Toshiba 250GB External USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black/Red

...

Ok, No software and a REDICULOUSLY short USB cable, 12"!? Useless to ANYONE who isn't using this unit with a laptop who wants the hard drive to be RIGHT next to their work. If you want to do ANYTHING else with this HDD other than put it on the floor next to your desktop (if it's on the floor), have it BEHIND your desktop (if your puter's on the desk), or literally RIGHT next to your laptop, BUY ANOTHER CABLE IMMEDIATELY. The short cable is an excellent example of today's engineers being completely out of touch with the user's needs. Since there was no disc, I just plugged it and played it. Installation was fast, and completely trouble free. I immediately started to copy a folder of 54.1 GB of photos. The copy took about 2 hours. Not bad. CNET lists this unit's write speed @ 77Mbps, and 152 Mbps read speed. According to CNET, the unit's write speed is slower than some of the other pricier comparable units on the market, and the read speed is about the same as the others.

NAGGING THINGS; I took a look at the drive's health using Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier. I was surprised to see that the drive is formatted as FAT32, not NTFS. I do not know why, and I have an e-mail in to Toshiba technical support to find out if it's cool to reformat the drive. I didn't buy this HDD to do scheduled back-ups, but when I was on the Toshiba site, I noticed that their other mini HDDs have back-up software. My unit didn't come with any software. I felt robbed, but, upon futher investigation, discovered that this unit comes with Toshiba's back-up software pre-loaded. I will see how it works later, and if I don't like or need it, I will remove it.

PROS; Small, stylish unit, good read/write speed, VERY GOOD PRICE POINT.

CONS; Most users will NEED to get a new cable for comfortable use.

ERRATA; I purchased the Caselogic PHDC-1 Small EVA External Hard Drive Case that was offered as a "bundle" from Amazon. I found the case to be a PERFECT fit. A nice semi-hard case with a pocket for your cable.

Toshiba 250GB External USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black/Red

...

Ok, No software and a REDICULOUSLY short USB cable, 12"!? Useless to ANYONE who isn't using this unit with a laptop who wants the hard drive to be RIGHT next to their work. If you want to do ANYTHING else with this HDD other than put it on the floor next to your desktop (if it's on the floor), have it BEHIND your desktop (if your puter's on the desk), or literally RIGHT next to your laptop, BUY ANOTHER CABLE IMMEDIATELY. The short cable is an excellent example of today's engineers being completely out of touch with the user's needs. Since there was no disc, I just plugged it and played it. Installation was fast, and completely trouble free. I immediately started to copy a folder of 54.1 GB of photos. The copy took about 2 hours. Not bad. CNET lists this unit's write speed @ 77Mbps, and 152 Mbps read speed. According to CNET, the unit's write speed is slower than some of the other pricier comparable units on the market, and the read speed is about the same as the others.



NAGGING THINGS; I took a look at the drive's health using Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier. I was surprised to see that the drive is formatted as FAT32, not NTFS. I do not know why, and I have an e-mail in to Toshiba technical support to find out if it's cool to reformat the drive. I didn't buy this HDD to do scheduled back-ups, but when I was on the Toshiba site, I noticed that their other mini HDDs have back-up software. My unit didn't come with any software. I felt robbed, but, upon futher investigation, discovered that this unit comes with Toshiba's back-up software pre-loaded. I will see how it works later, and if I don't like or need it, I will remove it.



PROS; Small, stylish unit, good read/write speed, VERY GOOD PRICE POINT.



CONS; Most users will NEED to get a new cable for comfortable use.



ERRATA; I purchased the Caselogic PHDC-1 Small EVA External Hard Drive Case that was offered as a "bundle" from Amazon. I found the case to be a PERFECT fit. A nice semi-hard case with a pocket for your cable.

Toshiba 250GB External USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black/Red

...

Ok, No software and a REDICULOUSLY short USB cable, 12"!? Useless to ANYONE who isn't using this unit with a laptop who wants the hard drive to be RIGHT next to their work. If you want to do ANYTHING else with this HDD other than put it on the floor next to your desktop (if it's on the floor), have it BEHIND your desktop (if your puter's on the desk), or literally RIGHT next to your laptop, BUY ANOTHER CABLE IMMEDIATELY. The short cable is an excellent example of today's engineers being completely out of touch with the user's needs. Since there was no disc, I just plugged it and played it. Installation was fast, and completely trouble free. I immediately started to copy a folder of 54.1 GB of photos. The copy took about 2 hours. Not bad. CNET lists this unit's write speed @ 77Mbps, and 152 Mbps read speed. According to CNET, the unit's write speed is slower than some of the other pricier comparable units on the market, and the read speed is about the same as the others.





NAGGING THINGS; I took a look at the drive's health using Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier. I was surprised to see that the drive is formatted as FAT32, not NTFS. I do not know why, and I have an e-mail in to Toshiba technical support to find out if it's cool to reformat the drive. I didn't buy this HDD to do scheduled back-ups, but when I was on the Toshiba site, I noticed that their other mini HDDs have back-up software. My unit didn't come with any software. I felt robbed, but, upon futher investigation, discovered that this unit comes with Toshiba's back-up software pre-loaded. I will see how it works later, and if I don't like or need it, I will remove it.





PROS; Small, stylish unit, good read/write speed, VERY GOOD PRICE POINT.





CONS; Most users will NEED to get a new cable for comfortable use.





ERRATA; I purchased the Caselogic PHDC-1 Small EVA External Hard Drive Case that was offered as a "bundle" from Amazon. I found the case to be a PERFECT fit. A nice semi-hard case with a pocket for your cable.