Portable hard drive- that just works

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CMAC

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Just bought a WD My Passport Ultra - plug and play with amazingly intuitive software......yeah right. Its going straight back.

Cant password protect the drive (you can, but the software wont let me and tech support were useless, thats 75 mins I wont get back) Plus the drive takes over 64 seconds to start after you plug in the USB:(

So, whats better fellas that's really plug and play and easy to use for back ups? need either 1T or 2T
 
I have two Toshiba Canvio drives. A 1TB one I use in the car, has my entire audio collection on it.
The other is a 2TB and my main system back up. Still 1.25TB left on it.
For me they were 100% plug and play with the only exception that I had to reformat the 1TB drive to work in the car.
 
Had two WDs over the last few years as backup drives for the iMac. Both eventually 'failed' as they wouldnt mount after two years of service. :(. Now have a Seagate which seems very easy to use. Time will tell if it works as well in the long run....
 
Piece said:
Had two WDs over the last few years as backup drives for the iMac. Both eventually 'failed' as they wouldnt mount after two years of service. :(. Now have a Seagate which seems very easy to use. Time will tell if it works as well in the long run....
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Seagate are very good. I have a 2007 Seagate Freeagent desktop (so old it needa ots own power source) and its still going strong.
 
GreiginFife said:
I have two Toshiba Canvio drives. A 1TB one I use in the car, has my entire audio collection on it.
The other is a 2TB and my main system back up. Still 1.25TB left on it.
For me they were 100% plug and play with the only exception that I had to reformat the 1TB drive to work in the car.
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cheers Greig- Canvio reviews seem quite good. I have to take the WD back at 8am to will prob just buy a Tosh Canvio to replace.

Any pro's and con's worth mentioning?
 
CMAC said:
cheers Greig- Canvio reviews seem quite good. I have to take the WD back at 8am to will prob just buy a Tosh Canvio to replace.

Any pro's and con's worth mentioning?
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No cons from usage to be honest. It does what its meant to and I suppose thats the pro.
The only learning I took from them is that formatting a 1TB drive to FAT32 takes a bloody age. Not the Canvios fault though, any drive would be the same.
 
GreiginFife said:
No cons from usage to be honest. It does what its meant to and I suppose thats the pro.
The only learning I took from them is that formatting a 1TB drive to FAT32 takes a bloody age. Not the Canvios fault though, any drive would be the same.
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why do you do that? will I have to after buying?

this one ok? http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...table-hard-drive-2-tb-black-10088122-pdt.html

or this at 1T http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...ternal-hard-drive-1-tb-blue-10086613-pdt.html

they say USB 3.0 will that still work with 2.0?
 
CMAC said:
why do you do that? will I have to after buying?

this one ok? http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...table-hard-drive-2-tb-black-10088122-pdt.html

or this at 1T http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...ternal-hard-drive-1-tb-blue-10086613-pdt.html

they say USB 3.0 will that still work with 2.0?
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No you probably wont unless you are using it in a car. The audio systems in most cars that have a USB input dont recognise NTFS formatted drives, bit weird seeing as its the common format these days.
I only use the drive as I like to have all my audio in the car.

USB 3.0 should be fine, it will only transfer at 2.0 speed but should be ok on most systems.
If its any help, I got both my Canvios from dabs.com and were a fair bit cheaper than Currys.
 
CMAC said:
anyone know the difference between these two Toshiba's apart from price?

http://www.johnlewis.com/toshiba-stor-e-slim-portable-hard-drive-usb-3-0-1tb-silver/p1422489

http://www.johnlewis.com/toshiba-ca...ard-drive-usb-3-0-1tb/p231815067?colour=Black
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The Stor.e is an older model. They are still decent but the Canvio does exactly the same.
I went for Canvio Basic models (only difference is its not an alu case, but then as I dont need it and plastic is fine for my needs the Basic models are perfect.
 
GreiginFife said:
The Stor.e is an older model. They are still decent but the Canvio does exactly the same.
I went for Canvio Basic models (only difference is its not an alu case, but then as I dont need it and plastic is fine for my needs the Basic models are perfect.
Click to expand...

cheers Greig, yet the stor.e is more expensive at JL over that Canvio Connect. Thanks for saying what alu meant, I had no idea. The Toshiba website tells me nothing on how to pick
 
CMAC said:
cheers Greig, yet the stor.e is more expensive at JL over that Canvio Connect. Thanks for saying what alu meant, I had no idea. The Toshiba website tells me nothing on how to pick
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The aluminium cases look good, drive speeds are much a muchness it comes down to what its for.
I have this one in the car http://m.dabs.com/products/toshiba-...-3-0-2-5--portable-hard-drive-9QTC.html?src=3
As its hidden in the centre console I didnt need the nice packaging.
Its fast, it stores data and I can read data from it. Jobs a good un.
 
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