Toshiba Canvio 500 GB USB 3.0 Basics Portable Hard Drive - HDTB205XK3AA (Black)..
Special Price Toshiba Canvio 500 GB USB 3.0 Basics Portable Hard Drive - HDTB205XK3AA (Black) By ToshibaMost helpful customer reviews
681 of 708 people found the following review helpful.
Please Read if Your Drive Isn't "Recognized" Anymore. An Easy Primer and Tutorial.
By TMac
Many people have complained about the Toshiba 2.5" drives (of all capacities and price points) quickly 'dying' after a very short time. This opinion is prevalent on both Amazon and other shopping sites and even Toshiba's direct site itself.
I was in the same boat. My Canvio Basics failed to be "recognized" by my PC within 1 month. My 2-star rating reflects this.
HOWEVER, this is directed toward those who believe "all [my] valuable data is lost forever". I conjecture that 99% of the time it is not, and there is a relatively very simple & inexpensive fix.
The problem is most likely not with the drive itself but rather the 'bridge' circuitry between the drive and the USB connection. There is most likely nothing wrong with the drive itself, and thus nor is there anything wrong with your data. Such was also the case with me.
These drives, regardless of manufacturer or capacity, are essentially identical in their 'guts'. The difference is often nothing more than what you see: packaging, branding, bloatware, and other brand-specific identities. Indeed, crack open a lesser-known brand (Calvary, Fantom, etc.) and there's a good chance you will actually see Toshiba, Hitachi, Western Digital, or some other recognizable name's 'guts' inside.
Here is how to fix the problem.
1. Purchase a 2.5" SATA-to-USB enclosure. Amazon lists them for as little as $3. If you are fortunate enough to live close to a MicroCenter, they sell them for $6. Yes this is extra money and hassle, but your data is worth it, and I presume for many of you this is more convenient than dealing with returning the drive. You probably purchased this drive because it was over $6 cheaper anyway.
2. The drive casing is a 2-piece shell. Use an Exacto knife or boxcutter to gently pry/'slice' open the seam between the 2 pieces. Once you get it 'started' it will be quite easy to pop apart the rest of the fasteners.
3. From here it is simply a plug-and-play situation. Disengage ('unplug') the drive from the circuitry. Be gentle (use the wiggle method). Then 'plug' the drive into your new enclosure and, *Voila*.
There are several Youtube videos showing this as well.
Now, there are several sites/Youtube videos that claim this is not a permanent solution, due to the 'delicate balance' of the rubber bumpers in the original drive. I smell bull-manure, but only time will tell... maybe this new setup will last until the expected life of the drive, maybe it won't. Also, the $3/6 new enclosures will not support USB 3.0; you'll indeed have to shell out extra money for that. Regardless, this process will almost certainly buy you enough time to find another place for your data.
All is not lost! Hope this helps.
257 of 277 people found the following review helpful.
Drive failed in under a year, customer service NIGHTMARE
By Jack Y. Kalish
This drive worked fine for about a year, and now will no longer mount. Toshiba claims that there is a 3 Year Warranty on the product, which is clearly expressed on the box, and in the pamphlet. Well, I spent 3 hours so far trying to file a warranty claim on the product with no progress. I've called about 5 phone numbers and visited 3 websites, and I just keep getting redirected from one person to another. Nobody can help me, and they even refuse to escalate my call to a manager.
The warranty claim phone number put me on hold for about 35 minutes before I gave up, with no indication at all as to how long I would have to wait, or how many other people are ahead of me!
From my point of view, the warranty that Toshiba claims to offer on their external harddrives is total B.S. It seems that they are purposely making it impossible to file a claim their products. So frustrated and upset after this experience, I will be sure to avoid Toshiba in the future.
223 of 261 people found the following review helpful.
An all-around good deal and both Mac and PC compatible...
By Chuck Bittner
At the time of writing this review this drive was $54.99 - a friend needed an external hard drive to back up her Mac (Time Machine Drive) and I wanted to get it with free prime shipping and as was the cheapest that had prime. At 320 GB that is more space than most people are ever going to need for backing up a notebook/MacBook. The drive is USB 3.0 and 2.0 compatible so get pretty decent transfer speeds as you would expect.
If you're a Mac user you will need to bring up the disk utility (found in your utilities folder in the applications folder) and format the drive to something that the Mac can read and write to (HTFS+is the file system that is default format of OS X) but once you reformatted you're good to go.
And this drive is sleek looking and is really ultraportable and I'm a big fan of drives that draw their power from the USB port this means you don't have to carry around an extra wall wart (a.k.a. AC adapter). and I want to note that you could spend a little bit more if you shopped around and get a 500 GB hard drive maybe even a 640 GB for maybe around $70 I didn't really have the time to shop around so with 320 GB because I think it's good to be plenty for her needs.
Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed and/or found it informative. (How can someone be really enjoy a review? I shouldn't use that term in a review because most reviews are informative but very few reviews are entertaining)
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