Seagate Maxtor OneTouch 4 500 GB USB Hard Drive

Pros: Humongous. Confidence-inspiring. USB 2.0 speed. Small footprint. Quiet. Small power adapter. Mac/PC.
Cons: Can't think of any, but I haven't tried the backup utility.

------------------------------ ---------Introduction--------- --------------- The last purchase I made that elicited responses such as, "Well, what is it? What does it DO?" and, generally, provoke child-like wonder from otherwise drudgingly ...

Pros: Packaging, drive size .vs cost, 5 year warranty, ease of installation.
Cons: No power switch, no firewire connection, limited functionality back-up software.

I recently purchased this external drive to back-up my seven years worth of digital photos, personal documents, music and home movie collection. My opinion is based on a Windows XP installation. This drive is Mac friendly, but you may need to ...

Pros: looks nice
smallish
quiet
blue light looks cool.
It was easy (when working).
Cons: Problem Code 10!!!
Lack of adequate support "fix"...confusing.

I have this external hard drive and it had been working fine for just over 6 months until recently. I run Vista--which may be the problem--but I now get a "Problem Code 10" message when I try to access the files I have stored on my backup HD. This ...

Pros: None at all
Cons: too many to list here

I always tell people to BACKUP files so they do not get lost. Hard drives fail, and I am surprised how many people NEVER back up anything. It is so easy, at least back up everything in and after ‘My Documents’ folder. That is where most software stores ...

Pros: Updated: there certainly are pros, but they are negated by the major cons.
Cons: The drive has known problems and mainboard CAUSES issues. Not recommended for sensitive data.

Updated review on May 16, 2008: ------------------------------ --------------------- Heres the update. Its been only 6 months since I got the unit on black Friday, and it is a failure. About 2 months ago or so the drive started to act up. I would ...

Pros: Nice looking, can work as paper holder
Cons: Allergely destroys partition on a regular basis

I won't go easy on this review. This unit lost all my data. Package The packaging is nice. You open the box and everything is protected by a sturdy yet flexible plastic dampener. Everywhere there are stickers claiming "SAVE YOUR LIFE" ...

Pros: An external drive that seemed to have it all... but didn't.
Cons: Do NOT trust this product to backup your system drive!  

An external drive that seemed to have it all... 500gigs of storage, USB2 and Firewire... and a reasonable pricepoint. OK, a power switch would have been nice.  Unlike the Maxtor 4, the Maxtor 4 Pro claims it can back up (image) your ...

Pros: Simple device
Cons: Unreliable (both the drive and the customer service)

The device unreliable and tech support service is into selling their data-recovery services (and they are not cheap).

I was Victim of a recurring problem where the drive would regularly become unreadable/corrupted and despite many attempts the tech support never did much to find the cause of the problem or replace the drive.

I can understand that once in a while there is a defective unit, but the first time the drive crashed I managed to recover most of the data from my PC, I LOST ALL MY DATA IN A SUBSEQUENT CRASH WELL AFTER TECH SUPPORT WAS AWARE OF THE ISSUE and let me fall like a rock, so this could have easily been avoided had they stood by their product.

I have read about similar problems with other users, so beware!

Pros: Great for simple backups of "my documents".
Cons: 90% of wording on the box is a lie.

I bought this drive to make simple backups of my hard drive and set it up for full recovery in case of a virus or crash. Installing it was easy.

Someone told me it did not back up hidden files like your email so I emailed Maxtor/Seagate and they confirmed that it does not back up many files including your email.

The box says "full recovery", it is a lie. there is no way based on Maxtors customer service that this could possibly back up your full hard drive.

Then I found out that you can not put it on another computer or hard drive. If you hard drive crashes, you are out of luck!

Pros: None
Cons: Google what others think and see just how bad they really are.

My One Touch 4 worked for about ten days, then it tipped over (very lightly on its side on carpet) and quit being recognized by any computer. Seagate tech support were absolute idiots and merely ran me through the trouble shooter again and then said "return it to the store where you bought it". I said, "What about my data?" and they said, "well you can send it to our data recovery division but its very expensive..."

I will never never purchase any of Seagate's products again!

Pros: It is a sleek paperweight.
Cons: That's it right there. It's a con.

Buy 10 of the Maxtor 4, because you'll need to make a backup for your backup for your backup, so that when it crashes, you won't spend 10 times the cost of the unit to acquire data recovery services. We bought this as a means for my 2 kids to save the larger games and school work on, as the memory in our computer was maxed out. We picked it up in lieu of buying a new computer because it seemed like a good alternative. It started making a grinding noise and doesn't work any more. My 10th grader's schoolwork, as well as a number of other things are on it. It is under warranty, but that is only the drive, not the recovery. They want minimum, $1700.00 for that, and told me to shop around to see if I can get it done cheaper. To get it done though, they would have to open it, voiding the factory warranty. I will not buy another, and I recommend you don't either.