STM903203OTA3E1-RK, Poor backup option in image..

Overall Rating2.672.672.672.672.67

Poor backup option in image mode

If you purchased this drive and software (as I did) to restore after system crashes you may be in for a rude surprise - the included Safetydrill software does not (as claimed) delete older versions of backups as required to make space for newer ones, instead it MOVES them to an (undocumented) history folder on the same drive and new backups fail for lack of space… with the failure producing only an inconspicuous error message that could be easily overlooked by unsophisticated users.

At first I found it unbelievable that automatic backup space management was unavailable in Saftydrill, but this was confirmed by Seagate/Maxtor Tech support, making this the least capable backup “solution” I’ve encountered in the last decade.

So… it you buy this for image-type backups an intend to use the included software be aware after the first few uses it will be *your* responsibility to manage your backup space by manually deleting older backups as required!

Update (2/7/2012):

The featured review for this product, Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive STM903203OTA3E1-RK Electronics, was written by Micahel Thomas.

The average rating for this item is 2.7 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.

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Reviews (3)

MiamiTechnoLawyer

July 20th, 2010 at 4:43 am    


Overall Rating55555

Great Drive - Superb Software
At our office there are LaCie and Seagate external portable hard drives that are used for back-up of files and occasionally to transfer large quantities of files. When shopping for a external back-up solution for my home PC, I wanted a portable because I dreaded the thought of having one more plug and brick coming out of battery backup power supply that sits next to the home desktop PC. What is that mess beneath the desk my wife often asks? What are all those plugs for? With separate plugs and several power bricks for a router, external speakers, cable modem, laser printer, inkjet photo printer, a fax machine and a Western Digital 80gb external drive I did not want another plug or power brick. When the Western Digital 80gb external drive started to fail I replaced it and its power brick with the Maxtor 250gb One Touch 4 Mini. The change was a huge improvement. The Maxtor is less than 1/3 of the size and weight of the WD it replaced and it holds three times the data. Unlike the WD drive the Maxtor receives power from the USB port. The Maxtor has no power plug and no power brick.

What really sets this drive apart from the WD, Lacie, and Seagate drives I have used is the software. Some drives just allow you to back-up your data. While data back-up is essential to preserve ones digital pictures, music collection, and personal documents, if your internal hard drive crashes, data backup will not restore your operating system or applications. The One touch Mini, comes with Maxtor “Safety Drill” software that allows the user to image the entire drive, including the operating system (windows) and all applications. If the hard drive crashes, the user boots their PC with a supplied emergency CD, and then restores their whole PC from the drive image stored on the external drive. The last time a drive failed in the office, a technician charged us for half a days work to install a new drive, re-install windows, and reload various applications. With a drive image hopefully this will not be necessary. The back-up software included with the Maxtor is better than anything I have ever seen bundled with a drive. It is easy to use and it is robust. It can perform scheduled backups in the background. The Software is for the most part PC only. As such Mac users will not be better off with the Maxtor than with the excellent LaCie portables. For Windows users the bundled software makes the One Touch 4 Mini a better choice than competing options from WD, LaCie, Iomega and others.


David R. Frick

August 18th, 2010 at 4:46 am    


Overall Rating11111

Will not backup the root directory and certain files
This product provides only limited backup protection for certain files in certain locations. Most frustrating is that it is impossible for it to backup anything in a root directory. For example, if you have files of any type in the C: directory (or more likely a D: or E: drive) it cannot back them up. Only files in subfolders (e.g., “C:\files”) can be backed up; no file in any root directory (e.g., “C:\”) can be designated for back up.

Here is the response I received from Maxtor tech support on this issue: “Folders must be selected in the software. The backup utility is designed to backup data and there for it is not really designed to backup drives. So it wants to backup information on the drive, not the entire drive. It is just the way the software is designed and is working as intended.” (4/03/2008).

You are also limited to the directories you can backup. You can backup your “My Documents” and even your “InetPub” directory but you cannot point it to the default directory for your Microsoft SQL backups. And even though it will backup the “Inetpub” folder it is not a complete backup. For example, all of the hidden folders (e.g.,\_vti_cnf) will generate the message “Not Supported/File skipped (backup of hidden files and folders is not supported)” and will not be backed up.

In addition, certain files in selected folders will not be backed up. It will not backup thumbs.db resulting in so many exceptions in the log report that it is virtually unreadable. Strangely, it will back up some .jpg files but will throw an exception for others.

This product has great potential but as implemented is seriously flawed. In my opinion these OneTouch Mini’s are designed to easily and automatically backup _most_ of your “My Documents” folder. If you need to backup anything more I think you will be disappointed.


Micahel Thomas

August 26th, 2010 at 1:06 am    


Overall Rating22222

Poor backup option in image mode
Rated 2 stars.


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