Cavalry Storage CAUI Series 250 GB USB External Hard Drive CAUI37250

I wanted something to use with Apple's Time Machine, a program designed to continuously back up your entire hard drive. The only familiar name in this price range was Seagate, but after reading some Amazon customer reviews for their 250 GB model, you'd have to be a masochist to spend money on it. For that matter, even the pricier "darlings" in this size--Western Digital, Omega, Maxtor, LaCie, SimpleDrive--rarely could muster up a 4-star let alone 5-star rating. (No wonder our government and its agencies have so much trouble with intelligence.) So I did the only sensible thing--ordered a lesser known model that had no customer ratings.

In doing so, I passed up several other Cavalry models with identical capacity and priced within one-nine dollars of this one. This model, from the CAUI series, appears to be heavier than the others, probably because it does employ a fan, one moreover that you can hear (if you listen for it). But my iMac saw it instantly, which is more...Read more

As of the time of this review, the editorial information from Amazon about this product is incorrect. This product does not offer an eSATA interface and the package does not include an eSATA cable or bracket. Some other Cavalry products do have these features. I ordered this hard drive specifically to use with an eSATA interface and am returning it since reading the box and checking the manufacturer website. It may be a fine hard drive as long as you only need a USB (slower) connection.

The hard drive works perfectly on my PC with Windows XP as of so far. You just plug it in and it's good to know. Data transfers are fast enough for my purposes (storing back-up copies of music, videos, and other personal files). On top of that, the device does not make too much sound while running. The device does heat up a bit if you leave it on for too long, but that's not much of a problem as long as you don't have the hard drive turned on 24/7. Overall, a fine piece of work.