It appears that external hard drives are just about everywhere these days, and are perpetually growing more substantial in potential and smaller sized in dimension.
The competition is fierce, with virtually any drive on the shelf coming equipped with an array of connectivity possibilities too as being a total application suite for assisting shoppers to store up their information.
The fourth iteration of Maxtor's well-liked OneTouch external backup drives has arrived in a alluring new shell as well as a brand-new computer software package.
It is a cool drive that does everything under the sun, from backing up files to syncing folders to complete method recovery inside the scenario of drive failure and much more.
It's simply probably the most full-featured backup drive we've ever tested, and although it includes a few flaws it truly is even now among the very best backup drives obtainable.
Now that the Maxtor OneTouch line has morphed into its fourth version, it actually appears cool and provides some extraordinary characteristics that go way beyond pedestrian backup responsibilities.
The prior versions of this drive could finest be described as being a "silver slab," which then transformed into a "silver brick.
" The brand new style is definitely an enhancement more than preceding versions, and seems fairly slick in our opinion; nearly monolithic if you will.
The drive includes a molded layout that looks like an enlarged edition of your OneTouch four Mini.
The front of your unit has the infamous "OneTouch" button, which flashes a white light once the drive is becoming accessed.
You can press the drive if you'd like to manually activate your pre-established backup plan.
Backup The backup tab is in which you handle your backup prepare.
It is possible to only generate one plan, but can change it at any time by including or removing folders.
You'll be able to go for a "simple" backup that copies all files in your individual folder (the folder that's your Windows profile), otherwise you can select customized folders in case you desire.
When you select the folders you want backed up, you select the type of files you want including "all files.
" Last but not least, you choose once you want the backup routine to run.
Sync If you are like us and have equally a desktop and a notebook pc, you are able to make use of the Maxtor Supervisor software to sync folders among two computer systems to make certain both computer systems possess the very same files.
The moment yet again you'll be able to do a straightforward sync of your personalized folder or a custom sync.
Security The Safety tab is where you put together for catastrophe.
It is Maxtor's Security Drill computer software that saves images of the total hard drive to your OneTouch in situation of drive failure.
You just set up a new hard disk, boot off of the incorporated CD, position the application towards the picture around the OneTouch, and it'll totally restore your prior installation of Windows together with all of your files.
The Bottom Line The OneTouch 4 has a lot more capabilities than other backup drives we've tested, and we'd be hard pressed to determine among it as well as the WD MyBook.
We like how the MyBook does backups quickly, instead of on the agenda, but the MyBook isn't going to provide for any complete system recovery, nor does it offer file encryption.
The OneTouch definitely has it beat when it comes to functions, nonetheless we do not like how the OneTouch does not conserve your electronic mail by default, and the way it can't sync files among XP and Vista even though.
Though the OneTouch provides far more capabilities than the MyBook, these flaws drag it down one particular notch beneath the MyBook in our opinion.
It's value pointing out the simple MyBook has just USB though, and also the OneTouch four Plus has each FireWire and USB, plus works on Macs additionally to your common PC.