Maxtor One Touch - not so easy

[Wendy Lilygreen]

I've got one of the one touch maxtor hard drives but I can't get to grips with it all. I've even reverted to reading theinstructions! Just how do you get the one touch to work? If I go for an immediate back up it asks me to stick a CD in the D drive. Is it possible to fun program files from it, I'd like to put photoshop etc there and keep the 'c' drive as empty as poss.
Can anyone help?

[KevC]

Well, if the One Touch is anything like normal external HDDs, all you have to do is plug them in (make sure power is plugged in, too!) and Windows should see it as a "USB Mass Storage Device". Is it USB or IEEE1934 (firewire?).

What kind of computer do you have? OS running? (Windows XP, OSX, Linux?)

If you are running XP, then try right clicking on My Computer, and hit Manage. Under Storage, choose Disk Management. It's possible the new HDD hasn't been formatted yet, and Windows can't see it. Be careful though! Don't format the wrong HDD!

If that doesn't work, try right clicking on My Computer (again) and then hitting Properties. Under the Hardware tab, choose Device Manager. Right click your computer's name (the top icon) and hit Scan for Hardware Changes. Maybe it's not seeing the External HDD. It's possible it's a faulty HDD.

Yes, it's completely possible to run program files from it. I'd advise against it though, an external HDD would always be slower than an internal one, it's just a fact (IDE or SATA provides much more bandwidth than USB1.1/2.0 or IEEE1394 ever will).

[Wendy Lilygreen]

Hi Kev
I'm running XP. I believe it's all formatted and that it's recognized but it seems to want to back up to the 'd' drive rather than the 'h' drive which the maxtor is, I've got all my photos on there but I want it to back them up each week automatically, it gets so far then asks for a cd in the d drive.
I can drag an drop photos in but you're supposed to be able to touch this button on the front and it will just update the latest creations.
I'm going to try out your suggestions tho.

Cheers
Wendy

[KevC]

Hm. It seems like there's a bunch of software that comes with the One Touch? Sorry, I've never actually used it before. I'd just use Windows to Drag and Drop... but I guess that takes away from the convience.

I hope you get it working! Good luck.

[kb244]

The "One Touch" feature is so that you can setup a backup script, that executes everytime you touch the button on the drive, not to say that the drive is easy, just the backup process is once setup.

[Wendy Lilygreen]

Hi KB,
I've read the instructions but I must be thick. Can you give me an idiots guide on getting the 'one touch' bit started?

Wendy

[dewmuw]

Hi KB,
I've read the instructions but I must be thick. Can you give me an idiots guide on getting the 'one touch' bit started?

Wendy

I have the same system and couldn't get it to function properly. I found it too darn complicated as well.

So I asked about and got this download:

http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

I uninstalled the software that came with the Maxtor and now use this little tool. Every Friday at 7.30pm it backs-up my photos. Try it.

[pcasciola]

I set one up for my accountant recently. It took me hours to figure out the included Retrospect software, and I've been doing this for a living for over 20 years now. Even after I thought I had it all set up for nightly 4AM backups, I went back to his office last week only to find out it stopped doing the nightly backups about a month ago for some reason. I started up Retrospect and it went on to do seven backups one after the other to get caught up. I think the best bet is to use some other backup software, but keep the drivers installed if you want to keep using the one-touch button, which can be assigned to launch any program.

[dewmuw]

I set one up for my accountant recently. It took me hours to figure out the included Retrospect software, and I've been doing this for a living for over 20 years now. Even after I thought I had it all set up for nightly 4AM backups, I went back to his office last week only to find out it stopped doing the nightly backups about a month ago for some reason. I started up Retrospect and it went on to do seven backups one after the other to get caught up. I think the best bet is to use some other backup software, but keep the drivers installed if you want to keep using the one-touch button, which can be assigned to launch any program.

Sorry should have mentioned that - I assigned the one touch button to launch Karen's freebie - if I need to back-up outside of the regular programme schedule.

[pcasciola]

Sorry should have mentioned that - I assigned the one touch button to launch Karen's freebie - if I need to back-up outside of the regular programme schedule.Nice. I'll check it out too. Thanks for the link.

[Sketcher]

Sweet! Looks like I get to tinker some :). I have the 300GB Onetouch II Firewire/USB 2.0 model showing up in a few days.

As for running Photoshop (or other programs) from the one-touch. Well, I'm thinking the limitation is going to be the bandwidth. Even the more powerful custom rig configurations; the direction is always to add internal (direct IDE/ATA/SATA/SCSI motherboard connected) drives for performance improvement or added mainline storage/scratch media. That is to say that being that the goal is to always improve performance, reducing performance via a Firewire or USB connection isn't something that's considered an option.

So, whether the Onetouch is even capable of running as a disk intensive application enhancement (I haven't read the manual or played with it yet) I don't think it's really something you'd want to do. With the low cost of HD's now-a-days it just makes sense to add an additional HD or three.

This is off the cuff so if I glazed over a critical piece of info I apologize.

IIRC, their Toll Free Tech support is actually pretty good. Knock on Wood... I guess we'll see.

[samdring]

I also have a Maxtor 'many' touch and fell out with its cumbersome software

Methinks it was Belmondo who told us all about MIRROR FOLDER - works a dream once it has copied all your pictures to the external drive - thereafter it is instant - every new picture you import to hard drive is instantly (I meant instantly) copied to external with the added bonus that you can select 'do NOT mirror deletes'. I have noticed no overhead at all following many weeks of use

I am not related to mirror folder nor to Belmondo (if it was him) ;)

[Sketcher]

My Maxtor 300GB OneTouch II installed w/out much fanfare.

I did note that during the Maxtor Setup there's a configuration screen that lists recognized drives/devices for the source and target locations. It appears as though you can select other than the OneTouch.

If perchance, the Maxtor/Dantz software is installed and initially configured before the Maxtor Drive is physically connected, recognized and the computer rebooted I think it's a possibility that a drive other than the Onetouch could get assigned as the target. For that matter, an incorrect drive could get assigned as a source too. Thus, pressing the "OneTouch" button or initiating the Maxtor or Dantz program via program menu would enable a request for the incorrect source/target media. Just a guess.

That "Mirror Folder" looks good. Anyone else use it?

[Wendy Lilygreen]

Huge thanks to you all. I've just downloaded the Karen ware and it works, just one or so touches!
What (sketcher) is the Mirror folder? Where is it?

Love to all
Wendy

[Sketcher]

Hello Wendy,

I haven't tried it myself, but CDS wrote quite a bit about it a while back. It looks like a good program.

Here's a link to FlipsideE's post where CDS posted some info on Mirror Folder:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=57647&highlight=Mirror+Folder

Here's the link to Mirror Folder:
http://www.techsoftpl.com/backup/index.htm

Good hunting