BUFFALO MiniStation Stealth 500GB USB 2.0 Black External Hard Drive HD-PCT500U2/B

Pros: Comes formatted as NTFS with 465GB capacity.
Ran an error scan and found all sectors to be good.
HDTune 2.55 benched an average transfer rate of 29.8MB\s with an access time of 17.8ms.

I found it to be very quite

Cons: The cable that comes with is is REALLY short. Ok if it will stay on a flat surface next to your laptop, but I needed this for a customer's desktop. The included quick setup guide states

"To reduce electromagnetic interference, please use the supplied USB cable."

The cable is really thin and feels cheap. I doubt there is any special shielding in there.

But because my complaints are only for the cable, and they use a standard USB plug, I will only take off one egg.

Other Thoughts: For the price this is a great basic standard USB 2.0 external storage.

Pros: Great price. 500gb. no need for power cord.Fits in my pocket.Just plug it in and GO.

Cons: none so far.

Pros: Quick shipping

Cons: Following Buffalo PDF reformatting to MAC seemed simple, failed. called Buffalo tech support, they said I was doing it wrong, joined computers so they would do it- still failed. I asked for a MAC savey tech support. They said "We don't have any, we are PC people" an hour and a half no progress in doing a simple reformat to MAC. If you are a MAC STAY AWAY from any Buffalo products. They are PC only.

Other Thoughts: Tech support called back 3 hr later and said they hadn't figured out what the problem was. I was able to figure out the problem and correct it. The problem was I folloWed their written directions, which were a dead end. Stay away from Buffalo if you are a MAC, you have NO TECH SUPPORT HELP.

Pros: Easy plug and play interface
Plenty of space
I like that the plug is on the side. Makes it seem smaller.
Bus powered

Cons: It would be nice to have ESATA also.

Pros: Small Form Factor
Standard USB 2.0 Interface

Cons: Slower than USB 3.0

Other Thoughts: This is a great little drive. I do forensic computer work and these drives make good external devices to capture case hard drive images on. Picked up 5 of these (customer limit) when on sale for $40.

A little louder than other drives that I have.

Width about the same as most 1TB drives. About 1/3 of an inch shorter. Lighter weight than some other drives.

Standard USB 2.0 (like for digital cameras) Interface and not the newer "B" shaped interface (USB 3.0?).

Will pickup more at this price point in the future.

Pros: over 450GB of storage after format
hidden USB cable

Cons: Annoying extra "fake" CD that wastes space, and forces use.
This drive only works on Linux, unless you install the fake CD stuff, which I won't do, so only use it on my Linux systems.

Other Thoughts: I don't understand why companies do this to their customers. Just put a simple USB interface on your hardware. I'll never own another Buffalo product. If they think this lowly of their customers to annoy them with their own backup software, that isn't real great, then I don't need to try their other products.

Manufacturer Response:

KLP, I think you posted this review under the wrong product. Should have been for the MiniStation Extreme w/encryption. HD-PZ500U3B, uses encryption and needs the extra partition that is recognized as a CD so you can enable and disable the encryption for the main partition. If you don't want the second partition then send me an email so I can help you remove it.

thanks
marco
newegg@buffalotech.com

Pros: Not much to say, it's an external HDD, works great, I got it for my wife to backup photos and other junk. Works great so far.

Cons: None

Pros: Nice and small with great capacity for the price.
Was faster than I expected.

Cons: I dislike the placement of the USB port. I'd have preferred it on one of the short sides. It's a quibble, though.

Other Thoughts: Using this as a replacement for my home transient backups. Linux (Ubuntu) server 11.04.

Pros: quiet, great connect speed, gives memory boost to slowly PC's

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: none

Pros: This product has a nice profile, and appears to do what it was advertised to do. I used it for backing up a directory of docs I had to give me some room. Only time will tell if it's the total solution to my needs. The drive functioned perfectly, albeit I thought the transfer was a little slow. (Perhaps PC resources). The short cord USB cord was handier than a 6' cord, and I was not expecting one to be furnished, so kudos to Buffalo for tossing one in.

Cons: None, except I was cautious about buying the product due to negative comments of Newegg support and number of drives people have reported DOA out of the box.

Other Thoughts: Buffalo should come up with some sort of box that allows a user to store these, perhaps like a DVD case with 4 pouches for the drive and 1 cable. That would help users like myself that have to do a lot of archiving. The box it came in takes up too much space, especially if you have 10 or more of them.