Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition External HDD

Maxtor OneTouch III is a compact storage device of 100 GB capacity, meant for

mobile users to store, synchronize and backup their important data. Unlike most

external hard drives, it does not require any external power to operate. It

draws its power from the USB port itself.

It has a spindle speed of 5,400 rpm with 8 MB cache memory. The speciality of

OneTouch is that you can synchronize or take backup with just the press of a

button on the drive. It is portable and lightweight, weighing just 205g.

The drive also provides data encryption with password protection to avoid

unauthorized access. It has an easy-to-use PC interface, which lets you

configure the device like making it a restore point for your node or managing

earlier backed up versions. You can even schedule backup for any time of the day

to automate any process.

On the performance front, we tested it on an Athlon FX55 based machine using

the WinBench 99 benchmark. The drive gave remarkable performance, clocking 13.3

MBps and 26.3 MBps in Business and High-End Disk Winmark tests respectively. Its

disk access time was only 16min 7sec. These scores were better than some

internal drives of the same spindle speed and cache memory, which we have

reviewed earlier. One such drive was the Western Digital Scorpio.

The Maxtor Mini's CPU utilization stood at just 70%, and its average data

transfer rate was 26.25 MBps.

Bottom Line: Overall, it's an excellent drive for its performance

and security features along with USB power option and one touch button backup.

If you're willing to pay the hefty price tag it commands, then go for it.

Anubhav Verma