Hard Drives > From 200 GB to 300 GB Hard Drives > USB 2.0

Advantages: Small footprint, USB connectivity, good capacity, quiet
Disadvantages: All the above completely let down by the units reliability

...corner. Oh..and its made by Freecom - a manufacturer I previously thought was pretty reliable (I have their dual layer portable DVD re-writer as well). This drive is billed as being rugged and portable - after all that is the whole point of external portable drives, isnt it? When I got the unit, it was twice as big in capacity as the HDD in my tower PC, so I immediately throught - backup. It didnt come with any back-up soft ware though, which I ...
...HDD's and backed up the Freecom using a USB to IDE connection cable (basically allowing me to use an internal hard drive externally).This is of course crazy - backing up the backup because you have little faith in the original. It proved to be the right choice though because one day the Freecom would not read or recognise at all! Boy o boy! back ups are a good thing and my fear was justified. At this point I felt completely conned by the promise ... Read review

Advantages: Size, capacity, does the job!
Disadvantages: Stand, heat

I bought the 250gb Buffalo hard disk from Amazon and paid 95gbp. I need the extra capacity as I have a laptop which perfectly meets my needs with a 20gb hard disk, but then purchased a 60gb iPod which required extra space. The buffalo drive perfectly meets my requirements, and now is home to my photo's, music and video. Positives ------------ Capacity - unless major movie files are your needs, 250gb is sufficient for most users. In fact even ...
...- that is still 125 movies! Noise - it doesn't make any. Reliability - been using it every day for 6 months and it is has not let me down once. Ease of use - plugged in to various pc's, in various countries, and it just works. Two lights on front (Power and Access) so nothing too complicated there. Power switch on back allowing manual on, auto on, and a seperate on/off switch. Simple. Cables - simple power supply and USB connector (lack of Firewire ... Read review

Advantages: cheap, fast, great design, easy to use, 250GB
Disadvantages: NONE

...would recommend this drive to anyone who needs and external hard disk with a high capacity. Even if you need more than 250g, it's worth buying one from the Seagate. If in the future I need a disk with a higher capacity I will get a FreeAgent from Seagate. ... Read review

Advantages: Size, ease of use
Disadvantages: could be faster on new models if had e-SATA

To start this drive looks good and feels heavy which gives an immediate impression of sound quality. There is an instruction manual on provided disc. Its 190 x 110 x 35 mm in size, so small enough to tuck away out of sight, although it's best to give adequate ventilation whilst running as it's passively cooled (no fan - near silent). If using as a backup device you will need to install Silverlining 98 from the mentioned disc, or use your own software. ...
...Windows/Linux/Mac as it's seen as just another drive, so backups can be done without software (remember that this is not incremental though). If your computer allows boot from USB (check bios settings) you can use this device to boot from. I've successfully managed to boot Linux from it through a preinstalled Windows laptop, and it runs at a good speed. Overall transfer speed is as good as you can get with USB2 (around 400mbps). The drive needs formatting ... Read review

Advantages: Easy way to add storage
Disadvantages: More expensive than internal drives

...eventually settled on a 250GB Freecom drive, which at the time seemed the best balance between cost and storage capacity, at just under £100 at the time of purchase, though I notice you can now get them for about £70. Appearance: The external drive consists of a silver coloured plastic box, slightly larger than a conventional internal hard drive. As well as the drive a USB cable and power cable where also provided. To set it up is incredibly simple ...
...the computer and connect the power cable up to the mains, and the other end to the drive, stating the obvious here really, but just shows how easy it is to set up. Upon connecting the drive to my computer and turning it on, the drive was recognised by window, and within about 30 seconds was ready to use. To access the drive simply go to my computer and access the drive from their. The drive arrived formatted in FAT 32, and as a single partition, ... Read review