Question 1

Can this drive work with just the USB connected or does it need AC plugged in?

Accepted Answer

Usually the power requirements of 3.5" mechanical hard drives exceeds what the USB bus can provide, so this normally wouldn't work. I just doublechecked, and the unit does not power up without the power brick being plugged in.

Question 2

Many of the reviews mention problems with device recognition dependability.  I am not a "techie" and not sure I understand the comments and workarounds.  I have had problem in past with Windows7 and my external drives which was intermittent and I was never really able to get consistency even with fixes recommended etc.  As a lo-techie, will this cause problems for me?  I have an HP TouchSmart with Intel i7-26005 cpu @ 280GHz; windows 7, 64bit OS.  The software on my machine is all user-type applications and simple games.  I need a drive to use as a backup drive I will update every week.  I have lost my most valuable data 2 different times and am leary of all the other manufacturers products to this point.  I even had cloud backup that failed me as well.  I am either jinxed or incompetent at keeping my data safe but want to make sure I don't bring other stresses upon myself with the issue mentioned the most in reviews.  anyone who might be able to tell me something encouraging would help in making my decision.

Accepted Answer

I can vouch for this, but only as far as my personal experience is concerned: I have had these drive on 100% of the time for the past week or so. I posted a review that you can take a loot at, but the long and short of it is this: issues with the controllers have to do with how your machine deal with external controllers--I know that's not helpful, but it looks like that's just the way it is. I'm using USB 3.0 ports in the back of my machine (the front ports caused me to have the same issues as other customers--presumably due to the fact that there were additional layers of proprietary tech between the HDD and my motherboard).

tl;dr Buy the drive. If you plug it in and it works fine for a few hours, you probably won't have any issues in the future with the software, excluding those caused by physical failures. If you do have issues, either return it or crack the case open and put the drive into a less "complex" external enclosure. Make sure you format it as GPT, and don't use any proprietary HGST software.

Question 3

how to set up touro on my PC?

Accepted Answer

Plug it in.

Question 4

Will this work for video editing?

Accepted Answer

I use this drive to store all my videos, and play them back on my flat panel TV. The drive works very well so far. I had an issue with my TV not recognizing the full 4 TB , I had to split the drive into 2 partitions. The TV only recognized the first partition. I have a second TV that will see both partitions, so I guess it is a bios limitation of the first TV. I can play it through my laptop and it works very well  to both TV,s, with an HDMI cable the full drive can be used. I think it would be perfect for video editing. Hope this helps.

Question 5

Is this item compatible with a NAS ?

Accepted Answer

Yes if you pull the drive out of the enclosure and make sure your NAS spec will allow drives of this size.  Breaking the case is a little hard than it looks; don't break the drive in your zeal.

Question 6

Would this be compatible with Xbox One?

Accepted Answer

No

Questions & Answers