Maxtor Basics 750GB External Hard Drive Review
February 6th, 2009 | This article was viewed 5,181 times so far...
I bought this Maxtor Basics 750GB External Hard Drive just a few weeks back during some promotion. My photography and work archives for 2008 alone has filled up most of the space on my 320GB hard disk, and it’s also high time I have a portable storage device to handle the data-backup across my network.
The 1TB version was totally sold out so I had to settle for the 750GB.
The Package
A simple package where all things are nicely wrapped, placed and safely padded by the cardboard placeholder.
The drive, the manual, the cables and adapter. They’re all there, you’re even provided multiple adapter sockets.
Installation
Very simple – Plug the power, plug the USB – and that’s it! It works great on both Mac OS and Windows Vista from what I’ve tested. I like how they included the icon so that it has an icon of its own as it appears on Windows.
Mac recognized it without a problem, minus the icon.
Test Driving It
Transfer started at 6:16PM and completed at 8:50PM. That’s 154 minutes in total, for approximately 170GB worth of data.
| Total Time | Total Data |
| 154 minutes | 170GB |
| 1 minute | ~1.1GB |
| 1 second | ~0.018GB |
So that comes to about 18MB per second. It’s USB 2.0, give it a break. 
Hard disk manufacturers always report hard disk sizes using the 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes method but fact of the matter is that 1 GB is actually equal to 1,073,700,000 bytes, hence you get the reading above. I just simplified it to 170GB based on the 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes equation.
Conclusion
Generally I like the Maxtor Basics External Hard Drive. It’s silent. It’s not hot, much thanks to the plastic enclosure with vents on the side.
I haven’t try dropping it but I don’t think I’ll be doing that unless someone would be kind enough to spare me a unit to do so.
Strangely I can’t find the product on Maxtor’s website, so I’m inclined to believe it’s a discontinued product. It’s still a nice product nevertheless.
February 6th, 2009 at 3:07 am
more space is always a good thing.
i think you meant 1TB though in the first part, right? 
February 6th, 2009 at 4:45 am
haha yes. typo.
February 6th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I guess the reliability of a hard disk can only be verified after using it for a period of time…
February 7th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I’ve heard the 1 Tera isint really stable yet…BTW…why go for Maxtor?
February 7th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
All other computer parts – wear and tear is pretty impossible to test, unless we’re talking about dropping it to the floor or something.
Why MAXTOR? because it was the only brand on sale.
February 8th, 2009 at 9:39 am
im currently using seagate FreeAgentGo 500G…not bad IMO…anyways nice review…didnt know maxtor’s transfer speed was that quick…was skeptical of the brand,hope you can do some review on seagate and WesternDigital products too ^^
February 8th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Well, the hard disk is the most important part of your PC because it contains all of your data. Unless you regularly backup your data to an internet server/DVD or some other way, it is very crucial to make sure your hard disk is reliable.
The current issue with Seagate is an example why we should be very careful in buying hard disk.
February 15th, 2009 at 1:10 am
i will prefer WD My Book.
The 1TB version is only RM399 yesterday i saw in lowyat.
haha
damn cheap already.
just wait for the 2.5″ to go cheaper and more capacity as it dont requires any power supply!
February 17th, 2009 at 3:11 am
@icy – I have bad experience on some Maxtors but hey, this is external and been quite a while since those nonsense HDD so I thought I’d give it a try. After all there’s offer.
@xcen – for me, that’s why I have backup. reliability is hard to be tested, unless there’s a worldwide complaint and all.
i trust backups, not brands.
@joshua – ahh, (un)fortunately I don’t need that many backup devices.
February 21st, 2009 at 9:56 pm
How can I reduce access time of tne Maxtor Basics 750 MB because I used it as the main HD. I have often to wait wnn I want to copie the document on the HD because motor dont turn!
Thanks for giving me some instruction.
February 22nd, 2009 at 4:58 am
Using it as main? I have no idea really. It’s time to contact Maxtor support.
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:07 pm
My Maxtor Basics 750GB external HDD dropped a few days ago and now I can see only the folders but Im not able to copy files. Also it’s not possible to format it. Im looking for a method to recover my data. Thanks for giving me some instruction.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:49 am
hello
can you send my the maxtor pc icon?
greeting Thierry
May 13th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
hey i have got a 1TB externak HDD of the same model..Dont kno the reason but from two days the icon has suddenly started appearing like some windows folder
How do i get the normal maxtor icon back?? Plz help..
June 8th, 2009 at 2:21 am
k. will see what I can do.
June 20th, 2009 at 11:04 am
[...] device, here’s what it looked like compared to some other devices. On the left of it, is the Maxtor Basics 750GB and on the right is my Nokia N81 8GB [...]
August 2nd, 2009 at 4:32 am
[...] are external hard disks such as the Seagate FreeAgent Go and Maxtor Basics that I reviewed [...]
February 21st, 2010 at 11:10 pm
[...] have 2 options, one is to buy an external hard disk like the Maxtor Basics 750GB External Hard Disk that I [...]
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:44 pm
博主高手，学习了！
February 27th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I got the 1tb version. Lasted about a year of being plugged into a PC that’s only offed for an hour every month. Worst thing was I transfered everything from a failing drive I had into it, just to watch it fail 1 year later.