Product Description
Put style and speed on your desktop with SimpleTech's SimpleDrive external storage and backup solution. Designed by Pininfarina, it features sleek lines and a low profile in a high capacity, single-drive solution. Get the ability to store and backup tons of music, videos, photos and documents in a small footprint. Setup is a snap and with high-speed USB 2.0 data transfer rates are fast and reliable. One-Click backup software backs up and protects all your files and folders with a single click or automatically to provide the peace of mind for your digital world. A built-in light ring acts as a capacity meter so you can view utilized disk space with a glance.
Customer Reviews:
Backup your Backup.......2007-12-31
I am would say I'm very tech savvy having much of the latest tech and building my own Home Theater Pc. I have seen many hard drives in my time and used perhaps all of the hard drive manufacturers (From old 4 GB drives to 1 TB drives). Not one has failed until this drive. I was lured by the cost of the drive and wanted to backup my media onto this drive to clear space on other drives. But no less than 3 weeks after converting nearly 300 GB's of data on the drive, there was catastrophic failure. I lost all the media I was converting. Nearly $300 worth of itunes media and countless hours of video conversion data for my apple tv was lost because the manufacturing of this "sleek" designer hard drive.
Take my review with a grain of salt being that I lost a ton of data. However, the hard drive failure has been due to mechanical error. Also, customer support has been very lack luster and now 2 weeks after sending my hard drive for replacement, I have yet to receive an email or call regarding the status. For all I know the company has reconditioned my drive and will send it out again. There has been no follow up and return procedures are sketchy at best.
SimpleTech 500 GB.......2007-12-25
I have not had the drive for long, but it does the job that I want fast and easy. I wanted it for a large number of photo backups. I'm a professional photographer, and I shoot large numbers of photos during a wedding. This makes it simpe to unload all the photos on this drive and not use my main hard drive. Why wear out my main drive when I can can dump everything on this inexpensive, and replacabale drive? Great price, super speed. I love it.
huge on hard drive and small on price........2007-12-24
The reason that I bought this was so that I could add to my video collection and with this I am now able to make a huge collection and not have my computer and small external hard drive bogged down with all of my movies. For the purpose of storeing mass quantities of data this is a great buy since it is so cheep. I would say that if you don't have much data to store and need it to be trully mobile I would go with a smaller modle but for 500GB this is as small as they get at least for this generation of technology so I feel it is a great buy and I would recomend this to people who need this kind of thing.
Nice External.......2007-12-17
This was an accidental purchase. I thought that it was much smaller when I originally purchased it. But when I received it, the company was willing to accept it back immediately upon notification of my mistake. I did wind up keeping it and is very easy to use and self explanatory. The external seems to be holding up well even in a severely dusty environment. All that you have to do is blow it off daily. It seems to have more room than I will ever need.
Backup.......2007-12-07
I bought this drive about one month ago. I do not use it hard, about 3 or 4 times a week to backup "My Documents" file.
Plenty of storage space to keep several Generations. I usually keep three. (Son, Father, Grandfather)
Hey! "Stuff" happens. You never know!
I have Not had any problems.
Product Description
Need power and storage while on the move? Whether you're a mobile professional or casual user, this 250GB SimpleDrive portable hard drive is just what you need! Designed by Pininfarina, the very same design firm that gives Ferrari sports cars their aerodynamic curves and stylish lines, SimpleDrive Portable hard drive is the easiest way to add fast, reliable storage to any desktop, laptop or notebook computer. USB 2.0 connection and setup is a snap allows this external drive to reach data transfer speeds up to 480Mb per second. Truly portable, the SP-U25/250 needs no external power as it can run from the USB connection. For all intents and purposes, this could be the most practical accessory for your PC. Free 2GB MyFabrik.com account for managing and sharing your data No external power required Plug & Play and Hot-Swappable Free and unlimited technical support Simpletech 3-Year warranty
Customer Reviews:
worked great for short time.......2007-12-26
Item worked well for first few times it was used. Then it started to loose the USB connection in the middle of a file transfer. After that, started to get error indicating USB device not recognized. Not a problem with the computer since it happens on multiple computers. Retured for new one, has not arrived yet.
Great Price - Easy To Use.......2007-12-22
Too many photos, tired of CD's for backups, this SimpleDrive 250 is the answer. I have a couple and don't know what I would do without it. Easy set-up and great design. Compact and stylish.
Portable and great looking.......2007-12-18
This product is everything I expected -- great performance in a small, stylish package. (I don't care for the extra USB on the cord, but I understand that some may need this.)
Simpletech 250GB (SP-U25/250) 5400 RPM Hard drive.......2007-12-02
I have quite a few of these hard drives: IOgear (GHD425U160: 160GB), Lacie (301266: 160GB), Simpletech (SP-U25/250: 250 GB) etc. (and soon to have a Toshiba too). All of these hard drives are handy (fits into your palm; about 5 inches by 3 inches), lightweight (5 ozs to 6 ozs; 150 gms to 180 gms) to carry around and can carry a lot of data (149GB or 232 GB in computer/binary/real terms which, in commercial/decimal terms, mean 160GB and 250GB respectively). I have been using Simpletech flash drives for about 2 years now and I am quite satisfied with those; so I opted for a Simpletech hard drive (and then later bought one more from eBay).
The Simpletech SP-U25/250 hard drive is stylist, lighter in weight than the Lacie and IOgear (probably about 150 gms/5ozs vs. 180 gms/6 ozs) drives I have, which could be due to its being made of plastic (though it probably has a metallic coating on the top and the bottom) and through which you can peep into the insides, from the side. I do not know if this is a drawback, and I also think that probably the bodies of IOgear and Lacie are also made of plastic, but with a tougher metallic case, they give me a feeling of better physical security. [However, my friend thinks that it does not matter, because a hard drive that falls from your hand could be anyhow dead, no matter what material it is made up of!]. I have also noticed that the sides being see-through plastic, it already got some scratches (only on the sides) within the short time period (3 weeks or so) of my using it. Probably it will be nice to buy some sort of a cover or a case to carry this drive around, if you are sensitive about scratches or physical beauty of the drive; I am, and so I carry it in a case.
Other than that, I have no complaints. I have been using it for 3 weeks now, and often I use it overnight to transfer data (the USB 1.1 ports on my computers are notoriously slow, to say the least! Note: USB 2.0 port is 30-40 times faster.) and it never gave me any grief (to quote, Al Pacino). It gets very litle heated even after long periods of use.
For those of you, who earlier had problems with power supply for such baby hard drives (my friend, for example, had to return his Western Digital drive due to that problems) and needed to buy a Y-cable (or return the drive), the Simpletech SP-U25/250 comes with a Y-cable. (in all fairness, I never had a problem with any of the drives; but even before buying the IOgear drive, my first mobile hard drive, I had written them asking if this could be an issue, and they replied telling that in the event of a problem, they would provide me with a Y-cable, free of cost. I think that was a nice thing to do, and I am impressed with IOgear customer service).
Works great........2007-11-15
The hard drive works like a charm. It got here in about a week and has been working great ever since. I would definately recommend it.
Product Description
SimpleDrive Portable Storage is the easiest way to add fast, portable, and reliable storage to any desktop or notebook computer. With USB 2.0 connections, this external hard drive enables reliable and fast data transfer speeds, up to 480Mb/second!Setup is a snap because this Mass Storage Compliant Portable External Hard Drive is 100% compatible with any system that has a USB 2.0 or 1.1-connector. Engineered for portability, performance and reliability, SimpleTech's high speed, high capacity drives are ideal for any storage need, including digital music, movies and photographs.
Customer Reviews:
excelente producto.......2007-12-29
excelente producto, me permite descargar todos mis archivos de una manera rapida y segura, es comodo en llevar (tamano pequeno como una mano)ideal para Laptops (backup)ahhh rapido envio.
My portable hard drive saved me from loosing everything.......2007-10-23
The portable hard drive is very easy to use. A week after I got it, my laptop's hard drive got corrupted and I would have lost practically everything if I had not saved everything in my portable hard drive.
Do NOT buy! lost all in 2 mos.......2007-08-25
After having it for 2 mos, it just stopped working without any damage or surge occuring to it! All of our pictures and comp. programs were on it. Customer svc. said sorry,"if the red light comes on that means it has died". They said they'd send us a new one, but who wants to trust that product again with your valuables and memories!
Do Not Buy This Product!.......2007-08-22
I am a photographer and I purchased this device to store my pictures and portfolio on it worked fine for a couple of months and then just crashed one day. I lost everything and there is no hope of getting it back. Dont waste your money!
Portable and Easy to Use.......2007-04-25
One of the first questions a help desk asks you when you call to complain about your computer not working is: "Have you backed up your files?" Most people I know don't back up their files and cuss up and down when their hard drives fails and loses all their files. So BE PROACTIVE! This little handy-dandy easy-to-use external disk drive is great! I highly recommend it.
Product Description
It's sleek lines and ultra-low profile styling makes you want to put it on a shelf and stare, but it easily slides into your pocket for ultimate portability. The new SimpleDrive portable has style plus. The stylish lines of the SimpleDrive comes from the designers at Pininfarina, the very same design firm that gave the Ferrari sports car it's stylish lines. SimpleTech USA Warranty - 3 Years Ruggedized for travel capability Plug n' Play and Hot-Swappable Free and unlimited technical support
Customer Reviews:
Great drive.......2007-11-20
Those of you criticizing SimpleTech for formatting this drive with NTFS by default need to consider something. The alternative file format (FAT32) has a 4gb limit on file size. If you are trying to store video or other large files, you would be required to reformat the drive. They might also have gone with some of the common file systems used by linux, but I've only encountered one other drive that did that, and it was a NAS solution, not an external USB drive.
As far as power goes, I have to use both USB plugs on my Dell Inspiron laptop, and only one of the plugs on my Dell Optiplex workstation. I'm glad they provide the Y cable with this drive, I had to purchase one separately for a competitor's product.
The only thing I've found lacking is a carrying case, to keep the drive and USB cable together in a nice package when I hit the road.
Needs 2 USB ports/Not very portable.......2007-11-04
I don't recommend this if you're thinking it's an easy to use portable file transfer. It requires connection to 2 USB 2.0 ports. It does not work with a USB 2.0 hub. So, if I want to get files from my desktop, I have to pull it out of its compartment and reach around for the 2 ports. Except one of the ports is connected to my Linksys wi-fi antenna. Big hassle, with cables to printer, etc. Not a big deal for everyone, but as for me, I plan to return it.
Flawless (& NO External Supply Required).......2007-10-10
This model does NOT need external power. My guess is that some of the reviewers here are confusing this one with another model, SP-U35/160 (http://www.simpletech.com/parts/spu35160.htm), that looks exactly like this one, but does indeed require an external supply.
Our company, J.C.I., uses hundreds, if not thousands, of these. Scores of my colleagues and I have these units with HP laptops. They all work flawlessly.
Decent backup storage.......2007-09-16
I have used this drive with Ubuntu and Windows XP. Presumably it will work with any operating system as long as it is formatted to a supported file system type. The only annoyance I have found is that when you disconnect the drive, if you do not unmount it (on Windows this would be equivalent to using the safe remove hardware utility) before disconnecting, you lose and corrupt data stored on it during that session. If you are used to using any type of flash media and simply disconnecting it from the computer, you cannot do that with this without losing data. Because of this, I just use it for backing up files rather than just typical everyday storing files.
Contrary to what others have said, I am able to power this device through the USB port with all 5 desktops/laptops I have used it with, including one that is over 4 years old.
EDIT: After about 4 months, my SimpleDrive is no longer functional. My computer detects the device, but the drive inside the device is no longer detected. I would not buy one of these again.
Great looking drive at a great price.......2007-08-13
Folks, ignore that first review. This drive can absolutely be formatted for Macs to use. It's not really Simpletech's fault but rather Apple and Microsoft having incompatible data formats. All external hard drives will have this problem. This drive comes with NTFS default which makes sense since most people use XP. Other than that quibble, the drive is fast and efficient on my laptop. Very useful since it doesn't require an extra ac adapter.
Product Description
Designed by renowned Ferrari designer, Pininfarina, the SimpleDrive USB & Firewire External Hard Drive features sleek lines and a low profile to house its high capacity storage. Preloaded One-Click backup software lets you back up and protect all your files and folders automatically or with a single click. The built-in capacity meter let's you view how much free space is left with just a glance. With a high-speed USB 2.0 interface, or combo USB 2.0 & FireWire 400 interface, setup is fast and reliable. Plug & Play and Hot-Swappable Free and unlimited technical support PC and Mac compatible
Customer Reviews:
High Capacity, Fast, Low Cost.......2007-12-27
Just got this product two days ago and my first impressions are very good. Right out of the box it had a very sleek and attractive design, something you would put on your desk proudly not hide in a drawer.
As soon as I plugged it in the computer recognized it right away, and after partitioning it into 3 seperate drives )for seperating my music, videos, and everything else) I coppied about 25 gigs of video in about 100 minutes, which was many times faster than I expected.
The device is also very small for how much space it has; measuring 6x8x1.5. It easily fits in a medium size carrying case.
Over all I am completely satisfied, if I had to say something bad about it, the six LEDs surrounding the backup button in the middle are slightly obnoxious after a couple of hours. Deffinately reccommend this device of what I've experienced so far.
OUTSTANDING Hard Drive works great with a MAC!.......2007-10-16
I'm currently using the Pininfarina designed 500GB SimpleDrive to back up my main hard drive with the backup utility included on the drive. I also use it to store media files, such as photos, music, and full length AVI and Quicktime movies.
It mounts effortlessly every time on my Mac running OS X via either the FireWire or USB 2.0 connection. The drive is very quiet and automatically spins itself down after a lengthy period of inactivity, but it's quickly ready to go when needed. The drive's fast speed and connection rate allow you to watch movies or stream audio directly to your computer.
I highly recommend it for its reliability, sleek "aerodynamic" Italian design, and ease of use. Most hard drive cases look boring, but this one looks like it's doing 120mph just sitting there. Vrooom!
Does not work.......2007-09-29
I've bought a 340 GB version of this drive, connected to my Gateway computer with Windows XP. Windows recognize it as a new drive, it appears, works for few seconds and disappears. Then few seconds later it appears again and cycle repeats itself. Computer has no problem working with another external hard drive - by Western Digital, or with digital camera. I've returned it back. However, on a bright side, the huge oval button on top has very lively flashing lights and looks very entertaining.
Works but gets lost on reboot.......2007-08-28
On a Dell desktop running XP this drive installed and ran with no problem but when the PC was rebooted it was necessary to power down and up the drive separately for it to be seen by the PC. Simpletech service said this was to be expected.
Other external drives don't need this extra step and it means the drive shares are lost if it's on a network.
Product Description
The sleek lines and ultra-low profile styling of the new SimpleDrive were designed by Pinifarina, the very same design firm that gives Ferrari sports cars their stylish lines.Don't let its beauty fool you. SimpleDrive is a high-performance external hard drive ideal for storing and backing up your music, video, photos and more.
Customer Reviews:
NOT a portable drive.......2007-12-19
Amazon mislabeled this drive. It is an external desktop hard drive, not one of SimpleTech's portable hard drives. It is much heavier than the portable drives.
Good product.......2007-12-15
I really like this product. I got it at Office Depot for $99.99. I put all of my videos and music on it and I still have tons of room. The setup is very easy (you just plug it in and it works). One reviewer said they had a Mac and they had trouble with it, but there are different directions for a Mac than with a PC. You must plug it in, then extract the file that comes on it so it will work properly.
So far so good...............2007-12-03
This product has performed exactly as promised. Setup was very easy & the first backup was nice and quick. I have no complaints with this product.
Excellent Hard Drive.......2007-10-02
I have been using the SimpleTech External 250 Gig and the SimpleTech Portable 100 Gig Drive for a little while now. They have added a year to the life of my hard drives.
From a programmer's perspective these drives have been great. I use them for running 4 different virtual machines using Microsoft's Virtual PC and Virtual Server. They are great for hosting the latest VPC instances Microsoft has been dumping out
USB 2.0 is a definite must though. They are slow as mud if you aren't using USB 2.0.
For digital image storage they are great. When we go on vacation I usually end up with about 7-10 gigs of photos.
I guess the best thing they bring to the table is mobility between my PC at work, my work laptop, and my PC's and laptops at home. I currently do all my work on them.
One thing to note is that the external drives can be bought for about $100.00 less than the smaller portable ones. The small one is much more convenient than the larger one to carry around, but for the price I decided to be a little inconvenienced. It was worth it.
Both have been worth the $$$. They have save me a ton of time going between different environments.
Worth the money!!.......2007-09-23
I bought this product at Sams Club for $78.00. I am not planning on backing up my entire computer hard drive. I am using this to backup my digital photos. I transferred 4.07 GB of digital photos in under a minute!!! Very easy to setup and to transfer files to! I would definitely recommend this product!!
Product Description
The very same design firm that gives Ferrari sports cars their stylish lines, Pininfarina, designed the sleek lines and ultra-low profile of the SimpleDrive. Its high-performance is perfect for storing and backing up your music, video, photos and more. Setup is a snap with High-Speed USB 2.0, and data transfer rates are fast and reliable. One-Click backup enables you to back up and protect your entire computer or selected files with just a click. The built-in capacity meter allows you to view the utilized disk space.
Customer Reviews:
backup drive.......2007-12-21
SimpleTech SP-U35/320 SimpleDrive 320 GB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive
The drive works fine. There were no instrctions in the box other then warnings and notes to MAC users. It said their was a quick start guide, but there wasn't any. The backup software is difficut to use and confusing.
It's a lifesaver.......2007-12-15
This is a very good external Hard Drive for the money. It is fast and for the most part it is trouble free. The only "problem" I have had is that every so often it does not show up in "my computer." When that happens I just turn the power switch off and then back on and this forces windows to "see it" and it shows back up in "my computer." I have had to reformat my internal hard drives once since I got this external drive. It was a lifesaver because I had backed up all of my pictures and important files on the simpletech. I just used "Drag and Drop" to do my backups and restore also. Very Good external drive. Highly recommended.
Good External Hard Drive.......2007-11-22
I needed an external hard drive as my pathetic 80 gig hard drive I'd been using for the past 3 years was bursting at it's seams. So After looking around I saw this model on sale at Best Buy for $95.99, couldn't go wrong there, since it was 320 GIGS, it was a steel. Racing home, I pulled it out of the box, and lets get some things out of the way right now:
1. It has an on/off switch (yeah!)
2. The USB cable is really short. (About 2-3 feet)
3. It has a separate plug for the power supply. (Less drain on your USB).
After straining with the short USB cord, I found a good setup on my desktop. Plugged it into the USB port, and plugged the power cord into the wall. Turned it on, and BAM! 320 Gigs added to the computer. No hassle. It is quiet, and very fast.
I've only run into one small nuisance, it occasionally goes into sleep mode when not being used, and it takes about 6 seconds to start working again when waking up, so lets say it goes to sleep, and then you go to your computer, click on an mp3 file, you must wait for it to start up again before the file will play. But this only happens rarely.
The light on the top spins clockwise whenever you are loading something off the hard drive, this looks cool, but may be an annoyance to those who don't like giant spinning lights.
Overall, this is an excellent, dependable, fast hard drive, and by the way, it looks freakin awesome.
Product Description
The sleek lines and ultra-low profile styling of the new SimpleDrive were designed by Pininfarina, the very same design firm that gives Ferrari sports cars their stylish lines.Don't let its beauty fool you. SimpleDrive is a high-performance external hard drive ideal for storing and backing up your music, video, photos and more. And with Hi-Speed USB 2.0, setup is a snap and data transfer rates are fast and reliable.One-Click backup enables you to back up and protect your entire computer or only selected files with a single click, providing the peace of mind knowing your digital world is safe and protected. And the built-in capacity meter allows you to view the utilized disk space.
Product Description
Designed by Pininfarina, the very same design firm that gives Ferrari sports cars their stylish lines, SimpleDrive Portable hard drive is the easiest way to add fast, reliable storage to any desktop, laptop or notebook computer. With USB 2.0 setup is a snap and data transfer speeds up to 480Mb/second. StorageSync automatic backup software makes full or incremental backups fast and easy every time. And every SimpleDrive Portable hard drive comes with a free 2GB account on myfabrik.com so you can store, manage, and share your media online. 2.5 Form Factor System Requirements - Mac OS v9.2 or later; built for Mac OS X; Windows 2000/XP Free and unlimited technical support from SimpleTech Dimensions (WidthxDepthxHeight) - 3 x 5 x 0.6 Inches SimpleTech 3-Year warranty
Customer Reviews:
Not So Simple.......2007-12-28
I was advised that this external drive would be a mindless plug and play drive. Yes I would have to format it, but otherwise it would be a piece of cake. It was not. I am running XP and when I plugged it in the XP hardware wizard felt the need to look for a driver for it. None was found and it just repeatedly recognizes new hardware and repeatedly starts the wizard. The item is supposed to be automatically recognized as a drive and show up on My Computer/Explorer and that is the end of that. That never happened either. The included documentation is scant and the only possible explanation that the scant online support gives is that it requires more power from an additional secondary USB port. Plugging in the secondary USB plug did not solve the problem either. I gave it half an hour of my time and that seems to be all that it is worth so they can have it back.
Product Description
Pininfarina, the very same design firm that gives Ferrari sports cars their stylish lines, designed the sleek lines and ultra-low profile styling of the new SimpleDrive.Don't let its beauty fool you. SimpleDrive is a high-performance external hard drive ideal for storing and backing up your music, video, photos and more. With Hi-Speed USB 2.0, setup is a snap and data transfer rates are fast and reliable. And the SimpleDrive Deluxe offers two FireWire ports, in addition to the USB 2.0 port. With One-Click backup software, SimpleDrive enables you to back up and protect all or selected files with a single click, providing the peace of mind knowing your digital world is safe and protected. And the built-in capacity meter allows you to view the utilized disk space.
Customer Reviews:
Size Surprise.......2007-12-24
Great product. Works as it said, and haven't had any trouble in setting it up and using it. Formatting it was simple. the 2GB of webspace is limited in what you can do with it. And the unit itself is larger than I had expected when reading about it. Overall, worth thje low cost for an externaj hard drive with it's storage capacity.
carefull, this thing is FRAGILE.......2007-11-16
it was a dark night, with a man burning the midnight tungsten and tapping on his keyboard. reaching up to plug in this drive, a bump was heard as the hard drive knocked into the laptop stand.
to make a long story short...night gets darker as man realizes that the tapping noise, and red light in the back of the drive indicates the death of 150 gigabytes.
if you buy this drive, cover it in bubble wrap.
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