Strengths: Worked...for about 6 months

Weaknesses: Worked ...for about 6 months

Summary: Drive simply stops responding after 10-15 minutes, Windows cannot even do a simple disk check. Extremely unreliable, a backup medium that fails more often then the original medium is useless. RMA policy requires receipt.

Strengths: small and light weight, easy to use. (when it works!)

Weaknesses: fail when I needed it. All files lost.

Summary: Did a business trip to Asia, I needed to grab some files from the simpletech ext HD. It failed and all files lost.I will never put my trust in simpletech products again!Unreliable.

Strengths: Price ($89)

Weaknesses: never really worked (x2)

Summary: I own a SimpleTech 160G and have had it almost 2 years and it is still running (USB for power). Thought SimpleTech was reliable. Bought the 500G version installed it on the computer saved the items I needed saved (about 3G took about 3-4 minutes to save). Set up the scheduled back up. Left for about 2 hours and decided I needed to put some more on...Computer started acting slowly tried to open the drive and received a "data/drive corrupted" error. Powered off unit and rebooted computer. Computer stated I needed to boot in safe mode. Why???...it was working fine a couple of hours ago. Unplug drive completely and rebooted. Computer booted fine. Plugged hard drive back in and computer locked up then popped out the same error again. Took the drive back for and exchanged it. I placed needed stored items on drive again. Checked back in a couple of hours all is well. Turned computer off for the night and the next day when I tried to boot computer stated I needed to boot in safe mode. So I unplugged the drive booted normally and did a scan disk check and checked for any viruses or mal-ware...none found and disk check was fine. Plugged hard drive in again and received the "corrupted file error again. Took the hard drive to work and plugged it in to 2 different computers. One set up my way and the other set up to the company way and both computers started lagging. When I was finally able to do anything with the computers they came back with the "corrupted file" error. Will not buy another SimpleTech that has its own power source I believe this is the problem or maybe heating. My USB SimpleTech still works on all 3 computers.

Strengths: Compact, reasonably priced, easy to use.

Weaknesses: Tricky at first for a novice.

Summary: I bought this to simplify back-ups, I was burning back-up discs constantly and it was very time consuming. Using this model has made life a lot easier, and I know I'll have the irreplaceable data in the event of a problem.

Strengths: Sleek, compact design; software was easily installed on XP and Vista systems; relatively simple "Advanced" backup

Weaknesses: Tricky as shared/network drive, especially in Vista enviornment; runs warm/hot; USB only

Summary: Initial set-up and backup of files is very simple, intuitive, and practical from both Windows Vista and XP systems. My first priority was to backup information from a dying internal hard drive, and it worked well when I directly attached it to my daughter's computer. After initially copying all of the endangered files, I worked to make this drive a backup system. In this area it was a bit less intuitive, but the manuals and help features were actually helpful. Baseline backup was lengthy due to the large number of files that I initially included in the "Advanced" backup. I was able to very easily move the external hard drive among 2 laptops (one XP, one Vista) and 2 desktops (one XP, one Vista). Subsequent backup of my Vista laptop was not so intuitive and the help was not fully and easily understandable to an average computer user with a number of years working various systems. It did work faster due to the number of files to add, but I still started the process and had dinner while it worked the process. No real complaints. The biggest down side I have experienced is working this drive into my network. It is possible but very finicky, particularly between my Vista machines. Might be my own personal "dumb-ness," or it may be inherent in the shared environment. After nearly 2 months of use, some of it quite demanding, I think this hard drive is useful and reliable with good features. Without having much basis of comparison, I think the value for the money (paid $125 at Best Buy) is good. Certainly it met our family requirements at an important time.

Strengths: Great value for the size of the hard drive. Sleek and whisper quiet with numerous vents for proper cooling to allow it to stay on and active for long periods of time

Weaknesses: Annoying but cool lights on top twirl around when transfering data.

Summary: A while back I got a great deal on this 500GB hard drive. The drive is very sleek and comes in cool colors. I have the black unit and matches in well with the rest of my PC and AV components. I use this drive as an external archiving device for my tons of photos, movies, videos, games, etc. It copies files very fast and without much heating up of the drive. This drive has good cooling vents. Its smaller when compare to seagate, maxtor or WD. Only problem I could pursue is, it carries only One-year Mfr warranty on this drive. Where as other competitors are giving 5 years on them.

Strengths: Very sleek design. Has on and off switch.Cannot hear the fan at all.Very quiet hard drive.Arc Soft hardware included on drive and is user friendly.1 year warranty provided by Fabrik

Weaknesses: Very slow write speed. Takes several hours just to copy 10Gb of information

Summary: When I opened the box, I was surprised by the very small size of this hard drive I can actually take this on a trip, not bulky at all Sort of disappointed by the slow write speed, but I probably won't be doing that much additional back up once I perform my initial back up I like the fact that the drive is so quiet and has an on and off switch Data on external hard drive must be put back onto computer hard drive in order to be read Cannot open up files directly from external hard drive I am not sure if this is the case with other hard drives USB supposedly is best with non MAC computers firewire is best for MAC Cheapest hard drive out there for about $120 including tax

Strengths: Capacity meter; stylish design; easy setup

Weaknesses: A bit bulky

Summary: A good budget storage driver of slick design. Built-in capacity meter, though it's far from accurate, is a good idea. You can roughly guess the remaining capacity by its LEDs. I have used it for more than a month and had no problem so far. Its bundled Arcosoft backup program is easy to use.

Strengths: Huge capacity, although not quite 500 gigs, but more like 477 gigs or so

Weaknesses: Reliability, overheats

Summary: Bought my first 500 gig SimpleDrive (the one with USB 2.0 connection only) about five or six months ago from Costco online. Received it in two or three days, but was defective and had it replaced by Costco or SimpleTech (don't quite remember). The replacement (the second SimpleDrive) seemed to work fine, although it felt somewhat too warm to the touch. It was relatively quiet, although a bit bulky, but that is likely a function of the huge storage capacity. However, it crashed completely five or six months after having it replaced. Fortunately, this drive comes with a three year warranty from Costco. I emailed SimpleTech to see if we could revive it. Although their website states that they will try to get back to you within 24 hours, it has already been four days and still no word from SimpleTech. I will have more to report later, after I have a chance to trouble shoot with SimpleTech (if they respond at all!) and/or have it replaced by Costco for the second time. (I might decide to get a full refund and buy some other brand, Seagate, Sony, or something like that). So far, I am not especially impressed with either the drive or the manufacturer, SimpleTech. As far as my rating, I wish there was another category between "Satisfactory" and "It works" (between 3 and 2 stars).