25 January 2007, 13:05 in PC Hardware & Gadgets
Maxtor OneTouch 300GB external hard disk
I’ve always been paranoid about losing my data. I perform backups every now and then, but usually don’t bother backing up some stuff like my music because it simply takes up too much space. While ordering from PC Case Gear I also ordered a Maxtor OneTouch 300GB external hard disk. This should give me the capacity to back up more thoroughly.
The disk is compatible with USB2.0, Firewire-800, and Firewire-400. It came pretty well packaged and included the hard disk itself, a power brick, power cable, and a Firewire-800 cable. Unfortunately it did not include a USB2.0 cable, which is a bit silly because it would be the most commonly used option for PC users. Fortunately I had a spare USB2.0 cable lying around. The drive itself is very heavy and solid.
Setting it up (under Windows XP Pro) simply involved plugging in the power and USB2.0 cable and switching the drive on at the back. In Windows I went to Computer Management (right click on My Computer and choose Manage), then Storage, Disk Management. From here I initialised and formatted the drive as an NTFS partition.
The drive is still formatting as I write this. I don’t think I’m going to install the OneTouch software at this stage; I’ll just copy files onto it manually. One thing that is bugging me is the cooling fan seems to intermittently vibrate and make a lot of noise.
Let the backing up begin!
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