Pros: I have six of these drives installed in 3 systems Raid5 (3) Raid0(2) standalone (1). Some have been running 1+ years. I have had zero problems with this product. The drives have been fast and reliable for me.

Cons: Before installation you should visit the Hitachi Global Storage site. Download and burn to CDs two .iso files. Hitachi Drive Fitness Test (DFT) and Feature Tool (FT). FT is necessary to set drive features such as enable SATA 2. The iso files create bootable CDs.

Overall Review: None

Pros: Easy SATA installation. Recognized by XP. Nero wanted to burn 16x +R media at 18x, 8x -R media at 12x. I did not find the drive excessively noisy.

Cons: Would not read DVD's - Any DVD - Commercial data, Commercial Video (region 1), or DVD's it burned. The DVD disks it created (+R and -R) were readable on a Lite-On burner on the same XP system. Drive read CDs. Because of the DVD read issue, Lightscribe was not tested. Drive had original bar code and Drive Id labels overlaid with new. Id is TSSTcorp TS-653N. Firmware UO00 September 2008. Purchased Jan 2009. TSSTcorp apparently stands for Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corp. An internet search suggests that this drive was installed on and sold with Dell and HP systems. The Samsung site - samsungodd dot com - lists this model as supported by Samsung Live Update software for firmware updates, however the software says the drive is not supported.

Overall Review: Drive was RMA'd to Newegg for refund. Life is to short to mess with defective hardware that has identity issues.

Pros: I use this cable to move a rear USB3 port to front of case. Transfer times almost the same for USB3 flash drive on rear port vs this cable (ATTO). Noticed more transfer time variation when used with USB3 HDD with its own 1 m cable. 1m cable length just right. Have ordered 3 more. Vendor was most helpful and quickly responded to questions. Shipment left China 3 days after I placed the order.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Have ordered 3 more.

Pros: This information applies to using this SATA2 drive in a legacy SATA1 system. Iniially drive appeared as DOA in legacy SATA1 system - probably because the default configuration was SATA2. Had to put the drive in a system supporting SATA2 to be able to use the Hitachi Feature Tool to set the drive configuration to SATA1. Drive was mfg. in Sept 2007. Previous experience with Hitachi SATA2 drives in 2007 was that Hitachi set the drives to SATA1 for compatibility. Apparently by Sept 2007 they had changed the default configuration to SATA2. This misadventure led to one probably needless RMA to Newegg. Mea culpa

Cons: None - Hitachi Feature Tool is available from Hitachi Global Storage.