Freecom 35606 320GB Mobile Drive Classic USB 3.0 2.5 Inch External Hard Drive - Black

I bought this 2TB Freecom drive as a second external drive for my PC, having used an earlier Freecom drive as a local backup drive for over 5 years without any problems. In fact the old drive's condition is still rated as perfect by Hard Disk Sentinel; though I suspect that is partly due to very careful handling. I've had this new 2 TB drive for a couple of months now. It is fast, compact and almost silent, and it has a tight, secure USB connection. My only quibble with it is that the cable supplied is very short. This might be fine if you're using a laptop, but with such a short cable, finding a way to position the drive at the right height to use with a PC is a challenge. I sit mine on top of an old metal power supply case, which doesn't look very stylish (!) but does give it an additional heat sink. Ultimately the cable length is a small issue for me, since what I really care about is performance and reliability, and Freecom delivers on both. I recommend this manufacturer.

Like most Freecom drives Ive had this was very easy to setup (PC just recognised it) and has behaved flawlessly for last few months. its very quiet and needs no external power supply, getting its power via the usb port. Its tiny, and easy to carry. The cable seems fine and fits tightly in the drive - not had any issues of it coming out and its usb 3 so faster than previous Freecom drives Ive had If you want a case to carry it I'd recommend the 'Case Logic QHDC-101 Hard Drive Case'. Fits like a glove with no loose space around it - could have been made for it, and has an area to hold the cable.

So why only 4 stars? Because until it's a year or two down the line, it's impossible (in my experience) to say whether it's going to go the distance. Secondly, unlike some other previous incarnations (or makes) it doesn't come with either a built-in cable or a case. The lack of neither are deal-breakers, but I feel they would have been beneficial. If only so that you never have to fish around looking for the right cable as well as being able to keep the dust out of the USB port (on the drive). None-the-less, it reads and writes quickly & works equally well on a PC, Linux or Mac-based system.

I've bought two of these hard drives, over time, to serve as "disaster recovery" data stores. I needed something of high capacity but small enough to fit into a fireproof box which is tucked away where it has a fighting chance of surviving a calamity! As might be expected the drive is easy to set up and has been trouble free in use. Although supplied with just a short USB lead (mini one end, normal at the other) this has not been an issue for me. Being USB 3.0 data transfer is quick. I'm not a "techy" but I've been very pleased with my purchase and can feel sufficiently confident to recommend it as good value.

This is a compact little drive which performs reasonably well, is quite quiet, and is largely pleasing to the eye. However the main design flaw is the USB connector - it is useless. Slightest movement and it falls out, disconnecting the drive from the computer. It's a pretty fundamental issue if you're trying to use this anywhere other than a desk (and even then it's easy to knock the drive and disconnect it). What happened to Freecom? Used to be great kit but lately have been really disappointed in their products.

This mobile drive packs a lot of storage space into a compact unit. It really is plug-and-play technology, and in my experience, Freecom drives are very reliable. Highly recommended and a good price too.

Good capacity external drive. Easy to set up, works well so far. The cable supplied is NOT the one in the picture accompanying the product specifications - it is 8.5" long from tip of the USB to the tip of the end that goes into the drive, so the drive needs to be close to the laptop/computer to make a connection.

Ordered this in March in anticipation of buying an iMac soon after and using it to transfer photos, having had good experiences with Freecom drives for my PC's in the past. Circumstance prevented me buying the iMac and using the Freecom drive until this week. I had to re format the drive to ExFAT in Windows for it to work on iMac and PC. Did this on PC. . Transferred some photos from PC on it and reconnected to iMac to test it . Easily transferred files onto iMac. Opened files and found they were corrupted. Half a photo each time. Tried to delete photos. Refused to delete photos. Reformatted this drive to ExFat on PC again -or tried to. Refused to format on this PC and another one. Reformatted drive on iMac to ExFAT (did not name itI. No problem. Returned it to PC . Both PC's refuse to recognise the drive. Reformatted to ExFAT on iMac again and named drive. Both PC's failed to recognise the drive again (ie it did not appear in "Computer") Now stuck, it seems with a useless drive. Unless someone knows better? Meanwhile I hate this waste of money. Well, I have persevered with this drive for a few more hours. Finally got the drive recognised on one of my PC's. Then on opening it I find files from the iMac formatting revealed. Then notices kept coming up again and again demanding I format it -which I refused to do as it was already correctly formatted. Finally a notice came up to saying something to the effect the drive was inoperable because it was -and I quote-"dirty"-whatever that means!!! Have now given up and am looking for another way to get my photos on my iMac. Learn from my mistake. DO NOT BUY THIS DRIVE TO TRY AND TRANSFER FILES BETWEEN A PC AND AN iMAC MANUALLY! (which IS totally possible- according to Apple and a whole lot of iMac sites