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Original Price tag: $ 119.99
FEATURED BUFFALO MiniStation Stealth 500 GB USB 2. Portable Hard Drive – HD-PCT500U2/B
- Super-slim, lightweight style saves space for ultimate portability
- Turbo Pc increases file transfer rates by up to 2X over competing USB two. portable difficult drives
- Preformatted hard drive is prepared for instant use with Windows and Mac
- Perfect companion for your laptop or notebook – no extrnal power required
- ECO Manager conserves power and battery power
MiniStation Stealth is a high efficiency portable storage solution in a remarkably compact and lightweight modern form. Merely plug it into any obtainable USB port on your Computer or Mac laptop or computer and quickly add capacity or shop files to take on the road. MiniStation Stealth’s compact style occupies minimal space and it’s USB powered so there are no additional cables to handle and no need to have for a separate power supply. Included with the Stealth is Buffalo’s multi-purpose Buffalo Tools utility suite made to enhance Windows Computer overall performance and user experience. It attributes TurboPC, a utility created to boost Computer overall performance for up to 2X quicker file transfers. Also integrated, Buffalo’s Backup Utility protects your crucial files and documents by backing up your PCs to your Buffalo external challenging drive and it supplies an effortless-to-use information restore function. Retailer, back up and transport your content instantly with plug and play connectivity.
Take a appear what men and women say about toshiba laptop computer back to factory setting:
Best Portable Hard Drive I’ve Found for The Money,
Intro:
- I’ve been a laptop computer user for over 20 years. I own a consulting firm with clients ’round the country, so I’m always on the go.
- I own – or have owned – portable hard drives from every major manufacturer. My theory was that if I bought different brands with good recommendations (versus buying all of them from one manufacturer), I would spread my risk.
- Bought the Buff’ Stealth 500GB from Amazon to try it out. Its the smallest 500GB portable drive around from a major manufacturer (and just 0.1in thicker than Oyen).
- I’ve owned and operated the drive for 30days to date. All of our computers (laptops and desktops)run Windows XP/32 bit operating systems.
Analysis:
Folks, hands down, this is the best overall portable hard drive I’ve owned to date:
1. This puppy is small, lightweight, and fast for USB 2.0. I’m getting 16-18MB/sec transfers using 5+ year old laptops and desktops (with Intel single core processors), and up to 22MB/sec on my Intel Core Duo Laptop.
2. I’ve left it on for 3 days straight, and found no heat generation above room temperature.
3. Needs only 1 USB2.0 port, and runs off of just 1 USB port on every one of our desktops/laptops I’ve tried it on.
4. Has a great blue light on top to signal its working. Doesn’t have a sleep mode, so there is no delay, after your computer sits for a while, when you go to transfer/access a file.
Three particulars you’all might find of interest:
1. One reviewer here gave the drive 3stars because of the onboard Buffalo file transfer software. It’s advertised to accelerate file transfers vs. Windows Explorer. And it does – but I agree, its not worth using.
I installed the Buffalo “turbo” software on two computers and found “turbo” didn’t work as well as Teracopy (which is freeware and works great to speed up USB2.0 file transfers). The Buffalo “turbo” software did slow down both my desktop and laptop computers and seemed to complicate rapid removal of any flash/hard drive I connected. I’ve eliminated the pre-installed Buffalo software from the drive and my computers. I’d recommend the same to anyone. But I do recommend you find and download Teracopy, its a great program. (see CNET.Com to download Teracopy for free).
2. I’ve not dropped the Buffalo 500GB drive, so I can’t provide insight on its hardiness to physical abuse. You’ll find details on construction at the Buffalo site. It appears solidly built, but the plastic case doesn’t appear to warrant confidence that it would not break of dropped over a foot or so onto a hard surface.
I presume that being so small, there isn’t as much space to install lots of “shock-absorbing” material. I also presume one has to get some sort of case/carrier/cozy for the Buffalo 500 if you’re going to actively travel with it. In my case, I’m using it to date to store large files I download from my desktop to carry home or use on my laptop, and I’m being careful with it because of my concerns about its hardiness until I get more experience. It might could benefit from a rubber border and thicker plastic case as one finds on the Toshiba Canvio, but then it would be thicker/bigger – the Toshiba was my previous 1st choice for portable hard drives, its now no.2, but I’m comparing it with the Buffalo as I go along, and I’ll report back down the road on hardiness as I collect more info.
3. Based on my experience with the Buffalo 500GB, I’ve already bought the 1TB model. Available on Amazon today for $84, its the best deal going for portable hard drive space/dollar. I’ve found the performance specs for the 1TB model are exactly the same as the 500GB model. BUT, be aware the physical specs for the 1TB model are different – its about a quarter of an inch thicker than the 500GB version (same length x width). Since I found the pre-installed Buffalo software unworthy of use on my 500GB model, I’ve eliminated the same from the 1TB version.
Update: August, 2012
It’s 15 months from my initial Buff’ Mini-Station Stealth portable hard drive review here on Amazon, so time for an update.
1. All of my initial comments/info/details on the Buff’ 500GB and the 1TB USB2.0 drives still ring true. I now own 10 of them, and all of them work like a charm. I particularly like the fact that they mount/dismount easily (e.g., they power up and down quickly). The USB cable provided with the drives is the best USB2.0 cable I’ve found/used to date – it mounts/dismounts the drive quickly.
I’ve lost only one (1) Buff’ portable drive to date – that drive fell off of a desktop 30inches high onto a hard concrete flow in my basement. The case did not crack, but the drive seemed to have trouble mounting onto my computer (meaning the drive took a long while to start up) and it would turn on/off at erratic intervals. Fortunately, the drive didn’t have much data on it, so no big deal. I have had my…
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|Bought 3, like them all,
Bought 2 of these (500gb model) at once (Jan. 2012 update: bought a third 500gb a few weeks after the first 2; also, I have had no issues with any of these drives in about 8 months of intermittent use) as backups on the road for various important data. I primarily bought this specific model because the USB connection (I think is called “mini” usb but am not sure) is the same connector as other devices I carry around so that will simplify my cord clutter a bit.(Some other portable drives out there have different or even proprietary USB connectors). Also all power comes from the USB cord (supplied with the drive, about 14 inches long, thin, easy to pack.) It all seems very well thought out. I’d looked at the similar-size Seagates and the Western Digital drives but there do seem to be a lot of complaints about drive failure and other issues. I don’t need the latest/greatest speed or USB 3.0 so this was a good fit/price for my uses.
One suprise: the formatted drive shows 499.76gb (out of advertised 500gb) available…that’s as close as I’ve ever seen to matching the advertised capacity of a drive! Another surprise is how this tiny little drive (3.0 x 4.5 x 0.5 inches by my measurement, smaller than 2 decks of cards next to each other) runs very cool, it hardly generates ANY heat to the touch.
I am using a MacBook Pro, so merely reformatted these for the Mac using the Mac’s disk utility. I formatted them to be bootable and cloned my MacBook over to one of them (using SuperDuper) and now have a bootable backup in case the laptop drive goes down. Tested that drive as the boot drive, and response is slower when booted from the USB 2.0 connection than the MacBook’s internal drive (no surprise there) but it would get me through in a pinch.
Note the included software is Windoze only but you won’t miss it, just erase it if you’re on a Mac. (The Buffalo drive will however mount the first time you plug into a Mac without doing anything, should you need to use it immediately. You’ll just be wasting a little space keeping the Windoze software on there. Mac instructions are also on the drive as a PDF file if you need them, which of course you probably will not!)
Reliability over time remains to be seen (note update above, no problems in about 8 months of use), if I do see a failure I will update this review, but so far I’m 100% satisfied.
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