Verbatim InSight 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 96980 (Black)

by Verbatim

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 3.4 inches ; 5.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002LLJJAS
• Item model number: 96980
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 14, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

With the unique “Always On” LCD display, the InSight™ portable hard drive allows users to personalize their drive name and shows available free space, even when the drive is disconnected. The Insight™ drive’s sleek, piano-black finish and unique, curvaceous design add a touch of class to your netbook, notebook, or desktop computer accessories. Available in capacities of 320GB and 500GB, the Insight™ portable hard drive is backed by a 7-year limited warranty to give you peace of mind while commuting or traveling.

 

Classic piano-black finish. View larger

“Always On” display shows personalized drive name and available free space. View larger

7-Year Limited Warranty. View larger

How much data will my portable hard drive hold?

Features

Always On – The Always On LCD display feature updates when the drive is connected and/or dismounted safely from your computer and displays your customized drive name and available free space.

Design – Its sleek piano-black finish adds style and elegance to your PC accessories.

Compatibility –The Insight™ portable hard drive is compatible with both Windows and Mac operating systems and can be used with all USB ports.

Nero BackItUp Software – The InSight™ portable drive includes Nero BackItUp software for Windows only and offers full system backup and restore functions, the ability to schedule automatic backup by date/time and an encrypted backup option with password control.

Warranty – Verbatim offers a 7-year limited warranty for the InSight™ portable drive.

Tips for Getting Started

Using InSight™ is easy:

1. Remove the InSight™ drive from its box
2. Connect the USB 2.0 cable included in the box to the drive and then to your computer
3. The InSight™ drive will mount automatically and a new icon will appear on the desktop (Mac) or in My Computer (Windows)

Now you’re ready to transfer and protect your files.

View larger

What's in the Pack?

• InSight™ Hard Drive (includes Nero BackItUp software)
• USB 2.0 cable

About Verbatim
For 40 years, Verbatim has been providing technology you can trust with an impressive selection of removable storage media and computer peripherals, including a wide range of CD, DVD and High Definition video products. Verbatim also offers an array of lightning fast desktop and portable hard drives, USB flash drives, stylish, feature-rich mice and keyboards, and a broad range of replacement laser toner cartridges. Buy Verbatim and you get innovation, security, and reliability – and that means peace of mind.

Product Description

For a portable hard drive that continuously displays available free space, take a peak at the Verbatim InSight hard drive with an Always On LCD that shows the drive’s available free space and personalized name. The Always On LCD display automatically updates when the drive is connected and/or safely dismounted and is easily renamed right from your PC or MAC. Compatible with all USB connections, the InSight drive includes a USB 2.0 cable, a Quick Start guide and Nero BackItUp software that offer full system backup or restore functions and optional password security. Compact but big on storage capacity, the InSight drive is available in a sleek piano-black finish with capacities of 320 GB and 500 GB and carries a 5-year limited warranty. With an Always On display, the Verbatim InSight hard drive is a plug-and-play external drive that keeps you in the know – even when it is disconnected.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Worthy Storage Option, October 11, 2009

By 

JDP - See all my reviews

This review is from: Verbatim InSight 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 96925 (Black) (Personal Computers)

(What's this?)

Out of the box and at first glance, I was almost sure that I had received a digital scale instead of the new Verbatim InSight 320 GB Portable Hard Drive. I am sure others have thought the same. When using a Windows based platform, the unit was up and running in no time with simple plug and play features.

My primary use for the Insight 320 is for photo storage backup. Transfer of jpeg files was a relatively smooth process. Its all about drag and dropping files. The installed and very basic Nero software package is give or take at best. Personally after reviewing Nero and uninstalling it, I came to the conclusion that its a waste of space. Its a matter of choice whether to install the Nero software on your computer or not. An optional password security feature is included too.

Encased in a gloss black, hard plastic body, this stealthy unit displays the drive's personalized name and the remaining capacity on its 128x32 pixel screen. Even when I unplug the USB cable the data is viewable. Personalization tags are easily changed when connected. A nice feature is that the unit automatically updates itself when connected to my computer. Measuring in at 3"x6"x.5" and weighing almost 6 ounces, it goes without saying that this model is compact.

The Verbatim Insight 320 Hard Drive comes packaged with an 18" USB 2.0 cable, User Guide booklet, and the installed Nero Back It Up software package. The manufacturer backs up this product with a five year warranty. Even though I found no valid telephone customer support numbers posted on the website, Verbatim does offer limited help via links, email and snail mail.

For me the most notable shortcomings of this product is the installed Nero software package, the short USB cable, and the finger print magnet finish. Even with those minuses I still find this product to be an exceptional tool. Without a doubt, the Verbatim Insight 320 Portable Hard Drive is a worthy product that holds its own.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent external hard drive for casual use, compares decently to WD drives, but fails to differentiate itself significantly, October 14, 2009

By 

S. Jentsch (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Verbatim InSight 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 96925 (Black) (Personal Computers)

(What's this?)

This drive is stepping into a space that, in my mind, is owned by Western Digital and its Passport line of drives. I have two of them, a 250GB model and a 500GB one. This review will be comparing the Verbatim to these two drives.

Their weight feels comparable in my hand, so one is not noticeably lighter or heavier than the other (I would estimate the Verbatim to weigh in right between the two WD drives). However, the Verbatim drive is noticeably larger than both Western Digitals, which is important when you're talking about a drive intended to be portable. The difference amounts to 1" in length and 0.3" in width. The Verbatim is slightly thinner over the flat part of its case by about 0.1". The curved bump in the front where the display is located actually makes the drive thicker than the Passports, which are flat.

Portable hard drives aren't intended to be speed demons, so it's no surprise that the Verbatim isn't setting any speed records. It does fall in the same range as the Passports, so there's nothing to complain about. According to HD Tune 2.55, the Verbatim registered an average transfer rate of 28.3 MB/s, whereas both Passports came in at 28.9. The Verbatim's minimum rate would dip down to 23.9 MB/s periodically througout the test (the WD's dipped, but not as frequently nor as low). Access time was 16.7 ms, which was lower than the 17.1 and 17.8 readings from the WD drives.

I tested the Verbatim drive by transferring a variety of large and small files using standard Windows XP file copy tools, and the transfer rate was consistent with the tests above. I had no problems transferring over 3,000 music files, totaling about 57 GB, nor were there any problems in transferring large video files.

I connected the drive to the aforementioned Windows XP system as well as a system running Windows 7 RC and an ASUS EeePC 900A running Linux. The drive was immediately recognized by the EeePC and allowed me to browse the drive and play the videos with ease. I had difficulty getting the Windows 7 system to recognize that a drive had been connected and the drive's display was stuck on "Scanning", so I need to work with that a little more to determine what might be happening (the Passports are recognized immediately).

The display on the Verbatim drive is probably the biggest differentiator for this drive, considering that the rest of its attributes are on par. How much of a factor is this display in actual use? For my part, it's not a factor. I have no need to see how much space is left on a portable hard drive, but I can see that others might. If you're one of those people, that display might be the feature that pushes you to this product over others.

I did not install the Nero software, because I don't care to have lots of software programs cluttering up my machines. The software on the Western Digital drives is nice because it never leaves the drive. You run it right on the drive and nothing gets installed on your machine. That makes it very portable and it keeps your computer from having one more piece of software installed. That aspect alone is a differentiating factor for me.

While the physical differences between the Verbatim and Western Digital drives are small, they are still a factor. The WD drives are a little smaller, and the fact that they are flat means that they stack well (like in a bank safe deposit box), and they take up just a little less space in a carrying bag.

How about price? The list price of the Verbatim 320GB drive is $104.99 and a Western Digital Passport 320GB drive is $99.99 (according to Amazon's product pages). The current advertised prices for both are lower, with the WD drive $13 cheaper.

All of these factors make the Verbatim drive compelling only if you find value in the front display. When you're challenging an established leader in this segment, you need to differentiate on size, features, performance, price, or reliability. On all but the last aspect, it doesn't. Only time will tell what the reliability will be like.

I haven't seen anything here to bother me about the Verbatim InSight drive, but there is also nothing that would sway me to purchase it over the Western Digital Passports that I am accustomed to using.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small, fast drive with lots of capacity and no power cord, October 22, 2009

By 

Peter Singh (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Verbatim InSight 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 96925 (Black) (Personal Computers)

(What's this?)

I really like this drive for all of the reasons mentioned in my reveiw subject above.

1. Size - Its a little bigger but thinner than my iphone. Its very light and eminently portable and I was pleased at the fact that a 320GB drive could be in a form factor so diminuitive.

2. Read/Write speeds are fast - I copied a 25GB iphoto library holding numerous sub-folders and images over in less than 18 minutes which is much better than some of the older drives I own.

3. Doesn't require external power to operate or run the little LCD display. I like the design and the little display is nice and the fact that you can operate with just the drive and a mini USB to USB cable is very nice.

4. It runs very quiet.

All in all if you are in the market for a portable hard drive for backup, media or file transfer or anything else, this is a good choice.

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