Final Thoughts

The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini 250 GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive does make a valiant effort to differentiate itself from all the other mini-hard drives out on the market. It’s chisseled features and well built casing protect it from the elements and inspires confidence in its ability to take a few bumps and bruises on the road. The OneTouch button though, seems like a bit of a one trick pony, becoming pretty much useless if you don’t use the included software. However, there isn’t any reason why you shouldn’t use it.

Well, if you’re a Mac user, then the software is less of a selling feature. I guess Mac users just don’t seem to have the same problems with crashes and weird failures like PCs do or something. I dunno. Not a Mac user here. For the PC folks like you and me, the SafetyDrill feature will probably end up saving your digital life one of these days if your system goes down. Even if you suck at backups, you can set the software to remind you to do it and while it does the backup dance, you can continue to work as its an automated process. Extra security features help you keep your data shielded from prying eyes.

 

Overall though, the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini is a solid portable unit. Built well with up to 250 GB’s of storage as tested, it should provide lots of peripheral storage and be that shining beacon of hope when things go south. It’s not exactly cheap at a around $199 bucks for our 250 GB unit, as tested, but it does do everything that it has promised. Now if only they could find some way to work a bit of design magic into that hideously huge generic USB cable.

Pros

• Small size and high quality build.
• SafetyDrill software can be a real “Digital Life” saver.

Cons

• Huge honking USB cable really takes away from the portability and looks of the unit.
• It’s small, but the price isn’t small.

Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10.0

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