Fantom Drives G-Force 1TB USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394a / eSATA Triple Interface External Hard Drive GF1000T

Pros: It's triple interface. The 1394a transfers fast, despite the fact that I have a 1394 port on my laptop. I love the fact that it uses an external power source. It looks awesome and stays cool even when used 24/7.

Cons: The blue light gets annoying at night. If you're really picky you can tape over it. No USB 3.0, but I use the FireWire anyways.

Other Thoughts: I ran some Read/Write tests using the FireWire and some on my internal hard drive. The external Reads and Writes faster, so I record video directly to it. I haven't had the chance to use the eSata yet, but once I build my new computer and get away from this laptop I will.

Pros: Good looks, very sturdy, great interface options.

Cons: A little noisy when laying flat. Blue LED is bright and stays lit even when the drive is asleep.

Other Thoughts: Good basic storage for backups, media, etc.

Pros: this is a great hard drive. its quiet, sleek, many plugins, and effective at dispersing heat. I let my friend borrow it and the first thing he asked me was if it was on; he couldnt hear it at all despite being hardly 3 feet away. He ran it for 2 weeks nonstop for his server (i broke his so it was a fair trade he gets to borrow mine) and he said it had no problems with heating and when I came to pick it up, it was warm but not hot at all.

another great feature is that it comes with all the cables you need.

Cons: like all things this hard drive has its good and its bads.
when i was backing up my computer onto this, it was somewhat loud. you could hear the clicks when it was writing. the clicks were probably due to the fact that i had my buffer rate on the backup set to about 4 mbs.
another thing is that LED is a bit bright, had to put some duck tape over it in the night because it would be lighting up the room.
finally, the power cord is a bit short, wasnt a problem for me except for when I had to use this at my school.

all in all, the problems I encountered with this were minor and easily solvable or not worth docking eggs. great buy.

Other Thoughts: I kind of regret buying this, for the sake that the 2TB model with esata/usb2.0 is only 20 bucks more, but I when the time comes and the 1TB is not enough, i know who I'm going to get it from.

Pros: Small, good looking, lots of connection options.

Cons: I can hear it working.

Other Thoughts: Great drive, I use it as a Time Machine drive connected to my Airport Extreme. Works well.

Pros: Comes pre-formatted for Mac. Good value for 1tb. 3x Interface. Pretty quiet, reasonably low profile. Power-strip friendly plug in. Extra firewire connection.

Cons: Fickle - trouble transferring files from another external USB device when plugged in using firewire. Annoying blue light. Slim on the storage (0.93 usable tb). No eSATA cable included.

Other Thoughts: After a lot of price comparison & review reading, I picked up the Fantom Megadisk. Newegg consistently has expedient shipping & good prices. My first drive arrived, I plugged it in, and made a lot of noise. I began to transfer some files via firewire on my iBook G4, and the device stalled & eventually ejected itself. After repeats, reformatting, etc., I returned the defective drive for a new one.

2nd chance, tried again. Much quieter, which made me happy. Began transferring files from another external device (my old reliable Seagate 250gb USB 2.0). BAD NEWS!!!! This device doesn't like to convert from USB to Firewire. When I reconnected the Fantom with USB, I had no problems.

So... maybe this is a great value, and it's nice to have a 3x interface (especially with an extra firewire slot), but it's picky. Not for the advanced user.

Manufacturer Response:

Hi Chris, Thank you for feedback, however none of our drives have difficulty transferring data between USB and Firewire devices. The entire transfer is handled by your OS and as such, even if there were such an issue, the blame could not lie with the drive itself. You may have a driver or OS issue causing the problem you are experiencing. Please contact us at customercare@fantomdrives.com for more information.

Pros: Works as expected. Triple interface (especially cool with the eSATA)

Cons: Not really. The bright blue LED and some head-movement clicks do not really bother me. Would be great if the included Firewire comes with 4-pin male connector (so to connect to laptop) and an eSATA cable (bought separately)

Other Thoughts: Use it as a backup drive. What attracts me was the triple-interface feature (and the $20 rebate, which is still pending). Preliminarily, eSATA works (under Vista or Windows 7 x64) at 60-133 MB/sec, USB around 30-40 MB/sec. I haven't tested the Firewire. Will post another informal benchmark on the same machine with all 3 interfaces after I see the rebate. For now, it seems at least eSATA has worked the harddrive to its limit so very little latency was seen added by the case.

Pros: Very Sleek looking. Doesn't run too hot. Great price!

Cons: Sometimes it is loud when writing to the disk but this doesn't bug me.

Pros: It works well and fast across all of the OS platforms and connections we have thrown at it. Mac OSX Snow Leopard, Ubuntu Linux Karmic/ Intrepid/ Hardy, Windows 7 and Vista 64 Pro all work with no additional installation required.

Assembled in USA is also a plus to me.

Aluminum case "probably" keeps the drive a bit cooler than a plastic housing and maybe last a bit longer because of it.

3 connector types allow fastest and most robust hookup available where ever it travels.

Cons: Non yet.

Other Thoughts: I wish I would have been aware of this drive when I bought the Samsung Story USB only. By comparison The Story was slowww and error-prone during large file transfers and Time machine backups. I have found; regardless of the brand of drive, that large file transfers through USB and Windows are considerably more error-prone than firewire or eSATA with either Linux or Mac OSX.

Pros: Well-built aluminum case. I definitely prefer the aluminum style to black plastic. It definitely affects the perception of quality.

Cons: I don't care for the little LED indicator. In an otherwise beautiful product design, it looks like someone's Radio Shack project when the LED comes on.

Other Thoughts: I'll be buying another. The $20 rebate makes it the best deal among aluminum-cased 1TB drives.

Pros: This drive performs beautifully for me. I have been using it more as a "travel" drive, so it gets packed up and tossed in the bag for field HD Video work very often. This drive gives PLENTY of space for it.

I am buying a second drive because I have dropped it twice. It was off both times. The first time it fell on the concrete driveway from approx 4 ft. and got a few scratches and dented the alum. enclosure, but plugged in and worked fine. Second time I dropped it off the counter (yes I am clumsy, and unfortunately it costs me haha) it landed on the usb connector (cable was plugged in) and bent that connector. I was sure I had killed it that time.... Alas, the drive fired right up via firewire (USB is dead) and the drive checked out fine, no loss of data.

I figure it is time to get a new one before it does go belly up.... but as of this writing it is still chugging right along!

Cons: When first purchased I did have to call tech support get the drive running, but it was an incredibly easy fix.

Other Thoughts: Great drive for me and really you can't beat the price. I read comments that the drive runs hot, but I don't use eSATA... I could see it possibly running hot under those conditions, but the drive works perfectly for me using firewire and USB (until I broke it)