Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Judie Hughes

June 09, 2006

For the longest time, I was the person that didn't back up any of the files stored on my computer. Important emails, Money files, passwords, pictures, MP3s, programs I had paid for, Word documents, Excel Spreadsheets, years and years worth of ranch data and documents, reviews I had written - I was blissfully ignorant about what the consequences would be should my hard drive ever fail. I was the person that thought that it would never happen to me, and I was the person that lost everything when my computer spontaneously combusted one afternoon in 2001.

It's kind of funny when I look back now, I was always so careful about backing up my PDA's information; yet I was completely negligent with the files that really mattered - the ones on my PC that fed the data kept on my PDA. It took me many (many!!) months to rebuild from scratch, and to this day I still regret the loss of that irreplaceable information. You wouldn't believe how often I'll think of some document that I need - and that I think I have on my computer...but when I go search for it I realize that it was pre-crash data that I wasn't able to replicate. After that one disastrous experience I became a true believer in using external hard drives to store my backed-up data.

However, the possibility of a future computer crash is not the only reason I now depend on external hard drives. Because these external drives easily connect to almost any computer with a USB or FireWire port, I now have the ability to move large amounts of data between one computer and another. This makes sharing information between computers a cinch. In my home office, I depend on a 400GB Seagate External Hard Drive for most of my backup needs, but this larger sized device is not at all practical when I need to take my data with me on the road. For that, I have come to depend on portable external hard drives.

In the last few years it has become quite common to see portable hard drives with memory amounts  up to 100GB or more that can easily fit in a laptop bag's pocket. Today I am going to take a look at the Maxtor OneTouch III, Mini Edition, a portable drive that not only allows the user to carry up to 100GB with them at all times, it also provides the encryption of said data while empowering the user with a few other conveniences.

The Maxtor Mini Edition easily lives up to its name, measuring 5.2" tall x 3.5" wide x 0.8" thick, and weighing just 7.3 ounces. Available in 60GB or 100GB versions, the hard drive is clad in a matte silver metal case with black rubberized plastic sides. Although it is quite light, the device feels well made and does not creak or flex when its case is torqued. Included in the box are the drive, a USB Y-cable, a quick start guide, and all of the necessary software preloaded on the drive itself.

(front of Maxtor)

(back of Maxtor)

The back of the drive has, from left to right, ports for the optional Maxtor OneTouch Power Adapter and the mini USB port for the USB Y-cable.

Other than plugging in the USB Y-cable, the only other non-computer-based interaction the user will have with the hard drive is through the button on the left front. This button will glow white when the drive is powered, blink white when the disk is being accessed, and when pushed the button will commence a user defined or default process which we'll discuss in detail shortly.

The drive is powered by plugging the USB Y-cable into either one or two USB ports. One USB port is all that was needed to power it from my PC, but in the event that both USB ports aren't enough, the optional power adapter should be purchased.

The Mini Edition is small enough to take along, but it is also conveniently sized for desktop use.

Specifications

Hard Drive:	2.5-inch ATA
Capacity:	60GB 100GB
RPM:	5400 RPM
Cache Buffer:	8MB
Seek Time:	9.0ms
Interface:	USB 2.0 and 1.1 compliant
Sustained Transfer Rate:	USB 2.0 33MB/sec
Bus Transfer Rate:	USB 2.0 480Mb/sec
Operating Temp:	5C to 35C (41F to 95 F)
Weight	7.2 oz (205 g)
PC Requirments	Pentium III, 500 MHz equivalent processor or higher Windows 2000 Professional, XP Professional, or XP Home Edition 128MB (256 recommended) RAM or more as required by operating system Internet connection (for system updates)
Datasheet	Download

The first time the Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition is plugged into the host computer, it will need to install its software. This is simply a process of clicking the appropriate button and letting the drive do its thing.

Once installed, the Maxtor will be represented as a Hard Disk drive under "My Computer".

A new "M" icon will be installed in the system tray.

Once installed, the Maxtor's files may be accessed from the desktop. The user can simply drag & drop the files to copy...

...or the user can utilize the newly installed software. This software is always accessible by right clicking and selecting "Backup Settings" from the newly installed "M" icon in the system tray.

There are six icons on the left side that allow the use to manage the Maxtor's settings. I won't write a full user's manual in this review, but I will try to touch upon most if not all of the features...

The Home setting displays the serial number, memory and firmware information directly pertaining to the Mini Edition.

From this screen it is also possible to run a diagnostics test on the drive.

The Settings button allows the user to customize the power setting...

...which tells the drive when to go into "power saving mode" after a period of inactivity.

Next it is possible to customize the setting for the lone button on the exterior of the case. The button can be set to open the application of choice, synchronize folders using Sync, or to do the Maxtor OneTouch Backup of the designated files.

The last setting is security. The owner may set a password and choose a secret question that will reveal the password should it be forgotten. After the password has been set, it must be entered in order to access the contents of the the drive anytime the drive is powered.

The Backup button shows when the drive is set for Automatic Backups or not, and at what time they are scheduled. Any and all days of the week may be chosen as well as any time during the day. I have mine set for daily at 3am.

The user can select the drive, folder, or subfolders that are to be included in backups; everything included in the selected file will be copied.

Once the initial settings are made, a backup can be performed. The first one will always take the longest, future backups will be quicker as they will only add information not previously included.

One to ten Historical Versions may be kept on the drive, allowing the user to chose a particular date's version should it be needed.

The Restore button allows the restoration of a particular historical backup or the most recently backup files. This process may also be done manually by going into the drive's backup folder and selecting the particular file needed.

The Sync button allows the user to set a direct synchronization between a folder on the external drive and a folder on the computer. This process can be customized to use the one-touch button on the drive.

The Rollback button allows the user to set automatic restore points for their system, create a restore point of the current system, and restore their system to a previous state.

Worth noting are the colors of the "M" icon in the system tray. When a backup has performed successfully, the icon will glow green.

When a backup has failed for whatever reason, the icon will glow red. I am not entirely sure why this particular backup failed - it probably has something to do with the my trying to do an Outlook file backup while using Outlook. ;0)

Because the Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition is USB driven, it will work with any computer that has an available USB port, Mac or PC. However, the installed software will only properly function with a Windows PC running 2000 Professional or XP; this will most likely be seen as a major caveat for Mac users.

No backup device testing would be complete without some timing tests, so here are a few to give an idea of transfer times:

Moving a 34GB file with 17 full length movies from my PC to the Mini Edition took 50 minutes and 54 seconds.

Moving a 41.5MB Music file from my PC to the Mini Edition took less than 5 seconds.

I had a completely different summary in mind but the writing of this review took a rather ugly twist this afternoon, which is why it is being posted at nearly midnight instead of around 3 pm as I had intended. This review was complete and ready for posting when an unrelated process caused my computer to lock up and all of my open programs quit responding. Yes, I had been hitting control + save all through the review writing process, even up to the moment when my computer froze; but after shutting my computer down and restarting, I found that the entire review was completely gone! All that was left was a FrontPage document in the correct folder with the correct title. Urgh!!

I think my curses could be heard all the way to the edges of San Angelo; seriously.

How ironic was it that I was writing a review on a backup device? How cool was it that during the review I had hit the OneTouch button - which had preserved all of my photos and roughly half of my text? I had prior commitments that I had to fulfill between 3 and 9 tonight, but coming home and knowing that I had a running start made redoing this review bearable. I have a feeling that hitting the OneTouch button may become a compulsive habit while writing reviews in the future...thank you Maxtor!

If you have been living dangerously by not backing up your important data, please learn from my mistakes and get an external hard drive. Computers are fallible, and they will crash at the most inopportune and inconvenient times. Don't take the chance of losing your irreplaceable photos, audio recordings and documents. Get off the fence and start backing up your data!