Horribly busy but will catch up on my review reading - promise!
Horribly busy but will catch up on my review reading - promise!
Member since:22.10.2006
Reviews:90
Members who trust:18
I've just rebuilt a couple of PCs and realised my external USB hard drive was no longer big enough to use to back them both up. Accordingly, I started looking around for a bigger drive. I was going to buy a bare drive and stick it in a spare external case but as I wandered in to PC World, I saw this little beauty on sale with a nice reduction in price to a mere £85 or so.
I've previously seen 'bargains' in PC World only to find everyone else had also dropped their prices and PC World were still expensive so I checked online and found that this time they were actually genuinely cheap. Back to PC World it was then...
Only to find the formally huge pile of drives had shrunk whilst I'd popped home so I grabbed one quickly, paid (as you do) and took it home.
I have to admit up front I've never touched anything from Freecom before as they've always looked a bit cheap and nasty so this would be an interesting experience. The box did feel reassuringly heavy though, a good start.
############### #
What's in the Box? ###############
Apart from the drive, the box contained a small light external PSU, a USB lead and a CD with some backup software.
The case is made of extremly solid and heavy aluminium with a silver plastic front piece with a sexy blue '400GB' light (yes, you can have sexy lights. Really.) at the front just to prove how big it was. The finish is excellent and I have to say, if this is anything to go by, I'm converted to Freecom. Unlike the picture here, my unit has the aluminium finished in matt black which looks really nice on top of my black PC. It's also surprisingly compact - not that much bigger than a hard drive at 20x11.5x4 cms and certainly smaller than my other two external hard drives by quite a margin.
The back has sockets for power, USB 2.0 and an on/off switch which is also feels nice when flicked on/off, nothing half baked there. Unlike some units, this one has no fan, both a blessing and a curse. More on that later.
I used it on an XP based PC and one with Vista. In both cases it was recognised correctly as a Freecom external hard drive and appeared as a new drive in Windows Explorer. No drivers needed, just Plug and Play, working as it should.
Due to the lack of fan, it is extremely quiet. I was very pleased to see that inside, it used a Samsung hard drive. Having used various different makes over the years, I'm a firm Samsung fan. These hard drives are seriously under-rated and perform well and more importantly, very reliably so good news there. I'm sure Freecom source from whoever is doing the best deal though so I wouldn't guarantee everyone that buys one of these drives gets a Sumsung. If you do, be happy. Between the Samsung and the lack of fan, it is almost whisper quiet which makes it a good choice where noise is an issue such as a lounge.
The downside though is that it also means it gets rather hot and here the solid case does its work well, helping to dissipate it as much as possible. I would hazzard a guess that the black coating was added to the case to help with heat dissipation. Even so, if I were using this in a hot room I might consider cooling it with a fan blowing over it as hard drives don't like getting too hot. That's not a criticism of this device itself, more a problem with any similar sorts of external hard drives.
It comes formatted as FAT32 by default which means it will work with a wide range of operating systems including Macs running OS-X and Windows from 95 onwards. However, as I will only be using it with XP and Vista, the first thing I did was reformat it as NTFS which is far more secure and reliable.
I then backed up both machines to it. This went without a hitch and very quickly. I've had some external hard drives geta bit twitchy but this one breezed through it. The blue light at the front flickers to indicate data access, which is useful-ish.
The drive does come with a CD containing some backup software but to be honest, it's still in its wrapper. It's probably find for backing up files but I need a system where I can quickly recover a full PC with all its partitions so I used something a bit more industrial in strength. I will have to have a look though as the manufacturers web site says the CD also contains encryption, compression and synchronisation tools.
############### # Conclusion ###############
I bought this drive because it was cheap but had no great expectations. I can safely say I was proved utterly wrong in all my preconceptions. It's built like a tank and feels like a really solid and high quality piece of equipment and looks much better than the picture would indicate. The capacity is good, the speed is great and the price right now is excellent. If you need something for backing up or keeping big chunks of data such as movies, I can't recommend the Freecom 400Gb enough. a 2 year warranty is the icing on the cake.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I wish I had known this earlier as I would have got one.I agree that these drives can get a bit hot in use.I have not had to have any heating in my computer room for some time now.Useful for me. John
Whether you are a professional or a home user, these days being able to carry your ... more
valuable data with you is essential. The new Mobile Drive XXS is your perfect companion: ultra compact and extremely easy to use - this USB 2.0 powered portable hard drive makes transporting and sharing data easier than ever. Simply plug the Mobile Drive XXS, with its conveniently small USB cable, into any computers USB port and take your spreadsheets, documents, movies, photos or music anywhere you go. The Freecom Mobile Drive XXS is the latest development in Freecoms ongoing pursuit of making storage more accessible, useable and convenient. The enclosure is made out of rubber which will give you grip when holding the drive in your hand. It also comes with a compact sized USB Cable all you need to connect and use the Mobile Drive XXS on your notebook or PC. Gone are the days where multiple connection cables create a mess when stuffed inside your notebook bag. The Mobile Drive XXS is USB bus powered, no additional, long cablesor poweradapters are needed to use the drive.
Postage & Packaging:free Super Saver Delivery Availability:Usually dispatched within 24 hours......
Whether you are a professional or a home user, these days being able to carry your ... more
valuable data with you is essential. The new Mobile Drive XXS is your perfect companion: ultra compact and extremely easy to use - this USB 2.0 powered portable hard drive makes transporting and sharing data easier than ever. Simply plug the Mobile Drive XXS, with its conveniently small USB cable, into any computers USB port and take your spreadsheets, documents, movies, photos or music anywhere you go. The Freecom Mobile Drive XXS is the latest development in Freecoms ongoing pursuit of making storage more accessible, useable and convenient. The enclosure is made out of rubber which will give you grip when holding the drive in your hand. It also comes with a compact sized USB Cable all you need to connect and use the Mobile Drive XXS on your notebook or PC. Gone are the days where multiple connection cables create a mess when stuffed inside your notebook bag. The Mobile Drive XXS is USB bus powered, no additional, long cablesor poweradapters are needed to use the drive.
Postage & Packaging:£4.00 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
It's all about Gigabytes. Programs and data take up more and more storage space. The need ... more
for adding storage to your notebook or PC is more present than ever. Freecom now offers the perfect upgrade: the Classic Mobile 2.5 Hard Drive, a no-nonsense external hard drive. No need to open your PC: just plug the Classic Hard Drive in the USB port (USB 2.0 or 1.1) and you instantly have a substantial increase in storage space. The future is simple!Main Features:Freecom Classic Mobile 2.5 Inch Hard DriveFast, low n...
Postage & Packaging:£4.99 Availability:Usually dispatched within 4-5 business days...
Key features:- Based on leading HP LTO-technology- Saves up to 400GB of data on a single ... more
data cartridge in less than 3hours- Up to 172.8 MB/s data transfer rate- Lowest price per GB in comparison to other tape technologies*- Internal and external 5.25-Solution half height- OBDR: One Button Disaster Recovery- Dynamic speed matching adapts the speed of the Host in the rangefrom 8 - 24 MB/s native- MTBF at 250.000 hours at permanent use 100% duty cycle- Automatically cleaning of the recording head- Offers LTO2 Capacity to an affordable SMB pricing- Supporting most of the operating systems and platforms like e. g.Windows NT, NetWare, Linux,MAC OS, Unix, Sun Solaris, SiliconGraphics, IBM AIX- Complete Freecom Kit includes Media, Cleaning Cartridge andTapeWare-Backup-SoftwareFeatureProduct FeaturesEnvironmental conditionsStorage temperature range T-T-40-60¶øC Operating relative humidity range20-80% Operating temperature range T-T10 - 40¶øC Storage relative humidity range10-95% Storage mediaNative capacity200GBCompressed capacity400GB Media types supportedLTO Ultrium 1, LTO Ultrium 2 CertificatesCertificationCSA, TÇoV,CE, FCC, NOM,VCCI, C-Tick, RRL, BSMI, GOSH, CB Weight&dimensionsDimensions W x D x H292 x 208 x 70mm Form factor5.25 x 1/2H Weight4650g Energy managementPower consumption33W Power consumption standby13W Access timeAccess time64000ms Data transmissionBurst transfer rate performance24 - 48MB/s Corrected error rate1 x 10^-17 Technical detailsInternalN TypeLTO Compression ratio2:1 Logical recording formatUltrium Generation 2 Data compressionLTO-DC ColourColour of productBlack Operating system/softwareBundled softwareTapeWare MemoryDrive device, buffer size64MB ConnectivityInterfaceUltra3 SCSI EnduranceMean time between failures MTBF250000h
Postage & Packaging:£3.99 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Main Features:Freecom LTO-448i Internal Tape DriveCapacity : 200 - 400 GBData transfer : ... more
up to 48 MB/sBlack FrontbezelWhite FrontbezelTapeSCSI-cableCleaningtapeYosemite Backup SoftwareManual3 years exchange warrantyManufactuer's Warranty: 3 Year Warranty...
Postage & Packaging:£7.99 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Apr 10th, 2007
very helpful by (100%):
