Strengths: small, good warranty, looks good, feels sturdy

Weaknesses: bundled software is not easy to use

Summary: I was looking for a cheap backup solution for my family pictures. The case is very well built and sturdy made from aluminum and plastic - small details like rubber feets help with stability on surfaces so unit does not slip off the desk. This is a usb connection only and it comes with a y usb connector. Works well with my laptop a Dell 1505 - no spin up or power issues. I understand that unit has a seagate drive inside. I beleive it is a sata drive so if you ever want to swap it out on your laptop you need to ensure your laptop will take it ie it cant fit an ide connection in a laptop. Good basic unit and value for money at around $75 as of March 2008.

Strengths: 5 year warranty, seagate drive inside

Weaknesses: software included

Summary: I like the smaller size of this unit and its construction. Maxtor is now owned by seagate and that is why there is a 5400 rpm sata seagate drive inside. The case is well built and has an access led on the front showing activity ie read write which can be useful if you want to know if the drive is active. I generally clean off any software that comes with these types of drives so I cannot comment on what is included. I use it as a backup drive using the software on my desktop. Paid around $70 spring 2008. Not a great price but good enough. Recommended. Comes with usb patch cord but no external power source. You may have issues with the drive being recognized by usb connection if you have an older laptop as some of the usb ports sometines dont have enough power to make the drive spin and be recognized. In other words if the unit does not work on your laptop dont assume its broken.

Strengths: Very compact and quiet. Since a separate power cable is unnecessary this drive is great for traveling. The drive feels very solid.

Weaknesses: The USB "Y" cable is somewhat annoying since it takes up 2 USB ports. The price is slightly higher than competing products.

Summary: I bought the OneTouch Mini 4 to replace my older 3.5" external drive and it's a huge improvement. The OneTouch Mini 4 is far quieter, smaller, and feels more solid. Although the price is a little higher than competitors' offerings, I think it's well worth the added cost because of the excellent build quality as well as its speed as tested by various tech review sites. I plan to use this while traveling, and the very compact size and the lack of a separate power supply should make carrying it around a lot easier.

Strengths: large capacity, small form factor, USB-powered, price, warranty, durable

Weaknesses: weird USB cable

Summary: I own a 40GB and 80GB WD Passport drives and also a 60GB Seagate portable drive, so this is #4 and by far the largest in terms of storage. It's certainly aesthetically pleasing to look at, appears quite durable and scratch-resistant. PC recognized it instantly and away I went. Not too sure if I'll ever use the backup software supplied, coz I'm more used to Acronis and the like. 5-yr warranty certainly gives peace-of-mind, although as someone pointed out, the coverage starts from date of manufacture, not date of purchase so be sure you don't buy that's been sitting there a couple of years.I got a great deal with a low sale price at Staples and a $20 coupon to sweeten it. It's a keeper for me!

Strengths: Quality looking & feeling hard drive. Works great! 5 year warranty.

Weaknesses: Have to use the Y cable.

Summary: Ok, for my one beef, you have to use a Y cable (included) to use this drive. The Western Digital portable 60Gb drive I have has a single cable. Other than that, it installed seamlessly, works great, and the software that's included with the drive worked like a charm to back up my computer's hard drive.

Strengths: Small and lightweight.

Weaknesses: Will not work on my laptop with 32 bit Vista Home Basic!

Summary: I tried to get this drive to work on my Toshiba laptop (purchased last year), and it was a no go. It gave a driver install error (Code 1 in Device Manager) and would not recognize the drive. I read through the FAQs and troubleshooting info at the manufacturer's site, but none of them addressed this problem. I installed it successfully on my older laptop with Windows XP, so it's not a failed drive. I've emailed tech support, and am waiting on their reply to see if I have to return this to the store. I've got a Western Digital external portable hard drive, and it has no problem installing/working on my Vista laptop.

Strengths: Small, truly portable. Easy to use.

Weaknesses: None

Summary: I like this drive. 160Gb is lots of space to back up my laptop with. The exterior of the drive seems to resist scratches, which is a plus for a portable drive that will see a lot of travel. The drive worked flawlessly, and installed easily. I'm very pleased with the drive and Maxtor's quality.

Strengths: Good quality build and excellent software backup package.

Weaknesses: Little startup problem that was fixed by customer support.

Summary: This is the way to go. Convenient backup device for my XP-PRO OS. The hard drive is well built, has a extremely rugged USB interface cable, and a very rugged, attractive HD case. This is ideal for travel, because of its small size. The best feature of all is the contained software package included with the drive. I got a program called Maxtor SafetyDrill. I made an image of the entire HDD that contained my XP operating system. It took about 40 minutes to come up with a 9GB copy. Using the supplied CD called SafetyDrill Recovery, I booted this in my computer and using it put the copy that was on my 160GB Maxtor HDD onto an empty HDD. Good recovery for degraded operating system. I did have a procedural problem initially with setting up the SafetyDrill, but this was solved with a quick response from Seagates customer service department. They responded from their Republic of Ireland office in less than 24 hours!

Strengths: Super compact; rubber base; 5-year warranty

Weaknesses: Y-cable

Summary: Smallest portable hard-drive I have ever run across. Great capacity at 160GB, though there are 250GB ones available if you need that. It has a rubber base, so it doesn't slip. Comes with a 5-year warranty, which is fantastic. Note that the warranty is based on the date of manufacture, not on your purchase date, so if you buy a drive that has sat on a shelf for a while, you'll get gipped! Only issue I had was with the USB Y-cable that it comes with. I needed to plug both ends into my desktop computer's two USB ports. If you only plug one, it lights up, and you can hear the drive clicking. Not until the second is plugged will the computer recognize the drive.

Strengths: Small; looks great; status light; USB Y-cable included

Weaknesses: Status light is bright & cheap; required using USB Y-cable

Summary: Not alot to say about a portable USB hard-drive, is there? I love the small form-factor! It's the smallest and sleekest portable hard-drive I have run into. I like the shiny silver on the one side, and it rests on a nice rubber bottom. There is software preloaded on the drive when you hook it up to your computer for the first time, but I didn't install it. As a result, I cannot comment on what it does!! There is also a CD included with the package which is labelled Recovery CD. I guess it works in conjunction with the software bundled on the drive. I like the status light which flashes when the drive is being accessed, however, it is cheap looking, and a tad bright. The only major knock I have thus far is that I needed to hookup both ends of the special USB Y-Cable to my computer. Evidently, one USB port did not supply sufficient power to the drive. This is a desktop computer, not a laptop, so this was a bit surprising. One good thing was that the cable was long enough so that you didn't need two adjacent USB ports to get the thing to work. Transfer times were very satisfactory.

Strengths: Small form factor comes with all you need including nice bundled disaster recovery software.

Weaknesses: Software is proprietary and only works with drive. The USB cable is also proprietary and had difficulty having it boot/charge from another.

Summary: This is a nice drive that I bought from CircuitCity for $99.00 with instant coupon. It was the best price for the drive. The drive while more expensive than some other 160 GB USB powered drives, does have some advantages worth considering. First, it is bundled with a disaster recovery software as well as the usual backup file software that works both with XP and Vista. For those of you using Macs, while the drive will work, the software is not Apple compatible. For those of us not fortunate enough to be using Vista Business or Ultimate, the imaging capabilities are not built in and we all need to look for alternate disaster plans (such as Ghost, Acronis or some other third party sofware). Second, the unit is made from an aluminum like metal and rubber and seems to be quite small and sturdy. However, the USB cable is a typical cable which has two USB connections should your computer not be able to power it up with just one connection. Unfortunately, I tried using good USB 2.0 cables and for some reason the unit won't power up. However, if I just use one of the USB tips on the provided cable, it works fine...so don't lose your cable! The disaster recovery software got good ratings on actual tests and I am hoping that rings true should I ever be in the unfortunate situation to need it.

Strengths: Small shape. Rubberized bottom of drive. Software is useful.

Weaknesses: USB cord is shaped funny.

Summary: I looked at other external drives since I wanted to store some home movies on the drive to take home for the holidays without having to lug 20 mini DV tapes. I found the drive on sale at Staples and had Circuit City price match the drive. The drive itself is quiet, small, has a rubberized bottom so it does not skid. I use a Mac so I had heard complaints about the software. I did my research and went to the support page. I read the instructions in detail and there are some great tools for your drive that are included. There are some backup options but Apple provides it too so I did not use it. But I like being able to lock my drive, check on its health and have the ability to easily assign a function to the drive light button, so Maxtor's software is still useful. Transfer times are acceptable and my Mac had no problem recognizing the drive. The only thing I wish this drive had was a normal shaped USB connection. The drive does not have an external power supply, it uses USB 2.0 to power the drive. It has two USB connectors and then a mini USB connector for the drive. The cord is oddly shaped, you would have thought both USB Connectors would have been next to each other on the wire. Overall I am pleased with my purchase and perfer this over my WD My Book desktop model.