop or desktop...everything seemed ok and it worked like a champ...and was faster than any other external USB drive of its size that I've ever used. Now all of a sudden I start getting "Device Not Recognized", no matter what laptop or desktop, USB port, or even USB hub (powered) that I plugged it into, and regardless of OS (using XP or Vista). After several iterations of patiently unplugging it, letting it spin down for a minute, then plugging it back in...still not recognized. So during my last attempt I was going to give up, box it back up and return it...I started to reach to unplug the drive and lifted it up off of my desk a little bit...and suddenly...it WORKED and my system recognized it. So I tried the theory, I unplugged it again, let it sit, plugged it back in while it was sitting flat...didn't work...then as soon as I elevated it to about a 45 degree angle off my desk it was recognized and worked again. Diagnosis...bad USB ribbon cable, and bad workmanship. I have treated this drive with kid gloves and it never got any kind of abuse, period. The drive may be ruggedized, but clearly the ribbon cable is a serious Achilles heel. I can't say all of these drives are bad since it was just this one, but if you buy one of these KEEP YOUR RECEIPT AND ORIGINAL PACKAGING...it may end up like mine did. I am probably going to get a replacement, if I do...I'll update this review good or bad based on what happens. For now, it's definitely a 1 star (0 star) product in my opinion.

UPDATE 8/31/09 - *3 stars now*
...got a replacement SimpleTough 500GB, so far it is working great...time will tell, and I will update this review with any good or bad news soon. I would have given this product at least 3 stars for the fact my replacement works fine, but Amazon...why do you allow people to edit reviews and not change the star rating if their opinion has changed? The stars are the first (and sometimes only) thing people look at...

11/4/09 - NO STARS, Amazon, how about giving us negative star review capability?
***FAIL*** THIS IS GARBAGE. After being used for very light duty (probably have copied about 100GB+ data to it that was read statically off and on afterwards, not much writing/deleting after that), and being treated like a fine piece of delicate glass artwork for a few months, the USB cable on my replacement is dead too. But if I gently tilt the unit to a 45 degree angle, magically the USB cable works...just don't bump it or it disconnects. This is ridiculous especially in this day and age where portable hard drive technology is MATURE AND WELL ESTABLISHED.

- Tried emailing Hitachi about this issue, no response.

UPDATE:
12/7/09 - Opened support case with Hitachi's Storage support (aka their SimpleTech division)
[...]

12/9/09 - no reply from Hitachi support, not even an acknowledgement of my support issue that I filed through their portal.

HITACHI - *RECALL* THESE DRIVES before someone forces you to do so legally. You rip off consumers and expect to be rewarded with continuing business? I am never recommending anything made by Hitachi to anyone. A little business common sense 101, you fix product quality problems instead of ignoring them, letting them worsen, and eat at your bottom line. I predict Hitachi will not have an external storage business at this rate, and will spin SimpleTech back off as an "unprofitable" venture. Quality is an investment that pays back one hundred fold.

2/8/10 - UPDATE - HITACHI, YOU NEED TO REPLACE THESE DRIVES. After this unit failed, like 99.9% of them do, I decided to see if I could fix the problem. I opened up the case by cracking off the side panels and prying the top from the bottom after removing the case screws and then the screws securing the drive to the plastic enclosure. What you have inside is a HACK JOB of USB cable splicing onto a HD-2523 v1.2 USB header (wafer) board...and the cable is hanging on literally by a THREAD. You have 2 black cables, one of which is twisted into the sheathing filament wire and is literally hanging by a thread...then the other green, white, and red wires are very badly crimped near the connection to the USB board...almost to the point where they are severed). THAT is why when this unit fails, you have to angle it at 45 degrees up or down, or flip it over and plug it upside down into say a USB 2.0 hub - but eventually the delicate wiring will snap in half internally. You basically have 5$ worth of cheap plastic, rubber, and electronic parts, attached to a Hitachi 500GB 5400RPM drive (model# HTS545050B9A300 / part# A57915) which is worth about $45.00 at mfr cost. This unit is worth about $50-60 TOPS leaving the factory...and the 500GB models were originally sold for nearly $200.00!!!! The markup isn't as much of a shocker as is the dirt poor quality of this unit. I am trying to see if I can find or cobble together another USB enclosure or wafer board/USB cable combo compatible with this drive, or...try to find someone with a laptop that could take this drive and at least get the data off of it.

This is the hard drive itself, same model/revision, etc on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-Travelstar-5K500-B-Internal-0A57915/dp/B0029LHVLO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1265685083&sr=8-1

UPDATE 2/11 - SAVE YOUR DRIVE! If you have fallen victim to the poor quality of this unit, don't throw it away or give up hope yet. I'm going to explain how to quickly extract that hard drive from the Hitachi enclosure, and put the drive into another 2.5" enclosure that works flawlessly. To remove the small 2.5" hard drive from the case, snap off the black side panels (yes there will be tiny little pieces of plastic broken off - who cares at this point). You will have to use some force, don't be shy about it. Now remove the case screws, open the case, then remove the screws inside the case that secure the drive. If you have to or want to cut the stupid black ribbed USB ribbon cable protruding outside the drive enclosure, go ahead...it won't matter later because you are going to be using a different drive enclosure later. Save the screws if you work on computers, they can be handy for something else. You will see a green USB wafer board attached to the little 2.5" Hitachi hard drive inside. If it looks scary to you, don't be scared. It's just a standard 500GB 2.5" laptop hard drive plugged into a wafer board, nothing fancy or permanent about it. You will see where the hard drive is attached to this board...it is NOT glued or soldered on don't worry, the hard drive is just plugged in to that USB wafer board...that's all. Gently pull back on the hard drive and it will come free from the green USB wafer board. Now put the 2.5" Hitachi hard drive in a safe place. Now go buy or order a 2.5" drive enclosure that is compatible with this drive (far as drive size 2.5", and it is for SATA spec...preferably one that supports at least USB 2.0, or optionally eSATA). You can use any you want, but I HIGHLY recommend the Acomdata 2.5" USB/eSATA hard drive enclosure sold at Amazon here: Acomdata Tango USB 2.0/eSATA 2.5-inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001XHBNN2/ref=oss_product) - FOR $19.99! Using that enclosure it took me 5 minutes to install my hard drive into that case and get it running with the included USB 2.0 cable. You probably spent more than $100.00 on this Simpletough drive, $19.99 and 5-10 minutes of effort to get the use of your hard drive back isn't much to ask. When you get the new enclosure, you do nothing but follow the directions that come with that enclosure to install and power on your Hitachi hard drive, in its new home. This is the last entry I am typing on this item, and I REALLY REALLY hope Hitachi gets their act together. Reminds me of Toyota...Hitachi sees poor quality and the consequences of it (all this Amazon and other site's feedback is publicly viewable! I am also sure sales have fallen off for external Hitachi storage products in the past couple years, but yet the company sticks its head in the sand hoping it will all go away. You can NEVER put a value on quality, it is priceless!

***** WARNING: THIS DRIVE IS GARBAGE - DO NOT BUY - DO NOT BUY - DO NOT BUY - DO NOT BUY *****

After less than 3 weeks it stopped working. It may be rugged as per the case construction, but the cable is flimsy and the connection intermittent. I now cannot access my data as the driver is not recognized (and have not been able to find a new one to download). Customer service is a nightmare.... I have called 5 times, waiting up to 25 minutes; no one answers. Same applies to email requests for service. So I would not recommend the product nor the customer service. Pretty horrible.

For the first 2 days! Then it died. I am still trying to get product support. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED it for the 2 days it worked. It didn't get banged around or anything I have no idea why it stopped working. Very disappointing and I really dont have time to be going through the hassle of trying to get it fixed or replaced...

Used it about three months, but now it seems to be broken.
Cannot recognize the USB device in 95% of times. Thanks God, I was able to grab all my files at lucky day when it suddenly became working.

Now awaiting Amazon to get back to me with exchange option.

I would advice to anyone who are shopping for portable HDD to buy something else.

First of all, and most importantly, you can find a better hard drive, with more memory, for the same price. You can get terabytes of data storage for less than the 500GB model.

I was able to look past the price issue, and I was sold on the idea of having a super-durable memory storage device to backup all of my computer data. Bad move. The setup process is irritating and the customer service stinks.

In following the on-screen instructions for the device, that initiate when you plug it into your PC, I first formatted the drive. Except, when you format the device, you lose all of the data on it - including the getting started program you're supposed to follow post-format, that shows you how to set the device up, and automatically starts backing up your files. There's no CD, or online link to get these files back.

You could argue that I should have anticipated this, and copied the files to my PC before formatting - but nowhere in the instructions does it tell you to follow those steps, and nowhere does it tell you where you can re-acquire them if accidentally lost.

To make matters worse, I have sent three e-mails to their customer service department in the last month. Not a single response. The website has no backup instructions of file downloads either.

Now I'm thinking back on why I bought the stupid thing and realizing there's a huge flaw in my logic - when the hell am I going to need a waterproof, shock resistant external hard drive? Am I going to take this mountain biking?? No. Am I going to bring it on a boat? Doubtful. Am I going to need to carry this with me in a high-speed car chase, in which I'm being pursued by spies who are looking to steal the valuable information I have stored on the device? While, that would be very cool, chances are nil.

Ultimately, I made a bad purchasing decision, but I DO think a company should pay for poor product support, so I urge you not to buy this. Spend your money on a less durable device with more memory - you'll thank me later. Unless you're James Bond or Jason Bourne.

After having trouble with a more fragile drive with slipping off a desktop on the floor, I decided a nine foot drop guarantee would be worth it with this Hitachi truck-proof drive. But as another reviewer of this drive found out, it doesn't help if the drive decides to malfunction. After four days of use, my drive inexplicably reported the same USB error as the other reviewer and no coaxing got my data back. If you have one, immediately back up your data. If you are shopping for a drive, pass on the Hitachi SimpleTough(AndUnreliable). I'm going to put it in the middle of the street and wait for a truck to run over it and see if that helps.

Got this drive about 2 weeks ago, initially it worked fine and I had no problems with it. Since then, it no longer mounts to any computers because of a defective USB ribbon cable. Avoid this drive and get one without an attached cable.

This drive worked 2 weeks then the controller board fail. I had to buy a new case. It seems the name "SimpleTough" should be "SimplyBreakdown". Avoid!

It worked less than 5 minutes with my Mac. Tried with a PC with same results. Avoid it!

DO not buy this drive; It is an absolute garbage.

It was a good idea to include the USB cable.
It was a cute idea to have a notch on the device where the cable can be stored for convenience.
Not such a great idea to have one end permanently molded to the device.
It was a terrible idea to have a ribbon cable with zero flexibility on one axis.
It is a horrendous design to have such a short cable -- about 4 inches, that the drive will hang in mid-air if you connect to the front USB port on a desk top.

I am not sure how "rugged" the drive mechanism is, but the cable is as finicky and flimsy it can be.

My experience is identical to the other posters who got "unrecognized device" message after a while. It does it all the time and I was lucky to get my data out of the device.

I am just waiting for the next successful connection to format it so that I can return it.

All in all, the design is so bad to make the device unusable after about a month, if that long.