Acomdata HD120U2FE-72 120 GB FireWire 400 (1394a) Hard Drive

Pros: Low price, high capacity, USB2 and Firewire connections
Cons: Cheap, skimpy casing, delicate look and feel that inspires no confidence in durability

Acomdata prices its external hard drives at the low end of the spectrum, and this unit is difficult to beat for its features and price. Features The HD120U2FE-72 is a 7200rpm external 120gb hard drive with both USB2 and Firewire connectors. ...

Pros: It has worked great for me so far. I'll post here if that changes.I
Cons: CPU maxes out during copying with USB cable. Haven't used firewire cable yet.

*** Updated May, 2008 **** This hard drive was given to my college age daughter, and after a year of use, the USB port finally gave out. While the firewire port was made to work on a mac, I opted to remove the hard drive and use it as a second drive in ...

Pros: Worked well when it did work, reasonable price
Cons: Inconsistent across machines, short life expectancy, poor customer service.

I purchased the ACOMData 120GB external hard drive looking for a convenient way to transport large graphic design images between work and home. I chose this specific drive due to it's flexibility in using USB or Firewire and a decent price tag for the ...

Pros: Nice package, quiet, fast.
Cons: Unreliable, short lifetime.

I purchased this drive in January 2003. In September, 2003, it failed and I sent it back to the manufacturer. They replaced it at no cost. Now it is August 2004, and the replacement drive has failed too. Hopefully, they will replace this one too, but how long will the replacement last? I purchased this to be a backup device for my laptop. So far, my laptop is much more reliable, and I certainly can't depend on the Acomdata drive as a backup device.

The drive has never been mishandled. I was very careful with the first drive. I have treated the second one as the delicate device that it evidently is!

Pros: Low cost. Good drive mechanism. Silent - no fan.
Cons: Lightweight case - vibration transfer, and durability concerns.

The drive I have reports as a Samsung SP1203N hard drive. This site http://tech-report.com/reviews/2003q2/samsung-sp1203n/index.x?pg=1 provides a pretty full review of this driv mechanism. This drive did quite well in their tests against other more expensive drives. Now, AcomData doesn't say what drive mechanism they use, so they may use different suppliers, but the one I got seems to have a very good drive in it.

The case has no fan and is silent except for the spinning of the disk. The case does vibrate a bit so be careful not to stack things around it that would buzz from the induced vibration and keep good ventilation around the case.

The packaging is very neat and clean, and the small manual seems clearly written - no mangled English.

Pros: Cheap
Cons: Sh*t product

I didn't have this thing for a year before it started failing on me and making terrible noises. If it wasn't for Prosoft's Data Rescue, I would have been majorly screwed. Not worth the price. Very poor quality product.