Toshiba 1TB 2.5 inch External StorE Art HDD

This is a review for the Toshiba E05A064PAU2EW_C Store Art3 2.5" White 640GB as opposed to all the other sizes that seem to be bundled into the same review.
The item worked straight out of the box. The supplied Mini-USB cable connected straight up to my PC, and the drive was recognised immediately. No issues when swapping between my Works Lenovo and home Toshiba Satellite.
It's smaller and thinner than the Freecom one I have at work, and I prefer the mini USB to the hard wired connector in the Freecom drive. Easily slips into a pocket and is very portable. Disappointing it didn't come with even the most basic of protective cases, but I knew that before I got it.
The white case is easy to keep clean, although it does seem to attract dust, possibly due to static.
A white LED flashes when the drive is active, and stays on when it's not doing anything, so you know it's still connected.
It feels solid and robust, and there is a rubber buffer around the perimeter that should give some protection.
I haven't had it long enough to comment on reliability (which is the big drawback in these reviews perhaps) but I'm very happy with how it's worked out so far.

Like all drives, make sure you use 'safely remove hardware' before disconnecting from the USB

Edit: January 2012 - still working fine with no issues. I use it mainly for backing up files off my Laptop, on a weekly basis, and storage of photos.

Edit: December 2012 - still working fine with no issues. Still almost as good as new. A few minor scratches on the surface, but it's never had any kind of protective cover. I have increased rating to 5* because it has been pretty much perfect.

Love this little drive, solidly built and offers good protection for mobile applications. The added benefits with these types of mobile drives is that you don't need to mess around with external power supplies and the footprint is much smaller so the added expense is worth it.

From factory they are pre-formatted to NTFS. Two year warranty also for added peace of mind.

The only criticism is that it should be supplied with a case to minimise the top/bottom covers getting scratched etc.

I've been using Toshiba drives for quite sometime now and never had one fail. Much more reliable than Seagate/Western Digital in my experience.

What a great bit of tech.
I wanted a 1TB drive and was about to order a WD passport (I am a big WD drive fan) and was wary of this Tosh - only because I was happy with WD.
As I went to order there seemed to be quite a price premium for a WD, more than I was comfortable with, so I ordered one of these.
It's fab... Fast, quiet, up and running immediately. What more do you want - apart from maybe another one!
So did I, so I bought another PDQ - AND £20 cheaper than the first!
Now got two, and that's twice as good.
If you are at the stage of thinking about it - just buy it. It really is "Better than you think..."

Let me start by saying that I am not a typical computer user - we buy lots of hard drives for data imaging and analysis - we thrash hard drives to death and buy a lot of internal hard drives each month.

We regularly use portable hard drives for on-site work, connect them and thrash them constantly for hours on end. We've been through dozens of different makes and models before we found these Toshiba drives. They are great - extremely fast compared to other 2.5" drives with USB interfaces, and so far we haven't had a bad one. We currently have about thirty of these drives, and all work absolutely fine - as long as Toshiba keep manufacturing them, these are the only portable drives we will buy.

Sure, I know portable hard drives aren't the most sexy product on the market, but if you need reliable portable storage, these are the drives to get.

I always do lots of homework when purchasing any item, read reviews, check reliability, etc. My last Hard Drive stopped working almost as soon as it started. I never bothered to look into it. I thought 'well, it's all one there, all my photos and music should a disaster ever strike so it doesn't matter if its not updating any more.' How wrong was I! When my pc broke down, it was as good as useless. It had all the info on, but no way of extracting it. This little model is superb. Set to back up everything daily at 7pm and so easy to use, just plug and go. So much better than my last purchase (which was a Maxstor - and not cheap either!!) This one is cheaper, better and seems reliable. Took absolutely ages to transfer all the info first time. I started it at 3pm and it was only 3/4 of the way through by 9am the next day, but it took its time and did it excellently! No complaints whatsoever. Its smaller than I thought it would be. Its neat and matches my decor! I love it. Would recommend to anyone who knows very little about pcs but just wants something to plug in and get on with it. Five stars from me.

For the price, this device is amazing. 1TB of storage for less than £100 including delivery. I bought a couple of these from Amazon, and they are both perfect. They come with some included software (on the drives) for backing up your computer, but I simply deleted this as I use the windows 7 backup facility. The drive is plug and play, Windows 7 finding the appropriate drivers quickly and installing the same. The drive requires no external power supply (it uses the power derived from the USB port), so the drive is ideal for a laptop on the move. There are no doubt faster drives, but this is fast enough (e.g. to stream HD content) and for the price is hard to match.