Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 120 GB

...drive also comes with some Maxtor software designed to ease back-up and synching of data. For this purpose I would recommend just downloading Microsoft's SynchToy which is available as a free download and in my opinion is more powerful and easier to use than the software that comes with the drive. Another useful feature of the included software is the ability to encrypt and password-protect the data on the drive.

I would definitely ... more

This was my first venture into external hard drive storage, and it could not have been better!

This little pocket-sized drive is perfect for anyone looking for some extra storage space, whether to back-up data or to store files and downloads. Personally, I used it to back-up my music and DVD collections and it has not let me down!

The drive looks exactly as shown in the picture, and in fact looks rather stylish compared to many available portable hard drives! It comes with a USB cable to connect to your computer, which may take up one or two USB slots, depending on power requirements. With my laptop it has only ever worked when two USB slots are used. When only one is connected, the power indicator lights up, but the drive is not recognised by Windows until the second cable is plugged in.

The capacity of the drive is advertised as 120GB, but in reality is only about 111GB. This however, is the case with all hard drives and storage devices, as manufacturers and Windows use different calculations to determine how many Bytes make up a Gigabyte. (Manufacturers use 1,000,000,000 bytes = 1GB, whereas Windows uses 1,073,741,824 bytes = 1GB). The capacity is more than sufficient for personal data back-up, and is definitely worth investing in.

The drive also comes with some Maxtor software designed to ease back-up and synching of data. For this purpose I would recommend just downloading Microsoft's SynchToy which is available as a free download and in my opinion is more powerful and easier to use than the software that comes with the drive. Another useful feature of the included software is the ability to encrypt and password-protect the data on the drive.

I would definitely recommend this drive to anyone looking for some compact external storage at reasonable price, although if you wait a few months you will probably find that at the same price you will be able to get a larger amount of GB! Still an excellent purchase though, which as the manufacturers claim will "Save your life"! 

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