Rating: 
Summary: Out Of Date & Poorly Thought Out
Review: As far as I can see I was taken in by what I though was Maxtor's good reputation. Following is what I have found out since I bought this drive:
It is SLOW due to the SLOW transfer rate! Maxtor is using a FireWire 1394a chip at 400Mbps rather than the 1394b chip which goes at 800 to 1600 Mbps, and which is VERY AVAILABLE. This means that actual transfer rates may be faster with the older USB2! I should have LEARNED the difference between the different FireWire standards...just because Maxtor states FireWire doesn't mean anything!
Also, the Retrospect Software is an "Express" version - I guess not a full version. Although OEM somehow it is not even configured properly for the Maxtor drive. For example there is no advice in the Retrospect "HELP" for "One Touch." It is ignored. When you go to use the One Touch button it does not allow you any but the simplest backup. The advanced options in the Retrospect software are NOT available through One Touch. For example I cannot find anyway to use that cute (One Touch) button on the drive using the encryption or compression options in the software.
In addition, due to the fact the Retrospect software is OEM (sic) it is not the latest version of Retrospect (6.5) and Maxtor has no upgrade that I can find on its website.
I made the mistake of buying this hardware believing that Maxtor, being a "respected" company would be using the latest hardware standards and would be using fully configured OEM software.
Rating: 
Summary: Reliable Back Up . . . Priceless
Review: Backing up is a good practice, because a hard drive failure or other disaster can occur at any time. Many of us do not back up on a consistent and regular basis, which always becomes a cause for regret when a problem occurs, and we need to restore or recover valuable data. If and when disaster strikes, having a reliable backing up can truly be priceless. External hard drives are a convenient way to backup all kinds of data. Because they are external, they can perform this essential function for more than one computer, and easily transfer archived data to a new computer if necessary. The 120GB Maxtor One Touch external hard dive is compatible with Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 and XP, as well as Macintosh OS X and 9. It comes with a comprehensive user's guide. Following the installation instructions, the drive was recognized without any problems by my computer, which is running Windows XP Home Edition. When installed, 111GB of memory space was noted as being available for use. The Maxtor is rated for USB 2.0, but my computer is only a USB 1.1. When using other external drives in the past, my computer's operation slowed down so much when transferring data, that doing other tasks was very difficult or impossible (almost as bad as when using a parallel port zip drive). However when transferring data to the Maxtor, there were no problems with simultaneously doing basic tasks like word-processing or spreadsheets, or being online. Though running a processor intensive program like Photoshop while transferring data, is probably not recommended. While the transfer rate at USB 1.1 isn't too bad, those with USB 2.0 should experience transfer rates perhaps three or four times faster. Data transfers appear to be smooth, and silent. The drive has a heavy-duty hard metal case, and can be oriented standing on its side, using the stand that is provided, or flat like a normal drive. There is an on/off power switch located at the rear of the unit. The recommended procedure is to have your computer up and running, and the Maxtor powered up, before connecting the hard drive to the computer. Thus far, there have been no problems using the unit. The price for a drive of this capacity was competitive, and a rebate made it even more attractive. An external drive is great for archiving MP3's and JPEG's, and also for sharing data between computers that are not networked. The provided Retrospect software enables "one touch" backup, where selected files can be backed up just by pushing a button located on the unit. Additional support is available on the Maxtor website. After suffering considerable hardship in the past, because of failure to regularly back up data, I hope this easy to use device will prove to be reliable, and provide peace of mind.
Rating:
Summary: Storage is great, but double up- these puppies fail
Review: Bought the 250g Maxtor 1-touch last year and the drive was great, acting as an archive and a backup to my smaller 20g hard drive. Unfortunately, I had no backup to this backup and the drive kicked the bucket last week after 11 months on the job. Lost 120g of data that I had no back up for. Sending t oHD Recovery outfiuts would ost $1 - $2000 at minimium. So, if you buy one, I would recommend buying a second one as well. You can get a cheapie. The idea is that having two hard drives crash at the same time is pretty remote possibility. Just a thought from one very veyr bummed user.
Rating:
Summary: so far just was it said
Review: Got a super deal on this. I searched for past two weeks before buying, and I got it down to this one. But generally the lowest price was $189. Amazon had it for $169, and with $10 gift certificate and $30 rebate I think this is a great deal. It is the capacity I need, the ability to move it from one computer to another, and the peace of mind of reliable back up. It was easy to install, did what it was it would. So if this little puppy keeps on going as it, I am one happy camper.
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy anything from Maxtor
Review: Having owned three different Maxtor hardrives, this one being one of them, and all of the dying withing a year (resulting in complete loss of all data) I can safely say that Maxtor is the worst choice you can make when it comes to buying a harddrive.
Rating:
Summary: a bad copy
Review: How can maxtor just make a bad copy of the Lacie drive. I mae a mistake of buying the copy. It is cheaper but noisy and unreliable. Holding teh two products makes a diffrence. The original is rugged and faster with the 8MB cache drive.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing but trouble . . .
Review: I am technically savvy. I just finished building my own machine from the case up. It's not like I don't know what I'm doing. I've had nothing but headaches with this drive. From the problems with "delayed write failed" messages to XP now telling me the drive has never been formatted (even though theoretically it's got about 60GB of backed up files from my previous system). If I possibly could I would get my data off this bugger and send it right back to Maxtor for a refund or RMA, but sadly the refund period has expired. Frankly I just want my money back - the entire point of a device such as this is to entrust it to hold your data. This is an utter failure as a product. I'd give it 0 stars for doing nothing correctly but Amazon won't allow me.
Rating:
Summary: DOA from the Box...
Review: I bought this product from CompUSA thinking what a great idea to have so much more storage. Unfortunately, it was DOA. I plugged in the power supply and nothing. There is a small, green LED on the power supply transformer block that's supposed to light up when you plug it into a circuit. No green light meant I didn't even get a chance to turn it on! The instructions say to plug the HD end first, then the transformer block into the wall. Does the order matter that much?
The green light never turned on! I'll be taking it back to CompUSA tomorrow and return home with another. We shall see what happens. Another issue is that the autorun "launch.exe" (the software installation CD) pops up quickly in XP Pro, but then disappears! Yes, even when I double-click that file, the installer does not come up! WTF?
Rating:
Summary: Unreliable.
Review: I bought two of these from Costco for use with my Linksys NSLU2. The Linksys NSLU2 allows you to hook a USB drive up to it and share the drive across your local network. Everything worked great for about a week and then I started experiencing strange errors. I'd get a delayed write failure or a network error stating that the network path no longer existed. At first, I suspected the Linksys device, since it is really responsibe for the network connection. However, after extensive testing (including switching for another Linksys and switching to other USB Drives) and reading other reviews that report the same error (when hooking the drive directly up to a computer), I've concluded that the problem must be the USB Drive itself. Fortunately, Costco has an extremely generous return policy, so I'm taking this thing back....
Rating:
Summary: Drive sucks too many errors
Review: I got the drive from Costco for dollars - 200. Hooked up to my Compaq Evo N610c via USB 2.0. Tried copying files using Windows explorer. Got several error messages re. file not completely copied due to hardware or network error. I'm also returning drive to Costco. Errors msgs: Delayed Write Failed : Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \Device\HarddiskVolume3\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.
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