| | |  | Computer Accessories | Home » » SimpleTech FS-U25 Signature Mini USB 2.0 Portable Drive | | | | | | Colors: | | | | | Description: | | Introducing the Signature Mini family of bite-size drives, bursting with tasty ingredients. Supple and resilient to the touch, with a positive velvety rip, they’re designed by our friends at Pininfarina, the icon of Italian sports car design since 1930. Just plug one in, and inside you’ll find smart ways to protect and manage all your precious stuff. Includes Fabrik Local Backup software for setting up automatic backups on your Signature Mini, and Fabrik Ultimate Backup for secure, online storage that’s safe from real world mishaps. | | | Product Details: | | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 145 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 145 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 found the following review helpful:
 BUYER BEWARE!Aug 07, 2009
By Dave Gray
Like a few others whose reviews I've read, I would have rated this SimpleTech 160 MG Blueberry Pininfarina VERY highly right after I bought it - it was sleek, beautiful, convenient, and worked perfectly as a USB 2.0 external HDD.
But around the time the one-year warranty expired, it decided from time to time that it was going to be a USB 1.1 device, and it would fail to run at USB 2.0, resulting in horribly slow transfer rates. That intermittent problem finally became a permanent problem.
So now I ALWAYS get the dreaded "This device can perform faster if you connect it to a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port" message EVERY time I plug it in to ANY computer. And these computers are ALL new USB 2.0 compatible, which have no problem with any other USB 2.0 devices.
(FYI, this Blueberry has never been dropped, jarred, or otherwise abused.)
I wrote to Simpletech asking for help, but they WILL NOT ANSWER! I can't even say I got bad support...because NO SUPPORT AT ALL is what you get from these people. "SimpleTech"? "SimpleMinded" or "SimplyScrewed" is what they should call themselves with this kind of product and service.
Just FYI, I've been told that the Hitachi drive inside this SimpleTech Blueberry can be placed into another external SATA HD casing with USB 2.0 circuitry and that it may work properly. That's beyond my present level of expertise, so I just bought a different brand external HD and will patiently transfer all my files off of this unfortunately flawed device. I will NEVER buy a SimpleTech product again.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Mini is Perfect for My Mac Book ProJun 17, 2009
By K. Coggiola
"K9er"
It's small, compact, quiet, fast, light weight, space saving, racy looking, different colors for easy ID, rubberized coating for a sure grip, stackable, extremely portable, with easy instructions to convert to Mac.
I have 4 Minis. I bought the first one over a year ago. I have one for my Time Machine back up, one for music, one for photos/videos, & a 500G to back up the others, that I keep in a fire proof safe.
Some suggestions for those who gave bad reviews:
1. When the drive is running, leave it alone! Don't pick it up or move it around. Just leave it sitting flat.
2. You must dismount the drive properly! See FAQ on Simple Tech's web site.
3. Don't be in such a hurry! Wait several seconds to be sure the drive has fully stopped.
4. Don't yank the USB plug out. You might create a tiny spark. Sneak the plug out gently, especially if it's windy or there's static electricity in the air.
5. As for the lack of power complaints...The shorter the USB cable, the greater the power. Try using your camera cable. At about 50+G of info, the external drive may need up to 1 Amp to get going. If the Mini is not seen by the computer, unplug everything - Mini first. Then attach both USB plugs of the "Y" cable & reconnect - Mini last. Best to get an externally powered USB hub. Belkin makes a nice little white 4 (& 7) port. Each port of the Belkin puts out ½ Amp (500mA). I can run several Minis at once, without any power problems.
6. Lastly, if your not backed up at least twice, you're not backed up at all.
Use a little common sense & save yourself a lot of grief.
The Mini is a great little product!!! Be nice to it, and it'll be nice to you.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Drive no longer recognized... Here is how to get it back workingJan 18, 2009
By Sammy Jackson
We had the bubblegum 250GB Simpletech drive and one day the computers just stopped recognizing the drive. The light would turn on when connected and it SEEMED to be spinning fine, but I couldn't get any computer to see it.
After a little research, it turns out these have notoriously bad USB controllers.
I opened up the case and inside is just a standard 2.5" SATA hard drive. Mine was a Hitachi, other have reported having a Western Digial.
So, we bought an external SATA hard drive case from Best Buy for $50 and plugged in the drive and voila.......it works.
The case basically just replaces the Simpletech case and you can get your files off AND continue to use the drive.
You can buy a SATA case online for < $20 if you look hard enough, but I wanted to give it a shot so I didn't want to wait for shipping.
Hopefully this will be able to help someone else who is having the same problems. We had all of our kid pictures on it so it was critical to get the files off!
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Broke after two weeksMar 28, 2008
By Eric Harp
"ERock"
I got this item, similar except blue, a couple of weeks ago. My college-issued Gateway M285 only has 40 gig of space and this would have been perfect to use for my music, my pictures, games, and class files from previous semesters that I may need to look back on in later years. One week after I got it, the mini-usb port started to come loose and the connection was unreliable. While moving my data to another external I have, the connection failed entirely with over half of my data still on the drive. I contacted Tech Support via the website, and they said they don't do repairs, just exchanges.
Do I: a) loose all my data; b) pay hundreds for data recovery; or c) void the warranty by opening the case and tightening the connections myself. If you chose c, you're right!
When I opened the case, I discovered that it contains a Western Digital Scorpio 250 gb 2.5" SATA hard drive model WD2500BEVS. Guess how big my tablet's HD is going to be in a few days?
Overall, the drive & talking to tech support sucks, but the HD inside is of good quality.
10 of 11 found the following review helpful:
no complaints, xactly what I was looking forMar 07, 2008
By Vampire
"John"
All I was looking for was a drive to supplement the minimal storage space on my Toshiba laptop. This worked perfect. I got it on sale at Circuit City for $119, which was a steal. I use it mostly to store MP4 files to load on my iPod Classic. Works great and can play movie files from it through my laptop no problem. Can't speak to the back up software that's included, haven't used it. Only negative thing I can say about it is that the cord has a pigtail USB connector if you need it for extra power, if you have low voltage USB ports. I don't so it just kind of gets in the way. Also, you have to make sure you have the primary USB plugged in to connect the drive, if you plug in only the pigtail, it won't load the drive to your computer. I marked mine so I wouldn't mistake it. That minor thing is really the only thing I can think of negative to say, and it wouldn't be negative if I had low voltage ports and needed it. Overall, I highly recommend it.
See all 145 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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