Maxtor On 4 Lite 750 GB 3.5" USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

List Price: $164.99 Discount Price: $123.00

Features:

• Backup all your files with one touch of the button or automated scheduling
• Simple Maxtor user interface for drive management, security, and scheduling
• Two levels of security against unauthorized use - Maxtor DrivePass¿ and data encryption
• Simple Maxtor user-interface drive management, security and backup scheduling
• Drive and power management utilities; 5-year limited warranty

Customer Reviews:

Awesome drive! [Posted on 2008-06-08]
Decent hard drive, was able to back up all my files after upgrading from a 400 GB.

GOOGLE THIS DRIVE BEFORE YOU BUY IT. MANY COMPLAINTS OF DRIVE DYING [Posted on 2008-06-16]
I purchased this Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 750 GB external drive about 4 months ago.

It worked great, until recently I moved my office to another floor. I ejected the drive and unplugged it and moved it to another office. When I plugged it back in . . . the power light wouldn't come on. I had 500 Gigs of music files on this that are gone now . . . I did a google search on this drive quitting and found quite a few people had the same issues as I did. This is a VERY precarious drive and is not reliable. I would be VERY cautious about this brand. Like I said, don't just take my word for it. Do an internet search on "Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 750 GB External Drive Dies" and see how much information you discover.

Drive OK, OneTouch Backup software BE AWARE [Posted on 2008-06-22]
I have had a 300G "One Touch" drive for a couple of years now. It still functions acceptably.

I recently bought this current 750G Maxtor drive that I use primarily for backing up mp3 files (music) and photos. The price and capacity were right. I thought the most recent version of software would show some improvements. You see--the last version of the One Touch back up software, and now, this most recent version does not "save my life"--as it says it will on the label of the box.

IF this software "saved my life" (that is, back up ALL files on my hard drive as I specify) then it would do the simplest of functions--specifically the back up of all the files associated with mp3 files in a folder. You see, the jpg album art and folder images are part of the mp3 files. Without those images, folders lose their thumbnail identifiers. Without those images, moving files back and forth between drives and any other player program, whether it be iTunes, Windows Media Player, or to an ipod, those images are lost FOREVER. OK, maybe "forever" is not quite right, but if you have 10,000-20,000 songs on your ipod and on your hard drive, it is very time consuming to go out and grab those image files again.

So much for saving a life or even an image associated intimately with another file or folder. The problem, noted on the Seagate/Maxtor site and by other reviewers here, is that the basic provided software (OneTouch 4) will NOT copy "hidden" files (even if they are unhidden in the folder). In fact this is the list of files not automatically backed up...
* Operating System files that are in use
* Hidden/System Files & Folders - this includes Microsoft Outlook Data & Personal Files (e.g., *.PAB and/or *.PST files)
* Microsoft Compressed Folders
* Microsoft Encrypted Folders
* Offline Files
So you can forget about using the OneTouch software for backing up your music library (at least with the image files attached) OR your Outlook email/contacts folder (*.pst). I also noted the software was not copying zip files (compressed?) or even some Acrobat files (huh?). Oh, you CAN copy these files manually by dragging them from one location to another... but when you have a couple thousand mp3 files, that is pretty tedious!

Supposedly, SafetyDrill another program from Seagate will copy these types of files, but since they do not provide it in the box...there was no way to test it.


I just did not understand. So I persisted with the provided software... I tried any number of methods to create a back door so I could possibly "save my life" and could not get anything to save those (un)hidden image files. I played with my file folders thinking that it was just the fact that the files are "hidden"... so I unhid them in both folders on my computer and the One Touch folders. No luck.

So with a functioning drive, that I WANT to use... I finally just dumped the software and am using a program called "filesync", available with a quick search on the web. (and well worth the $15 requested).

Why would Seagate provide such a disabled "save your life" program to customers who expect to be able to use the software for something as simple as backing up their ipods?

Would I recommend this drive to someone? Certainly not to a beginning computer user. I might if the experienced purchaser knew up front that THE MOST COMMON USE (back up of music files with image files in the same folder) is severely lacking using the Maxtor software... AND they would need to purchase another back-up program to do things properly. This lack of functionality is disappointing, especially when the Seagate/Maxtor site is loaded with commentary going back over a year about the same lack of functionality. Makes you wonder if they will listen when more serious problems might occur.

You need a back up for this back up drive [Posted on 2008-07-25]
Please dont buy this product. I thought it was a good buy since I could store up to 750 gigabites of files. Then after a while it just stops working!! And the tech support said it would cost me thousands of dollars to recover the files that I have. Sigh.... Dont buy this useless box. Its like buying a safe with a diamond key sold separately.

Problems started on day 1 [Posted on 2008-09-24]
I had problems with the HD right out of the box. Files would disappear, then reappear, but only after running diskcheck or unmounting and remounting the device. It got more finicky as time went on including not letting me delete some files that otherwise seemed to work fine. I finally go fed up and copied everything to another drive, but everything would not copy because the files would disappear faster than I could copy them. I would copy a few gigs then an error would come up saying the file(s) could not be found. I'd remount so all the files could be recognized again, get a few more gigs copied, then another error. I had to repeat this for a few days until I recovered about 95% of the data. I tried to reformat the drive on Vista, but immediately got a blue screen (twice), so I tried to reformat on an XP system, where it "finished," but "with errors." I then tossed it in garbage where it belongs. I would not trust Maxtor again with data storage.

Click here for more details and discount information...