... On a completely unrelated visit in search of ink I found myself in PC world, where they had the Freecom 400GB hard drives on special, but ironically enough the Freecom 500GB hard drives which were not on special were actually only £1 more expensive. Realising I had seen a good deal I picked ... Read review
For the demanding, professional user who lays emphasis on extra features along with ... more
additional network storage space, Freecom now offers the new Network Drive Pro - a multi-functional NAS-solution with a lot of additional functions. Create your own web-site, manage your own FTP-server, extend your storage space via the USB-host ports, use your USB-printer as the network printer, manage your downloads via the integrated Torrent Client. The accompanying Configurations Wizard for PC and Mac enables a simple and quick installation. No knowledge of networks is necessary for this. The Network Drive Pro can be configured in such a way that a secure access is possible via Internet. Your data can thus be retrieved worldwide, without having to switch on your coomputer at home or in office. The Network Drive Pro offers versatile possibilities: Simple setup, practical functions and high reliability.
Advantages: Easy to install, easy to operate Disadvantages: Power plug is a bit bulky if using extention lead.
...world, where they had the Freecom 400GB hard drives on special, but ironically enough the Freecom 500GB hard drives which were not on special were actually only £1 more expensive. Realising I had seen a good deal I picked it up.
Upon opening the box you are confronted with a fair bit of padding, and a small box that transpired to be the hard drive, power cable (if plugging into an extention lead this bulky plug can partially cover ... ...identify.
The Freecom 500GB hard drive emanates little or no heat, and is incredibly quiet (my old external hard drive made lots of clunking noises). Providing you are connected by USB 2.0 everything moves at a reasonable pace not dissimilar to being an internal hard drive. My USB 2.0 ports are highlighted quite well, but I’m told with my PC’s the only way to check is to run a diagnostic check on your ports through your PC’s control ... more
Having filled my PC memory with my databases, photo’s, hard copies of website content, and more recently using my PC as a media centre, the storage of 260GB which I once considered to be quite big disappeared. On a completely unrelated visit in search of ink I found myself in PC world, where they had the Freecom 400GB hard drives on special, but ironically enough the Freecom 500GB hard drives which were not on special were actually only £1 more expensive. Realising I had seen a good deal I picked it up.
Upon opening the box you are confronted with a fair bit of padding, and a small box that transpired to be the hard drive, power cable (if plugging into an extention lead this bulky plug can partially cover the holes of adjoing sockets), a small piece of paper that constituted the instructions and a USB cable. It was not rocket science to establish that all you needed to do was connect the USB cable to the hard drive and then you’re PC. I did this and waited for something to happen. The usual windows “bimble bimble” noise occurred that I get whenever I connect something via a USB device followed by “pop”. In the bottom of the screen the words “mass storage device detected” appeared and literally that was all there was to it.
Some important points to mention, you need to be running either Windows Millennium, Windows XP, or Windows Vista, I am not sure why but that’s what the instructions say. Secondly ideally for optimum performance you need to connect by a USB 2.0 port. While it will connect via a standard USB port some of the elements I’ll outline in a minute will not work.
Having installed I transferred all my media to the hard drive, this took about 2 hours, but in fairness I was transferring over 200GB of data. This would be a swifter task if it was an internal hard drive, but externals are always slower. I did not mind or care; the last time I had an external hard drive it took about that length of time to move one program. Then I moved my databases and other stuff outlined at the top of my piece, this second set of moves took about 15 minutes. The nice thing and I’m told this is quite unusual is that everything runs from your hard drive. For example when you download, or install a new program you can install it to your external hard drive, this seems to keep my PC running a little more fluidly. This last feature I am told does not work with every program you install via a standard USB port, it needs to be USB 2.0 to function properly. So now every time I install something I automatically go to drive G (your drive may appear as a different letter).
When it comes to finding the external hard drive you simply select you’re My Computer icon, and then click on the drive that your hard drive sits on. You can change the name of the hard drive to make it easier for you if you have difficulty to identify.
The Freecom 500GB hard drive emanates little or no heat, and is incredibly quiet (my old external hard drive made lots of clunking noises). Providing you are connected by USB 2.0 everything moves at a reasonable pace not dissimilar to being an internal hard drive. My USB 2.0 ports are highlighted quite well, but I’m told with my PC’s the only way to check is to run a diagnostic check on your ports through your PC’s control panel.
My Freecom hard drive cost me £50 from PC world, ironically hidden behind the 400GB hard drives “on special” at £49.
Advantages: Fast, super-stylish and near-silent. Disadvantages: Difficult to detect activity.
I have owned this drive for a few months and have found it to be excellent. But I disagree with a previous review in several areas.
This is the most stylish external hard drive I have seen. It is also one of the cheapest per GB, currently available for just £93 at Misco.co.uk, for example.
It works with Macs and PCs and is almost silent. It comes with a USB cable and a driver CD for old Windows operating systems. The external design is superb minimalism ... ...themselves. The case is all aluminium except the front and back. The front face is black except for the capacity indicator of ‘500GB’ which lights up in blue and flickers during activity. The rear has the power and USB ports and a small power switch.
The 500GB box value translates to 465GB under Windows due to the differing ways the drive manufacturers and Windows measure storage capacities. Note this is normal and true of all hard drives, so it ...
ruggero 20.05.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Freecom Hard Drive Hard drive 500 GB
Advantages: Fast, Reliable, big capacity & amazing value for money! Disadvantages: Doesn't look like it would take too many heavey knocks
This is a pretty standard USB HD but with a whopping 500GB for under £100 it is amazing value for money. So far I've had no problems with it. I run mostly audio/graphics from it (which is very demanding). This HD has no problems dealing with the big files I Use, providing an excellent transfer rate. It is pretty quiet, the only noise it ever makes is a slight hum! I carry this every where I go with my laptop, it's taken a few knocks and survived ... ...as the case doesn't look like it would protect the drive too well! The design is pretty funky and its size isn't too big either! I've had big portable drives before which were a pain to transport! this fits into my laptop bag perfectly! This drive is well worth the buy. ...
djdavep2007 02.09.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Freecom Hard Drive Hard drive 500 GB
Advantages: Hugh storage space Disadvantages: Extra cables around PC
...Absolutely fine, i have no problems with this device, and the design is nice too with its brushed aluminum look.
I would recommend this to a friend or family member and trust freecom to deliver a high quality device as i have a DVD-RW that has served me well. ...
marko123 21.06.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Freecom Hard Drive Hard drive 500 GB
Advantages: fast, spacious and very quiet Disadvantages: none really...
...the drive that contains some Freecom software but I haven't used it yet. Within minutes of installing the drive I was transferring over 300GB of data to it and in use I have found the drive to be almost silent, even when transferring gigabytes of data you can only just about hear the drive running and the transfer rates seem excellent for a USB drive (although I haven't actually checked what the rates actually are). The casing does get a little warm ... ...would recommend it without hesitation. I have had several external drives over the years and currently also have a WD MyBook 500Gb external drive but I would easily recommend this drive over the MyBook because I have found the Freecom to be quieter, faster, cooler in use and better looking. ...
ratking 28.12.2007 (05.01.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Freecom Hard Drive Hard drive 500 GB
Advantages: Competitive Price Disadvantages: The unit I received was faulty
I purchased a Freecom External Hard Drive 500GB from Amazon and it arrived one week later. The box was opened and inside was the drive unit along with the installation disk for Personal Media Suite and Backup utility, USB cable and power cable. So far so good.
The software was installed and the unit connected and powered up. Unfortunately the Personal Media Suite did not recognise the device but Windows (XP) did. A few files were copied as a test ... ...re-installed again but the device was still not found. And then Windows no longer recognised the unit part way through a copy.
Ahh. - refering to the online documentation - it suggested that the device be disconnected and re-connected again. So followed their advice but no difference. Fortunately amongst the documentation was a Technical support telephone number, which was promptly called.
The call was instantly answered, and a 'technical support' ...
marshmike 25.05.2007 (06.06.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Freecom Hard Drive Hard drive 500 GB
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Advantages: Extremely fast, quality hard drive Disadvantages: none
This is a very fast performer as it claims to be and is good value for money, though the fast transfer rate should not in itself be enough to warrant the quite hefty price tag of over 100 pounds.
Design
I always do prefer silver boxed harddrives or for that matter anything in silver since it seems so much more elegant with its metallic aluminium silver shine. So this small desktop storage unit gets my top marks for design and build quality. It's a solid harddrive and can be stacked easily and stored easily too. It arrived in a small box and was small as i expected.
Performance
It claims to be six times faster than a USB 2.0 and it is a very fast drive that is up and running in seconds. Its pre-formatted for windows so it can be put into use almost instanteously as soon as it is connected.
500GB is a lot of space and i ...
Advantages: Capacity, web server, ftp server, torrent client, 1Gb Lan Disadvantages: It can corrupt data
In short: Freecom Network Drive Pro 500Gb is good idea, bad software, terrible support.
I bought this unit couple weeks ago. Promises were high: NAS, web server, ftp server, even torrent client; software is basicaly mini-Linux distribution.
At begining, all looked fine; than I started to use it more heavily and disovered that: if your unit has firmware 4.2.7 and you use this unit with Windows clients, it can corrupt your data:
http://www.vesic.org/english/blog/hardware/freecom-network-driv e-pro-500-gb-a-sad-story/
Reported to support, called support, reported in forums, nothing happened.
After 10 days, w/o any feedback from support, I returned my unit. Be careful when using this unit with Windows clients or wait until newer firmware is published. ...
Product Information for "Freecom Hard Drive Hard drive 500 GB" »
Performance
Interface Transfer Rate
480 Mbps
Seek Time
9 ms (average)
Track-to-Track Seek Time
0.8 ms
Average Latency
4.2 ms
Spindle Speed
7200 rpm
Reliability
MTBF
50,000 hour(s)
Manufacturer's product description
Freecom understands that consumers appreciate easy to install, ready to use, well priced products. Freecom products offer flexibility, connectivity and value that are unmatched by other manufacturers. PRODUCT FEATURES: External 3.5" hard disk - 7200rpm - minimum 8MB cache; Aluminum enclosure; Freecom Personal Media Suite (Windows/Multilingual); Secure and Compress - password protection; AutoRun - synchronization; Freecom backup software (Windows/Multilingual).
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