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Maxtor OneTouch III Mini
Maxtor OneTouch III Mini
pros and cons
Maxtor, a long time player in the hard drive market, has expanded its range of OneTouch drives with the new OneTouch III Mini, a small and light portable hard drive (available in either AU$199 60GB or the reviewed AU$299 100GB capacitites). It is loaded with quality backup and recovery software that will work for both business and personal needs.
Design
It's a small and attractive unit, with its
black and silver case matching previous Maxtor drives and fitting
in easily with most modern desktop and laptop machines. At only
5.24cm x 3.54cm x 0.79cm in size and weighing 205g, it is a small
unit -- not as small as many flash drives, but small for 100GB of
storage. The drive is a 2.5-inch ATA running at 5,400 RPM.
With only a USB connection to provide both power and data transfer (it does have a separate power port, but the cable for this is an optional extra), the OneTouch mini is capable of up to 480Mpbs data transfer speeds under USB 2.0, or the much lower speeds available under USB 1.1. The drive comes with a minimal set of accessories, including a USB cable and a basic instruction booklet.
Cleverly, the software required for installation is pre-installed on the drive itself, making the process very automatic, though only suitable for Windows users. While we found that the drive was recognised by Linux and other systems, there was no extensive testing done and none of the supplied software would work for a system other than Windows.
Features
Installation under Windows XP is a breeze, with the system
automatically recognising the drive and installing the required
software from the drive itself. You simply plug the provided USB
cable into the drive and your computer, with an additional USB
connector available if you need to draw more power from the
system.
After a quick restart, operation is simple, with the option of either just treating the drive as a regular external unit, where you can transfer files through any of the usual drag-and-drop Windows methods, or you can use the Maxtor software for organised backups. As the name suggests, the drive still has the single-button backup switch on the front of the unit, which gives you easy access to backing up files. The installed software allows you to setup regular backup times for each day, and to specify which files or folders are to be backed up.
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Other functions include Restore (recovery after some kind of system failure or crash), Sync (automatic synchronisation of the same files between two or more computer systems sharing the backups), and Rollback (restoring your system to a previously safe version, while retaining application files). Each choice has several clear options that are easy to setup, allowing you to use as many or as few of the features as you need. The system also comes with two different kinds of encryption -- a software based tool that restricts data access to authorised users, and Maxtor's special DriveLock firmware that restricts improper access to the drive, even if the internal hard drive itself was removed and attached to another computer.
Performance
In testing, the drive worked at various speeds, depending on
the file types and sizes in question. Transferring a 350MB AVI
video file from a local hard disk to the OneTouch Mini took about
12 seconds, indicating a speed of 29MB/s, close to the rated
speed of 33MB/s. A large 487MB folder of MP3s from emusic.com
took about 22 seconds to transfer between the same two drives,
indicating a slower speed of about 22MB/s, but this was to be
expected with dozens of smaller files.
The drive comes with a one year warranty, and online support can be found at the Maxtor Web site. The Maxtor OneTouch III Mini is a quality drive that is easy to operate, and an excellent tool for data storage and backup no matter what kind of user you are.
Maxtor OneTouch III Mini
Company: Maxtor
Price: AU$299