Customer Reviews

Seagate STM900603OTABE1-RK 2.5-Inch USB2.0 60GB External Hard Drive

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought one of these when I moved offices and needed to take my documents and three huge Outlook PST files to a new computer. I had originally planned to get a 2GB flash drive but for almost the exact same price I got 60GB of storage.

While not as small as an iPod, this drive easily fits in your pocket. Ok, not the pocket of a tight pair of 501s but just about everything else. The drive is USB powered. If you are using USB 2.0 you should only need one port. Otherwise, it comes with a special cable to plug into two ports - one for data, one for power.

I used the built in one touch software to do a backup and in addition I manually dragged the files to the drive. The software takes some time to install and requires super user or higher access. After that it is one touch like the drive says.

Formatted and with the software installed you get about 55GB of storage.

The drive itself is a small 5400 rpm model so it is probably not as tough as a flash drive. There is a plug on the drive that looks like it could be used for external power but I have had no problem with USB connection.

I have used iPods as external hard drives and they are great but not as cost effective for just storage. That and I have filled my 30GB iPod to the limit with music and videos!

This is an excellent solution for not having to choose what to keep on your laptop - just take it all!!

The computer experts say that the question is not whether a disk drive will fail but when. I've generally heeded these warnings and have an internal Raid 1 array on my desktop computer and archive files to Maxtor One Touch 300 GB external drives with a backup to DVD. The weak link in my system was the digital photographs that I captured while on the road. I downloaded them to my laptop but there was no backup until I got home. This mini-drive seemed like an ideal situation. It was small (5 x 3.5 x .75 inches) and had more capacity then my laptop drive.

The drive is truly plug and play. Hook it up to the USB slot and it self-loads its software to the computer, although you will have to go through the usual wizard. If you want, you can set up automatic backups and encryption, although I did not test this feature. The drive derives its power from the USB socket, but hooking up to just one USB port left a very low powered drive that took 12 minutes to copy 15 raw files. The manufacturer provides a special "Y" USB cord in case the use of a single slot doesn't provide enough power, but unfortunately the cord was too short to reach both of the USB slots on my IBM Think Pad. Luckily, I had an USB extension cord on hand and with the drive hooked up to both USB ports the files were copied to the Maxtor drive in 38 seconds. Maxtor also sells a separate power supply if that is necessary.

The drive is not armored in any way, but since I only expect to use it to back up my photo files at the end of a day, when I'm back in my hotel room, it isn't a problem for me. It also runs at only 5400 rpm's, but for the limited purpose for which I need it, that's fine.

Note: When I bought this external drive I was using it to back up a laptop that had two USB ports. I recently purchased an image tank that had only one USB port for backup. This was not adequate to power the Maxtor drive. I ordered the Maxtor power supply which was on back order, and has now been on backorder for more than two months. If you do not have more than one USB port available, you should not buy this drive unless you first determine that a separate power supply is available.

I don't understand the 2 or 3 star ratings. If you don't know how to double click on "Setup" when you open the drive folder when plugged in to install the Maxtor software and you need "support", then I think you shouldn't be allowed to write reviews.

On a more serious note, this drive is very fast, silent, and works great as just a plug and play device. The software included DOES work, but requires lengthy setup. I personally don't use because I move between many systems, and i just drag/drop for my files.

The HD inside is probably made by Seagate, as I don't think Maxtor makes any 2.5inch HDs. The casing is very nice looking, and I love how it can stand vertically, (as opposed to the WD portable, which is arguably more chic with its piano black).

But this drive over the others if you like the looks and price. It succeeds in doing what external USB driven HDs are supposed to do, backup and transfer data very well.

This drive works very well when using for dragging and dropping folders and files, but very slow when using backup program. I had over 2 hours and less than 50% done for 7 gig when I stopped backup. The "y" USB was plugged into two ports. It makes better sense just to use it as a extra drive and back up only folders, data files, pictures, etc by dragging them to the drive icon. XP detects drive without installing any extra software and copies large files very fast.

The drive is wonderful to use! There is no CD with the package as the software autoruns from the external hard drive - a nice feature that saves time and is more convenient. No need to drag around CD's to all the PC's that you use this on.

I have used this as a depository for ever-changing files by dragging and dropping and have used it as a backup tool.

As what another user said, speeds can very depending on USB connections. My Belkin USB hub slows it down considerably and will essentially use up _all_ resources on my computer - making it inoperable (unplugging it from the USB will fix that), but plugging the drive directly into a USB 2 port on my computer doesn't have the same effect.

More than likely, it is the hubs that cause the slowdowns.

I needed the help of a computer guru to set up and use the MAXTOR correctly. Written and online instructions were minimal. Otherwise, I am completely satisfied.

The One-touch has made my tape back ups obsolete. I have my servers back up to a large external hard drive 4 days a week, and one day per week I back up to the One-touch and remove and put in the trunk of my car, so that it stays off site. I actually have two One-touch's so that one is always in my car even on the nights that the back up is going to the Mini Hard drive. I just rotate the mini's every other week.

The mini unit works well with my Compaq desktop and uses the USB 2.0 at a fast transfer rate. However, for the first time owner of a bkup unit, Maxtor offers no manual, no "how to use the software, step by step" text or graphics. Left in dark I found NO help as my emails went to India, with poor returns. A flashing light( LED ) that never stops, could not be answered, so I'm stuck with that defect. So, lets say POOR SUPPORT from Maxtor & Company.

This drive does work with a Mac but the pre-installed backup software doesn't.

Also it's billed as a USB drive but it doesn't seem to work reliably with USB 1.1, hanging a couple of hours into a large file copy. Granted it's painfully slow to make full use of a drive this large with USB 1.1 anyway, and it seems fine with USB 2.0 but given that one of the laptops I wanted to use it with only has USB 1.1 I probably would have bought something else if I'd known.

Other than that, after a few days of use it actually seems like a pretty good drive for the price. It's not too big and draws power from the USB port so there's no separate power cable to worry about.

I received this Hard Drive as a gift. My jumpdrive just wasn't big enough for what I do (128mb). This is the perfect size, both in dimensions and memory. The software installed on plug in just as described. It was very easy to understand and use. I love the sync feature. It's excellent for all those big files that are a pain to move from laptop to laptop to hard drive.