Toshiba 500 GB

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I have half a dozen Toshiba portable drives and some of them have served me well for several years. They are reliable and fast -- with the 500GB portable drive I get about 20MB/s read and write speeds (tested on two recent HP laptops, one with Intel and the other with AMD both running Vista), which is half of USB 2.0 high-speed's theoretical max throughput. The drives can be used with the PS3 and Macs out-of-box, but for best results with XP/Vista/Win7 you can convert it to NTFS without reformatting or losing existing data via a DOS command: convert g: /fs:ntfs [where g: is the drive letter, or you can use a volume name like "tosh_500g" if your drive is already named tosh_500g].
Because this drive (like other portable drives) does not use a separate power line -- it draws power directly from the USB port -- your computer must have a powered USB port to use this. Almost all recent desktops and laptops have this feature, but if you experience any problem, it may be due to an insufficiently powered USB port (or USB hub), so try another port or another computer.
In addition to being a fast 5,400RPM drive, this Toshiba includes some valuable features:
- Backup software that backs up system files in addition to regular files and folders (great for system recovery!) - Password-protect your data through encryption - Drive space alert lets you know when free space is running low - Toshiba's famous shock-absorbing technology, also used in iPods.
BTW, this drive is also a great value because at present a 320GB Seagate portable drive costs over [...], plus tax.