FD eSATA & USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - GF500EU
Fantom Drives G-Force 500GB Dual Interface (USB 2.0 / eSATA) External Hard Drive

No issues. Works right out of the box when you format it as needed. Great drive for a great price.
 
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This is the 3rd Fantom Drive that I have purchased from buy.com and I am completely happy with the drive. I have put the drive through its paces while using it for editing video on a Mac and it has never let me down. I have only edited off the drive for DV footage and I have not used the drive with the eSATA interface; however, I chose this drive because I expected the eSATA to be a big benefit when editing HD video. While this design does not use a fan, the drive can be a little noisy. I have two of the same drives and one is notably noisier than the other. If using the drive for editing, stay away from the Green Drive which will constantly spin down to save energy and slow editing down while you wait for it to spin back up. All-in-all, a fantastic drive for the price. If using the drive on a Mac only, reformat the drive for Mac, as keeping the drive FAT32 can take the drive longer be recognized and limit the size of the files that can be stored on it.
 
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Reformatted the drive to NTFS. Full format took a few hours, but everything was fast under USB 2.0. I'm sure eSATA will be even faster. My only complaint is the spinup time because it spins down for powersaving after idle for a while and takes maybe 10 to 20 seconds to spin back up.
 
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This external hard drive is the answer to all my storage problems, everything in one place, no more cards, sticks, etc. It is also attractive looking and takes up little space. Love the blue light too, no doubt if it's on. The price from Buy.com was great too. Highly recommend it, thanks.
 
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The drive was easy to set up and use. However, the formating took almost 24 hours. I told it to do the full format and had to leave my laptop running for a whole day and night. Once it was formated, the drive works easily and backs up my laptop quickly. I got a second drive for my wife and she used the quick optimize option and her drive was formated and ready to use in minutes...
 
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I've had this drive for about two weeks now. Works great. Backups are very fast even at USB 2 speeds but it also has an eSATA port (eSATA cable not included). The housing is all aluminum with a plastic stand. Very quite operation and doesn't seem to generate much heat. The blue power on light in front is extremely bright. Note that the drive does NOT come with back up software. I paid $70 for this drive and I'm satisfied that I got a good deal.
 
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Great product. Excellent value. Works great. No problems.
 
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My wife and I purchased this to use primarily as a backup for all our digital photos with the intention of keeping it in our fireproof safebox. However, I've enjoyed this drive so much, it hasn't quite made it to the safebox yet! Thus far, it has worked great. My computer immediately recognized it when I plugged it in, and as recommended, I formatted to NTFS and started copying. The drive is a little noisy when working, but not really noticeable, and it does get a little warm when you're copying a lot of information continuously, but that's expected. It's a 3.5-inch so it does have a little heft to it, and the number of cords (USB and power) in addition to the weight do not exactly make it the most travel-friendly, but then that's not purpose of this drive anyway. Being my first external hard drive, I've certainly enjoyed the convenience of having all my music and photos with me wherever I go, though I'm now looking into something more portable, in the 2.5" category, and that is USB powered. As a pure backup drive, I highly recommend it.
 
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I formated it to NTFS. With the option "Quick format", it will only takes several minutes. The Read/Write speed is OK. But limited by the speed of USB2.0, Can only reached less than 40MB/s. If use ESATA, it will be great. It will be excellent if this one has a eSATA cable included.
 
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...in spite of rapidly dropping drive prices. eSATA interface a big bonus; formats & does backups in less than half the time of USB connection, even over SATA 150 interface. Only drawback so far is not an issue with the drive itself--current M/B requires reboot for swapped drive to be recognized in Vista. Also had to re-partition/format drive to remove "Active" designation to keep BIOS from trying to use it as a boot drive; would have been nice if the drive shipped without the partition being designated "Active."
 
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This product delivered as expected at a great price.
 
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I purchased this drive for image backups. It is absoutly wonderful from square one. The format process is straight forward and did not have any problems. It is on all the time and it shuts down when not in use to conserve power. The blue LED light is really bright if it is placed in front of you, but a small piece of masking tape on the grill over the light solves that issue. I do not use the eSATA connection.
 
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This is an excellent hard drive, particularly at the price.
 
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usb 2 works great but I am having problems getting esata working. Other then that it is plug and play on my mac pro; will have to check the esata on a different machine. Rebate is a pain in the ass getting it.
 
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This is my second Fantom Drive and they both work great. I just plugged them in, formatted them, and they were ready to go. The price on BUY.COM was the best around. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a reliable backup drive. I'm using the eSata connection on one drive (the speed is really nice) and the USB connection on the other. I haven't had problems with either one.
 
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As usual, my Buy.com order arrived promptly as expected in perfect condition. The drive was easy to install, reformat and use. Reformatting for Vista took a number hours - had to do overnite, but no big deal. Saving to the drive is simple and fast enough using USB. I've had it less than 1 month, so far so good! The owner's manual doesn't provide technical specifications (cache size, drive speed, etc.) which is odd. Great product overall and super cheap for 500GB! I like the WD drive that the FD uses! Lastly, the drive is totally silent! The blue light is strong, but easy to cover up.
 
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This drive was easy to install and use, plug and play with Windows XP. Very quiet.
 
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I bought this product on a recommendation from my father. It is very easy to use and holds all the files I needed to save. It runs quietly. It is slightly bulky if it was needed to transport it repeatedly.
 
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Great value at a great price. Good looks, small size, quiet - could not find another product that could match it. Just took it out of the box and plugged it into a USB port - AND IT WORKED. However, it was soooooooo slow. Then I realized that my computer was several years old and only had USB 1.0 ports (which are super slow). Then I had to spend another $25 for a USB 2.0/ESATA PCI card and ESATA cable (which took care of the rebate). NOW THIS DRIVE FLIES and actually exceeds my expectations. So far, I am very pleased and would highly recommend this product.
 
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Great price, quiet, plenty of room for my backups. Works the way it suppose to.
 
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Perfect for portable backups. I carried this to another computer to serve as off-site backup for my home computers. With broadband, and suitable backup software, it's perfect. I use Linux and rsync, and I can automate updating the backup. I've accessed things on the drive enough to be quite sure that I can restore from it. For speed, it was worth buying an eSata card and cable, but I got started with the USB cable it came with.
 
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Literally just plug it in and away you go. The only warning I'll give you is that when you format the drive to NTFS It'll take hours. Just get the format going at night and leave the computer run. It will be done in the morning. Good drive for the price. Quiet and unobtrusive. Recommended.
 
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Moderately priced - but free shipping and the rebate makes it a good value. Backing up the whole HD took a while using Norton Ghost, but it was easy, it worked fine, and it is certainly superior to tape. Additional incidental files were also added easily (using simple drag-and-drop) to back up ongoing work. The unit is new, so I can't comment on longevity and reliability. Also, since my hard disk is still healthy, I can't comment on restore (actually, I'll be happy if I never have to restore).
 
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Wonderfully quiet. I have another external hard drive that sounds like a wind tunnel compared to this thing. It's all but silent.
 
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It took less than five minutes to connect and start using. Great transfer rate
 
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it works as advertised, good value for storing backup files
 
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I have a Memorex Ultra 120 G travel drive and had an old Seagate drive, the travel drive is excellent for on the go, but for high levels of data transfer and storage, in a completely silent external drive, this Fantom is amazing. Quiet, moves data super fast, and have had no problems with it since buying...reformatted to Mac easily and even stores mp3s to be played on my laptop with no delays.
 
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Using on Dish Network 622 DVR Satellite Receiver as external drive. Works perfectly. Previously used Seagate Freeagent 500GB drive but had to unplug it before any use. It would go to sleep and lock up the receiver after a minimal idle time. Very pleased with the Fantom G, no noise at all and no noticeable heat. Good buy for the money. Highly recommend.
 
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I am very satisfied with my purchase. My Fantom G Force installed easily and I downloaded a shareware backup program and began storing my files immediately. I would recommend this product to any novice computer person.
 
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I use this eSATA drive as an expander for my Scientific Atlanta DVR, since recording HD content requires twice the memory as standard definition TV. The metal housing is well built and strong, and comes with a plactic stand to allow it stand vertically, which I didn't use. It works quite well, but this unit did not come with an eSATA to eSATA cable, and I could not find one locally. I had to order one from an online source and wait until it arrived in the mail before I could start to use the drive, so be sure to order one with the drive if you plan to use it as a DVR memory expander. It does come with a USB cable, if you plan to connect to a PC. With the $20 rebate, a good value.
 
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no skeletons in the closet. it's an external hard drive - it does what it's supposed to do. blue LED light on the front is very bright...can be annoying...
 
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With about 3 weeks of loading archive data, the Fantom has worked as fast as the USB 2 can feed it, and shuts down when not in use. Ordered on Monday with free shipping rate, it arrived on Friday. I would have bought such a product sooner except for hoping it would be offered at a reasonable price without the rebate run-around.
 
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This drive is my "cheap" time machine Mac drive, it works great, quiet, stays cool, enclosure is high quality. Note: only comes with USB cable, no eSata cable. Great value
 
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Works without any problems. Make sure to re-format to NTFS for most usages. Quieter than my other external HDD.
 
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This product was a great deal for the price including the rebate. It was easy to set up following the instructions. I was up and running within minutes. The product runs very quiet; you forget it is there. It only comes with a USB connector so the transfer rate is only average as compared to having an eSATA card (in your computer) and cable sold separately. But I am only using the product for back up and storage. So for those purposes it is good enough. You do have to (quick) format for NTFS, but that also takes a couple of minutes. Very easy and fast.
 
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I had 2 day shipping and got it well w/in that time. I plugged it in, XP detected it and installed the drivers w/in seconds. Ready to go! It was in FAT32 format so if you want it in NTFS all you have to do is right click the drive icon in windows explorer, select format and change to NTFS. That only took a few seconds when the Quick Format option was selected. 465GB when formatted, which is the same as my internal Samsung 500GB HD501LJ. Remember that if you want the eSATA speed of 300MB/sec, then you will need a SATA cable (not included w/ hard drive) and an adaptor for your MoBo if it doesn't have a port. I got my adaptor for about $7.
 
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The Fantom eSATA drive arrived as expected & well-packed. This drive is quiet & fast (when connected using eSATA). The drive arrives formatted as FAT32 - to get max capacity you need to reformat to NTFS, a simple & fairly fast process. This drive is warm, not hot, during operation.
 
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The drive is in an attractive metal case and I judge it to be well done. It is easy to hook up and the use of it is simple. Before buying, I read in a review or two that the drive runs hot. Mine does not. The skin temperature during a two-hour formatting session reached 89.2º F on the lee side of air flow while the ambient temperature was about 72º. In operation, it is quiet running, even with my hearing aids on. The purchase is recommended to you.
 
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Performance. The very first thing that I did after plugging in all the cords was to format the hard drive completely. Next thing was to try the performance, it works well so far beside one thing if you would consider this worth to mention, I have to turn on the hard drive only if the usb is already plugged in.
 
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Can't complain, plugged it in and it worked, great back up unit. very quite, nice size and form factor. great price
 
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Simply plug and play. No mysteries here. I don't have any issues with the noise....at least not after 2 weeks. In fact, I don't hear it at all unless I put my ear to the drive! Maybe I got the "good one," but based on my drive, it was a real bargain.
 
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Great Buy, works flawlessly so far, had it for 3 months.
 
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Great Buy, works flawlessly so far, had it for 3 months.
 
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The drive was easy to install and use. It took a fair amount of time to format but, I can't think of a better value for the money. The drive is extremely quiet and fast. I am very happy with my purchase and have had it up and running for three weeks with no problems.
 
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Picked up one of these to add to my Scientific Atlanta HD DVR box. Purchased an eSATA cable and connection was simple. Box took a while to boot up and longer to format, but now have way more capacity than before. So far, Fantom drive seems reliable. Blue glow from beneath my TV is a little disconcerting and drive hum is audible when TV is not on (would have liked it to be a little quieter). Good value.
 
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EASY SETUP. DOES EXACTLY WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO!! I JUST REFORMATTED MY COMPUTER AND IT WAS A BREEZE USING XP'S FILE AND SETTINGS WIZARD WITH THIS DRIVE. PLENTY OF ROOM FOR EVERYTHING!!! NICE AND QUIET.
 
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I now have my second 500GB drive that I use for backup. Both are doing a fine job. With the price and quality of them it is a good way to save your data.
 
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I am very happy with this drive. Everyone can access this drive on my home network. No more full C: drive problems! Very easy and straight forward to install. Just hook it up and turn it on. There is no fan noise. Runs cool and quiet.
 
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This Hitachi 500gb drive is fast and quiet. In speed tests, it beat my internal WD SATA drive which is no slouch. With USB connection it is just okay. For speed, use e-sata. I had to order an e-sata to e-sata cable because my motherboard e-sata connection is true e-sata. If you connect to a stanard sata connection you may use the included cable (very short, though). Very versatile drive with the added e-sata. That feature is worth the extra $$. The drive's all aluminum construction and full front grill contribute to a cool drive with no noisy fan like others. Even after copying over 50gb of data, the drive was only mildly warm. This is a great drive and is even ten bucks cheaper two weeks after I received mine!
 
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Nice drive for the price. Others have said it is noisy. Mine is nearly silent. The esata cable is NOT included.
 
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I have had nothing but good experiences with this product line. I have a quite a few of these drives. On two models there was a power supply problem and the company took care of it without any hassle.
 
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