Apricorn Aegis Portable A25-USB-160, 160 GB Portable External Hard Drive - Retail

Excellent buy with $40 Apricorn rebate!!!

Reviewed By: on 9/27/2006

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: They don't get any smaller than this -at least for 2.5" drives. The performance is right on par with a Western Digital drive I have, it's quiet, looks cool, convenient and feels sturdy. Mail in rebate if you get it in time (until Sept 30th)

Cons: It was a little pricey, but the rebate helps. You basically are paying for a convenient all-in-one drive (no cables) that is highly portable.

Other Thoughts: It comes with a small padded sleeve that fits the drive itself. There is also an extension cable if you need the drive to be farther away than the 6" cable built in. Also has a double USB dongle for older laptops that can't supply enough power from one USB port. Well designed and though out. Highly recommended especially with the Apricorn $xx mail in rebate, makes it about $xxx which is a great price for this drive! The rebate can be found from the Apricorn website, or just by doing a Google search for "Apricorn Rebate" and there is a PDF about 4 results down.

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great drive, but prefer the Firewire version for a mac

Reviewed By: gru on 10/6/2007

Tech Level: average - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

Pros: This is a great, light drive. USB Y cable is included and necessary for operating it on my apple powerbook G4 1.25 GHz. The drive indeed does not get hot at all even when keeping it busy for hours.

Cons: The USB version of this drive caused sleep issues on my G4 powerbook. I had to wait for 3 minutes, quit the Finder, or even unplug the drive before the finder would respond again after sleep. The Firewire version works flawlessly. Apricorn tech support was very knowledgeable and extremely helpful in resolving that issue. Also, I needed both USB ports to provide enough power (the aegis mini drives need only one port, according to Apricorn).

Other Thoughts: I now use and recommend the Firewire version of this great little drive for use on anything like the G4 powerbook. A Firewire extension cable is included in case the inbuilt cable is too short.

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Piece of junk

Reviewed By: on 11/8/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

Pros: Sounds good

Cons: It is a great idea, but the product reliability is a joke.

I copied a small file onto the vault, all looks good, then I try to compy a 50gb directory and 5 gb done it start to complain 'cabt find file xxx', reset reformat and go

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Reviewed By: on 9/6/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: It's an external hard drive that stores information externally. What other pros could you want?

Cons: none

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Could Not Be Happier

Reviewed By: Jeff Girard on 9/6/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: more than 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: I've owned this drive for about a year and a half now and use it to store videos mainly (legal of course ;). I carry it around in its little carrying case, which I very much appreciate, and then pop out the USB cord when I want to watch one. In my experience, this cord is plenty long; mostly it's connecting to a USB hub on my desk or a slot on the side of a friend's laptop. In the worst case scenario, I have to go under a desk to plug it into the back of some ancient Dell or Gateway. For this inconvenience, I blame the owner of said relic and not the drive. With USB 2.0, it's fast enough to watch my videos off the drive itself, without making copies to the computer (unless I want to). 160GB was large when I bought this and still is, for many users. However, I'm excited by the prospect of larger drives in the same Aegis format. This drive is stylish, reliable, and convenient as hell. I recommend it for its intended use - occasional access (not to always leave on or run programs off of).

Cons: None. Having trouble with your MIR (mail-in rebate) is not a device Con, but rather a harsh reality of the cold, capitalistic world we live in.

Other Thoughts: A number of reviewers complained about the size of the drive. First of all, this thing is very reasonably sized; if it got much smaller, I'd worry about losing it. Second, it has the dimensions listed: 0.7" x 3.3" x 4.7". Do a little reading and you won't be surprised or upset when some random guy on the internet makes an exaggerated approximation.

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