| Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 80GB External Hard Drive
|
Software:
The software included with the new OneTouch 4 series is also new, and for the first time it was developed in-house at Seagate/Maxtor. Referred to as Maxtor Manager, this application provides a suite of related functions in one very clean and easy to use interface. Installation was extremely quick and easy, and after a reboot of the system, it was ready for action.
The below left image shows the software on the "My Drives" screen, which is effectively the home page. Here you see the compatible drives connected to the system, and configure various settings related to them (like what the OneTouch button does and how long until the drive goes into power saving mode). The below right screen shows the "Backup" screen where you can configure all aspects related to backing up files.
 
You can let the OneTouch drive do a simple backup where just the My Documents folder is backed up every night at 10PM, or you can create your own backup scheme where the files and folders of your choice are backed up according to the schedule you set (see below left image). A backup can then be launched from the software, or via the OneTouch button on the drive, and the screen shown in the below right image will pop up to indicate the progress of the operation.
 
Moving from left to right, the next screen is for the "Sync" function (shown in the below left image). As with backing up, you can choose to do a simple sync that just grabs the My Documents folder, or you can configure a custom sync. What the Sync function allows you to do is create a copy of one computer's selected folder(s), bring the drive to a second computer, and then have the original folder(s) cloned onto the second computer.
 
The next screen is for "Safety", and is appropriately marked with a life preserver (see above right image). This screen provides access to what Maxtor refers to as SafetyDrill, a component of the software that allows the OneTouch 4 drive to create a complete copy of your entire hard drive for use in restoring from a drive failure or perhaps just for a hard drive upgrade. The OneTouch 4 drive will store all files (if you can actually fit them onto one 80GB drive), and if/when you ever need to restore your system, an additional CD is required. This CD (also provided by Maxtor) is a custom Linux distribution that is used to boot up and get the recovery process started while accessing the OneTouch 4 drive for its contents.
The final screen to consider is for "Security". Here the user can create a password to protect the entire drive using "DrivePass", as well as setting up encryption on select folders on the drive. DrivePass allows you to create a password, with a reminder question in case you lose it, and this password is required any time you try to access the drive for the first time after being connected or powered up. The encryption function requires another password, and when selected it launches another window from which the encrypted files and folders are managed. You simply drag and drop items into the encryption window and the software takes care of the rest.
 
The software bundled into the Maxtor Manager application adds a great deal of value to the OneTouch 4 Mini. Not only does it provide excellent utilities to maximize the use of the drive, but the interface is very intuitive and all steps are a snap to configure and execute. The only problem I have with the software ties back into the drive's capacity. While larger versions are available, I could see the 80GB drive filling up without even being able to use more than one feature (Backup, Sync, or SafetyDrill). My "My Documents" folder alone is over 70GB, so the drive is about full already. While systems with smaller system hard drives wouldn't experience this problem, those with big drives with plenty of data on them may want to check out the full size versions of the Maxtor OneTouch 4 series.
|
|
|
|
