CES 2006 Spotlight: Maxtor OneTouch III

We sit down with Maxtor to get the goods on their newly announced OneTouch III external storage and back up hard drive units.

Hard drive supplier Maxtor was busy making news in their corner of CES 2006 as they unveiled the latest generation of OneTouch external storage and back up hard drive units. Dubbed the OneTouch III, these new models sport three different connectivity interface options and come in several different hard drive sizes.

As Ben Castro, a Maxtor employee explained, the OneTouch III line up ranges in storage size from 100GB to 1TB (terabyte). Interface options between the OneTouch III are offered up as USB 2.0, USB 2.0/FireWire 400 and USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800. These models join the already released 1TB Maxtor One Touch III, Turbo Edition which was announced in October.

?The USB 2.0 edition is targeted towards home PC users,? said Castro. ?The USB/FireWire 400 package is for home PC or Mac users and the triple interface is geared towards small business owners or creative professionals.?

The idea behind the OneTouch III line up, Castro continued, is to build upon the ease of use and feature set of previous generations by offering new functions which will make the new models even more useful. These new functions include the ability to synchronize data between two or more computers and a roll back feature for restoring critical applications and settings while keeping the most current user data possible in files such as Word documents and digital photos.

Other new changes presented by the OneTouch III include an updated user interface and more visually appealing industrial design as well as internal shock mounts for better hard drive durability.

Back up times of the Maxtor OneTouch III are fairly quick as well, said Castro. The USB 2.0 backs up 34MB per second, the USB/FireWire 400 at up to 44MB per second and the USB/FireWire 400/FireWire 800 upwards of 64MB per second.

Maxtor?s OneTouch III family will have availability starting this month for the USB and FireWire 400 models, while the triple interface is set for store shelves sometime in the first quarter. Pricing will range from rom $159.95 for the 100GB USB 2.0 only version to $479.95 for the 500GB triple interface solution.