Price : Too low to display
HP External Hard Drive is the easy way to add fast, reliable, desktop storage and backup to your computer. It offers high capacity to store all your important files, dual USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatibility for connectivity now and in the future, and SimpleSave backup software to help protect your data.
This review is from : HP Desktop 3 TB USB 3.0/2.0 External Hard Drive
Spacious not so fast spins down when idle . This drive is received under the Vine program, but I try to rate it as if I bought it at its current price. I own a number of external drives, including a 200GB Maxtor Firewire bought 6 to 7 years ago (still functional) and a number of removable drives (ranging from 320GB through 1.5TB) that connects through eSATA.
Pros:
Comes with USB 3.0 cable
Relatively quiet (especially when no read/write activity), cool
Spins down when not connected, or after 30 minutes of no activity
Power adapter can handle international voltage (100-240V, 50/60Hz)
Preformatted in NTFS
Lots of space!
Cons:
Not very stable, easy to knock over
Requires USB 3.0 cable, may be hard to find
No real advantage to having USB 3.0
Bulky, requires power adapter (but that's the same for everything near this capacity)
No hardware encryption - if you want to secure your files, use something like TrueCrypt
Let me start off by saying that, if a USB 2.0 version is available for less money, get that one instead. You don't really gain much, if any, advantage with USB 3.0 with this drive. If you're interested in bragging rights by having the latest and greatest, you should wait for Thunderbolt / Light Peak to be available (or affordable). You sacrifice some convenience with a USB 3.0 drive - you need a USB 3.0 cable since the connector on the drive is a mini USB 3.0. Although the drive works perfectly on a USB 2.0 computer (which is what I tested on), you need the USB 3.0 cable.
The package is fairly simple. The drive, a USB 3.0 cable and a power adapter. The adapter does work with international voltage (100-240V, 50/60Hz) if you plan to travel with it - you'll need adapters for different countries, of course, since this has a 2 prong ungrounded US style adapter. There's also a quick install guide that should not be necessary. Software is on the drive, but I did not check it out. According to the documentation, in its default setting, it will back up your computer's drive.
The drive is designed to be placed vertically. The front and side surfaces are glossy plastic. The top, bottom and back have ventilation holes. It does not look designed to be placed on its side, which is a pity because vertically it is not stable. If you get some small rubber feet and stick it to the right side (the cables are close to this side), you can use it horizontally without worrying about it sliding around.
In operation, the drive is fairly quiet. I can just make out the sound of the drive spinning in a quiet room when it is 2 feet away from my head. When reading or writing, there is a louder clicking sound. A blue LED flashes to indicate disk activity, stays on when the drive is idle, and flashes slowly when the drive is in power savings mode.
Which brings me to what I like about this drive. After you disconnect the drive from the computer physically, or if it is idle for 30 minutes, the drive will spin down. Note that my system is set to never spin hard disks down, so this is something built into the drive or controller, not a setting on my system. If you "safely remove" the drive from your computer, it might or might not spin down immediately depending on your system. It does not on my desktop, but it does on my laptop.
The downside to having it spin down is that there is a 10 second delay when accessing the drive after it has spun down.
I did not open it up to take a look, but I believe this to be some variant of the Western Digital Green 5400 rpm drive. The surprising thing is that the retail price of this drive is lower than the price of a bare 3 TB drive. Transfer speed is nothing to get excited over. I copied about 900 images (11685 MB) from my local hard disk over to this drive, and it took about 11 minutes. Calculated it is slightly above 140 Mbps, or 17.7 MB/s. That's well below what USB 2.0 is capable of, let alone USB 3.0 (which should be able to copy files at around 400 MB/s after taking into account protocol overhead).
Why so slow? I'm copying a bunch of relatively small files, from hard disk. If I'm to use a benchmarking program, I'm sure I would get higher numbers. But considering the purpose of this drive is for backing up, I'd say mine is a more realistic test.
I'm fairly price sensitive when it comes to hard drives, since I buy a lot of them. This one is fairly reasonably priced, but I would definitely have bought a USB 2 version instead, and probably a 1.5TB or 2TB drive if they cost less $ per GB. Being the largest USB 3.0 drive available, this one is surprisingly inexpensive. I will probably connect this one to my router to make it into a NAS, since it can spin down to save power.
Spacious not so fast spins down when idle . This drive is received under the Vine program, but I try to rate it as if I bought it at its current price. I own a number of external drives, including a 200GB Maxtor Firewire bought 6 to 7 years ago (still functional) and a number of removable drives (ranging from 320GB through 1.5TB) that connects through eSATA.
Pros:
Comes with USB 3.0 cable
Relatively quiet (especially when no read/write activity), cool
Spins down when not connected, or after 30 minutes of no activity
Power adapter can handle international voltage (100-240V, 50/60Hz)
Preformatted in NTFS
Lots of space!
Cons:
Not very stable, easy to knock over
Requires USB 3.0 cable, may be hard to find
No real advantage to having USB 3.0
Bulky, requires power adapter (but that's the same for everything near this capacity)
No hardware encryption - if you want to secure your files, use something like TrueCrypt
Let me start off by saying that, if a USB 2.0 version is available for less money, get that one instead. You don't really gain much, if any, advantage with USB 3.0 with this drive. If you're interested in bragging rights by having the latest and greatest, you should wait for Thunderbolt / Light Peak to be available (or affordable). You sacrifice some convenience with a USB 3.0 drive - you need a USB 3.0 cable since the connector on the drive is a mini USB 3.0. Although the drive works perfectly on a USB 2.0 computer (which is what I tested on), you need the USB 3.0 cable.
The package is fairly simple. The drive, a USB 3.0 cable and a power adapter. The adapter does work with international voltage (100-240V, 50/60Hz) if you plan to travel with it - you'll need adapters for different countries, of course, since this has a 2 prong ungrounded US style adapter. There's also a quick install guide that should not be necessary. Software is on the drive, but I did not check it out. According to the documentation, in its default setting, it will back up your computer's drive.
The drive is designed to be placed vertically. The front and side surfaces are glossy plastic. The top, bottom and back have ventilation holes. It does not look designed to be placed on its side, which is a pity because vertically it is not stable. If you get some small rubber feet and stick it to the right side (the cables are close to this side), you can use it horizontally without worrying about it sliding around.
In operation, the drive is fairly quiet. I can just make out the sound of the drive spinning in a quiet room when it is 2 feet away from my head. When reading or writing, there is a louder clicking sound. A blue LED flashes to indicate disk activity, stays on when the drive is idle, and flashes slowly when the drive is in power savings mode.
Which brings me to what I like about this drive. After you disconnect the drive from the computer physically, or if it is idle for 30 minutes, the drive will spin down. Note that my system is set to never spin hard disks down, so this is something built into the drive or controller, not a setting on my system. If you "safely remove" the drive from your computer, it might or might not spin down immediately depending on your system. It does not on my desktop, but it does on my laptop.
The downside to having it spin down is that there is a 10 second delay when accessing the drive after it has spun down.
I did not open it up to take a look, but I believe this to be some variant of the Western Digital Green 5400 rpm drive. The surprising thing is that the retail price of this drive is lower than the price of a bare 3 TB drive. Transfer speed is nothing to get excited over. I copied about 900 images (11685 MB) from my local hard disk over to this drive, and it took about 11 minutes. Calculated it is slightly above 140 Mbps, or 17.7 MB/s. That's well below what USB 2.0 is capable of, let alone USB 3.0 (which should be able to copy files at around 400 MB/s after taking into account protocol overhead).
Why so slow? I'm copying a bunch of relatively small files, from hard disk. If I'm to use a benchmarking program, I'm sure I would get higher numbers. But considering the purpose of this drive is for backing up, I'd say mine is a more realistic test.
I'm fairly price sensitive when it comes to hard drives, since I buy a lot of them. This one is fairly reasonably priced, but I would definitely have bought a USB 2 version instead, and probably a 1.5TB or 2TB drive if they cost less $ per GB. Being the largest USB 3.0 drive available, this one is surprisingly inexpensive. I will probably connect this one to my router to make it into a NAS, since it can spin down to save power.
HP Desktop 3 TB USB 3.0/2.0 External Hard Drive Reviews
Fairly decent product that works as advertised with only one drawback . I've never had a comprehensive backup and storage solution for my PC and was grateful for the opportunity to see if this HP product would fit the bill. Right out of the box, it was essentially "plug and play", and it went right to work backing up my files and folders. The first backup took quite a while (something like three hours for 300GB or so, I think), but after that, it was unobtrusive and quick in updating any changed files. I like the look of the shiny black plastic, and yes the unit is not incredibly stable when set upright, but it never fell over when I was using it, so that wasn't an issue. The software was a little kludge-y I felt, but it was effective enough. I am subtracting a star, however, for lack of Mac compatibility, which is just inconvenient in my one-PC, two-Mac household. Other than that, this product worked well and I'm happy to put it to good use.
Fairly decent product that works as advertised with only one drawback . I've never had a comprehensive backup and storage solution for my PC and was grateful for the opportunity to see if this HP product would fit the bill. Right out of the box, it was essentially "plug and play", and it went right to work backing up my files and folders. The first backup took quite a while (something like three hours for 300GB or so, I think), but after that, it was unobtrusive and quick in updating any changed files. I like the look of the shiny black plastic, and yes the unit is not incredibly stable when set upright, but it never fell over when I was using it, so that wasn't an issue. The software was a little kludge-y I felt, but it was effective enough. I am subtracting a star, however, for lack of Mac compatibility, which is just inconvenient in my one-PC, two-Mac household. Other than that, this product worked well and I'm happy to put it to good use.
HP Desktop 3 TB USB 3.0/2.0 External Hard Drive Opinions
HP Desktop 1TB USB 3.0/2.0 Ext HD . Easy plug and play to my new Windows 7 PC. No problem connecting to 3.0 USB. Easy configuration set up. Works great behind the scenes with several back ups. No issues so far in the first few weeks of use.
HP Desktop 1TB USB 3.0/2.0 Ext HD . Easy plug and play to my new Windows 7 PC. No problem connecting to 3.0 USB. Easy configuration set up. Works great behind the scenes with several back ups. No issues so far in the first few weeks of use.
Could Be Better . This unit does what it says it will, but v-e-r-y slowly. The USB 3.0 data speed transference claim is an outright joke. Don't expect speeds anywhere near 3.0.
Also, be careful to safely remove the drive if using on another computer. Failure to do so results in corrupting the partion it installs, requiring reformatting the drive and wiping everything on it (including the internal back up software it comes with). The software then has to be downloaded from the HP site.
Incidentally, HP support is clueless when it comes to troubleshooting anything but laptops and desktops. They told me to call Western Digital support (the actual manufacturer of this drive, albeit branded as 'HP'). They were very competent in resolving issues associated with the drive.
Finally, why in the hell doesn't this unit have an enternet port like other Western Digital externals so it can be used as a Network drive?!
Bottom Line: Save yourself the trouble and get a Western Digital unit instead.
Also, be careful to safely remove the drive if using on another computer. Failure to do so results in corrupting the partion it installs, requiring reformatting the drive and wiping everything on it (including the internal back up software it comes with). The software then has to be downloaded from the HP site.
Incidentally, HP support is clueless when it comes to troubleshooting anything but laptops and desktops. They told me to call Western Digital support (the actual manufacturer of this drive, albeit branded as 'HP'). They were very competent in resolving issues associated with the drive.
Finally, why in the hell doesn't this unit have an enternet port like other Western Digital externals so it can be used as a Network drive?!
Bottom Line: Save yourself the trouble and get a Western Digital unit instead.
I rate this HEWLETT-PACKARD over WD or SEAGATE . I'm backing up a DELL INSPIRON 530S desktop computer running WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL. Prior to this HP drive, I had a [500 GB] SEAGATE that died just after 2 years of service. This one has more storage capacity [1 TB] and is EXTREMELY quiet. I am using the USB 2 port which works fine. I tried to install a BELKIN PCI adaptor [-2- USB3 ports] with no success so I returned it. I would suggest using this drive.
Device Works . As opposed to Iomega large external HDDs, this device works and is not plagued by poor disk quality nor poor power supply issues.
Recommended for applications where reliable, unattended external data storage is required.
Recommended for applications where reliable, unattended external data storage is required.
Great backup! . My husband purchased this external hard drive for me to protect the tens of thousands of photos I have on my computer of our children. I love how simple it is to use and that it is constantly backing things up without me having to remember to do it. Thankfully I haven't had to use it to restore any lost data but it looks like it would be easy to do that if I ever needed to. I highly recommend this external hard drive for the space it offers and the ease of use.
Plenty of storage at a reasonable price . I have long wanted to have an external hard drive to back up the files on my home computers. Thanks to amazon.com's vine program, I was able to try this one for free. I have been using for over 6 months since I got it, it has been working great so far, setting is up was fairly easy, no software to install. It works on all my PCs with different OS ranging from XP to the latest 7. I have a total of 4 computers at home, and I could put all the important files like pictures, music, personal docs all on this external hard drive, and there are still more than half of the total space left. This will last me at least several years for all my backup needs.
i like it . am glad that i got this hard drive i will be getting another.....i wish this hard drive was out last year i would have got it
Cons Review
Unsure of its value / reliability . Background: I am a part-time digital photographer always needing storage solutions. I am an advanced computer user easily replacing and installing internal and external computer parts including drives. I am using a Dell Inspiron desktop running Windows 7. Though received under the Vine program, my reviews are conducted as if purchased at the current price listed on Amazon.
The drive comes with a USB 3.0 backwards compatible cable and requires the use of a large power adapter. Installation is typical of any external drive. This drive did not powerup on first use. I know it was properly plugged in and installed. I uninstalled completely, reinstalled, and held down the power button until it started. At that point, I knew I would not trust this drive with my images. The drive can be placed vertically (falls over easily) or horizontally just as with 99% of the other external drives. The drive operates quitely compared to many others BUT idles down independent of computer settings. This could be a real problem for those moving this drive between computers on a regular basis. It also results in a 12 second delay (timed) in starting up from an idled down stage. Of particular concern was the data transfer rate, which I meaasured at 13mb per second (approx. measured data rate average) transferring 21mb Nikon RAW files. Clearly, this rate varies from user to user and system to system with many contributing variables. BUT, that is a very slow rate of transfer, regardless.
3tb is a large size drive and this drive is at a great price point. However, I would not trust this drive with mission critical (as in my images) without having a least one primary backup. This drive may serve most people as a secondary or even primary backup drive.
The drive comes with a USB 3.0 backwards compatible cable and requires the use of a large power adapter. Installation is typical of any external drive. This drive did not powerup on first use. I know it was properly plugged in and installed. I uninstalled completely, reinstalled, and held down the power button until it started. At that point, I knew I would not trust this drive with my images. The drive can be placed vertically (falls over easily) or horizontally just as with 99% of the other external drives. The drive operates quitely compared to many others BUT idles down independent of computer settings. This could be a real problem for those moving this drive between computers on a regular basis. It also results in a 12 second delay (timed) in starting up from an idled down stage. Of particular concern was the data transfer rate, which I meaasured at 13mb per second (approx. measured data rate average) transferring 21mb Nikon RAW files. Clearly, this rate varies from user to user and system to system with many contributing variables. BUT, that is a very slow rate of transfer, regardless.
3tb is a large size drive and this drive is at a great price point. However, I would not trust this drive with mission critical (as in my images) without having a least one primary backup. This drive may serve most people as a secondary or even primary backup drive.
Product Image
Feature HP Desktop 3 TB USB 3.0/2.0 External Hard Drive
- USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 connectivity
- Access and save files up to 3x faster
- SimpleSave automatic backup software
- Plug-and-play storage
- Pre-formatted for Windows
Product Details
EAN : 0718037775258UPC : 718037775258
MPN : WDBW2A0030HBK-NESN
Brand : HP
Weight : 3 pounds
Height : 7 inches
Length : 9 inches
Width : 7 inches
Binding : Personal Computers
Manufacturer : WestBow Press A Division of Thomas Nelson
Model : WDBW2A0030HBK-NESN
Publisher : WestBow Press A Division of Thomas Nelson
Size : 3 TB
SKU : 718037775258
Studio : WestBow Press A Division of Thomas Nelson
Where To Buy
You can buy HP Desktop 3 TB USB 3.0/2.0 External Hard Drive on Amazon . Click here to Read More
