Hitachi GST Touro Mobile Pro 500GB USB 3.0 Piano Black External Hard Drive 0S03105

Pros: Large capacity, good price, small

Cons: The drive failed within a month. The USB cable connecting to the hard drive was a lose connection that seemed to be a problem, but it worked nonetheless. However, the drive completely failed within 30 days. The drive itself is dead, nothing else. The drive was carefully removed from the outer casing and was tested and no longer worked. I had very important files that I will never be able to recover. VERY DISAPPOINTED!

Other Thoughts: Do not purchase this drive, go for a specific Western Digital brand rather than this to try and save some money, I wish I did...

Pros: it worked at first...

Cons: This drive worked fine for a few days. I sat it aside for a month and picked it up to back up my files and it stopped working. I cannot get to connect to any of my pcs

Other Thoughts: I am not sure its passed when I can return this item but it would be awesome to have a working product.

Pros: Fast, light, works consistently, even looks decent. I share it regularly between my work laptop and home desktop, and transfer files between my machines and my kids'. It simply works!

Cons: None really. Wouldn't mind having rubberized edges or something but I've had no problems at all with this drive in the 14 months I've had it.

Pros: Looks nice, Portable, and fast when it works..

Cons: The cable like many have already mentioned is pretty dang short for my taste but I just sit it on top of the chassis and it works for me.

The biggest issue I have, however, is the inconsistent transfer speeds. I mainly bought this drive because I back up and transfer large files between multiple machines and it still takes over 5 minutes to transfer 10gb files! For the first gig of transfer it will have speeds of up to 150-160mb a second and then after that it drops down to 32mb/s or below... Definitely not what I was expecting.

I was trying to find online if anyone else was having a similar problem and haven't been able to recover much information on it. Maybe its just my drive.

Other Thoughts: Its a nice looking drive aesthetically but for my first usb3.0 drive, I am greatly disappointed.

Pros: This is a 7200rpm drive - unusual for external portable drives - and faster. Nice looks.

Cons: Silver surround looks like metal, but is plastic.

Pros: Lots of space, very fast, no issues with running programs/videos directly off the drive. Looks sleek.

Cons: it's been about 4 months, and the USB connection where it connects to the drive has developed a wiggle. I always try to be very careful with external drives but this one just didn't hold up to every day use. Now it connects and disconnects as it pleases, and that's no good for my data. Time to get a new one :/

Other Thoughts: this was used for work, every day, to and from the job. For a heavy amount of traveling, it did an OK job.

Pros: Quiet,small,fast on usb3 connection

Cons: requires too much power from usb2 bus so does not register and so it is not seen by computer. Only worked on computer with usb3 connection. Had to send back for a refund.

Other Thoughts: They should publish the power requirements on the usb3 bus so people could check their computer specs to see if they provide enough power!

Pros: It's fast...very fast.

Cons: Being in an office environment where several people will be using this drive, the ridiculous USB to mini SATA plug makes me nervous. It's bound to get lost and it isn't an easy replacement. I'm up to my neck in USB device cables...just not this one.

Pros: This drive is so fast, I average 90 to 105 MB/sec transfer real world speeds either reading or writing in USB 3 mode. That sounds weird but see Other Thoughts for the benchmarks.

Is there another 2.5" 7200 rpm and no external power device like this anywhere? Almost all 2.5" external drives can be 7200 rpm (most are 5200 rpm) or can be USB 3 or work without an external power supply but not all three at once.This one does the job.

If this external case fails for any reason I will just remove the drive and use it as internal mount.

Cons: The transfer cable is short, very short. About one foot in length. I think this was a compromise they made because longer USB extension cords don't work. I've tried. I guess there was only so much they could do on USB power alone.

Others have mentioned disconnects. This does happen if you touch the USB cable end while transferring data. I leave it alone when moving data and I can live with this because the drive is so fast.

Just FYI, I have had no trouble getting most USB 2 only connections on this drive to work just fine. Kind of amazing because USB 3 has a higher amperage rate and a thicker cord style. Transfer speeds at USB 2 are 17 Meg/sec write and 31 Meg/sec read (approx).

There have been a few older machines that don't deliver enough power to enable this drive to work but for the most part, this has not been a problem for me.

Other Thoughts: These are benchmark tests I ran after I received the drive.

Author's note. To run the Write tests on any drive using HD Tune Pro you have to delete the drive's partition. I did this, then formatted to NTFS. The drive comes initially formatted as Fat32.

HD Tune Pro: HitachiGST Benchmark

Test capacity: full

Read transfer rate
Transfer Rate Minimum : 53.8 MB/s
Transfer Rate Maximum : 107.4 MB/s
Transfer Rate Average : 86.0 MB/s
Access Time : 16.1 ms
Burst Rate : 148.0 MB/s


HD Tune Pro: HitachiGST Benchmark

Test capacity: full

Write transfer rate
Transfer Rate Minimum : 52.1 MB/s
Transfer Rate Maximum : 107.5 MB/s
Transfer Rate Average : 83.8 MB/s
Access Time : 15.0 ms
Burst Rate : 150.9 MB/s

Have you ever seen such near identical results from both read and write? I ran them several times just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. But this bears out in everyday use on this drive when using a USB 3 equipped computer. It

Pros: Speed is top notch for an external 2.5 usb 3.0 drive. ATTO gives max speed at 100+ MB/Sec read and write. It transfered 70 Gigs of media files in 20 Min!!! 7200 rpm drive. Cloud storage is real nice when you install the included hitachi back up software. Pics in their cloud are viewable in a hi res 3d style format! The usb plug is fine, But if you are new to USB 3.0 be careful. It's easy to plug it in backwards and break any micro usb 3.0 plug! Quiet and cool drive. Nice big led. Can leave the protective plastic sheet on both sides to keep drive like new. Can use a usb 2.0 micro cable but won't get the 3.0 speed. Heavy duty 2 ft usb 3.0 cable included.

Cons: None!