Advantages: Easy installation, simple to use
Disadvantages: Not really portable, might run slow on an older computer.

...If like me you don't like ripping the cladding off your PC to upgrade it and want to avoid fiddling with motherboard and power connections, Maxtor have the perfect solution to improve your storage problems. This external drive will run along side your normal drive via a USB connection. Although the drive is removable and portable it is not ideally suited to being transported. It measures approximately 10 inches x 6 inches x 2 inches deep (25cm x 15cm x 5cm) and weighs about 1kg. The external finish is robust but I wouldn't recommend leaving this device in a place where it is likely to get knocked, as hard drives have extremely delicate inner machinery.To transport the drive you would also need to transport the power adapter, so if you need to transport small amounts of data I would not recommend this drive for this use. Although... Read review

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Advantages: none
Disadvantages: power failure,cheapness of build

...Well what can i say. I chose maxtor because i thought it was a good named brand and would be reliable. Plus the fact they have been taken over by seagate who have been in the hard drive business forever. With these two factors you would think this would be a reliable external drive. How wrong could you be. The worst thing about this drive is the unreliability of the power adaptor. Sometimes you have power. Sometimes you dont. This is a big problem when you are trying to back up important files or even if your using it as an everyday drive. The feel and look of the unit is very cheap and not very nice to look at. The other downfall of this product is that it has no power button to turn it off. My conclusion is to look elsewhere if your in the market for an external hard drive. There are an amplitude of better drives out there.... Read review

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Advantages: Available in large capacities, one-touch back-up, cheap in comparison
Disadvantages: Tech support not great

...The new external hard drive from Maxtor is great for a number of reasons. 1. Space The new maxtor one-touch can be bought with between 200 and 300 gb of space. Even a 200 gb drive will hold hours of music and video, and will hold a large amount of digital photos along with any programs you wish to install on the drive. 2. Transfer Speed With the possibility of a firewire connection, the transferring of files can be very quick. For example I transferred 30gb of music in about 30 mins through firewire where as USB could take up to 1 1/2 hours! 3. Read Speed (7200 rpm) In terms of running programs and games directly from the maxtor, the read speed from this drive is superb. Programs will load almost instantly and most actions will be completed immediately. Loading times for games are cut significantly in comparison to standard drives... Read review

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Advantages: Easy to use, cheapish to buy and does what needs to be done.
Disadvantages: A wee bit noisy.

...The Concept. Most PC users experience data loss at some point in their lives. Most of us know that back up is important, sensible, worthwhile and the proper thing to do. Most ways of doing it are a bit complex, a bit costly or just too much bother. Here is a way of keeping safe easily. The Product It looks the part - brushed aluminium, embossed with the maker's logo, and the compulsory blue light at one end. It can be used flat on the desk, or upright in a base provided. Set-up. All that you need by way of cables and software comes with the product. It is an easy, well documented process to set it up. It takes a while to do so, as the Maxtor needs to do a complete scan and backup of all your data. The option of USB2 and Firewire connections does speed this process up and is a nice touch if your computer has the facility... Read review

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Advantages: fast writing speed, whisper quiet motor, incredibly easy installation
Disadvantages: Size and weight.

...This is a very Good Drive..... I bought this external hard drive about four years back. for one reason, i was runing out of space on my laptops hard drive, plus, if my laptop were to crash i didn't want to lose all of my data. Let's start with the setup. Setting this drive up could not be any easier or quicker than it was. If you are really into quick installation, then this takes the cake. You simply plug the drive into the mains, plug it into your computer, turn it on, and voila! It does the same as a memory stick, so you can just instantly move all of your data onto the disk. Also, if you want, you can install the maxtor software, which makes it so you can back all of your data up onto the computer at the touch of one button, if your computer crashes and your data is lost. The write speed onto the disk is also quite impressive... Read review

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Advantages: simple to use, good looking too
Disadvantages: none

...If, like me, your computer now holds a significant amount of data about your private life and your family's life in the form documents, e-mails and photos, and music etc. and if, like me, you are increasingly irritated with feeding a constant stream of DVDs slowly into your computer in attempts to obtain backups and viable records of everything should the wheel come off, then the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini could be the solution for you. Basically it is a small 11cm x 7cm x1cm silver and black hard drive (slightly larger than a pack of cards)which is capable of storing all your documents at a touch of a button or on a schedule and as importantly , it has the capacity to recover all the contents of your hard drive should you have a complete computer disaster. The One Touch Mini comes in three capacities, 160, 250 and 320 GB. Most users... Read review

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Advantages: Good software, price, looks.
Disadvantages: Fails in a day.

...to basic! Looks: The Maxtor OneTouch 4 is quite a good looking External Drive, it is a rounded box shape that slopes down. It also has the brand name Maxtor on the side in shiny black lettering and on the front of the drive (this is covered in protective tape when you open it to protect the finish). There is also a bright white light which pulses when the drive is on and active, in my opinion the light is too large and bright as it illuminates the crack down the middle of the drive where it has been fused together. Installation: Installing the drive is very simple to do. Simply plug your drive in to any USB 2 port and your PC should recognise it and it will load the installation program automatically. This process will take about 5 minutes and it gives you screens telling you the features of your drive while you wait. After that you... Read review

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Advantages: Really easy to use
Disadvantages: None yet!

...I bought this hard drive a few weeks ago to use with my laptop as I needed more memory. I was somewhat apprehensive about buying an external hard drive as I am not particularly good with computers and assumed I would do something wrong and it wouldn't work! It comes with an instruction booklet and an easy step installation sheet. I found it really easy to set up, literally loading the disc. From then on, you just plug the hard drive in and attach the USB cable to the computer when you want to use it. I have stored pictures, video and Word documents and all have been saved fine and are easy to access. Basically, to open something you go to 'My Computer' and then 'Maxtor' and your files will appear. I paid about £80 but when I compared it to other products I found it was the cheapest around. It is physically a lot smaller than I... Read review

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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

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Advantages: Quick, easy to to set up
Disadvantages: None!

...This is the second external hard drive I have bought as I managed to fill up my old one. I decided to go for Maxtor as my older one was made by the same company, although it was obviously an older model. I was concerned it would be difficult to set up but it couldn't be easier. If I didn't have a problem with it then anyone can do it. The instructions don't go into too much detail but then its not really necessary for them to. The 200GB will hold over 150,000 JPEG photos, 14 hours of DV video or 3,300 hours of MP3 music. I have mainly used it for storing movies and I have hundreds on there. You will need to have either Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 Professional, or XP for it to work or Mac OS 9.1 or later. You can link the hard drive to your computer using USB or firewire, both of which come with the hard drive. I personally use USB... Read review

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