Toshiba Canvio 500 GB USB 3.0 Basics Portable Hard Drive - HDTB105XK3AA (Black)

by Toshiba

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.1 x 4.7 x 0.6 inches ; 5.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B005J7YCHG
• Item model number: HDTB105XK3AA
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #16 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > External Data Storage > External Hard Drives
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 19, 2011

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

If you want an easy way to hold your growing digital library--files, pictures, music and videos--Toshiba's Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drives are a great solution, offering simple drag-and-drop storage that's ready to roll right out of the box. It requires no external AC adapter and it's Plug & Play compatible. Just connect it into the USB port of your PC and you're good to go.

 

 

Future-proofed with USB 3.0 technology, the Canvio Basics 3.0 hard drive significantly improves file transfer speed for large media files and dramatically minimizes the wait time for backup and recovery processes. Plus, it's backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices.

This version of the Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drive has a 500 GB storage capacity, but it also comes in 750 GB and 1 TB capacities.

Toshiba Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drives are compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

Key Features

	Portable Peace of Mind Toshiba's Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drives deliver one of the easiest ways to add storage to your computer. One of the simplest storage solutions in a box, they offer plug-and-play, drag-and-drop convenience.
	Extra Hard Drive Protection Offering a built-in internal shock sensor and ramp-loading technology, Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drives help safeguard your data against accidents, drops and unfortunate real-life scenarios.
	Faster Transfer Speeds Powered by new USB 3.0 technology, Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drives are far faster than--but still compatible with--USB 2.0 technology. So you'll still be able to plug it into older PCs with USB 2.0 ports.
	Three-Year Limited Warranty Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drives are packed with famous Toshiba innovation, tested thoroughly for reliability, and backed by a three-year limited warranty.

Specifications Capacity: 500 GB Disk Speed: 5400 RPM Interface: USB 3.0 Transfer Rate: Up to 480 Mb/s Average Seek Time: 12 ms Buffer: 8 MB cache Dimensions: 3.1 x 0.65 x 4.7 inches (WxHxD)

What's in the Box Toshiba Canvio Basics hard drive, pre-loaded backup software, USB 3.0 cable, quick install guide, warranty card

Product Description

Canvio Basics 3.0 products have been designed and manufactured in accordance with Toshiba's high quality product standards, incorporating the latest technology and user-interface, while ensuring best-in-class performance, quality and workmanship. With Toshiba's Canvio Basics 3.0 Portable Hard Drives, you'll enjoy portable storage space for even the largest digital libraries. Our 500GB Drive is capable of storing up to: 142,000 digital photos, or 131,000 digital music files, or 410 downloaded digital movies. Each Canvio Basics 3.0 Portable Hard Drive includes an internal shock sensor and ramp loading technology to help keep your drive safe. Storage for your computer made simple. Future proof with USB 3.0 interface and backwards compatible with USB 2.0, Toshiba's Canvio Basics 3.0 Portable Hard Drives are an ideal portable add-on storage expansion solution that makes your storage easy and simple. Extremely portable with a compact design, the sleek looking and post card sized Canvio Basics 3.0 Portable Hard Drives are an ideal travel companion. Canvio Basics 3.0 Portable Hard Drives offer plug and play ease of use that's ready to go out of the box with no software to install. Just connect it to the USB port on your computer and you are good to go. Whether for work, school, or digital entertainment, Canvio Basics 3.0 Portable Hard Drives accommodate large digital files with spacious storage capacity. You can rest assured that there is a Canvio Basics 3.0 Portable Hard Drive that meets your storage needs and your lifestyle. Toshiba Canvio Basics 3.0 Portable Drives are compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. For over 20 years Toshiba has been developing and manufacturing hard drives used by every major brand of notebook computer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Saved my bacon! UPDATE: FAILED @ 16 DAYS, December 17, 2011

By 

Techthusiast "n00b" (Earth) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Toshiba Canvio 500 GB USB 3.0 Basics Portable Hard Drive - HDTB105XK3AA (Black) (Personal Computers)

UPDATE: Got this drive December 6th and as of December 22nd it is dead. My review below is still sound advice. Sound advice which I failed to heed 100% and I lost a week's worth of valuable stuff because I didn't have enough layers of backup. Oy vey. I'm demoting this drive to 1-star from 5 because, solid warranty aside, this is clearly a very poor drive. DO NOT BUY. Forget USB 3.0, bring back the old USB 2.0 Toshiba Canvio that actually worked! I should have trusted the reviews but I was desperate. If only it had lasted 3 more days...

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I'm traveling and my client's ol' iMac hard drive decided to go out to pasture.

I had the novel idea of ordering one of these Toshibas, having her hook it up to her computer, then use the Seagate backup drive I had for her to essentially restore her system onto the Toshiba! This way she could have a fully functioning machine while she waits for me to come back to town and do a proper hard drive swap.

So this is a weird review in that what I'm saying is: it's good enough to run your entire Mac off of, over USB, should you find yourself in a similar, unfortunate situation.

Now, caveat: you normally want these hard drives to have better ratings but desperate times called for this purchase. With Thailand having flooded, hard drive prices soared in some instances and drives that I used to get with 3-year warranties, now have 1!

You really need these hard drives to have 3-5 year warranties. They're either going to die on arrival, in the first 30 days, in the first 4 months, or after a couple years :p Lol I know. 500GB drives are the most I would personally go with in this 2.5" form factor. 1TB in this size squeezes more platters or density into a smaller size... it's just too new for my tastes (with 3.5" drives I've been happy up to 2TB but am starting to look at 3TB ratings). The new USB 3.0 feature isn't necessary for me -- I don't have any clients that can access that speed yet ... and, ironically, this new "improvement" makes me the most worried... any time they mess with something that works, you should worry... USB 2.0 works fine! But whatever, since USB 3.0 is about the little board inside this enclosure and not the hard drive, maybe they can't screw it up so much.

Here's the deal, anything important to you should be in two places -- at least. Main drive and backup. Archive and archive backup.... CD and DVD backups only last like 5 years when you burn them yourself... I mean, they may last longer but sun, temperature, time means they can't be your primary backup. If it were me, I'd have all my important stuff in 3 places! That way if one hard drive fails, then my stuff is still in two other places. What are the odds of two places going at once? I've seen it happen; I've had it happen....It's rare but sometimes you can screw up your backup drive while you're using it to recover your computer! Oh this wily universe.

So that's why you do something like have your main stuff on one drive, an active backup drive, and then you have a third drive that's in your lockbox or firesafe or whatever. It may be healthy to let things get destroyed every so often but that's not my style... 80 to 160 bones (for two) is cheap data insurance without futzing with or trusting the Cloud to CYA.

Oh, and should your drive die, just go online and find the RMA/warranty process... all these hard drive manufacturers make it fairly straightforward because, honestly, drive failures happen all the time .... 3-5 year warranties mean you get a replacement drive for the price of shipping. So worth it.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Initial Review, November 14, 2011

By 

Chris - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Toshiba Canvio 500 GB USB 3.0 Basics Portable Hard Drive - HDTB105XK3AA (Black) (Personal Computers)

I have had the hard drive for a few days now. I was surprised at how small it was when I opened it. I have a 500gb external hard drive that is a few years old and you have to plug it in and its rather large. This one is small, sleek, and fast. Much faster than my old hard drive. I reformatted it to FAT32 so I can use it with my PS3. Works like a charm. I was a little surprised that it didnt have any air holes for venting heat, but I transferred 100gb of data onto it and it was barely warm. I am very excited about it. It is very light which kind of gives it a delicate feel, so I bought a case for it ($8) which I think will definitely increase the lifespan of it.

I will come back with another review if anything goes wrong, but im loving it so far.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 2 weeks and fail, November 9, 2011

By 

White "CW" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba Canvio 500 GB USB 3.0 Basics Portable Hard Drive - HDTB105XK3AA (Black) (Personal Computers)

This cute little drive seemed fine for 2 weeks. Then sometimes the drive would go to sleep and not wake up until it was unplugged (not nice for Mac or drive). About a week later, the light on the drive started flashing constantly, then it started hanging my Mac. I have a lot of experience with portable drives and have never had one fail so quickly. Also this drive is not supported by Toshiba, so good luck getting it "repaired". I should have researched more on other sites, because this one has received scathing reviews on Toshiba's own web site. I usually purchase drives from Amazon, however I needed this drive immediately when I purchased it from Best Buy. Don't have the box anymore, so I can't return it and Toshiba doesn't support it -- ugh. Wasted money. Into the trash is goes.