I've been upgrading my office here as I return to scheduled writing and once again, I've been looking for more local data storage. I found this:
It's a self-contained USB external drive offering a terabyte of storage for $155. I bought one.
It's about the size of a hardback book.
The packaging includes this dire (but not inappropriate) slogan:
You plug in the power cord and the USB cable, and you're good to go.
Your system senses the new drive, and sets it up. XP requires no extra drivers.
A Maxtor/Seagate backup tool ("Maxtor Manager") is bundled right on the drive; it asks to run when the drive's connected.
The software installs, updates itself, and asks for a reboot:
After the reboot, you gain this little icon in the system tray:
I'm not sure the icon really adds much value. :-)
The bundled software means the drive ships with 931GB free, as delivered.
I briefly looked at the bundled software, but it was pretty lame and does nothing that you can't do with Windows' own built-in backup and scheduling tools. I don't see any point in loading extra software needlessly, so the "Maxtor Manager" program got deep-sixed:
At that point, I also could whack the bundled software on the drive.
The whole setup, start to finish, took maybe 10 minutes, most of which was waiting for the software to install and then uninstall.
Local storage like this isn't a substitute for periodic backing up to CD or DVD because anything that takes out your main system can also take out connected external drives. But for quickly adding lots of elbow room to a PC, and as a way to implement routine short-term backups, this is awfully good. It's quiet too; almost inaudible.
It's hard to imagine a more effortless way to add a ton of storage to a system. So far, I like it a lot!
Good morning Fred,
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see that you are once again reviewing products. I was wondering if you would have the time to stop by my blog once again and answer a few question for some of my readers.
There is a rumor circulating that you are returning to WS newsletter?
TIA,
Ron Schenone
http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2006/12/30/fred-langa-and-the-langalist-we-miss-you-fred/#comment-163581
Fred - Great post. Where did you find that drive for that price?
ReplyDelete>>Where did you find that drive for that price?
ReplyDeleteTigerdirect.com, about 2 weeks ago.
Ron, it's not a rumor. ;-)
ReplyDeletehttp://fredlanga.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-column-available-at.html
I, too, a week ago found a 1tb drive (internal) on the Dell website for $40 off the regular price with free shipping which made my net cost $119. I've got to install it yet to replace some stuffed 140gig drives I presently have.
ReplyDeleteHi Fred!
ReplyDeleteI was intrigued to see your screen capture of your Add/Remove Programs window and what you're running "under the hood". The "Image Resizer" Powertoy for XP caught my eye in particular, so I went searching for it and found it along with other cool power toys on this page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx
and downloaded that proggie as well as a few others which caught my eye. Thanx for the inspiration! :-)
What I was also wanting to know was if you could give us a run down of all the apps you're currently running ... I caught myself wanting to scroll up and down that screenshot to see what else you've got, but obviously couldn't!
Maybe we (i.e., you and your blog readers) could exchange our "faves" via this comments section under a special blog entry. Just an idea ...
Cheers!!
- Ximinez
i second ximinez' idea re your apps
ReplyDelete:)
I was intrigued to see you're running Zone Alarm also. I use it and have always liked it but it's gotten a lot of flak lately.
ReplyDeleteFred, Was wondering about your view on Jungle Disk using Amazon's S3. Amazon seems like a pretty safe bet to still be around 5 years from now, you have the advantage of off site storage and it's only $0.15 per gigabyte. There is a $0.10/GB unload fee and $20 fee for Jungle Disk program. After the initial changes it's only $7.50/month for 50 gigabytes of storage. Right now I'm using 2 different external hard drives and burn DVD's for off site, but Jungle Disk seems so much easier
ReplyDeleteRon, you need to get a life and give Fred a break with that stupid blog line you have going on. What a loser!
ReplyDelete>> Ron, you need to get a life and give Fred a break with that stupid blog line you have going on. What a loser!
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: Was that attack really necessary?
As a result of your comment, I checked out this comments thread to see which "Ron" you were referring to and saw the link to his blog entry at:
http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2006/12/30/fred-langa-and-the-langalist-we-miss-you-fred
Frankly, I couldn't agree more with what Ron has stated over there (along with the visitors posting their own comments) and can't help but wonder why you didn't add your name to your anonymous post ... not even a web "alias". In my opinion, Ron's not the loser here ... he simply has the honesty to voice what we've all been thinking (since Fred moved his Langalist over to WS) and has provided a forum for those who want to ask the hard questions.
I suspect that the only one who is offended "with that stupid blog line" is you and, once again, I can't help but wonder why ...
(My apologies to you, Fred, for raking the mud in your blog ... I know that's not what you wish to see posted, but I didn't want the anonymous dig to go unchallenged.)