| Subcategories | Peripherals & Accessories |
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Freecom 500GB External Hard Drive USB-2 (Silver) | 
| Brand: Freecom
Category: CE
Buy New: £74.99
New (5) from £74.99
Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 671
Media: Electronics
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
CPU Speed: 0
CPU Type: Intel Celeron
Processors: 1
System Memory: 0
Memory Type: DRAM
Hard Drive Size: 500
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 8.6 x 3.5
MPN: 28604
Model: 28604
EAN: 4021801286048
ASIN: B000LQA652
Release Date: February 1, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1 to 2 months
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| Customer Reviews: Read 44 more reviews...
 Use it as a backup drive December 20, 2008
brabason (UK)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Plenty of reviews of how great this drive is - I won't repeat this here.
I use the drive to backup two internal hard disks and a 250MB USB drive using the NTI Shadow backup software that came with the drive. Basically NTI Shadow is easy to use, perhaps deceptively so. It took me some hard learned lessons about its limitations before I could set it up reliably.
First, it does not backup 'open' files. I got caught out after a system crash; I thought my Outlook pst files would be OK except that these files are considered open even when the application is closed (might apply to other file systems). Result: on recovery my Outlook files were three weeks old. I have now set up a backup account on my system, log out of my every day account before backing up; this ensures all my files are closed.
Second, the backed up data is not a mirror image of the original disk. Any directories with the same name are all mixed up. Same name directories are all stored in one directory by NTI Shadow (every account has the same basic directory structure and identical names, e.g. 'desktop' occurs in every account). Result: Unable to do a system restore on a replacement C: drive. I now have separate backup scripts for different accounts etc.
None of this is explained in the manual. I phoned technical support and they advised not to use NTI Shadow! Having learned the hard way, I now find that NTI Shadow is working reliably and fast. The restore function also works well.
Third, one is advised to 'Safely Remove' the drive (a PC function) before switching it off. Problem is that once Windows makes use of the drive it will not allow removal. I now just shut the system down with the drive on then switch off afterwards. So far no lost data, at least I don't think so - hard to say with several thousand files. I have done some checks and it seems OK.
Now that I know how to set up and use NTI Shadow it is great. But only three stars because I bought the drive for backups and the software let me down big time.
 excellent and very simple to install & very easy to use !! November 9, 2008
kerrygold71 (cheshire , united kingdom.)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
excellent external hard drive , i was going to purchase the 250gb , but i opted for this 500gb just 7.00 price difference between both of them .. i take hundreds , thousands of photos and over time i have lost hundreds / thousands of them . so finally after 4 years i bought a external harddrive , the price of this is just super and the capacity is just big .. this hard drive should hopefully last years ..
great piece of kit , if you want to save you computers hard drive from getting clogged up with hundreds of pictures/documents & songs , its so easy to install and so easy to use & very well built and it comes with a super 2 years warranty ..
see u ..
Excellent VFM and a really good back-up! October 21, 2008
Uncle Barbar (Essex, England)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I wanted a good quality, reasonably cheap large external hard drive and did a lot of research before deciding on this one.
I've now had this model for a few months and have never had any problems with it whatsoever.
It's not the smallest on the market but it is very solid feeling (and maybe a bit heavier than some other models).
I just plugged it into my USB slot and it installed some software and then up it came as a separate drive. easy-peasy!
I use it to back-up all of my pictures, music, Word and Excel Docs and all of my audio book collection. It does a super job of this.
I am happy to highly recommend it. If you want a relaible, solid feeling hard drive then you can do a lot worse than buy this!
Hard to beat October 10, 2008
D. Carvill (Birmingham, UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I had been looking for an external hard drive for a few months, in order to backup my computer and also save music on to. I wanted one that was not too cheap but not too expensive and easy to use. After reading reviews on a number of websites, I plumped for this one and so far I'm certain I've made the right choice.
First impressions were that its design was neat and stylish and that it was smaller, but heavier than I expected, which is no bad thing. I wanted an easy setup and the Freecom hard drive gives you just that. You plug it into the mains, then plug it in via USB to your computer and it's as simple as that. After confirming the presence of the new hard drive, I started dragging and dropping files and after about an hour and a half, I'd transferred about 20-30GB's worth of data.
So far it's been quiet - quieter than my computer in fact and I have absolutely no complaints at all. I'm really pleased with my purchase and couldn't have hoped for a better external hard drive.
Quality feel external hard drive October 5, 2008
gbenquiries (Chelmsford, Essex, UK)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Had this drive for about a week now so can't speak for longevity but did a lot of homework before choosing this one. Was going to do a pros and cons analysis but haven't found any cons as yet. Build quality feels good - nice, solid aluminium case with an on/off switch on the back which is also useful. It is near silent and so far I have had no problems whatever with heat dissipation from the unit (there is no fan). It worked straight out of the box though I did reformat the drive to NTFS which (using Quick Format) took less than a minute I recall.
As with a lot of electronic goods these days the user manuals (for the drive and the software) are provided only in electronic format (on a CD). A minor irritation but this doesn't detract from the value of the drive itself.
The backup software that comes bundled with the unit (NTI Shadow) is simple and worked first time. It is relatively easy to set up and just backs up the files you tell it to when you want it to. If you don't need all the extra bells and whistles of backup software like Norton Ghost then getting Shadow with the drive is a real bonus and will save you having to purchase software separately.
As I write I would definitely recommend this drive.
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