SimpleTech by Hitachi Signature Mini 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive FS-U25/500E (Espresso)

I originally ordered this on December 31st and ordered it with Saturday delivery. Amazon delivered it with no problems on Saturday. I immediately opened it and attempted to install it and OOPS - no software installed on it. No problem mon - went to the manufacturers website and figured I would download it from there. The harddrive hooked up with no problems so I just needed the software. Well after about two hours of looking on Simpletech, Hitachi and Fabrik's websites I realized it wasn't so easy - every hardrive but this one was listed under support. And there is no support on weekends from humans. Without the software it might as well be an elegant rock. So I called Amazon and asked for a reploacement and they were very good and sent a new one pronto which arrived without delays on Monday. Guess what? No software again on the machine. At least this time it was before 5PM CST and there was tech support available. Well, I called 4 numbers for 20 minutes straight and nobody answered the phone - all 4 rang and rang and rang until 5:05CST - at which point I finally got a hold of a receptionist at Hitachi who said they had phone issues. She eventually had somebody from Tech Support contact me (after calling again 20 minutes later) at which point the guy talked to me like I was a moron and told me he could have saved me the trouble of having Amazon replace it - that they format these portable hard drives 100 at a time and sometimes they don't get the software loaded. I asked him why they didn't put this on their support site so I at least knew what was going on - and he said they couldn't because of copyright problems with the software. When I asked a manager the same question about putting some mention of this problem on their website he said they wouldn't want to redflag a problem like this. So I will do it for them right here - watch for defective hard drives on this model!!! Well the tech support guy did email me a link to download the software - but unless you feel like going through the hassle - avoid this.

I bought this external hard drive when it was on sale. It was cheaper, actually, than buying a bare hard drive, so I went ahead and bought this thing even though I did not quite need it.The drive worked nicely. It is no speed demon; not only is it only equipped with USB 2.0 port, but it houses a 5400rpm hard drive, so it is naturally slow, topping out at somewhere north of 20MB/s. On the upside, it does not require an external power source (unless your USB port is wimpy and/or swamped with other devices from the hub). I have noticed that the casing did not close properly; this, I later realized, was due to a broken tab. It did not affect its functionality, but I question its build quality.Then I required a 2.5" hard drive for a new computer. Despite the small risk of hard drive not fitting, I opened up the casing (oops, there's my warranty!). Inside sat... a Hitachi Travelstar 5K500. I believe it is a late revision. It is a good sign as a hard drive. As for the rest of the parts? Well, the USB-to-SATA circuit part was very small, and it might just work with 3.5" hard drive (I'm not making any guarantees! Do this at your own risk.). Casing is flimsy plastic (durr) with an LED on top. It's structurally sound overall, but I wonder if this is a good casing for heat dissipation. Perhaps it's the culprit for hard drive failures others are experiencing?

I bought this external hard drive to carry importants files and programs, and this hard drive runs well, is an small hard drive with a lot of space.In my case, I can hear a little noise in the hard drive and I haven't been using this hard drive for a long time, I used it sometimes so I don't know why the noise so fast. besides, the hard drive need to be connected to two USB port in order to work, I made test with diferents USB ports and it always needs two USB ports.

I have two of these portable hard drives. They are very small. The USB cable that is included has two connections, one for data transfer, and one for additional power. The hard drive will work with only one connection, but the transfer speed is slower. So if you lose your cable any mini USB cable will work, but they will be slow. They run very quietly. There is a lower light and an activity light on top. There is a port on the back for power, but an adapter is not included. I have been very pleased with their performance. I use them for backups, so I cannot comment on speed when playing movies or music.

On the whole, these things are great: work well, are pretty fast for USB, and have never crashed. This ismy second one. However, after about 1.5 years of banging it around in my backpack, the connector seemsto have gotten slightly loose so once in a while if there is a vibration it sort of detaches and unmounts.Probably my own fault, but keep in mind this is not a drive to take on the extreme backpacking adventure: itis a solid drive that works under normal wear and tear.

Prior to this I used CDs for back up. Slow, and it took 3 disks. This external hard drive is much faster and easier, and plenty of room to back up 2 computers (although I have very little music or video). Not much in the way of instructions, but easy and intuitive. I recommend it.

Small compact drive to use for backups of my desktop and laptop. I've also used it to copy work stuff to bring home and work on. Plug 'n play for me. I don't use it everyday so don't know how long it will last.

I've purchased a 500GB model. Had it for about two months now, using it daily. It looks great, works very quietly, the speed is perfectly sufficient. Gets barely warm, that's it. All there is to it that it's a Hitachi 2.5" hard drive in an external enclosure with a USB interface. And Hitachi drives are in probably about half of all laptops and netbooks. Don't drop it too often, don't sleep on it and it should last you a long time.