We plugged the FireWire cable into the drive, the other end of the cable into the Mac, and got the 300GB Maxtor OneTouch II up running without any problems. 

Formatting the drive was equally uneventful :-)  Things are like that in the world of OS-X, they just work.

When the formatting finished the drive showed as expected on the desktop ready for action.  In order for the "One Button" backup to work, the Retrospect Express must be installed.  The software was included in the Maxtor CD.

We ran the Retrospect Express installer and rebooted after it ran to completion.  We were now ready for the "One Button" test.

When we pushed the button, the Retrospect Express application launched and then immediately crashed.  We repeated this a few times and decided to see if Dantz had an update for OS X 10.4.

On the Dantz site, there was an update for Retrospect Express 6.0.  We installed the update and tried the OneTouch button again.

This time the Retrospect Express application launched without any problems.  We were now ready to set up our backup sequence.  The tool was fairly simple to understand. 

We spent a bit of time setting up the backup schedule.  Users can set up a sequence for manual backup or a scheduled backup.   The manual sequence will run a preset backup script everytime the button was pushed.  The scheduled sequence will run automatically.

One thing was clear already, the software and the "One Touch" button combo will make it simple to run a backup anytime we want.  If we forget, well...the scheduled backup will ... back us up anyway :-)  We'll let the backup software run for a few weeks and report back on its performance. 

Backing up our data is something that we all know we need to, should do, and would do if the process was just easier, more convenient, and more automated.

Maxtor has put together an unbeatable system (hardware+software) for making this chore a "one button" operation.

In the FirstLook review, we'll take a look at the drive and the various pieces that came with the unit.

In the FirstUse review, we'll set up the OneTouch backup system and see whether we can really automate our backup chores with just one touch.

Reviews:

1. FirstLook

2. FirstUse

Review Summary:

Initial Impression- Nice Case!

Usability- One Button Backups!

Durability- test in progress

Price- $300

Drive Specs :

Interface- USB 2.0 or FireWire/1394

Speed- 7200 RPM

Size- 300GB with 16MB buffer

Platform- Mac and PC