Capable of storing up to 182,000 digital photos, or 168,000 digital music files, or 520 downloaded digital movies
Full system backup and recovery (including attached internal/external drives).
Internal shock sensor and ramp loading technology helps protect the drive.
USB Powered for portability.
Password protected backup encryption.
Description
Portability, Reliability and Recovery - Computer backup made simple. Toshiba’s Portable External Hard Drives make computer backup simple. Our drives take the complexity out of backing up your computer data by providing easy-to-use backup software for both Windows and Mac users. Powered by USB 2.0, you can take your files just about anywhere. Just one click and you’re on your way to creating a digital safety net to help protect your files. With Toshiba’s Portable External Hard Drives, you’ll enjoy mobile storage space for even the largest digital libraries. Our 640 GB Drive is capable of storing up to 182,000 digital photos, or 168,000 digital music files, or 520 downloaded digital movies. Toshiba’s Portable External Hard Drives work with both Mac and PC computers and include software that makes backing up your computer simple.
Product Details
Product Length:
3.2 inches
Product Width:
0.65 inches
Product Height:
5.0 inches
Product Weight:
0.6 pounds
Package Length:
7.5 inches
Package Width:
6.1 inches
Package Height:
2.3 inches
Package Weight:
0.75 pounds
Average Customer Rating:
based on 601 reviews
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: ( 601 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
361 of 367 found the following review helpful:
I love Tosh drives Aug 09, 2009
By Gadgester
"No Time, No Money"
I have half a dozen Toshiba portable drives and some of them have served me well for several years. They are reliable and fast -- with the 500GB portable drive I get about 20MB/s read and write speeds (tested on two recent HP laptops, one with Intel and the other with AMD both running Vista), which is half of USB 2.0 high-speed's theoretical max throughput. The drives can be used with the PS3 and Macs out-of-box, but for best results with XP/Vista/Win7 you can convert it to NTFS without reformatting or losing existing data via a DOS command: convert g: /fs:ntfs [where g: is the drive letter, or you can use a volume name like "tosh_500g" if your drive is already named tosh_500g].
Because this drive (like other portable drives) does not use a separate power line -- it draws power directly from the USB port -- your computer must have a powered USB port to use this. Almost all recent desktops and laptops have this feature, but if you experience any problem, it may be due to an insufficiently powered USB port (or USB hub), so try another port or another computer.
In addition to being a fast 5,400RPM drive, this Toshiba includes some valuable features:
- Backup software that backs up system files in addition to regular files and folders (great for system recovery!)
- Password-protect your data through encryption
- Drive space alert lets you know when free space is running low
- Toshiba's famous shock-absorbing technology, also used in iPods.
BTW, this drive is also a great value because at present a 320GB Seagate portable drive costs over [...], plus tax.
104 of 110 found the following review helpful:
Very cool drive! Oct 27, 2009
By Patrick Stirling I've only just received this, listed as "Toshiba USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive" in the 500GB size. It has a very cool design, the case is similar to my 5G 30GB iPod - a smooth, flat front/top with a rounded back. It has a nice discreet blue activity light in one corner of the top (i.e. front) surface that is on for power and blinks for activity. The USB2 connection is a micro style and contrary to another review is a standard cable - this micro style is quite common, I have it on my GPS and camera so can use the same cable for all 3. The cable supplied is a short single cable (i.e. not a "Y"), and my Asus netbook powers it with a single USB port. The drive (like all of them) is just plug & play - plug it in, the computer sees it, and you're off. I reformatted it to a single large NTFS partition, 465GB (drives are always sold with powers of 10 "GB", i.e. 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes (10 to the 9th power), whereas computers use powers of 2 "GB", where 1GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes (2 to the 30th power). I don't like this sales speak, but Toshiba do clearly state the difference in the very short instruction sheet - to their credit.
The drive comes with NTI Backup Now EZ. I already have a backup strategy (using xxcopy, I recommend it!) so have no need for this. It's well reviewed though.
4 stars rather than 5 because I don't know its reliability yet, and it's not quite as fast as I'd hoped (but still fine).
The main reason I got this particular drive is that Toshiba have a 3 year warranty, and the others all have just 1 year. And $90 with free shipping is a great deal!
I also got the Kroo Portable Hard Drive EVA Case, it fits well - just enough space for the drive and short USB cable. It's a semi-hard case, but very little padding. Much better than leaving the drive naked but I wouldn't want to drop it!
73 of 77 found the following review helpful:
Great product! Aug 30, 2009
By Taeko McFadden This hard drive is great! I had a previous clunker that took up a lot of space. The Toshiba 500 GB easily plugs into a USB port and doesn't require an additional power source. It is very small and easily fits into my computer bag. I recommend this hard drive for anyone looking for a way to store a lot of material and not take up a lot of space.
47 of 48 found the following review helpful:
Everything about this product is good except for reliability Feb 21, 2010
By S. Venkatesan Bought the 640 GB for around $100. It was the cheapest in its segment.
First few days I was feeling so happy that I made this purchase.
Backed up my data @ 25Mb/s.
In just less than a week the drive was unrecognizable in my home and office computer.
Was really irritated.
Download testdisk and was able to recover most of the data to my hard-drive.
However, I had to format the drive and then recopy (over night for 8 hours).
Again 2 days later same issue. But this time I never deleted my data from the internal HD.
Beware, please do not rely solely on this for your critical data.
34 of 34 found the following review helpful:
Great Portable Oct 01, 2009
By E. Viray
"History Teacher"
I bought this because I was looking for a portable hard drive that was durable enough to travel from home to classroom to wherever. I holds over 100GB of music and all the pics I've ever taken or been given since 2005 (about 20 GB) and all my lesson plans (20 GB). It's been jarred, dropped by a 2 year old and it's still ticking.
The Netbook computer is amoong the hottest trends in computing. Netbooks are an alternative to buying over-priced laptops. Netbooks are affordable, lightweight, ultra-portable mini-laptops. A mini netbook makes sense as a second computer or starter computer. We offer the lowest priced netbooks anywhere. Netbooks are perfect for web surfing, traveling, business, learning or just for fun! Looking for the Best Netbook Computers? You can buy cheap Acer NETBOOKS, cheap Asus Netbooks or cheap HP netbooks on sale. Read Netbook Reviews of the largest selection of 2011 "netbooks" and NETBOOK computers, including the best selling netbook, Acer Aspire Netbook computers. Review Asus Netbooks, Dell Mini Netbooks and HP Netbook computers. "Grab a netbook and go!" at NetbookComputer.com
based on 601 reviews
I love Tosh drives Aug 09, 2009
By Gadgester
"No Time, No Money"
Everything about this product is good except for reliability Feb 21, 2010
By S. Venkatesan
