Customer Reviews

Toshiba 1 TB USB 2.0/eSATA Desktop External Hard Dive PH3100U-1EXB

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(47)

 

 

Good news for those that have been frustrated by this drive and for those that hoped this drive would live up to expectations. Here are the simple and easy solutions.

1) "I get an error when I try to save large files." You can convert this drive to NTFS in a matter of minutes. Good news for those of you that may have already loaded data onto this external HDD because the conversion to NTFS leaves existing data intact. Complete step by step instructions in a moment but first, when you come to the step that reads:"Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt"; make sure you right-click and open the command prompt as administrator. OK, here's the link: [...] (By the way, I assume Toshiba set the file system to FAT32 for backward compatibility to older OS and Macs. FAT32 has a file size limitation of 4Gb, and because video files can exceed 4Gb, then this is one reason to convert to NTFS.)

2) "The drive shuts itself down after 5 or 30 minutes." This is not bug or a feature of the Toshiba external HDD. This is a symptom of Windows power settings. The remedy lies with configuring Windows Advanced Power settings, which is a piece of cake. You can set your drives to spin for hours on end, just follow the instructions found here: [...].

3) "Windows does not recognize the Toshiba HDD when connected using an eSATA cable." (If you don't know, SATA is blazing fast compared to a USB connection and the 'e' in eSATA stands for 'External'.) Update Windows for the latest drivers and the drive will be plug and play except for ...

4) If you want to be able to unplug the drive without headaches then you can turn off write caching. Write speed is degraded but you can dismount the drive without shutting down your machine.

My only worry is that this drive is air-cooled without a fan which implies that it can overheat and fry the chipset, so the black color is cool but maybe silver would have been a better choice.

Over all the device is great, but there are a few things to point out about the device.

The hard drive is formatted in FAT32 instead of NTFS which limits the size of files to a mere 4 GB. So I advise reformatting the device to NTFS as soon as you finish the installation process. This will allow you to have files larger than 4 GB on the hard drive.

One complaint against Amazon is that they fail to mention that the hard drive has only a 5400 RPM and 8 MB of cache. They need to update the product description to include this information. Other external hard drives have 7200 RPM and up to 32 MB of cache. This is important information to know when purchasing an external hard drive.

The device is pleasantly quiet and only make a brief noise when turned on. As a plus, rather than an annoying blinking bright light, the device has a soft dimming in and out light telling you it is doing something.

This device does not have a fan, so it is advisable to keep it in a cool environment.

I have not tested the eSATA conection yet as it does not come with a cord and the one I ordered hasn't arrived yet.

I liked the sleek look of this drive but after moving part of my video files to it, I found out it shuts down after 30 minutes of not being accessed. This is not acceptable. I agree to what others have said -- it is a backup drive ONLY. Don't expect to use it as an accessible hard drive at any given point. Unfortunately, a readily accessible hard drive is what I need so this is going back today.

I rated this 4 stars because it is newly installed, so I know nothing of the dependability. It runs very well and is virtually silent. It has a friendly blue activity light that slowly pulsates rather than annoyingly flashes. The drive is solid and sits on the desktop in its stand quite stably. Cables pulling on it or slight bumps won't knock it over.

It came formatted FAT32. I used XP Disk management to do a slow reformat to NTFS. It took over 4 hours to complete, but, I do not trust fast reformatting so I just let it churn overnight until done. I found that the small "CD" partition that mounts the backup software is not reformattable. Actually, the backup software is pretty decent. Runs quickly and is intuitive and easy to navigate. I have Acronis True Image, also, and the Toshiba software does what it does with a simple interface. I backed up about 150gb in a couple of hours, as best I recall. It might have taken slightly longer than that. The software lets you monitor the progress with files backed up, elasped and remaining time.

I like that the drive can be turned on and off. This drive is strictly for backup and I don't need it sitting there spinning all the time. Once you unmount it using your systray icon and then physically turn the switch off on the drive, it does not come back on at next boot. You have to physically turn it back on the next time you need it. For me that's a good feature.

Hopefully in couple of months, I'll be updating this review, saying that the Toshiba is still running great and doing what I need it to do. For right now, it's just what the backup doctor ordered.

I have two of these drives and am pleased (I plan to purchase a third as a gift today). I formatted the drives NTFS with no issue; I did have one drive fail early, but honestly I'm not certain that wasn't cockpit error. I've had my drives for several months and have trusted them with hundreds of GB's of HD video not a burp. Originally I used them USB, but moved them over to a SATA controller and life is better and a bit faster. One 'bug' that has been reported about the units going to sleep in USB, you can make that change in your drive administration section by telling the system to not optimize for quick removeal. That isn't an issue when you use them SATA as they are considered system drives. I happen to own a bunch of removeable media, these are a good value, and easy on the eye and wallet.

I purchased the Toshiba PH3100U-1EXB (1TB External Drive) a couple of weeks ago and quickly realized that the system shuts off by itself. The manual clearly states that the drive goes into a sleep mode after 5 minutes.....but it never wakes up. I called Toshiba technical support three times and got the "run-around". I'm going to return this unit.

The drive is easy to set up and use. I set it up in eSATA mode with minimal effort. However. it died the first day I had it after filling it with about 750G of data. The replacement drive did the same after two days. It appears that the unit simply cannot handle sustained use. I'm going to go with another brand from now on. I've never killed an external drive this fast. It just sits there and clicks at me now.

I bought this HD has a backup for my photography while I was transitioning computers. It worked really well for 2 weeks (minus the odd 'sleep' mode thing that other people complain about). I had not added new files for over a week, and when I tried to turn it on, I couldnt. Finally, the white light came on, the HD sounds like a plane taking off with a few 'ca-chunka-chunks' mixed in, then it turns off.

Toshiba's website isnt a big help, since the P/N on the drive doesnt match any Toshiba actual 'part number'... though I bought this from a 'reputable' store (Best Buy).

If I cant get this fixed or information recovered, I'm going to Western Digital. You had your chance Toshiba, and you blew it.

This drive has several serious flaws and almost no support from Toshiba. My biggest complaints are:

1. When connected via USB, the drive will frequently (3/4 times) turn off, for no obvious reason, before my scheduled 2 AM backup. The backup software will then crash leaving an error message.

2. When connected via eSATA, the drive is not recognized at all.

This is on a Windows Vista 32 installation.

As of 1-5-2010 Toshiba is showing a repair for this problem. Apparently there is a communication problem with the Virtual CD portion that has been causing problems. It appears with this repair that you will then be able to choose the format (ie; Fat, Fat 32, or NTFS). The Toshiba controls can then be downloaded to your PC and this repair also formats the entire external drive removing the Virtual CD portion. Direct lin attached or use [...]
Hope this helps someone else.