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Maxtor Corp. said Tuesday that it has developed the second generation of its external hard drives, improving their “one-touch” capability to handle system recovery or other functions.
Available in capacities of 120-, 200-, 250-, and 300-Gbytes, the new OneTouch family boasts an improved industrial design and the first version formatted for the Macintosh. The new OneTouch drives build upon the Maxtor Personal Storage 5000 drives the company introduced last year. At that time, Maxtors external drives offered a maximum of 250-Gbytes.
“Performance, versatility, value and ease are of highest importance to the consumer,” said Mike Williams, vice president of product marketing at Maxtor, in a statement.
“By integrating in one external solution, a backup button, powerful software technology, and a sleek design, Maxtor delivers what the market demands,” Williams added. “Users can maximize their experience and manage their digital life with simplicity, and have the assurance of knowing their data is backed up.”
The drives come bundled with a utility called Dantz Retrospect Express, which can be used to save a users data, system files, and settings. If a system crash occurs, the utility can be used to restore the users information and settings, essentially working like an external version of Microsofts System Restore. The “OneTouch” button can be used to trigger the restore, or can be configured to launch other applications.
The drives include on/off switches and a power-down feature that allows them to spin down to save power.
All of the drives can be formatted for both Windows and the Macintosh operating system, including the “Jaguar” version of OS X, a Maxtor spokeswoman said in an email. All of the drives come preformatted for Windows, with the exception of the 250-Gbyte/7,200-RPM drive, which has the option of being preformatted for the Macintosh.
The Maxtor OneTouch family of products are shipping now and available through Maxtors network of global retailers, as well as the companys on-line store.
The suggested retail price for the 120-Gbyte/7,200 RPM OneTouch external hard drive, available with just a USB 2.0 interface, is $199.95. The 200-Gbyte/7,200-RPM version, which can use either USB or IEEE 1394 connections, is $299.95, while a similar 250-Gbyte/7200-RPM drive carries an MSRP of $349.95. The high-capacity 300-Gbyte/5,400-RPM drive, which uses either USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394, is priced at $399.95.
Maxtor offers only one version for the Mac: a 250-Gbyte/7,200-RPM drive, for $349.95.