Home > Consumer Reviews > Archos External Qdisk 120GB Hard Drive USB2.0

A fantastic product that will cheaply and dramatically increase the storage capacity of your computer, with the added benefit of being useful for transporting those large files as well! It comes with a driver diskette, but you can just plug it into any computer and Windows will recognise it as a Mass Storage Device and it can be used without the need for installation.

File transfer is pretty rapid - I would estimate that with USB 2.0 you can transfer a gigabyte of data in around two minutes. I haven't tried it with USB 1.1, but would imagine that 48x slower transfers are going to be pretty restrictive. So if you don't have USB 2.0 you might want to consider buying a USB 2.0 card (if you have a free PCI Slot, it's worth it for the sake of around £20).

The only gripe I have with the Q-Disk, which stopped it getting a 5-star rating, is that if you want it connected to your PC all the time, it will always be on, even if your computer isn't. While the drive spins quietly, it is not entirely silent and so perhaps isn't great if the computer's in a bedroom. This wouldn't be a problem, of course, except that there's no 'off' switch on the drive and so the only way to turn it off is to pull the cable out of the back (which causes a small spark) or switch it off at the socket. A small flaw, perhaps, but a flaw nonetheless in an otherwise exceptional product.

This is an excellent drive, well worth the money. It installed straight away (XP Home) and has an excellent transfer rate. Didnt even have to format it. Highly recommended.

This has been a life saver. No more burning disks to swap files with all my mates. USB2 is lightning. I flatten my PC this weekend, it took literally seconds to transfer all the files I wanted onto my C drive. It's great as back up, money well spent me thinks! Buy one, it will change your life!

This is a wonderfully simple way to increase your storage space without opening up the computer or networking to a seperate internal Hard Drive. Its tiny and sits just about anywhere you need it to be, even on top the PC tower with space to spare!

However, I would like to point out that these things are very very sensitive...I've seen several take a bump and burnout - whatever you do make sure it's out of harms way, even a slight shake while active can make these go mental and blow the internal power circuts.

other than this little point its a great buy and well worth it if you need the extra storage space and can't be bothered or don't know how to expand internal memory.

I had previously purchased the 60GB version of this drive to store my music & photographs. As these files became bigger I realised I would need an additional drive to meet my needs.Having looked around I was amazed to see the 120GB version at such a low price (I was quoted double the Amazon price by two PC stores).
It is an absolute gem - small,lightweight and simply plug and play (Windows XP Home edition)
Cannot praise it highly enough - if you are short of hard drive space buy this! You will never regret it.
Top marks to Archos for another fantastic product.