SimpleTech by Hitachi SimpleDrive 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive SP-U35/500 (designed by Pininfarina)

by SimpleTech

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 2.2 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000NF6ZK6
• Item model number: SP-U35/500
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (155 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 30, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Thanks to the sleek, low-profile styling by famed Italian car designer Pininfarina, the SimpleDrive Desktop USB 2.0 External Hard Drive isn't just another external hard drive. The recipient of the same magic design touch and attention to fine details that helped turn Ferrari and Maserati into icons of the automotive world, the SimpleDrive Desktop will help turn your work space into a virtual art display while offering you up to 500 GB of backup storage for your computer files.

The SimpleTech® SimpleDriveTM offers: Slick Ferrari-inspired design by Pininfarina. High-speed USB 2.0 interface for data transfer at up to 480 Mbps. Fabrik Ultimate BackupTM for 2 GB of free secure online storage. 1-year warranty.

The SimpleDrive was designed Pininfarina of Ferrari fame. View larger.

Ferrari-Inspired Low-Profile Design for your Desk
Get used to the staring when your colleagues visit your desk. This compact and elegant onyx black drive is as much a piece of fine art as a piece of robust hardware. But don't let the looks fool you. Beneath its cool and sleek exterior is a robust, high-capacity, single-drive solution that gives you the ability to store and backup tons of music, videos, photos and documents in a small footprint.

Featuring plug and play simplicity, and Mac and PC compatibility, the SimpleDrive Desktop features a hi-speed USB 2.0 interface for fast transfer of data at up to a 480 Mb/sec data transfer rate. Whether you want to increase the capacity of your desktop, or back up your valuable files quickly and securely, the SimpleDrive Desktop will perform for you with style. A built-in Kensington security lock lets you lock down your drive while you're away, and a built-in capacity meter keeps you abreast of your storage situation at all times.

Powerful Local and Online Backup Options
The SimpleDrive Desktop includes two backup options that will keep your mind at ease about your important data. With the included OneClick backup software, you have the option of either backing up and protecting all your files and folders, or selected ones, with a single click, or automatically. Either way, you'll have the peace of mind knowing your digital world is safe and protected.

But for the ultimate in protection, the SimpleDrive Desktop also offers the Fabrik Ultimate Backup solution that uploads your files to a secure, online server that will protect your data from real-world mishaps and offer near-real time protection without bogging down your computer. Fabrik's Ultimate Backup allows you to store up to 2 GB for free on one of its 448-bit encrypted servers, and for just a few dollars a month, you get unlimited capacity to securely store all of your important files and media collections offsite. Acting just like the drive's local backup software, you simply set Fabrik Ultimate Backup once, and it automatically and regularly backs up your content behind the scenes.

The capacity meter shows you how much space is left at a quick glance. View larger.

All backups, to the external drive or online service, are unobtrusive. Once your initial content has uploaded, the software performs incremental backups, so only the smallest amount of data that has been changed or modified in your files will be updated. (Although the SimpleDrive Desktop is both Mac and PC compatible, at this time the Fabrik Ultimate Backup solution is only available for Windows-based computers.)

To keep your content private and confidential, all files are encrypted with 128-bit SSL encryption while in transit, with an option for a private encryption key. Fabrik's offsite 448-bit Blowfish encrypted servers are housed by a Fortune 500 company, ensuring file protection, security and peace of mind. So no matter what happens to your drive--a curious toddler, a spilled drink or natural disaster--your irreplaceable photos, music, videos and files will be safe and secure both offsite and online.

The SimpleDrive Desktop measures a scant 1.50 x 8.25 x 5.0 (WxLxD), is backed by a 1-year warranty, and comes with free, unlimited technical support.

What's in the Box
3.5 SimpleDrive Desktop External Hard Drive with One-Click Backup Software, USB 2.0 Cable, AC Adapter, Resource CD, and Quick Install Guide.

The SimpleDrive comes in different storage capacities for every need.

Product Description

SimpleTech 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (SP-U35/500)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great drive for backup w/ sleek design., August 20, 2007

By 

Arun "Techie" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: SimpleTech by Hitachi SimpleDrive 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive SP-U35/500 (designed by Pininfarina) (Personal Computers)

A while back I got a great deal on this 500GB hard drive (not at Amazon). The drive is very sleek and comes in cool colors. I have the black unit and matches in well with the rest of my PC and A/V components. I use this drive as an external archiving device for my Dish Network (DN) ViP622 HD receiver. Recently, DN has enabled this feature on their ViPs. I was coming close to filling up the DVR and this simple and painless upgrade has been awesome. The receiver detected the SimpleTech with ease, formated the drive in 2 minutes, and from that point on I have about 490 GB worth of extra DVR space. Playing archived video either in SD or HD format is no different vs. playing direct from the receiver. Outstanding quality/no complaints! This drive comes in 750GB and 1TB capacities and should be a worthy upgrade for PC/Mac backup as well. FYI, There is another variation of this unit with also a FireWire port.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What a nightmare, April 26, 2008

By 

Roxie K. (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SimpleTech SimpleDrive SP-U35/320 320 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (designed by Pininfarina) (Personal Computers)

This little baby was DOA right out of the box. Well, not exactly DOA, but severely wounded. Installation was a snap - just plugged in the power and USB cords and turned it on. Little blue light came on and circled round a few times indicating plenty of disk space. So far so good! Installed the ArcSoft backup software and did a trial run on ~6GB photos. Backup went OK. Got brave and went to back up ~8GB datafiles ... the back up started but then went on and on and on and on and on and on (get the picture?). Finally, a UNABLE TO WRITE DATA - HARDWARE FAILURE message popped up. Power cycled the drive, checked the connections and tried again. No luck. Ran SureDelete File to delete the datafiles that did make it to the drive, but encountered the same hardware failure error. Was able to reformat the drive and clean it with SureDelete Disk. Got brave again and tried to copy a set of data to the Simpletech ... big mistake. Got the hardware failure error again. Reformat / Disk Clean / Reformat / Disk Clean then packed it up and returned it to Costco. These things seem to be hit or miss - it works or it doesn't. Mine didn't.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good External Hard Drive, November 22, 2007

By 

Calvet (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SimpleTech SimpleDrive SP-U35/320 320 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (designed by Pininfarina) (Personal Computers)

I needed an external hard drive as my pathetic 80 gig hard drive I'd been using for the past 3 years was bursting at it's seams. So After looking around I saw this model on sale at Best Buy for $95.99, couldn't go wrong there, since it was 320 GIGS, it was a steel. Racing home, I pulled it out of the box, and lets get some things out of the way right now:

1. It has an on/off switch (yeah!)
2. The USB cable is really short. (About 2-3 feet)
3. It has a separate plug for the power supply. (Less drain on your USB).

After straining with the short USB cord, I found a good setup on my desktop. Plugged it into the USB port, and plugged the power cord into the wall. Turned it on, and BAM! 320 Gigs added to the computer. No hassle. It is quiet, and very fast.

I've only run into one small nuisance, it occasionally goes into sleep mode when not being used, and it takes about 6 seconds to start working again when waking up, so lets say it goes to sleep, and then you go to your computer, click on an mp3 file, you must wait for it to start up again before the file will play. But this only happens rarely.

The light on the top spins clockwise whenever you are loading something off the hard drive, this looks cool, but may be an annoyance to those who don't like giant spinning lights.

Overall, this is an excellent, dependable, fast hard drive, and by the way, it looks freakin awesome.

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