Maxtor A01A250 OneTouch 250 GB FireWire and USB External Hard Drive

by Maxtor

Product Details

Supplementary Guide [127kb PDF]

• Item Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.7 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000AZW8M
• Item model number: A01A250
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 28, 2003

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Maxtor OneTouch drive -- simply smarter storage with push-button backup. Just press the button and your files are backed up in one simple step. With 250GB, you have ample room to store your videos, photos, graphics, music, and more in one convenient location. Use it to access your most important files faster and more easily. The drive features a whisper-quiet 7200 RPM hard drive with 8 MB cache and is equipped with both FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces for easy connection. Available in a new anodized aluminum case. For PC and Mac.

Features:

• Maxtor OneTouch button - the easy way to make backup copies of your files
• Push the button!
• Ideal for editing video and creating high-end graphics
• 7200 RPM, 8 MB cache buffer
• Whisper-quiet fluid dynamic bearing motor
• Dual interfaces:
  • FireWire compatible -- up to 400Mb/sec data transfer rates
  • USB 2.0 and 1.1 compatible -- up to 480 Mb/sec data transfer rates
• Anodized aluminum case
• Customizable Maxtor OneTouch button
• Expandable:
  • Connect up to 62 FireWire devices
  • Connect up to 127 USB 2.0 devices with USB hubs
• Plug and play storage
• Hot-swappable
• Dantz Retrospect Express software included
• Desktop disaster recovery
• Power on/off button and power management utilities included
• Quick and easy installation
• PC and Mac compatible
• 250 GB holds up to:
  • 19 hours of DV video
  • 250 hours of MPEG video
  • 250,000 digital photos
  • 62,500 MP3 files

Product Description

The Maxtor OneTouch™ drive - simply smarter storage with push-button backup. Just press the button and your files are backed up in one simple step. With up to 300GB, you have ample room to store your videos, photos, graphics, music, and more in one convenient location. Use it to access your most important files faster and more easily. The drive is equipped with both FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces for easy connection. Available in a new anodized aluminum case. For PC and Mac.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Drive, Tons of Storage, Quiet & Flexible, December 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Maxtor A01A250 OneTouch 250 GB FireWire and USB External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I just received my Maxtor A01A250 250gb drive today (only 5 days after ordering it, I might mention).
As another reviewer noted, the drive actually has only 233gb of formatted storage, but it's more a mathmatical deal than a loss of storage. In all you still have 233gb of usable storage at your disposal. That's enough to store about 58+/- 4gb movies!

I did my research before ordering & found this drive to be everything I needed. I wanted LOTS of storage for video & audio, I got it. I wanted a simple interface, I got it... two of them Firewire and USB2.0. I'm using Firewire now (I'm out of USB ports right now, but I'll try the USB connection as soon as I get a USB2.0 hub) I wanted a drive with an ON/OFF switch, I got it.
I can't understand why anyone would manufacture an external hard drive and NO way to turn it off. Duh!

The manual states that the drive may write slower than it reads for the first 10 times it's turned on & off. Something about it getting used to things... whatever, it's still pretty fast even if the manual says it's slow.

The case is aluminum and acts as a heatsink, so it does get a little warm to the touch, NOT HOT, as I've had this drive running all day & it's just warm.

The drive came with a plastic/resin cradle for standing the drive on it's side to save space which comes in handy.
It also comes with a Firewire & USB 2.0 cable.

Make sure you have the drive (with or without the cradle) setting on a level surface (or something padded) as I first had the drive "setting caddywhompus" and it rattled. I moved the drive a bit & it's now quiet as a mouse.

I didn't install the entire backup software that came with the drive, as I plan on using it as a storage drive, so I can't comment on how well the backup works. I've never been a fan of one touch backups anyway.

I opted to format the drive to NTFS (highly recommend this) in order to be able to work with LARGE video files. (the drive comes formatted FAT32 which limits you to about 4gb file size)
There's another method to convert the drive to NTFS without formatting, but I formatted anyway.

If you're planning on swapping this drive from an Win XP system to a Win 98 system, DON'T FORMAT IT AS NTFS! You probably won't be able to access the drive in Win 98.
The format took about 2 hrs on my PC- a Dell 2.4ghz P4 with 1gb ram- but when it was done it's ready to use.

I dropped a 1gb file onto the drive for a test & it took less than a minute to transfer the file. I expect this speed will increase in the following weeks.

Add the rebate & this was a nice deal all around.

46 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unreliable Drive - do not buy., May 18, 2004

By 

Kevin "Pletch" (CARMEL, IN, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maxtor A01A250 OneTouch 250 GB FireWire and USB External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I purchased a Maxtor 250 gig drive just a short 2 months ago. As a web designer I have many files & projects I regularly need extra storage for. Initially I was very happy with this drive. However, it is already flaking out on me. It was once very fast as I am using Firewire to connect. However, the drive now takes forever to seek and often times out with read errors. There is only 49 gig on this drive. I called Maxtor and they suggested I sent it back in, and they told me I should contact a disaster recovery service. They will not pay for that either. I called a couple disaster places, and they said they have have a stack of those 'one touch drives' to be recovered. "Worst drives ever...they get bad sectors, anything over 180gig is a nightmare..."
Glad I know now. I'll get a different drive. Maybe 2 100 gigs, one to back-up the first. I would not recommend this drive...and if you do get it or have one, back it up on CD/DVD regularly. Any sign of it slowing down, and its gone. Good luck.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I liked my Maxtor 250 -- until it died, June 28, 2004

By 

Edward Barnett (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Maxtor A01A250 OneTouch 250 GB FireWire and USB External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I purchased a Maxtor 250 GB external hard drive in April of last year. Last month, just after the one-year warranty expired, the drive started clicking and became invisible to my PC. I fiddled around and got things working again, or so I thought. A few days later, the drive died completely. During the year that the drive worked, I generally was pleased with its performance. However, the reliability was very poor, and dying one month after the warranty expires is incredibly annoying. I would suggest that you check reliability ratings before buying this drive.