Customer Reviews

SimpleTech 400GB USB/FIREWIRE EXT HD DRIVE ( STI-U2F36/400 )

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

 

 

Just be sure never to leave this hard drive on for more than 6 hours, or else it will overheat and crash, like mine did. After looking at the design, I am convinced this is a design flaw, as I see absolutely no way for the heat to dissipate, unless you constantly blow a fan at it.

Simpletech offers a 3-year warranty for this product and was willing to replace my drive. However, my new drive overheats as well.

Please note also that Simpletech DOES NOT cover data loss. My tech support guy claimed he was going to help me recover my files, even though they aren't obligated to. Luckily, I did not trust him.

I bought a file recovery software, and though it took all weekend, I was able to restore most of my files. When Simpletech received my drive, they claimed that all the files were corrupt. Hey, if I can recover files, tech support really should, too.

The tech support person also would not admit that there was an overheating problem. When I asked him to check again (you can't miss the scorching hotness), he claimed he already threw my drive away. He was only good for sending me another drive, but not much else.

Please avoid this drive at all costs.

I bought the SimpleTech 400GB USB/FIREWIRE external hard drive (STI-U2F36/400 ) on the 25th of March 2005. It's absurdly hot and stopped working on April 14, 2005. Whenever I turned it on, it started to screech extremely loudly. After a while, the drive became unreadable. I lost all my backup data, including original data not stored on my computer.

So, unless you plan to use this for only 21 days, don't buy it. I bought it because the price was right but I will not trust SimpleTech with my data in the future.

I'd like to share the reason for my discontent with this product. I would be highly suspect for any reviewer who gives this item more than three stars afterall, there's a reason the price to this ext hard drive dropped by half. I consider myself moderately capable and computer savvy; however, the installation for this product proved extremely difficult. Windows XP sp2 sets up firewalls that clashes with the installation of this equipment resulting in the infamous "error 53." After diabling all of my firewalls, I still was not able to map to the hard drive. I'm not sure how this company could possibly survive with such shotty programming. After much research on numerous message boards, I found that many others had the same issue and readily easy solution was available. The customer service rep is no help as she stated the obvious but did not give a methodology to fix the problem. Also, I can already see the overheat problem that the other reviewers have indicated.

Just fyi..

cheers

It gethot and stopped working,then the drive became unreadable.