On our test system, the 5000LE installed without a hitch-we had the drive up and running within ten minutes of taking it out of the box. All you have to do is connect the drive to power and a PC's USB (Universal Serial Bus - a type of connector found on recent PCs and Macs) port with the included cables. roll. Our PC immediately recognized the hard drive as it booted up and prompted us to install its drivers. Installing the 5000LE is a lot faster than installing and configuring an internal hard drive. For one thing, you don't have to open up your PC, which is a pain.

The 5000LE comes with a CD that contains all of necessary drivers. Past versions of Maxtor's external drives didn't come with CDs and asked you to download drivers from the company's Web site. The CD makes installation far more convenient.

In the past, external hard drives were slow performers when compared to internal hard drives. But by supporting USB 2.0, the 5000LE can perform almost as fast as slower internal hard drives. If all you want to do is save data files to an external hard drive, you'll do fine connecting the 5000LE through a USB 1.1 port. Interestingly, the drive offers a feature called the Maxtor OneTouch that lets you press a button to make backup copies of your files.

But if you need to support high-end video or other applications that require blazing hard drive performance, you will want to opt for USB 2.0. In this case you'll probably have to purchase and add a USB 2.0 interface card to the PC. If you need more storage space with equally fast performance, Maxtor's sells external hard drives that work through a PC's 1394 (FireWire) connection.

The 5000LE comes in a sleek, semi-transparent, stackable case. However, those who want a portable hard drive to take on trips will probably find the 5000LE to be rather bulky and heavy (and don't forget that AC adapter and cord). Maxtor offers a one-year warranty on the drive.

In all, the 5000LE does everything that Maxtor says it will. This external hard drive offers an excellent solution for storing and backing-up data and it's the easiest and fastest way to add immediate storage space.

5/5/03 www.daytrum.com Editorial Staff





peripherals - Personal Storage 5000LE
External Hard Drive - Review




home - contact us - privacy policy/terms of use - about us
Copyright 2003 © Daytrum Communications. All Rights Reserved.

 

When you need additional hard drive space or want to move or store large amounts of data, Maxtor's Personal Storage 5000LE can almost instantly add 80 GB of portable hard drive space to most PCs and Macs. The drive is particularly easy to install and practical for archiving and storing documents, digital photos and video, and for backing-up data.