Is Maxtor One Touch 4 Mini good for household?

[danmarhk]

I am a beginner.
My laptop is just using the CPU Celeron M430, but is really good enough for me.
I don't need to upgrade my laptop at the moment. However, its harddrive is running out of capacity.
So, I decide to buy an external harddrive.
I have heard of Maxtor One Touch 4 Mini is good as it comes together with a good backup software.
Will it be better to buy an ordinary one? If so, which manufacturer do you prefer?

 

[g-paw]

I prefer Seagate, who now owns Maxtor. Right before they were bought out their drives weren't particularly that good. Don't know if Seagate provides backup software, if not and you want it with the drive, my 2nd choice would be Western Digital. There's a program called Goodsync that's $20 and works really well and very easy to setup if youfind a drive you want but doesn't have backup software
goodsync.com

 

[apache_lives]

I am a beginner.
My laptop is just using the CPU Celeron M430, but is really good enough for me.
I don't need to upgrade my laptop at the moment. However, its harddrive is running out of capacity.
So, I decide to buy an external harddrive.
I have heard of Maxtor One Touch 4 Mini is good as it comes together with a good backup software.
Will it be better to buy an ordinary one? If so, which manufacturer do you prefer?

Maxtors are crap, i dunno how people can trust them for backing up data.

 

[danmarhk]

Thank g-paw for the suggestion.

Seagate offers several series named FreeAgent.
Are they reliable?
My prior concern is the stability.

 

[g-paw]

I've found Seagate drives to be very reliable, in fact I'm only using Seagates at this time. I put together my own external drive using Seagate but a friend of mine bought an external Seagate and it's working fine. If you want to put it together yourself this is a nice case. The advantage of putting it together yourself is that you can pick out the drive you want, if you ever run into a recognition problem easy enough to install the drive internally to fix it, and if in the future you ever want a larger drive, just buy the drive and install it in the case. Putting one together takes 10 to 15 minutes.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817113026

 

[danmarhk]

You are so nice, g-paw
Actually, what I want is a 2.5" harddrive, 2.5" tends to be more stable than 3.5".
I don't mind putting it together myself, but I am curious about if the software bundled brings much convenience.

 

[g-paw]

You are so nice, g-paw
Actually, what I want is a 2.5" harddrive, 2.5" tends to be more stable than 3.5".
I don't mind putting it together myself, but I am curious about if the software bundled brings much convenience.

Please watch what you say on public forums, don't want the word to get out I'm nice. You can get a case for a 2.5 hdd, just go to newegg and do a power search for cases limiting the search to 2.5 cases. Interesting you think the 2.5s are more stable than 3.5s, have never had any real problems with the 3.5s and I believe that Seagate has a 5 year warranty. They're also a lot less expensive but like I said, a lot of 2.5 cases are available. As for programs, I use one called Goodsync, goodsync.com. for backing up data, easy to set up and use and always works flawlessly. If you want to clone your drive, Acronis True Image is good, it will also back up data but to a proprietary format meaning you need the program to convert the back up to the original format, e.g., mp3, .dot, what ever, while Goodsync creates the backup in the original format. If you decide to try Goodsync, let me know, there are a couple of settings than it's best to change from their default, takes a minute to do

 

[danmarhk]

Cool~ Goodsync is a freeware!
You are really helpful :]

3.5" harddrive is much cheaper and probably reliable enough, but I will still buy a 2.5" for the mobility.
Sometimes I work in the library instead of at home.
As you know, 3.5" requires an extra power supply.
In case I want to continue my work somewhere else, I will feel the convenience of 2.5" worths the extra price.

From your information, I will buy a seagate hd then.
Maybe, I will try Freeagent Go.

 

[g-paw]

Just saw this this morning, something to think about self powered drives. If you're using the external for backup plugging it in wouldn't be a big deal, just backup when you get home. If you need the hdd because you don't have enough room on the internal for all your data, that's another issue. There seems to be a lot of posts in the Storage area of people having problems with externals being recognized and this could be a reason. One other thing to consider, while it may work on your machine it may not work on another. Don't know if they make a case that both plugs in and is self powered, but if there is, probably the way to go. Sorry about keeping this complicated

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2227340,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532

 

[rahvyn]

You may have already bought a drive by now, but I have an external Seagate Freeagent. Its 2.5", 120 GB, and powered through USB. I love the drive. It's portable, good size, doesnt need an extra power cable. I havent really used the Freeagent software installed, but it says it can be used for both backup and security of the drive.

 

[danmarhk]

I have got a 160 GB FreeAgent Go finally.
It works very well with my laptop, and does not need external power supply.
Thank you for all your help, apache_lives, g-paw, and rahvyn.