Maxtor Onetouch III Mini HDD- Review

This is my first review on TE. Trying to keep it short and simple. Read on:

First some pics of the drive:-
Excuse me for the image quality. Thats the best i cud get from my poor little w700i.




Prelude
I have been looking for an external drive for abt a few weeks now. I was pinning hopes on a GO for a 500GB disk which turned out to be too good :bleh: to believe.

Well, I was just coming back from office this evening when i decided to get down at lammy and check prices of some external/internal/portable HDDs . My HDD had been begging :p for some free space for quite sometime now. After usual enquiry n all i came across this drive - Maxtor One Touch III mini -80GB and thought the price was decent enough to warrant a buy:hap2:.Before that, i was in two minds - whether to get a 4GB buffalo pen drive or a portable hard drive. Well, the buffalo can wait a while while i try and make best use of this little device. ;)

what made it an attractive buy was the fact that it was available for less than the cost of a 80GB seagate/WD drive+Transcend casing. The advantage of a casing+drive wud have been the option of changing the drive at a later stage.

About the Drive:
This is a portable external drive from Seagate bearing the brand maxtor but i'm not sure whats inside (a seagate or a maxtor) . I guess most of you already know that maxtor was taken over by seagate in late 2005. Its not exactly the same model that you get to see on the maxtor website. you'd come to know why? a little later in the review.

Specifications:
Model No: STM300801OTG201-RK
Capacity:80GB(74.5GB actually)
Interface:USB 2.0/1.1
Spindle rotation speed:5400rpm
Cache:8MB
Warranty:5 Years
Dimensions:5.24"(L)x3.54"(B)x.79"(T)
Weight:210gms
Made in china

I was surprised to discover later there was no backup software bundled with the drive and neither could i locate any one-touch backup button:( even though the label on the drive read 'maxtor onetouch III mini'. I guess its a stripped down version of the model shown on their website without the backup software.Anyways that doesn't make the drive less attractive (cost wise).

[BREAK=Test System,Performance and Conclusion]

Test System:
AMD X2 3600+
Jetway 690G board
2GB DDR2 667
250GB Hitachi SATA II
HD tach 3.0.4

Performance:
The drive was recognised (ready for use) almost instantaneously after i plugged it into the usb port.Untill today, I had never come across any usb device getting detected so fast.

I am not quite familiar with portable hard drives so i can't really say the performance was good or average or outright bad, but i get the feeling its not the fastest one among similar ones ( seagate freeagent/WD passport etc.) out there. I would rate it average at best.

HD tach results and a table showing real life results of few tests i carried out are attached.



Price: 3k :) sweet no?:cool2:

conclusion:
+Good Price
+Neat looks
+Decent performance
+Fast detection
-little bulky and a little bigger than other similar drives
-performance cud have been better

Though the results are not earth-shattering, overall, i am satisfied with its performance and looking forward to making good use of the drive.I just wish it was a little smaller and thinner.
 
I'd bought a 3.5 inch 100GB maxtor personal storage ext HDD two years ago. Some things I liked about the drive v/s a WD 500GB external drive were

1) Really fast detection when plugged in via USB. WD is slower.
2) Compatibility with USB1.1/USB2 ports.(It did not give problems with detection unlike WD. I had to install Win XP SP2 for WD to get detected properly on USB2 ports on a USB to PCI card fitted on a P4 m/c.)
3) Nice braided silver USB cable enclosed in plastic tubing provided. (One of the best I've seen.)
4) Good construction.(The ext WD feels a little rickety at times.)

The drive is still going strong with fairly rough handling. (My cousin takes it around to friends' places for torrent sharing etc.)
 
yup nice review..but have a query abt a lappy plus transcend case one....

when i connect to pc it says removable disc...when i click it says cannot access.....but when i right click and explore it works
 
^ that happens to many pen drives as well. Maybe it just needs formatting. Try formatting the drive and see if works after that. it should.
 
It is happening to some of my drives as well, I think it can be a specific virus issue as well.....formatting is only way maybe.
 
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