Advantages: Easy installation, looks good, ease of use
Disadvantages: None found

...I've bought two of these drives now and am very impressed. On opening the box you'll find the following: The drive itself, power supply, USB cable and an instruction leaflet. The drive feels solid and well built, although the aluminium case does have some sharp edges near the front where it joins the plastic bezel. The drive comes formatted to FAT32, but this is easily changed to NTFS. Being a curious sort, I took one apart to find out the manufacturer of the actual drive inside and was happy to find a Seagate Barracuda, not the bottom of the range drive I was expecting! Installation under Windows XP/Vista is a doddle, just plug in the power cable, plug in the USB cable, switch it on and it's automatically detected and ready to go. In use, both drives have proved very reliable, and although transfer speeds over USB... Read review

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Advantages: Portability, 500GB storage, Speed, Reliability, Warranty
Disadvantages: Slightly strange brown colour

...USB 2.0 cable AC power adapter Quick start guide The drive comes in 3 capacities - but obviously, as per this review, I opted for the 500GB drive. One reason for choosing the Seagate drive, is that they are one of the best producers of HardDrives on the market, that along with their 5 year warranty on the drive is a definate plus for me. Getting it set up is very quick and easy, you dont need to be a techy to get this drive going. Under Windows XP ( which most people would be running these days ) its literally plug and play. Connect the power cable, and power on. Connect the USB2 cable, then connect the USB lead to your PC. This drive is USB2 ( also known as high speed USB ) however, if you dont have USB2 ports on your PC, then no problem, as the drive is backward compatible, in that you can connect it to your standard... Read review

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Advantages: Simple setup, Quiet, Small size, large capacity
Disadvantages: none

...SUMMARY The Western Digital (WD) My Book Premium 500GB is a small, well built external hard drive which is quiet in operation, with excellent capacity and choice of USB 2 or Firewire connectivity. As someone who is interested in technology, photography and video editing, I often end up running low on storage space on my PC. I had been looking to get another hard drive for some time and had seen the WD advertised in a magazine at a reasonable price. I bought mine from an online retailer and as of March 2006 have been using it for 3 months and I have not experienced any problems with it. FEATURES Well without wanting to make it sound as though it's not a good product, because I think it is, there's not much to it, it's just an external hard drive, however it is stylish and feels well built. It is quiet as there is noisy fan... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, nice to look at, easy to use
Disadvantages: Ummmm, the pro version is only available in white?

...As information for those who don't know, this is an external storage device. Basically that means that inside the device is a hard disc drive for storing your data and it connects to your computer via either USB or firewire (all types). There is lots of information about the device that need explaining. Firstly it can store up to 500Gb's of information in what is known as raw format. When you format the device to make it compatible with your computer you will only be able to store 465Gb's. This is because the device needs a file allocation table which is a directory of all the information on the drive. It takes up lots of space but the device is useless without it. The speed of the actual hard drive used inside doesn't actually matter that much. The speeds at which hard drives can exchange data is far greater that the firewire 800... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, Reliable, big capacity & amazing value for money!
Disadvantages: Doesn't look like it would take too many heavey knocks

...This is a pretty standard USB HD but with a whopping 500GB for under £100 it is amazing value for money. So far I've had no problems with it. I run mostly audio/graphics from it (which is very demanding). This HD has no problems dealing with the big files I Use, providing an excellent transfer rate. It is pretty quiet, the only noise it ever makes is a slight hum! I carry this every where I go with my laptop, it's taken a few knocks and survived OK, but I wouldn't want to test it too much, as the case doesn't look like it would protect the drive too well! The design is pretty funky and its size isn't too big either! I've had big portable drives before which were a pain to transport! this fits into my laptop bag perfectly! This drive is well worth the buy.... Read review

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Advantages: Maximizes the amount of data vs the cost of the product
Disadvantages: heat issues, cord connectivity, and small installation problems.

...Some people call me ignorant for using Maxtor, but I honestly only order Maxtor for my hard drives. Now the only downside to the Maxtor 500 GB is that it is an external drive that, if not careful, can overheat and cause connectivity problems, transfer speed issues, or just annoyance from when the usb gets knocked out. That being said, if you can get past the downside of have an external I would recommend this product to anyone not using a Mac. The only reason I do not recommend this to Mac owners is because Mac is the only type of computer that I myself will not touch. I have filled this thing up to about half it potential and when I do manage to full it up, I will write agian to let you know the outcome.... Read review

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Advantages: Durable and Well built. Nice Design.
Disadvantages: Doesn't have any Swiss Army Knife accessories.

...and Apple Macs with no problems. The manufacturers claim that it will work with USB 1.1 ports but it doesn't work with those in my keyboard. The transfer of data is as fast as any other flash drive I have used. The drive comes preloaded with security software to prevent unauthorised access to your data although this only seems to be compatible with Windows machines. I picked this stick up for £15 which is a bit expensive for the amount of storage but not too bad. Overall this a decent USB stick that works well and is a more attractive design than most. It feels very durable and well put together. The 1 GB model is large enough for everyday use although there are larger sizes available. Some people may prefer Victorinox's other USB Swiss Army Knives which have the usual knife and accessories in addition to the USB stick. However... Read review

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