Hitachi XL Series 1TB USB 2.0 External Desktop Hard Drive
Posted by Notcot on Jul 2, 2010 in Handhelds & PDAs |
Product Description
HITACHI XL1000 DESKDRIVE 1TB BLACK USB 20 EMEA 0S02496 Storage External Hard Drives
- Source data-sheet: ICEcat.biz
- Hard disk interface: USB 2.0
- Dimensions W x D x H: 185.42 x 134.62 x 50.8 mm
- Hard disk size: 8.89 cm (3.5 “)
- Hard disk rotational speed: 0 RPM
Opening the item, the hard drive is well packaged and very safe within its box. The contents include the hard drive, the usb cable, power lead and various adapters for european plugs. Setup is quick and simple; you plug the hard drive into the computer/mac and plug the power lead into the socket.
I am using a mac, and upon plugging into the USB, it was instantly recognised as an external device and recommended wiping of the present data, (i don’t quite understood what it meant!) which took 5 minutes before being ready to use.
Using with time machine on my mac, the initial backup took around 15 minutes, backing up around 30GB of data. It is easy to identify when the backup is present as the hitachi logo flashes in sync with the backup. When transfering data to a PC, it is as simple as using a USB memory stick. Simply plug in, find the file/folder and copy it onto the computer.
The build quality is very good, with a good thick outer plastic casing, that doesn’t feel cheap or poorly manufactured, not something I would often associate with Hitachi, so I am impressed.
Rating: 5 / 5
Out of the box the drive looks simple and straight forward with just a USB cable and power supply. Have a quick read of the manual but really it’s not necessary because it is so easy to set-up, it’s almost plug and play and forget. I connected it to my little Dell Hybrid running Vista Home Premium and they were instantly happy together. The installed software just started up, asked a couple of simple questions and there it was, a back-up of my most important stuff, 3250 music tracks, 4540 photos and anything else I choose is safe.
It comes on at the same time as the pc, has a look around for changes and if there are any, a new back-up is made. It does power-up now and again while you’re working with a little noise but nothing intrusive. When you switch the pc off it goes off too, it’s been running for a few weeks now with no problems at all, in fact I don’t even notice it anymore.
The final verdict; it’s well worth the money, easy to set-up,unobtrusive and a safe. A secure back-up of important stuff and I doubt if you will ever fill it.
Rating: 5 / 5
Very pleased. Plugged it in, changed my backup setting to point to new device, and it started backing up.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve got two of these. One to back up each of the main computers in the house. They’re fast, quiet-ish and compact. The one that’s normally attached to the iMac also does duty attached to the NAS acting as a secondary backup (it’s a raid array, so hopefully the backup won’t be needed). The first one of these I bought has been reliable for the last six months of medium usage, but then you’d expect that. At this price it’d be worth getting more to act as Photo/video library’s.
Rating: 5 / 5