Toshiba HDDR120E01X 120 GB USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive - Factory Refurbished

...

Before long I was having difficulty making the micro-sized plug connect to the recessed receptacle inside the drive. Fortunately this Toshiba arrived just in time to save me from a potential disaster.

Rather than a 6-inch cord, Toshiba thoughtfully supplies a 3-foot USB 2.0 cable (2 feet would be plenty, but better to error on the side of generosity). And even though one end of the cable employs the unavoidable tiny 1394 4-pin connector, it fits far more snuggly than did the shorty cord and connector supplied with the Passport. You can move your computer without moving, dragging and dropping the external drive with it. In addition, Toshiba supplies a power cable (and 5V DC input in the drive itself) just in case the USB power from your computer fails to supply sufficient "oomph" to run the drive. One might take that as an admission of potential problems on Toshiba's part, but given what I've seen their drive do on its own, drawing whatever power is being put out by my little iMac and iBook, I'd be inclined to view it as Toshiba's leaving nothing to chance.

The drive mounts instantly, and is indeed plug and play. The included disc with automatic back-up software--"Shadow"--was easy to install and understand. Moreover, it copied my entire hard drive in a manner of several minutes. But first impressions are that the software back-up program's primary market is Windows users and that it's just enough of a time-delayer in its requirements (choose the folders and files you wish to have backed up, select a frequency of auto back-up ranging from one second to one week, create a name and folder, decide on how many drafts you wish to have saved with every project) to be something I'm likely bother with except for the most critical documents. Still, if Apple's Leopard or Western Digital's auto back-up programs prove not to be the no-brainer, fool-proof solutions they're cracked up to be, it's nice to have the option of Toshiba's program. (Who knows? Maybe the Shadow knows.)

Finally, the price certainly looks right. Currently the Toshiba is priced very close to a comparably sized Passport. If the machine proves to be the rugged and dependable winner that it promises to be, and if the consumer becomes less mesmerized by bright colors, gadgets that resemble a pet, and miniaturization taken to the extreme, that price gap could easily widen.

Toshiba HDDR120E01X 120 GB USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive - Factory Refurbished

...

Before long I was having difficulty making the micro-sized plug connect to the recessed receptacle inside the drive. Fortunately this Toshiba arrived just in time to save me from a potential disaster.

Rather than a 6-inch cord, Toshiba thoughtfully supplies a 3-foot USB 2.0 cable (2 feet would be plenty, but better to error on the side of generosity). And even though one end of the cable employs the unavoidable tiny 1394 4-pin connector, it fits far more snuggly than did the shorty cord and connector supplied with the Passport. You can move your computer without moving, dragging and dropping the external drive with it. In addition, Toshiba supplies a power cable (and 5V DC input in the drive itself) just in case the USB power from your computer fails to supply sufficient "oomph" to run the drive. One might take that as an admission of potential problems on Toshiba's part, but given what I've seen their drive do on its own, drawing whatever power is being put out by my little iMac and iBook, I'd be inclined to view it as Toshiba's leaving nothing to chance.

The drive mounts instantly, and is indeed plug and play. The included disc with automatic back-up software--"Shadow"--was easy to install and understand. Moreover, it copied my entire hard drive in a manner of several minutes. But first impressions are that the software back-up program's primary market is Windows users and that it's just enough of a time-delayer in its requirements (choose the folders and files you wish to have backed up, select a frequency of auto back-up ranging from one second to one week, create a name and folder, decide on how many drafts you wish to have saved with every project) to be something I'm likely bother with except for the most critical documents. Still, if Apple's Leopard or Western Digital's auto back-up programs prove not to be the no-brainer, fool-proof solutions they're cracked up to be, it's nice to have the option of Toshiba's program. (Who knows? Maybe the Shadow knows.)

Finally, the price certainly looks right. Currently the Toshiba is priced very close to a comparably sized Passport. If the machine proves to be the rugged and dependable winner that it promises to be, and if the consumer becomes less mesmerized by bright colors, gadgets that resemble a pet, and miniaturization taken to the extreme, that price gap could easily widen.

Toshiba HDDR120E01X 120 GB USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive - Factory Refurbished

...

Before long I was having difficulty making the micro-sized plug connect to the recessed receptacle inside the drive. Fortunately this Toshiba arrived just in time to save me from a potential disaster.



Rather than a 6-inch cord, Toshiba thoughtfully supplies a 3-foot USB 2.0 cable (2 feet would be plenty, but better to error on the side of generosity). And even though one end of the cable employs the unavoidable tiny 1394 4-pin connector, it fits far more snuggly than did the shorty cord and connector supplied with the Passport. You can move your computer without moving, dragging and dropping the external drive with it. In addition, Toshiba supplies a power cable (and 5V DC input in the drive itself) just in case the USB power from your computer fails to supply sufficient "oomph" to run the drive. One might take that as an admission of potential problems on Toshiba's part, but given what I've seen their drive do on its own, drawing whatever power is being put out by my little iMac and iBook, I'd be inclined to view it as Toshiba's leaving nothing to chance.



The drive mounts instantly, and is indeed plug and play. The included disc with automatic back-up software--"Shadow"--was easy to install and understand. Moreover, it copied my entire hard drive in a manner of several minutes. But first impressions are that the software back-up program's primary market is Windows users and that it's just enough of a time-delayer in its requirements (choose the folders and files you wish to have backed up, select a frequency of auto back-up ranging from one second to one week, create a name and folder, decide on how many drafts you wish to have saved with every project) to be something I'm likely bother with except for the most critical documents. Still, if Apple's Leopard or Western Digital's auto back-up programs prove not to be the no-brainer, fool-proof solutions they're cracked up to be, it's nice to have the option of Toshiba's program. (Who knows? Maybe the Shadow knows.)



Finally, the price certainly looks right. Currently the Toshiba is priced very close to a comparably sized Passport. If the machine proves to be the rugged and dependable winner that it promises to be, and if the consumer becomes less mesmerized by bright colors, gadgets that resemble a pet, and miniaturization taken to the extreme, that price gap could easily widen.