Top 5 Portable External Hard Drives
1 |
Toshiba 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive HDDR320E04XW (Vivid White) |
  Its a very nice hard drive, works well on my MacBook Pro and others computers with Windows. This is super lightweight! and I love its appearance. This is my first external hard drive I ever had and I can handle it very good, so its so easy to use! |
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2 |
Seagate FreeAgent Go 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive ST905003FAA2E1-RK (Black) |
 Totally useless product. Backed up perfectly the first time used, was unable to access drive after that. |
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Toshiba Canvio Plus 1.0 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive E05A100PBU2XK (Raven Black) |
 The device did not install on my Windows 7 PC. The plug n’ play feature failed to install the device drivers. I tried uninstalling the drivers and scanning for new hardware, but all attempts failed. I am returning it for a different brand. |
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4 |
Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDBABM0010BBK-NESN (Midnight Black) |
 I purchased the 1TB model this morning, hooked it up to my 2009-era MacBook Pro, reformatted the drive to HFS+ Journaled, and told Time Machine to use it as a backup disk, and it worked. That’s it. No issues with virtual disks, or firmware, or embedded software, or any of that junk. It is powered by my MBP’s USB port as stated, so no issues there. Even the USB cable works fine and stays connected. I have seen a lot of complaints about this drive, but frankly, none of the problems are apparent in my drive. For the record, the bottom of my drive has “0211B R/N: B9B” on it. R/N may be “revision number?” At any rate, it’s possible WD has heard the feedback and made great progress, because like the title of my review says, it’s working perfectly for me. The only thing I could possibly dock it a star for is a cheap, shiny black plastic housing that looks absolutely atrocious as it picks up fingerprints, smudges, etc. It really should have been a matte or pebble-textured case, since it is meant to be portable (and thus handled) but oh well. If you are running the latest OS on a recent Mac and need a Time Machine backup device, this fits the bill wonderfully. |
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5 |
Toshiba Canvio Plus 640 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive E05A064CAU2XK (Raven Black) |
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The device did not install on my Windows 7 PC. The plug n’ play feature failed to install the device drivers. I tried uninstalling the drivers and scanning for new hardware, but all attempts failed. I am returning it for a different brand. |