Cavalry Storage CAXM Series 500 GB USB / eSATA External Hard Drive CAXM37500 - Includes eSATA Kit Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been using this for a few months and I'm probably going to get another one soon. I've checked out other drives with esata, and they were more expensive and/or didn't have the esata accessories. Also, some of the esata drives didn't have USB 2.0 and just had esata. I don't use USB to connect to the drive but if I need to I'd like the option. Not all motherboards have the hookup. The esata bridge goes directly to one of your slots on the motherboard.
PROS
Definite pros are the speed, size, and cost. Also, consider that you don't have to buy any additional cards to use esata. My machine doesn't have any firewire ports and the cards cost roughly third the cost of this drive. I've read the drive gets hot, but mine is really cool. Maybe this is because I have mine sitting vertically. Also, it's really quiet even with the fan. Esata is roughly 300% faster than USB 2.0, firewire.
CONS
It was slightly tricky to install with Vista. I turned mine off serveral times before I saw the drive.
I reformatted the drive to one FAT32 partition and I couldn't do it from Vista, I had to use a machine with XP. But this is not the drives fault.
The light is really bright. I cover the light up and never really touch the button. My drive is always on.
The esata bridge takes up a PCI slot, sort of as stated before it goes directly to the motherboard not into the PCI slot. There is only one esata port. If I buy a second one I would either use another PCI. However, I bought a bridge that has two esata ports with two cables that plugs to each of my free motherboard sata ports for less than 10 dollars.
I think the MyBooks look better, LOL.
All in all this is a smart buy. The pros definitely outway the minor cons.


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The Cavalry CAXM37500 3.5-Inch 500 GB SATA External Hard Drive is superb external mobile solution for all your data storage needs. The hard drive features an aluminum casing to keep the pre-installed 500 GB SATA hard drive nice and cool to extend the life of the drive. The CAXM37500 supports an incredible transfer rate of 3 Gbps (SATA) and 480 Mbps (USB 2.0), making it easy to add storage to any system with either SATA or USB connectivity. And with it's portable design, and plug and play, hot-swappable connection, Cavalry makes it hassle-free to take your data with you anywhere.
What's in the Box Cavalry CAXM37500 3.5-inch 500GB SATA external hard drive, power adapter, power cord, eSATA to eSATA cable, USB cable, and vertical stand. The latest drivers and resources and be downloaded at http://www.cavalrystorage.com.

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Seagate FreeAgent DockStar Network Adapter STDSA10G-RK (White) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)You can use this as a home network server for windows without signing up with pogoplug or installing any software.
Plug your USB drive into your computer, format it (preferably with NTFS) and create a file on it named .ceid
Using notepad, or your favorite text editor, put these lines in the file (replacing yoursharename with a name of your own choosing). Note the mode=rw allows reading and writing.
servicename=yoursharename
xcode.metadata=never
xcode.thumbnail=never
xcode.stream=never
cifs.mode=rw
Plug the usb drive into the Dockstar, and you're all set. The drive will be available as
\\fadsMMMMMM\yoursharename (where MMMMMM are the last 6 letters and numbers of the Dockstar's mac address, which is on the label on the bottom).
Note you can plug up to 3 regular usb drives and one Seagate Go drive into this. You do not need a go drive.
For maximum security, I recommend using your internet router's firewall to block all internet access from whatever ip address gets assigned to the dockstar.

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The FreeAgent DockStar network adapter allows you to share your digital life with anyone, anywhere. Centralize your files to a single location and access them with any networked computer in your home. Create a shared space for your friends to download content you designate and to upload their own content.The FreeAgent DockStar network adapter is a compact dock which allows FreeAgent Go portable drives and most USB storage devices to be shared on your local network or accessed remotely via the internet, after service activation. The FreeAgent Go drive simply slides into the FreeAgent DockStar network adapter, making it easy to remove when you want to take the drive with you while on-the-go. All other USB storage devices plug into one of the two rear-mounted or one side-mounted USB ports. The FreeAgent DockStar network adapter simultaneously supports up to four storage devices, so you will never have to worry about running out of storage space. Simply plug in two cables (Ethernet and power) and visit the web activation page to activate and automatically configure the network adapter. Once activated, you can access all your files with a clean, web-based interface. The same interface is used to view files from any networked computer in your home and outside of the home when accessing files remotely. The user interface displays all the files on all of the drives you have connected to the FreeAgent DockStar network adapter, along with all of the files shared with you by other FreeAgent DockStar network adapter owners.You can easily navigate the user interface with thumbnail or list views, search by file name or filter by media type. The FreeAgent DockStar network adapter also appears like a local drive on your computer, so that you can easily navigate and drag-and-drop files just like a folder on your desktop.

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Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive STAC2000100 (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Pros:
1. easy to install
2. easy to use
3. Specific Folders can be selected for backup
4. It turns off and on when computer is turned off and on.
Cons:
1. Software license only allows use with 1 computer
2. Many ads to purchase more software in the bundled software
3. There is a memory leak in the software (version 4.60.0.7252)
I plugged this thing in and it automatically started the software install which was very easy to follow. Once it was done it defaulted to backup my entire computer which was perfect because 2 TB of space if plenty of space to do this for me. The software did have an option to select only specific folders which was nice to know in case I upgrade my pc and have to limit the amount of files for backup.
The software has built in advertisements asking you to try and purchase more of their software. They are easily avoidable, but I'd rather not see them. My favorite part about the backup software bundled with this external hard drive is that it is constantly working to create a mirror image of all the data on the pc. It updates files on the external as soon as they are updated on the pc.
The biggest issue I ran into was that the software only allows you to install it on one pc. I had planned on using this drive with both my pcs and backing it up over my home network. I am going to continue using the drive, but I will go back to using cobian backup which is free; though the interface is a bit less easy.[...]
I do want to say that if you are planning on only using this with one pc or you are willing to purchase extra licenses to utilize the very easy to use interface then this is a very good product.
** My original review didn't contain the below information ***
This problem didn't occur right away. The memory leak in the memeo software bundled with the drive causes windows to popup a message that there is a problem with .NET software. Windows will handle it when you click ok, but all that happens is the Memeo software is closed. I checked the system memory before I closed the program and saw it was using over 1.5 Gigabytes of RAM. I am currently running the most up to date version of Memeo instant backup (version 4.60.0.7252).

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2TB USB2.0 FREEAGENT GOFLEX Desk

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