Product Reviews

Maxtor's OneTouch external hard disk wins our disk category because it offers exactly what PC users need for regular backups and video-editing projects.

Internal hard disks continue to get bigger, faster and cheaper, but although the new Serial ATA (SATA) interface has made internal wiring a little easier with its thin data cables, it has delivered little increase in performance because an internal hard disk's mechanics currently bottleneck performance more than its interface does. Still, SATA internal hard disks barely cost more than Parallel ATA models, so our shortlisted internal disk is a SATA model. Samsung's SpinPoint SP1614C was the best performer in our most recent hard disk Labs test (Shopper December 2003); its price is competitive and its 160GB capacity makes it an ideal upgrade or the basis of a new PC.

It's the external hard disk market that is home to most genuine innovation, and our judges argued at length over the merits of three exceptional devices. LaCie's Big Disk Extreme was an obvious candidate for the prize. Its 500GB capacity is beaten only by LaCie's own Bigger Disk, which packs in four 250GB drives to give a terabyte of storage. However, what's really remarkable about it is that its pair of 250GB 3.5" disks are configured as a RAID 0 array

Freecom's FHD-XS excels in the opposite areas. Its 20GB capacity and 12.5MB/s performance are fairly poor for a USB hard disk, but at around half the size of other portable hard disks and weighing just 200g, it's the ideal product for those who need a storage device they can carry with them at all times but who find flash drives' capacity and speed too low.

Ultimately, neither drive could compete with the Maxtor OneTouch's straightforward practicality and value. A 26MB/s write speed in our tests makes it one of the faster external drives available, its combination of FireWire and USB Hi-Speed ensures compatibility with PCs and Macs, it's extremely quiet in operation and, with its aluminium case, it looks pretty good too. Dantz Retrospect Express backup software and a button on the front panel to launch it makes backing up as easy as possible, which is a great benefit in the home where this is a chore many people don't get round to doing. The 250GB capacity ensures that this model can handle a full backup of the largest internal hard disks, and provides space for over 20 hours of DV video or six months' worth of MP3s.

At today's prices full system backups are no longer an expensive luxury, and with the 120GB (USB only) version of the Maxtor OneTouch costing just £102 including VAT, the range provides excellent value money for a wide variety of storage-based tasks.

EXPERT'S VERDICT

"Huge capacity, quiet and a great cost per megabyte."

EDITOR'S VERDICT

"Backup is essential and the Maxtor makes it fast, easy and affordable."