Maxtor B01D300 One Touch 300 GB External USB 2.0/FireWire Hard Drive

Manufacturer:	Maxtor
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Maxtor B01D300 One Touch 300 GB External USB 2.0/FireWire Hard Drive

Average rating: Stars

Blows away the computer

I'm using this with Windows XP and about 50% of the time, when I press the button to do a backup the Retrospect software they provide blows the computer right out of the water. The blue screen of death appears and the computer crashes. Maxtor has known about this problem for a long time but they won't put out a fix for it.

Maxtor B01D300 One Touch 300 GB External USB 2.0/FireWire Hard Drive - Maxtor

Included software is not up to par

I've had this product for 6 months now, and even though I consider myself somewhat tech savvy, I still haven't been able to figure out the included Retrospect software, required to use the one-touch back-up functionality. The software is incredibly un-friendly, and the manual is equally cryptic. I'm sure that it's easy to use for programmers and such, but definitively not for the average user.
Because of this shortcoming I'm using the hard drive as a regular drive, just copying my files manually. I'd recommend buying a similar product with better software.

Maxtor - Maxtor B01D300 One Touch 300 GB External USB 2.0/FireWire Hard Drive

Awesome drive -- Awesome backup solution

I have the 250 GB model, bought it from Amazon. I am very happy with it.

I use this device solely for backups. Works awesome, incredibly fast. For the 99.99999% of computer users who DON'T do backups, do yourself a favor and get this drive, and start doing backups.

I'm surprised at the negative reviews. I've had my drive now for almost a year. It's not noisy, it doesn't run hot, and it's never failed.

I think the people reporting that it runs hot must be placing it directly on a surface -- that's a no-no, you're supposed to elevate it a tad with the little rubber feet that are provided. Then the aluminum case provides excellent airflow and cooling.

Regarding those who experienced drive failures: Here's a tip -- don't move the damn thing while it's powered up. I know it's tempting, because it's so small and movable, but that's pretty much guaranteed to cause a drive failure.

And more on drive failure: well, for a backup device, who cares? It's a BACKUP. You're supposed to be counting on a failure of the primary drive OR the backup drive, but not both AT THE SAME TIME. That's what a backup is all about.

And if you're really that concerned about losing the backup copy of your data, fine, get two of these drives. It's still an incredibly affordable backup solution. Then you can keep one of the two backup drives "offsite" at all times -- or at least unplugged, so it'll be safe when the lightning strikes. Not a bad idea at all, if you can afford two of these for backup drives...

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