Cavalry USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Array - CADB001U32
Cavalry 1TB (2x500GB) USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

When the drive arrived, i plugged it in and hooked it up immediately to my laptop running Vista, and the drive was available in a matter of a minute or so, since there was no required formatting. The data transfer rate is adequate, but the size of the unit is definitely a bonus. For some reason, i did not pay attention to the dimensions and was expecting something bigger, so i was pleased that the drive is actually smaller. I read a review that the unit was the size of a toaster, but the toaster in my kitchen is more than twice the size of this unit.
 
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I previously had a 300gb external drive but quickly ran out of space with all the video I had on there. Then came this 1TB drive to the rescue. I guess you can never have too much. I like the fact that you can daisy chain it so in the event I'm ready for another terabyte or two, I'll be good to go. I don't put too much emphasis on cosmetics but performance wise I've had zero issues. The noise and heat are expected on any drive so I'm okay with that. It's an overall solid product.
 
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I received the drive a few weeks ago and plugged it into my Windoze XP Pro box - it began working immediately with no installation or formatting. I am also using this drive with my Mac OS X (10.5.3) laptop and have had no problems thus far. Quick transfer and reliable storage. I have had bad luck in the past with external USB hard drives (2 have failed) and have learned to turn them off or unplug them completely when not using them and, although one of the benefits of using these (at least for me) is portability, I try to keep traveling with them to a minimum, particularly when flying or under extreme temperature conditions. If I had to list cons, the unit is a bit noisy, heavy and bulky. It is the same size as a two-slice toaster and actually looks like one too. None of this is very relative to me, however. I wasn't looking for another pretty gadget - I wanted safe, reliable backup for movies, music and software. So far, this drive fits the bill.
 
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I got this because of the great price that was offered. I saved over $50 from the major wholesale places that had 1TB drives. This is definately the way to backup all your important documents, pics, mp3s or any thing you want. I just plugged it in and my PC reconized it without having to format it. It's very quite. I travel with it everywhere to back up all my stuff.
 
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Had No Problems. Plugged it in Windows Recognized it immediately. No Formatting Required. Unit is a little different from other reviews. Has a red light instead of bright blue. No Fan shut off but its rather Quiet. Very Good Quality. Kept it as One Big Drive instead of splitting into two. Only Con is it Didnt come with the stand! All in All Very Happy With This One.
 
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This drive was well worth the money I paid for it, but the ability to split the drives into 2 separate drives did not exist. There were no instructions and no support cd. Also, the rebate is a problem-the site you are supposed to go to and sign up for your rebate says that there is a problem with the serial number of the product.
 
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I bought this Device for the Extra storage. However I recieved it in the mail with just the external drive only. No CD, Im not sure if it was suppose to come with a CD or not but mine did not. I plugged in the external drive into my Windows XP PC and my computer recongized it but it would not format. I tried windows format. Partian Commander program and nothing. I went to there website only to find there website poorly designed and bad customer service. I called the customer service and they told me it was a bad drive and to send it in for a replacement. I havent done that yet but Its been a Nightmare Beware!
 
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I did not receive my power adapter cord, or installation software. And when I tried to receive my rebate, I received a message stating that the promo code doesn't match the serial number (isn't the first time this has happened with a cavalry drive for me). I have also received two dead 500gb units recently. I am staying away from Cavalry drives after this.
 
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I am extremely glad to have purchased my 1TB USB 2.90 external harddrive. It's easy to use, it performs great and i am overall 100% satisfied with this product. I recommend it highly. One of my smartest purchase. Jose Corpes Interiors by JC
 
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It work right out of the box. It's configure as a single 1TB drive (my XP Pro 64bit (OS) see only 938GB of space). The fan is noisy as others have mention and my drive doesn't come with any paperwork (no manual, warranty, software, etc.). The fan is not a problem for me since I only use it as a backup drive and it's only on when I need to backup some info. The only thing I have problem with was splitting up the HDD to read as two single 500GB HDD. I was using Partition Magic 8 to format it, and it show two different partition, but I couldn't tell if the HDD's were physically split apart. From my experience, I would recommend this product for those that need a portable backup solution.
 
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First one the Fan did not spin, I called the 1 800 number and someone picked up right away. He stated the cable may have gotten disconnected He told me to how to check the connection and make sure all is plugged in. That worked fine the fan is quite Very impressed with the 1TB. Lots of Room. I liked it so much I bought another one for redundancy. I highly recommend this Drive. The Second one had no issues at all and works fine like the first one.
 
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Everything is ok, easy to use but the fan is very very annoying. The sound is too LOUD whenever you turn it on. You can hear that sound OUTSIDE your room!!! If you want to listen to music or to watch movies from the hard drive, it is not recommended.
 
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The construction of the hard drive is quite solid. Unlike some others, mine is very quiet even when the fan is spinning. The only sound I hear is the vibration of the actual drives when it is placed directly on my desktop. I think like another reviewer that Cavalry must be shipping a slightly different version, because the case on mine is totally silver and the front is perforated with tiny holes. My only gripe is minor. I don't think the drives spin down after a period of non use, but I'm not positive. It does get warm, but never hot even when stays on for a 24 hour period. I have not tried the SATA connection, but the USB2.0 is about as fast as can be expected.
 
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Best thing I have ever gotten for the price, works like a charm. I would recommend it to anyone who needs the space. I have had it for 5 months and it worked right away with my Vista HP
 
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This product appears well built, compact and heavy. Available USB and eSATA connections. Preformatting means plug and play instant availability of 1 TB storage (or may 931MB or something). The fan is not that loud as some reviewers have mentioned, at least in my taste. This is one of best deal at this time. I cannot comment on reliability since I've only used it for a couple of weeks.
 
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Great set of drives for the price i bought it at. Had to void warranty to get it to work :/ if thats the only thing i could complain about.
 
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I received the drive from buy.com a week after I placed an order. It arrived on XMAS eve. I was away with my family and returned on the 30th of Dec. Tried to use the drive on 31st, but my computers would not recognize the drives. SO I thought, I'll load the supplied sw ( software provided on OTC CD-R media with a label stuck on it). The sw in all it's various configs identified the hw correctly. But my pc would always see two drives each with ITB space. I thought, I'll play with it after the New Year's party. That was then the 2nd of Jan. Same problems plus now the drives cannot be detected by the PC. Prompts ask me to reformat the drive, which I said ok. Never finished the format, comes back with errors. Emailed buy.com. They refused to take a return as it's been 14 days since it was shipped (not since I received it !!!). BAD buy.com policy. Anyway, I tried calling Bason Computers, the people supporting the Cavalry drives. I guess they only have 2 or 3 people working there as it took me 3 days of multiples calls, always to find that the tech support were "AT LUNCH". Finally got hold of one who just said, to go to their website and fill in an RMA number request. Did that, ... took 2 days to get the number by email. I have currently returned the drive for replacement. Hopefully it will be a working one and my headaches will be over. But I am pissed with Buy.com to say that 14 days from the day it was shipped and considering the holiday season, there was not much support available, that they would at least honor to replace it. But NO ... no one has any holiday spirit here !!!. Enough said. Try and stay away from the products. I for one will never by buying another Cavalry product. A few extra bucks will save you many days/weeks/months of headaches and ulcers !!! Have a Happy New Year ( I'll try to have one once I get the replacement 1TB ... and who knows how long that will take !!!) I am guessing a month or so with more heardaches !!!). Take my advice, stay away from Cavalry HDs.
 
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I opted to split my 1TB Cavalry drive into its two separate hard disks using the included software. It works perfectly as both a backup drive and an extra storage drive. After reading other reviews, I was expecting the fan to be quite loud, but I, personally, do not notice the fan when the drive is under my desk.
 
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Just plug it in and go. Drives are already NTFS formatted so it was plug and play for my Windows XP machine. Would be nice if the power button was in front.
 
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Works fine. Price was hard to beat. I use this for backup purposes not general daily use. No noise issues as far as I'm concerned. Doesn't seem to want to disconnect from my XP notebook when I try to Safely Remove Hardware, even when it is not at all in use, but doesn't seem to have any errors when I shut it down and remove it.
 
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I have had this hard drive for about 6 months and I have not had one problem with it. The fan might be alittle noisey for some but it did not bother me at all. Saving to the hard drive is simple as any other flash drive except you have about 1TB to save to. If you are looking for storage space and you do not have alot of money or you want to save money this hard drive is a steal. The only problem I have is I wish it came with a power button in front and not in the back.
 
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I bought the drive to use as an economical off-line back up for a lot of data on the hard drives in my 1.7 Ghz Mac G4. The USB link is very slow, so it took a long time. I transferred using a number of large chunks. I initially didn't know the fan switch was not on, but, it ran fine without errors even though quite hot (burn-in test!), so it seems like a reliable design. The drive is serving my purposes, so I am well satisfied with it.
 
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My Cavalry Hard Drive arrived already set up to function as a 1 TB drive. All I had to do was plug it in and it has worked perfectly ever since. So far I have not been bothered at all by the sound of the fan, but then I only turn the unit on when I want to back up my data. Overall, I think this is a very good value for a 1 TB external drive.
 
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Great unit at a fantastic price. I'll never erase anything again, just buy more of these...
 
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Pros: I got this for ~$190 plus a nearly impossible to claim $20 rebate and so far it's worked just fine as one big 1TB drive. It comes preformatted as NTFS and has a nice small footprint. I bought it because I had a 500gb Cavalry drive which is instantly recognized as a "local disk" as soon as the usb cable is plugged in. This one does the same. I have another one (Buffalo) that takes a minute or so. Cons: The fan is not automatic. You switch it on or off. The drive can get warm, so I don't feel right leaving it off. I'm not sure the drives spin down when the computer is off since the fan keeps running. The light is blinding. I've read that before and thought it was a ridiculous complaint, but it is kind of bright. I just turn it around. Overall, you can't beat the value and I don't mind turning it off manually now and then.
 
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This hard drive performs exceptionally well. The fan feature is very good because previous models got pretty hot. It can be written to much faster than a WD MyBook I owned previously. The only negative comment I have is about the blue power light: DON'T have this drive sitting at eye level, it will blind you! This was easily fixed with a small pad of sticky notes but damn that thing is bright.
 
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Pre-formatted and easy to use out of the box. Fast USB 2.0. Nice price. Not much else to say.
 
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The drive does everything it claims to do at a very good price for a 1TB drive. I had read the other reviews claiming that it is a very loud drive, the cooling fan, but thought, how loud could it be? I have a Western Digital 250GB external usb hard drive that is very quiet and performs well but needed more storage at home so I purchased this drive. The cooling fan is very loud, I have a multi-stackserver at work that is quieter than this small unit. So if noise is not an issue, this is an excellent drive. In my quiet office at home it is a serious distraction and I turn it off when not in active use. Since purchasing this unit Buy.com has listed a Western Digital 1TB usb hard drive that is comparable to the price I paid for this unit. With my experience with Western Digital's usb hard drives, I wish I had waited.
 
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This drive on special ($219.00 delivered w/ $20 rebate) was just too good of a deal to pass up. Got the drive in and liked the way it is packaged, compact but it is heavy. Fan can be a little loud but most fans can be. XP reconized the drive right away but I wanted it split into two seperate drives instead of one. Ran into problems there as it would only see one of the two drives, called Cavalry tech support. Took the case apart, pulled both drives, added one back and then the other, both drives reconized. Thought that was strange but the problem was easy to fix. Liked the way the drives were mounted inside the case, seems solid. Would buy another one on special if they drop the price again
 
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After much self debate, I purchased this unit, it was the best decision I've made recently. Shipping was the slowest I have experienced as a Buy.com customer. Confirmed as shipped the next day after I ordered, Fedex Ground took a full week to deliver. I have been accustomed to 2 and 3 day deliveries on free shipping. I like that the drive came formatted NTSF and in the Big configuration. As an XP user, there was an added bonus, the unit comes setup for XP so it's beyond plug 'n' play. "Brad from Old Bridge" and "mkm from Birmingham" wrote about the unit being noisy, all I can say is "what noise?" The unit I received does appear to be a re-designed model, most noticeably, the ring of vent holes around the front of the housing cover. Obviously, to assist with cooling efficiency. Could it have helped with the fan noise? There is no backup software, however, for my present needs, the Backup included with XP is adequate. I can use the $20 rebate offer toward backup software if I desire.
 
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The drive is more compact than I expecte and it looks very elegant on its stand. The construction is amazing; it has metallic matte finish that has a very solid feel. It is truly plug and play and instantly recognized by my computer. It came pre-formatted NTFS as one partition of 931 GB (contrary to the manual's claim). But this can be reformatted into two or more partitions if preferred. The drive was up and running within 5 min of turning it on. I had it run overnight and it stayed relatively cool (only very slightly warm) the whole time; thanks to a built-in fan. This is very surprising considering the external metal construction should make it more likely to feel hot. The fan is a little loud, though, but that can be turned off by a separate switch if preferred. Another thing, the blue light on the drive is very bright as someone here mentioned. I also got this drive with a great deal using combination of buy.com visa card ($30 off) and mail-in rebate ($169.99 after discount and mail-in rebate). I would definitely buy another one of these when it becomes available again.
 
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I am writing this review less than an hour into using the drive. So, I cannot report on reliability or even performance. (I am backing up 59 gb at the moment--Windows 2000 is telling me that that's going to take just under an hour.) <br><br> I am writing this review so soon because I had a little installation trouble and maybe by writing this here it can save you some trouble. (My 90 minutes of pain can maybe be your 5 minutes of pain.) <br><br> I have 2 machines--one with XP and one with Windows 2000. The XP machine had no problems recognizing this USB drive. As another reviewer has noted, 931 gbs were instantly at my disposal. <br><br> I had a bigger problem with Windows 2000. The OS installed the drive as XP did. Yet, Windows Explorer, while showing the drive, did not show any storage capacity on the drive. It was like a "phantom" drive. The drive appeared in my Disk Management as well but it appeared as a label only. There was 0 gb available. Properties showed the drive had no label. Clicking it resulted in an error saying no drive was available. <br><br> Note that I can find no information about Calvary itself anywhere, i.e., I could find no online support from the manufacturer. There is no hardcopy documentation with the drive as well. There is no URL for the company on any of the packaging or drive. (I have no idea how one would utilize the 1 year warranty.) <br><br> I browsed around on Seagate's site for some troubleshooting advice but nothing there worked. Eventually I made my way to Microsoft and found knowledge document 297694 "New drive or mapped network drive not available in Windows Explorer." Windows 2000 assigned the drive as "J" on my machine. Something was wrong with that. I overrode that assignment to another value at the end of the alphabet ("Y") and immediately had a 931 gb drive available. <br><br> Other reviewers have mentioned the fan. It is loud but not obnoxiously loud--about a handful of times louder than my PC's assortment of fans. But, it's bearable for my use and there is an option to shut it off. It just makes it seem like I have a noticable PC now. <br><br> The unit also feels really solid and is smaller than I expected. Overall I like the look and feel of it. Its visual appearance matches my mental image of it as my data "safe."
 
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"This drive is easy to hook up and definitely worth the price for its quality. Once you open up the package and prepare cables, hard drives, all you need is about 1 minute or less. XP will recognize it as 931GB local NTFS DISK. I just love it when it's easy and affordable!!" Preformat is NTFS, (UNLIKE other external drives which preformat drives as FAT32).
 
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First off, the packaging is less than what I would expect. The unit's weight is a little heavy for the type of packaging. The insides slide back and forth as the lightweight pressed paper (borderging on cardboard) 2-sided holder flexes dramatically when the unit is just gently turned over and over. It was disturbing to feel that much movement. Besides that issue, the unit has one very noisy small fan. This is a "you get what you pay for" issue; working and cheap but also noisy. I'm using it as a backup tool, so the unit will not be constantly running; only during the imaging or backup of files. Besides those, a minor pet pieve is the external power supply. I understand that this is to limit heat inside, but as a portable thing it can be a little frustrating to have lug around a power cord, supply, cable, and unit. I prefer to not have to lug the supply separately. Again, you get what you pay for. At least the supply is a somewhat standard plug (standard sized barrel connector) unlike IOmega and others that use proprietary multi-connector plugs. The supply is 12v and rated at 4.6 amps, if memory serves correctly. Quite a draw. Unit stays fairly cool. It has three leds. One under the large power button on the front, and two others beneath that to indicate drive activity for each internal drive. For those not aware, the unit has two 500GB 7200RPM (I did not personally validate that rotational speed, model, cache, or interface yet) inside the case with some sort of spanning software to make them on big drive (unclear yet if this is a linux variant running under the covers or an onboard chip providing the basic spanning). Again, GB here means 1000 x 1000 x 1000 bytes. When translated into computer GBs, 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes, the drive shows slightly less than 1TB. To some this if false advertising, but it's been this way for around 20 years, and yes it is a marketing gimmic that has "stuck" and is understood (by most). So far the drive has been plug and play. No issues with connecting or recognition. I'm using it to back up a large raid array. It's slow going, but at this point I'm blaming the raid array software that is performing the "backup". I'm still testing limitations (can all 1TB be used across any computer that uses NTFS and USB or are there wrap limitations like with some old motherboards and internal drives) and performance. I will have to update later. The fan noise will make this drive a poor choice if you plan to use it extensively or constantly turned on for video editing or online storage (music, movies, ...), but as a spare terabyte to use as backup or in room dedicated to equipment only, the price cannot be beat. Well, at least for the next 2 months or so :)
 
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The item was quick and easy to install. In no time, I was able to start moving files into it. The noise from the fan was a bit more than I thought. I have it next to the Vista media PC in the living room, so the noise is noticeable. It does come with a handy switch in the back to turn off the fan, so maybe this won't be an issue if I want to watch something. I'm not sure how much experimenting I want to do with my 1 TB of data, but it should be okay to turn off for a movie length. Overall I’m happy with the price, ease of use and size (seems tiny, even next to my slimline PC).
 
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I received this drive in great shape. Took me a little more than 2 minutes to unpack and plug in. My Windows XP Pro system recognized the drive immediately, and set it up as a 1TB drive on my system. I copied about 250GB off to it in about 3 hours (through a USB hub from one USB external drive to this one). All-in-all, great value for the money and so far I am very happy.
 
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