IBM Tape drive 200 GB 400 GB

Advantages: Fast and quiet
Disadvantages: Lack of instructions

...Can you possibly fill in 80 GB worth of data on your computer? I can - all those MP3s, applications and games meant that upgrading from an exisiting 10 GB drive was essential. Costing around £80, the Deskstar 120GXP did not come with any fixtures or fitting, leads or indeed, instructions. If you are au fait with PC upgrades, all very well, if not you may want someone who is to install it for you. After 'cloning' the data from my 10 GB drive to the 80 GB Deskstar 120GXP the first thing I noticed is how very quiet the drive is - only the flashing red LED on the front of the PC gives it away. The drive runs at 7,200 RPM so is considerably faster than old 5,400 RPM drives. You certainly notice the difference - Windows loads faster and games and applications too. Reviews in magazines have questioned the lifespan of this drive... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: One touch backups, transfereable from computer to computer, more reliable than tapes
Disadvantages: bulky, installing on non-Windows XP computers, takes a long time to backup

...Upon hearing the familar metal-on-metal grinding noise from inside the computer's cases, meaning one thing, you're hard drive is going to die very soon. Luckly, the good people at Maxtor have given us the 'Once touch external hard disk'. The device itself is a self contained 300 GB 7200 RPM Maxtor Hard drive with a USB 2.0 ( 480 Mbs) or Firewire (400 Mbs) interface although the maxium data transfer speeds are 41 MB/s for the Firewire version and 34 MB/s for USB. Personally I think that 300 GB is a bit excessive for home computer purposes, and I would recommend the smaller 200 GB version availible. For office, work , and corperate use it is ideal. I now recommend the use of this device as a direct replacement for tape drives, when it comes to backing up servers. The 'One touch backup feature' makes backing up important data so much... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Large Capacity, blazing fast.
Disadvantages: Poor quality, breaks at the blink of an eye, fragile, sloppy manufacture

...We transitioned to Spectra Logic drives in March of 2006. It is January of 2007, and we have had to have both units replaced 3 times, the longest one lasted was 6 months, the shortest one lasted was 6 hours. They will overnite you a new unit, but that does not solve the quality issue. 6 of sh*t is sh*t. Woe unto you if your tape drive "white screen" dies.. You have to disassemble the top of the unit, attach a 3/16 socket to a motor plate, and manually remove all of the tape chambers. This process is long and tiresome. My advice to you is to spend a little more $$ and buy a quality item. Trust me, you will be disappointed.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average not helpful