| Value |  4 | | Performance |  3.5 | | Ease of Use |  4.5 | | Overall Satisfaction | 4 |
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5 of 5 works like a charm Sunday, October 05, 2008
Ernie from New Jersey
I was interested in purchasing a larger external hard drive and decided on this one as I already had purchased a 160 on Buy.com from the same manufacturer. Since I had no problems with the one I previously purchased, I decided to go with the same company and the choice was a good one. This one is just as good only 500 gb and I'm completely satisfied with it. Be sure to read the printed info that comes with the hard drive before you attempt to use it. It will walk you through reformatting it if you are interested in doing so. Was this review helpful?  
5 of 5 Great drive. Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A Customer from Colorado Springs, CO
Nice size. So far works fine. Immediately recognized. Full format went great. Seems to be a great value. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 Great Value. No Issues or Problems. Tuesday, September 23, 2008
hvhom from Marina del Rey
One of the best buys out there. I paid $85 - $20 Rebate. My cptr recognized the drive immediately. I did have to reformat the disk to NTFS but that took a few minutes (quick format). No problems at all, including heat. I left it on overnight, it got a little warm but nothing to be alarmed about. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 Truly a plug-n-play device Monday, August 11, 2008
Jim from Wisconsin
All I had to do was plug it in, and it was ready to use within a couple of minutes. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and haven't seen even the slightest of problems.
The only downside is that you have to turn it on manually, but once you do, Windows picks it up in no time. Also, be aware that it does generate a bit of heat, so keep it where it can get some air circulation. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 No problemo Monday, August 11, 2008
A Customer from Truckee, CA
Just plugged in to MAC for TimeMachine, formated with Disk Utility and it works like a charm...pretty quiet, does not overheat (in fact, runs pretty cool)
Sent rebate in a month ago....we'll see how long it takes Was this review helpful?
3 of 5 Drive runs very hot, no problems after a week but Monday, August 11, 2008
Chris Eaton from Arkansas
There is no cooling fan in the case and it seems to be quickly designed. It does function correctly and it was easy to set up. It is not easy by any means to tell if the drive is running in USB 2.0 mode in WinXp. I have no idea if I am reaching peak performance on my system. I have been copying data to it for about a week almost non stop, it's very slow going but 500GB seems to be a very deep hole.
The Drive functions well so far, but I'm very concerned about the longevity and safety of my data due to the heat concerns. I will probably end up taking it apart and engineering my own cooling solution. Hopefully the drive is still working by the time the rebate gets here. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 great drive for the price Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Joel from Elizabethton, TN
easy setup, have had no problems so far. use it on both win xp pro & win vista premium. used it for DVR on windows vista system with no issues. fast transfer rates. only caveat is the stand, which is a little annoying to screw in, but it works. Was this review helpful?
5 of 6 customers found this review helpful.
1 of 5 Be careful of the rebates Monday, July 21, 2008
A Customer from Cary 27513
I bought a Fantom drive previously from buy.com that had a rebate. It was the biggest hassle getting the rebate. After numerous calls and e-mails to Fantom I finally got my rebate 8 months after the rebates promised 90 days. A total of 11 months to get a rebate is outrageous. Was this review helpful?
1 of 1 customers found this review helpful.
5 of 5 Excellent External Drive Tuesday, July 15, 2008
A Customer from Portland, OR
Drive set up easily. Just plug in and away you go. Nice and quiet and FAST! Compared to another external drive I have, this one is 20%-30% faster in read and write. A full format to NTFS was only about 20 minutes. Great value for the money Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 Solid, stable external... Monday, July 14, 2008
Alex from Austin, Texas
The drive is plain, but seems to work well. It won't win any style awards, I'll tell you that. Seems to transfer at good speeds, but nothing to write home about.
In all, good value for a good price for people looking for a USB external. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 Great Deal! Monday, July 14, 2008
A Customer from Henderson CO
Works great, setup was easy, I would recommend, have it running on Windows 2003 server as a data drive for over a month. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 I am happy. Sunday, July 13, 2008
Africa from Garland, TX
I have Vista on my home computer so I had to do a lil more digging than I wanted to, to find a product that was compatible with Vista. This product is perfect for me and my needs. There was no set up required. I just plugged it in and backed up my computer. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 great unit...great value Wednesday, July 09, 2008
A Customer from Valencia, CA
This is the first time i purchased a fantom drives. I am satisfied with the quality and performance. I was concerned about the heat at first, but after talking to support and doing my own research i understood that the drive cools by transferring heat to the enclosure which then releases heat to the outside. Was this review helpful?
3 of 5 Delivery Tuesday, July 08, 2008
A Customer from El Monte, CA
Prompt delivery. Product get heat up rapidly. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 Good Value Tuesday, July 08, 2008
A Customer from 48083
This drive is great for the money. i purchased 4 for my coworkers and myself and they are all working fine and running pretty cool 2 weeks in. Was this review helpful?
4 of 5 Good value for price Monday, July 07, 2008
Doug from Dearborn, MI
I had no issue with it being re-certified - it worked out of the box fine. Full format would have taken forever so I did a quick format in just a few seconds to NTFS. Seems a bit slow, but I'm doing a bunch of copying processes simultaneously. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 Excellent purchase Monday, July 07, 2008
lmrouse2 from Sarasota, Florida
I purchased this external hard drive because the hard drive of my desktop PC had under a gigabyte of free space available. My hard drive was full of MP3 music files and family photos. Therefore, I purchased this external drive to move my music and photos to in order to free up some space. To date I have been able to free over 16 gigabytes on my hard drive and will be able to free up much more when I have the time. Installation of the drive was very easy and so far it has performed up to my satisfaction. Was this review helpful?
4 of 5 Refurbished Disk okay so far! Monday, July 07, 2008
Ralph from Bothell, WA
I arrived and worked / works fine.
When I connected it to my hub though, (along with 2 additional external USB 2 drives, totaling 7 external drives now) I killed the hub. I'm hoping it wasn't that load BECAUSE of that new Fantom drive.
I don't think it was because of the drive, but hey, they wanted me to write a review! ; ^) Was this review helpful?
3 of 5 It is OK as just hardware Monday, July 07, 2008
A Customer from West Chester, PA
I agree that it does run very warm. The heat does make me feel a little nervous. It also lacked any backup or drive management software. True, it didn't say software was included.
I also have a Seagate FreeAgent drive which does not get so warm and does include drive management software. It handles backup and power management as well. If the Fantom drive would allow shutting it down, it certainly would get as warm. And, I had to reformat the Fantom for NTFS. Was this review helpful?
5 of 5 Quite HDD Monday, July 07, 2008
New Venture Alpaca Ranch from Mora, NM
This drive runs warm but not hot. It's quite and can be stood up as pictured. I'm 100% satisfied with the product and would buy again. I've had it for a few months and have done dozens of backups and it's preformed flawlessly. The price is right. Was this review helpful?
1 of 5 This is a crappy product ....better stay away. Friday, July 04, 2008
A Customer from Concord , NH
This is the crappy product I have ever come across.It hardly worked for few minutes and all of a sudden stopped working for no reason. I bought a recertified product expecting it to work just like a maxtor drive I own for years. But it proven to be wrong.I will never buy this brand again and I will never advise any one to buy this. If you put your valuable data in it believing you will have it for future use. Not sure,you may loose it in next moment, It's so unstable. I am using maxtor drives for years but never had this kind of bad experience. got tempted for $20 MIR,will never do again. Was this review helpful?
4 of 5 All you need for a budget external. Friday, July 04, 2008
A Customer from Orlando, Fl
The lack of fan is not a huge deal because I have another external and I rarely turn the fan on. All hard drives get hot, the tiny 1/2 inch fan on my other drive does not do much. Was this review helpful?
2 of 5 Runs very hot Thursday, July 03, 2008
Rowland Barkley from Nashville, TN
This drive arrived with an incorrect plastic support, so it cannot be stood up on edge as pictured. It appears to work fine, except it runs very hot, and I've never seen a HDD that lasts long when it overheats. Was this review helpful?
1 of 1 customers found this review helpful.
1 of 5 STAY AWAY - hot hot hot Monday, June 16, 2008
broy from Sunnyvale, CA
Contrary to what Fantom states - the drives are really very poorly engineered.
There is no heatsinking method between the drive and the case - so the drive inside actually runs very hot. There is a narrow gap between the drive and the outside of the case. A narrow air gap actually works more as an insulator (since convection currents cannot be set up). The HDD inside runs hot..
In my last refurbished Fantom drive, it died just after a year of light use. While it did have a life, the drive used to vibrate with a hum. Was this review helpful?
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