Verbatim Acclaim USB Portable Hard Drive user reviews (1TB)

Pros Requires only USB for power
Price per GB
7 Year Warranty
Physical size - fits in your shirt pocket

Cons Can't think of anything non-trivial

Summary I intentionally wiped the drive clean and reformatted to NTFS. I didn't buy if for auto backup but as a portable device for a MySQL database which contains ~700GB of data.

I update this database with ~3M records ~20 days per month.

I actually dropped it during a conference while connected and running an update to the MySQL database -- balanced the drive on a laptop while moving the computer hard drive slid off and bounced on the table. I was amazed that the drive was still working. . . thought I was going to have to replace it and restore all the data from my backups, but there was no loss of data from the update and the drive is still working 8 months later.

I have 3261 tables in the database, 243 of which are somewhere between 1 and 5GB each.

I have since bought two addtional powered 2TB Verbatim drives which also have 7 year warranties.

Verbatim makes the best hard drives I've ever used.

Pros Very fast transfer time of files, usually don't have to wait more than thirty seconds even for very large files. Be they movies or large amounts of photoshop files. The seven year warranty is amazing, especially when electronics seem to hate you like they

Cons Is prone to fingerprints, and I would have liked a longer connection cord to go with it.

Summary I was a little wary of buying another external hard drive after my last Seagate very suddenly stopped working, so I made sure to ask around before buying another one. Not only was this one on sale for very cheap, I haven't had a problem with it yet!
It's very easy to use, and if you really are having problems with the program, (which I don't see how you can, it's very self explanatory), you can just open up the storage and click and drop things into it.
I must admit, I haven't bothered with the Norton, but that's just because with as much as I have on this, the online backup really won't cover much.
Picky me would have also like more color choices but that's not a necessity. The drop in the ascetically pleasing factor was worth it for the peace of mind I get from this product.
If for some reason I were to need another, I would defiantly buy this brand again.

Pros 7 year warranty
small packaging
size of data storage
quiet
quality of build
price

Cons Only one color at 1TB size - black
Optional drive formatting is needed

Summary I am an IT professional. I have read the other remarks for this drive and felt the need to speak up in defense of this drive. Verbatim offers a seven year warranty on the drive. Match that against the warranty for any other drive. There is no need to buy any extended warranty because this drive has it built in for seven years!

I used to do work in the disaster recovery area. I have dealt with many drives and they all will eventually fail. I have purchased many Western Digital drives but with the exception of one (which is now making noises) they all have failed. WD makes lousy drives which is why they only offer a 1 year warranty. How important is your data? If you can afford to lose it then shop for the cheapest available, if it means something to you then get two Verbatim drives. One drive would be a duplicate of the other. I am covered and it feels very good.

The drive is formatted as FAT32 because of backward compatibility. If you owned an older OS you could not reformat the drive to FAT32 so Verbatim did what every other company does and formatted it to that file system. I wish they would give you the option to choose which format it should be in though. They should also use a wider range of colors at the 1TB size instead of just using black.

Someone down rated this dive because it was not NTFS. That person should do everyone a favor and never review anything other than his iPad. He has no concept for what lies behind technology. There are two formats which work now storing files larger than 4GB, exFAT and NTFS. exFAT is very new (works with Vista and Windows 7). It works with MAC and Linux as well after a patch is applied. Verbatim sold this drive so it would be readable by all OS out there immediately out of the box. If you don't like it then format it. For people who have older OS' they would not be able to do anything with the drive and would have to return it. That is why it is FAT32. After I reformatted to exFAT I was set to go with all files including ones 30GB in size. The drive is very quiet I can't hear it at all. It is smaller than WD's passport drive which I also own. The drive comes with a short USB cord, this is because the USB port powers the drive and the data signal strength is stronger than using a longer one.

Again, compare the warranties that will tell you which external drive you should purchase. This is the best external drive on the market today. Small and powerful I am only giving my money to Verbatim from now on. WD. Seagate and others need to improve their quality and their warranty periods. Otherwise I hope they should go out of business. If you choose not to get two of these drives and go with something else remember four words, no not "I told you so" but "Was it worth it?"

Pros I see a hardrive in the picture (I think)

Cons But don't know what it is

Summary I joined cnet to specifically write this message to the reviewer of this product.

I WANT to know what this portable hardrive is. I as a consumer want to see a semi-technical review.
Not some whitewash of its color, weight, how it looks next to a laptop, or its supposed speed.

It sounds like you are a shill for the marketing of the product you are supposedly reviewing!!

I need to put large DVR filesMPEG(TS), MANY GIGABYTES in size on a large drive. I need to know that it can
be formatted to NTFS, not FAT32. I need to know the read SPEED after formatting. I need to know if its
USB-1/2/3, and its backward comatability.

I need to know the drive electronics and its MASS STORAGE CLASS pnp DEVICE and if its BULK-TRANSPORT!!
I need to know the usb POWER requirements and VOLTAGE (example: 500 mA or 5V).
I need to know that I can take this and plug it into ANY device without the need of special software.
I need to know why it is so cheap for 1 TB when compared to some external drives at 100 GB's, costing
4 times as much.
I need to know the specifcs if the drive has moving parts, its directional proclivity, its shock capability.

HOW ABOUT DOING A CONSUMER A SERVICE AND ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS, INSTEAD OF BEING A
SHILL FOR THE PRODUCT MANUFACTURER, WITH THESE GOOEY COLOR REVIEWS ???