Maxell myGEN 250 GB Portable External Hard Drive MY-250 (Black)
Maxell myGEN 250 GB Portable External Hard Drive MY-250 (Black)
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List Price: $ 85.50
best Price :$ 65.14
this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up)
- Backup all your computer’s files with the option to specifically copy music, photos or other data
- Pre-installed Maxell software enables continuous backup
- Simply plugs into your USB port for easy use
- Add extra protection with optional AES encryption
- PC and Mac compatible
The Maxell myGEN Multi PC External Hard Drive is a simple and intuitive backup hard drive that can store your computer’s collection of files. Pre-installed Maxell backup software gives you continuous backup that will automatically copy your files as you modify them. Protect your backup files with optional AES encryption and sync your files with to a personal “cloud” on the internet for ultra-safe backup.
List Price:$ 85.50
best Price :$ 65.14
this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up)
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about 10 months ago
A very nice backup system …,
One of my first questions when I installed this was “what does it mean by back up your hard drive in minutes?”
I have a 250 Gb Laptop (HP Pavillion), Vista 64 with 4 Gb Ram. It has more than 200 Gb on it. Of that 41 Gb were files that were transferred to the backup hard drive. It took one hour and 10 minutes to completely backup these files the first time. You have a choice of what types of files to back up, and whether you want automatic backup or manual backup.
While the system ran the backup, I Skyped online, and ran other programs. It was very polite, and did not slow down anything I was working on. Best of all, each time you turn your computer on or plug the backup drive in, it automatically reviews any changes and backs up your data. Mine takes about 5-6 minutes, and is not noticeable when I am working on my computer. Most of the time I am keeping it plugged in, and it automatically updates all of my documents onto the drive.
As someone who doesn’t have time to learn a lot of programming (I just want things to work right), this backup was perfect. I plugged it in (using the attached cord) and it worked it’s heart out without me really doing anything more than answering a couple of simple questions about what I wanted backed up. I also tried the extension cord, directly into the USB port, and it worked well with only one USB plug on my computer (the extension cord has two, in case you need them).
What I like BEST is the fact that it will back up more than one computer AND will do it across platforms. As someone with both a MAC and Windows computer, this is a very neat feature. If you intend to do this, be sure to read the instructions first, since it does require special formatting to make certain that the drive is able to be read by both. Because of this feature, it makes a super way to transfer very large files from one platform to another. You back it up, then export it to the other computer without hassles.
It is an ideal backup for my laptop, small (a little larger than a pack of cards), USB port only (no plug needed), and it sits nicely under my trackball. Because it is so convenient, and doesn’t disrupt my computer, I am happy to have it run in the background.
I would rate this as incredible for the non-professional as a super backup for all those things you don’t want to lose that we keep on our computers today – photos, videos, music, and oh yes, those work documents too.
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|about 10 months ago
Basic Little External USB HDD, With Some Flaws / Limitations,
First, the “aesthetics”. This is an attractive enough little external USB hard drive. It is encased in a black metal case with black plastic endcaps. It measures 5.25″ x 3.25″ x .625″ (smaller than the dimensions stated in the product description). The long edges of the case are nicely curved. On the front endcap, there is a 2.25″ translucent “slit” that glows with blue LED light when the drive is powered up, and that flashes when the drive is accessed. On the back endcap, there is a permanently attached 2″ long USB cable. It thoughtfully tucks into a recess built-in to the back endcap – when it is stowed, only a small tab on the USB plug extrudes from the surface of the endcap so the cable can be pulled out. Included with the drive is a USB extension cord – with two male plugs at the end that attaches to your computer or hub (more on that in a moment). Also included is an instruction card & a “warning card” to Mac users that states the drive is pre-formatted NTFS & will need to be reformatted to be useable on a Mac.
I have two Macs (a 15″ MacBook Pro & a 27″ iMac), both with OS X 10.6.4 installed & a “generic” PC that I built myself with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit installed. On my Macs, Disk Utility reports that this Maxell external HDD contains a Toshiba MK2565GSX drive (5400 RPM, 8MB Cache, 2.5″ SATA, 3.0Gb/s).
I tested this HDD on all three of my systems. Here are my results:
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MACBOOK PRO, 15″ (May 2006, model identifier MacBookPro1,1 w/ 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo CPU, 2 GB RAM)
When plugging the drive into the USB port on the right side of my MBP using the short permanent USB cable, my MBP immediately POWERS OFF! I tried this several times, and each & every time, my laptop powered off immediately w/o doing a proper shutdown. Interestingly, when I attach the supplied extension cord to the short USB cord and plug in only one of the male plugs on the other end to THE SAME USB port, the drive powers up & mounts fine. Using the USB port on the other (left) side of my MBP, the drive powers up & mounts fine with or without the extension cord. Same with using a self-powered USB hub. Note that my laptop was connected to an AC power source during all these tests.
IMAC, 27″ (October 2009, model identifier iMac11,1 w/ 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM)
Drive powers up & mounts fine to the USB ports on the back of my iMac, as well as to a self-powered USB hub. Works fine with or without the supplied extension cord (needing to use only one of the male plugs on the end that attaches to computer / hub).
GENERIC PC (Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600, 4 GB RAM)
Drive powers up & mounts fine both with & without the supplied extension cord on a self-powered hub. Powers up, but will not mount using only one connection to a USB port on the PC with the extension cord – requires BOTH male plugs be plugged into two separate ports to power up & mount. Powers up & mounts fine when connected to one port using the permanently attached short USB cord.
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Like many external USB hard drives, this one may or may not draw enough power from a single USB port / connection in order to power up & mount successfully. I have encountered this before with other external USB drives. It all depends on a particular USB port’s power output. So, drive manufacturers provide means to supply the extra power when the disk drive is attached to an under-powered USB port. Some provide a separate power connection & supply – this drive by Maxell provides an extra USB connection spliced into the extension cord so that a second USB port can be plugged into to provide the extra power. BUT, on some laptops, like my Macbook Pro, there is only one port on each side of the laptop, so the spliced cable does not work. Self powered USB hubs can overcome this, however.
Nonetheless, I have never seen an external USB HDD cause a laptop to immediately power down like this one did when attached to my MacBook Pro w/ the drive’s short cable (and I have used or tested several other drives over the years, mostly made by LaCie). I found this unacceptable, albeit avoidable as I had a couple of work arounds (use the extension cord, or a hub).
As for the supplied software, like the previous Mac user who reviewed this drive, I use Time Machine & am very happy with it. I did start the install of the supplied Maxell software to see what it looked like, however. Once I saw how “clunky” the interface was, I aborted the install. I didn’t bother installing it on my Windows 7 PC, as I use some other software there that I like a lot (Oops! Backup), and I assumed the supplied software would be similarly “clunky” there, as is most “free” software that comes with disk…
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|about 10 months ago
Mac software is terrible, as expected,
I have an Intel Mac Mini running OS X 10.6. I also have a 1GB Time Capsule, so I’m already doing automatic backups in the background. The Time Machine software is, like all Apple software, elegant, reliable, and easy to use. So I didn’t really need another backup system, but I figured I’d give this one a chance since it claims Mac support.
Well, the Mac software that comes with this driver is pretty crappy. The version that came with the drive is out of date, of course. Even if it weren’t, it refuses to run directly from the myGEN drive because the drive is NTFS formatted, so I can’t use it anyway. I have to reformat the drive as a native Mac OS file system before the software will recognize it.
So I downloaded a new version from the web site. The first thing that application did was tell me that there is a new version available and if I want to download it. Huh? Didn’t I just download the latest version? Apparently not.
So then I download the real latest version and start it. As I expected, the user interface is ugly and very “un-Macish”. It’s ugly even for a PC application. The worst part, however, is that the UI has bugs! Clicking with the mouse on some of the buttons doesn’t work most of the time! I had to use the tab key to switch from one control to the next, and then press Enter when I think I got the right one.
The software tells me that it has to be installed on an external drive, but because I forgot to format it the first time I launched it, I didn’t see the myGEN drive as an option. Once I reformat the drive, the software seems to work. But it’s so clunky compared to Time Machine. Not only that, but in order for the software to provide automatic backups, the application has to keep running, which means it takes up a spot in the Dock.
There’s an option for free online backup, but I didn’t try it. I don’t really need it, and I don’t trust Maxell to keep my information secure. After all, I have to sign a user agreement to use their service. How do I send them an agreement that they have to sign to ensure that my information is secure?
So basically, like most bundled third-party Mac software, this software is worthless. So this drive is should really be compared with other, bundle-less portable 250GB drives. In this respect, it seems okay. I haven’t run any performance tests on it (I will try to do that later). It has a nice feature that the USB cable can be tucked into the drive itself, but unfortunately, it’s way too short by itself. It’s only about two inches long, so you generally have to use the included USB extension cord if you want to use it with a desktop. With a laptop, it’s probably okay without the extension cord, so it’s not a bad choice if you want to use the drive between one desktop and one or more laptops.
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