Product Description

Seagate's 3.5" External Hard Drives provide a safe haven for your entire working environment against system crashes & virus attacks. Maxtor SafetyDrill automatically creates a snapshot of the entire contents of your harddrive which can be readily booted for a complete recovery. With this simple full-featured backup solution, Maxtors software makes automated backup scheduling, specific file restoration, sync, security, drive & power management a snap. Safe guarding against unauthorized use, Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus comes with both data encryption and Maxtor DrivePass. It is easy to install just plug the external drive into an available USB orFireWire port on your PC or Mac, run the preloaded software, and you are good to go. Key Features --- Capacity - 1 TB --- Form Factor -- 3.5" External --- Interface -- USB 2.0 / FireWire 400(1394a) --- AES 256-bit software encryption 480 Mb/sec --- Spindle speed -- 7200 RPM --- Buffer Size -- 16MB --- Dimension -- 2.5" x 6.0" x 6.75" / 63.5 x 152.4 x 171.45 mm --- Weight -- 2.5lbs or 1110 grams Inside the Box: --- External hard drive with pre-loaded installation software --- Quick start guide, Power adapter --- USB 2.0 cable, FireWire 400/1394a cable --- Maxtor SafetyDrill¿ Recovery CD* Requirement: - PC: --- Pentium III, 500Mhz equivalent processor or higher --- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business --- Microsoft Windows XP Home, Professional, and Media Center Edition --- 256MB RAM or more as required by operating system --- Internet connection for software updates --- CD ROM Drive for Maxtor SafetyDrill¿ full PC recovery* - Mac: --- Mac OS X 10.4.7-10.4.9 --- 256MB RAM or more as required by operating system --- Internet connection for software updates --- (Note: * This software feature is only available on Windows systems.) Warranty -- 1 year

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15455 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Seagate
• Model: STM310004OTA3E5-RK
• Dimensions: 2.50" h x 6.50" w x 6.75" l, 4.40 pounds
• Memory: 16MB
• Hard Disk: 1000GB

Features

• 1 TB external hard drive connects to your computer via USB cable or FireWire 400
• Simple Maxtor user interface for drive management, security, and backup scheduling
• Two levels of security against unauthorized use - Maxtor DrivePass¿ and data encryption
• Sync data between 2 or more computers on the same operating system
• Drive and power management utilities; 5-year limited warranty

Manufacturer Product Description
The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus solution is a full-featured backup and storage solution with Maxtor SafetyDrill for complete recovery of a hard drive’s contents in case of a system crash or virus/spyware attack*. With two levels of data security and capacities up to 1 TB, users can confidently back up or sync work and home computers.

Protect your data from unauthorized use.

Back up your files with one touch of a button.

Add on storage for your desktop or laptop.

Portable Performance and Security
Provide a safe haven for your entire working environment. Don’t back up and protect just your files anymore. System crashes and virus attacks can happen, and it’s difficult to get your computer back to just the way you like it. To prepare, should the unfortunate happen, Maxtor SafetyDrill automatically creates a snapshot of the entire contents of your PC’s hard drive which can be readily booted for an easy and complete recovery.

With this elegantly simple full-featured backup solution, Maxtor’s software makes automated backup scheduling, specific file restoration, sync, security, drive and power management a snap. To safeguard against unauthorized use, Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus comes with both data encryption and Maxtor DrivePass. To top it off, with up to 1 TB you have more than enough room for your important documents, videos, photos, graphics, and music in one safe, convenient location – over 16,660 hours of digital music or 320,000 digital photos or 1000 hours of digital video or 250 two-hour DVD quality movies or 500 games.

The sleek and slim design of this hard drive--only measures 6.75 x 2.50 x 6.00-inches (H x D x W). The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus lets you transfer files seamlessly from your computer via its USB 2.0 connection at a brisk transfer rate of up to 480Mb/sec. The drive delivers a spindle speed of 7,200 RPM, giving you the high-speed performance you need to back your data up quickly and safely.

It’s easy to install – just plug the external drive into an available USB or FireWire port on your PC or Mac, run the preloaded software, and presto you’re good to go. At this compact size, and with this high performance, you now have the ability to take your data with you anywhere you go, so your digital content finally has room to breathe. A five-year warranty is also included, giving you complete peace of mind.

Product Highlights

· Maxtor SafetyDrill prepares, boots and recovers a PC’s entire internal drive contents in case of system failure or virus/spyware infection.*	· Back up all your files with one touch of the button or automated scheduling.
· Maxtor DrivePass and Encryption protects contents of drive in case unauthorized use.	· Quick and easy installation with pre-loaded software
· Simple Maxtor user-interface drive management, security and backup scheduling	· 5-year limited warranty
· Sync data between two or more computers on the same operating system.	· Customizable Maxtor OneTouch button
· Auto Updater helps keep your Maxtor OneTouch solution current.	· Drive and power management utilities
· Dual interfaces: —FireWire compatible up to 400Mb/sec data transfer rates —USB 2.0 and 1.1 compatible up to 480 Mb/sec data transfer rates	· PC and Mac compatible
· 7200 RPM, up to 16-MB cache buffer

*Windows Only

Maxtor is the expert and the leader in designing simple external storage and backup solutions for consumers and professionals. Maxtor offers a broad line of trusted, intuitive storage solutions for safeguarding critical business data, digital files and personal memories. Maxtor developed the industry’s first external storage device that features easy-to-use OneTouch button backup and restore capabilities. The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus solution is the easy way to back up and store photos, videos, games, music, business data, personal information and more. The OneTouch 4 Plus solution continues the OneTouch legacy as the leading external hard drive for small office users, consumers, creative professionals and mobile warriors.

What's in the Box
Portable hard drive with preloaded installation software, USB 2.0 cable, FireWire 400/1394a cable, Maxtor SafetyDrill Recovery CD, quick start guide, AC power adapter

Customer Reviews

Satisfied Apple Macintosh User!
Several things I like about this drive: It is one solid terabyte, not several smaller drives inside of a single enclosure like many others (2 x 500GB). The 7200 RPM speed of the drive means it is fast. I can play music off of it through iTunes while it backs up my computer with no change in performance. Maxtor is now owned by Seagate which is known for manufacturing better hard drives than those made by Maxtor in its earlier days. The drive is basically silent and has a nice modern appearance (I have seen some pictures of an all black version that looks pretty tough). The price is very reasonable compared to other 1TB drives. Overall I am very happy with my purchase and I am considering getting a second one so I can have one dedicated to backup and the other for storage of music and photos.

I purchased this hard drive when upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to use with "Time Machine." Time Machine is a computer backup service built into the new Apple Macintosh operating system, which quietly backs up any changes on your computer hard drive every hour. The Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus 1 TB hard drive comes formatted for Windows and includes several hundred megabytes of software pre-installed for backing up your computer at the press of the lighted button on the front of the drive. The instructions tell Mac users to use the included CD to reformat the drive and install Maxtor's backup software for Macintosh. Since I planed to use the backup software built into Leopard, I never inserted the CD. I simply connected the drive to my computer via the hard drives single USB 2.0 mini port (it also has two firewire 400 ports) and my computer instantly recognized the drive. I used Disk Utility in the utilities folder to reformat the drive for Macintosh, removing all the Windows software, and I was good to go. Highly recommended.

Works OK, a few minor complaints
I was shopping for a large USB drive to serve as a backup device for my videos, music, system files, etc, and ran across this. I liked the looks of this maxtor drive as the external casing was fairly sturdy. In addition, it had some "maxtor backup" software included on the hard drive (which I figured I could use), and so I picked it up.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the hardware. It's quiet, runs cool, and so far as been reliable (a couple months). The reason I'm knocking off a couple of stars is the software that comes with it (and I was depending on). Here's a list of shortcommings and minor problems I had with the backup software:

* The backup software does not save hidden files. If there is a hidden file or directory, it will be entirely skipped. I wish this was specified as a limitation on the box as I might have reconsidered my purchase.

* The backup software only allows the backup of disks directly attached to the computer, and not network attached storage. Again, I wish this was specified on the box.

* The scheduling of the backup is very limited. I could only figure a way to schedule 1 backup. I would have preferred to backup some stuff nightly, others weekly.

* There is a pretty cool disk imaging feature which allows you to directly image your boot drive to the maxtor. In case of catastrophic failure, you can boot via cdrom, and restore from the maxtor to your boot drive. Unfortunately, the file created on the maxtor is severely fragmented. And running defrag on the disk resulted in the system hanging for hours as it attempted to defrag the extremely large file that was out there (120 gigabytes). I ended up having to power cycle the machine to kill this process. I attempted this a few times with the same results.

I ended up uninstalling all of the maxtor management software, and reformatting the disk and going with a 3rd party backup package. That seems to be working well.

I have 2 suggestions for the next revision of this drive:

1) The drive "sleeps" after a while of no access. When it is accessed, it takes a while (15 secs?) to spin up. I wish there were a way to turn this off.

2) There is one multi-functional access light. If the light is fading in and out the drive is sleeping. If the drive light is blinking, it's being accessed. If it's solid, the disk is spun up and not being accessed. I would prefer to have separate indicator light for each state. Very minor nit here.

In summary, a solid drive. Just don't count on using the backup software included.

Defective drive.
I got this drive new and tried reformatting for a Mac (extended journaled). The drive failed to take the formatting and it would no longer mount. I tried DiskWarrior to see if I could resurrect it. No luck. I'm gonna return it and try another. I've had excellent luck with all my other Maxtor drives, so I suspect that this one was just a bad drive.

**Update**
This drive must be formatted for the Mac in a unique way: In DiskUtility, you have to first format for MS-DOS (FAT), then partition the drive for Mac formatting (Extended Journaled, or whatever you choose). In addition to that, you must also chose Apple Partition Map in the options tab. This is the solution to the problem that I and others have had with this drive.

Maxtor should be more clear on this issue as it is the only drive that I've had to format in this way in over 20 years of working on a Macintosh.