Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 750 GB External Storage

Internal hard drive capacities are assuming gargantuan proportions, and their external counterparts are not far behind - they're almost matching the capacities, albeit at an understandably higher price. Now storage giant Maxtor has come up with a 750 GB version of its OneTouch 4 Plus external drive: the STM307504OTE3E5-RK. We got our hands on one of these and passed it through our tests.

The Bundle
Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 750 GB (STM307504OTE3E5-RK)
Power adapter
USB 2.0 cable
FireWire 400 cable
Software CD
Manual

There's a problem with the power adapter: the plug is not of the kind that goes into the sockets usually used in India; it requires an adapter.

Specifications
Capacity: 750 GB
RPM: 7200
Cache Buffer: 16 MB
Interface: FireWire 400, USB 2.0 compliant and 1.1 compatible
Sustained Transfer Rate (FireWire 400): 43 MB/sec
Sustained Transfer Rate (USB 2.0): 33 MB/sec
Dimensions: 63.5 x 152.4 x 171.45 mm
Weight: 1.11 kg
OS compatibility: Mac and PC
Bundled software: Maxtor Manager (backup, syncing, disk imaging, and security)


Features

The drive sports a black plastic and metal chassis: a black plastic rib sandwiched between two concave brushed-aluminium side-plates. This ruggedly built drive is unusually sleek for a 750 GB external backup drive, measuring a maximum of 63 mm in width at the base, and tapering towards the top. It is also considerably lighter than others in its class at just over a kilo, and that makes it easier to carry around.

The shape, as you can see in the photo above, has an uncanny resemblance to a motor oil can sans the handle and the spout - rather stylish for something as boring as an external hard drive!

The black plastic part has an inconspicuous backup button at the front, which remains hidden at the bottom. It is camouflaged as the power LED. The LED is white: in addition to being more distracting than LEDs of other colours, it also gives this drive a rather cheap look.

At the back, near the base, are different ports - one USB 2.0 and two FireWire 400, and a power adapter socket, in addition to a Kensington lock slot for added security. The dual FireWire 400 ports enable you to augment the capacity of external storage by daisy-chaining more such drives. Unfortunately, the enclosure has not been shaped to make stacking the drives easy. The power switch is conspicuous by its absence. Near the tapering top, at the back, there are grills for ventilation to let out the air heated by the hard drive within the enclosure.

Performance

Before we started testing the performance, we clean- formatted the drive with the NTFS file system. We connected the drive to the test system via USB 2.0. We used SiSoft Sandra 2008 to benchmark the drive with the File System module. We then conducted the more important and relevant real-world tests by transferring assorted files and then a large sequential file to gauge raw performance.

Real World Performance Tests

Assorted File Write Test (host PC to drive)
Size: 3.67 GB
Time: 2:07 minutes
Effective speed: 29.59 MBps

Assorted Files Read Test (drive to host PC)
Size: 3.67 GB
Time: 2:23 minutes
Effective speed: 26.28 MBps

Sequential File Write Test (host PC to drive)
Size: 4.36 GB
Time: 2:26 minutes
Effective speed: 30.57 MBps

Sequential File Read Test (drive to host PC)
Size: 4.36 GB
Time: 2:42 minutes
Effective speed: 27.56 MBps

Analysis

The drive performs on par with most of the better external drives we've tested. It scored a drive index of 29 in the SiSoft Sandra 2008 filesystem benchmark, which is a high score by any standards for an external hard drive.

In the real-world file transfer test, it took around two and a half minutes to transfer a 4.36 GB file. Thus, this will be the amount of time that it may take to transfer a whole DVD image or DVD video.

The bundled software is good enough for the tasks it can do; the lack of the incremental option remains a sore point, though.

In Sum

The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 750 GB (STM307504OTE3E5-RK) is priced at a surprisingly low Rs 11,600, which makes it one of the cheapest backup drives available with this capacity, charging you not too much of a premium above its internal counterpart. In our opinion, 750 GB is good enough to qualify this as a backup drive, and we're sure this will be echoed by most system administrators. But the considerably lower price makes this affordable for home use too. Add to that a five-year limited warranty, and we have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this drive - for its sheer value for money and commendable performance. And yes, it looks good too!