SimpleTech by Hitachi SimpleDrive 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive SP-U35/500 (designed by Pininfarina)
by SimpleTech
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SimpleTech by Hitachi SimpleDrive 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive SP-U35/500 (designed by Pininfarina)
Customer Review: Don't make the same mistake I made, do more research
Summary: 1 Stars
I needed a storage device for my computer so I began to look for a new external hard drive. I saw this 500GB drive at a good price and it did look rather funky so I leapt at this model - big mistake!
I immediately had problems with this drive as my Windows XP couldn't find it to begin with. I spent time and managed to get it to work however as other people have said it would stop working. I tried to contact the customer service department and I never received any e-mail from them. I persevered with the drive and I eventually figured out that there was a heat issue with the drive. The customer service department never got back to me or simply ignored my e-mails - another common complaint by other people.
My advice is not to get this drive as it appears that other users have problems with it. I would suggest that you don't get fooled by looks or the price and spend a little extra. I ended up replacing the drive with a 500GB HP model and it's worked beautifully.
Customer Review: SimpleTech has lost my business forever
Summary: 1 Stars
This drive was working fine for about 6 months then suddenly died. I have been through plenty of computers and hard drives over the past 30 years and have never had a drive fail this quickly before. I opened the case, removed the drive and connected directly to a standalone SATA/USB dock and no luck - the drive won't even spin up. The drive inside is a Hitachi DeskStar which (as I recall) have quite a bad reputation.
So.... there's goes a lot of family photos that I haven't had a chance to back-up along with my entire iTunes library. Silly me! I've now replaced this with a USB/SATA dock and a Seagate 750GB drive all for about $80.
I also have a couple of SimpleTech Signature mini drives which haven't died completely but are experiencing errors. I really liked the form-factor and the ability to be powered directly from USB but they just didn't hold up either. SimpleTech has simply lost my business - 3 bad drives is enough for me to catch a clue!
Customer Review: DO NOT BUY THIS HD UNLESS YOU ENJOY LOSING YOUR DATA
Summary: 1 Stars
I first bought this SimpleTech 500GB drive a year and a half ago and was very satisfied with how easy it was to use. Everything seemed to be going fine - until barely 3 months in. I have never in my life yet experienced any sort of PC crashes, so I was more that shocked when the item i purchased to prevent the headaches and hassle crapped out on me after only 3 months. Emailing SimpleTech didn't work either as they don't have any way to fix the device, I'd have to shell out big bucks to get the data recovered and then mail it out to them to be replaced. No deal. Bye bye 75GB worth of video clips and pictures.
Unfortunately, I wasn't around when my mom was shopping for another external a year later, and she brings home another SimpleTech 500GB. Well guess what happened? Yup, little blinking red light of death after 6 months. I seriously question how this product is still on the market when it is the biggest pile of junk ever.
Customer Review: Best External HD around
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a graphic designer and need to have multiple backups of everything I have. I've purchased many popular brand name HD's in the past and had issues(segate, western digital). SimpleTech so far has been the best yet. Others are loud and get way too hot but this drive is super quiet, super cool and turns itself on and off only when backups/auto backups are happening. Many other drives stay on 24-7 (like the cavalry) which kills the drive after time plus they heat up where you need a hot mitt to touch it.
Its very small and compact in size, does get a lot of finger prints on it but other then that its a great external drive. It has a cool blue oval ring of LED lights that show activity and also act as a capacity meter showing how much space is used. Its also a 7200 rpm drive which is much faster then many others that are more expensive and hold less. You also can't beat the price for a 500 gig drive! I recommend this drive!
Customer Review: Great drive for backup w/ sleek design.
Summary: 5 Stars
A while back I got a great deal on this 500GB hard drive (not at Amazon). The drive is very sleek and comes in cool colors. I have the black unit and matches in well with the rest of my PC and A/V components. I use this drive as an external archiving device for my Dish Network (DN) ViP622 HD receiver. Recently, DN has enabled this feature on their ViPs. I was coming close to filling up the DVR and this simple and painless upgrade has been awesome. The receiver detected the SimpleTech with ease, formated the drive in 2 minutes, and from that point on I have about 490 GB worth of extra DVR space. Playing archived video either in SD or HD format is no different vs. playing direct from the receiver. Outstanding quality/no complaints! This drive comes in 750GB and 1TB capacities and should be a worthy upgrade for PC/Mac backup as well. FYI, There is another variation of this unit with also a FireWire port.