Hitachi DeskStar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 3.5-Inch 500GB, 7200 RPM, 16MB Buffer Hard Disk Drive

Works as expected

Great HDD , no testing on speed etc. but overall good HDD to stick into a computer and get more storage.

I was surprised to find that no leaflet or fitting guide was included with the product. After a close examination, I was unable to find the jumper which enables the drive to be used as a master or slave.

I brought this to replace a failed hard drive and decided to take a chance. I did check first to make sure the cables were compatible with the new drive. My old drive was a Sata 150 and although not Hitachi the connections would work for Sata 300 (this drive). Took the drive out of the box and as expected no instructions were provided. Replaced drive with this one using the fixings and cables from the old drive. My PC(Windows XPsp2) came with a recovery disk so loaded disk and installed without a hitch. The drive is quicker and quieter than the previous drive so for me it was a good buy.

Easy to fit. You need a Phillips (cross-head) medium size screwdriver & a torx screwdriver (or a drill bit will do) approx size 8 - 10. Google fitting info . Note that in the apple version it is not quite the same for this product and you will need to keep the metal retainer for the new drive. Detached 2 adjacent cables on the left after removing fan cover. Kept tiny 3rd cable on to save damaging it by pulling it (good luck if you try) and lifted & swung out case carefully with thin cable attached and unscrewed drive and popped in replacement. Boot up again on OSX Install disc or your clone back-up (thank you SuperDuper) and format (partition) drive.

Great price and quick delivery.

I bought this to add capacity for video and TV recording storage. It installed easily of course. Plug and Play. I used the Hitachi bootable Disk Utility to check that Acoustic Management and Power Management were off to ensure full performance. They were off by default. Good. The drive is largely silent at all times. I get 79Mb/s transfer rates with HD Tach, so no speed issues. The price seems to fluctuate somewhat - so shop around!

I have one of these drives in a Mini Stack enclosure. I use it with a Mac Mini. The drive is fast at 7200 RPM. I cant tell a difference in speed between the external USB/Firewire400 drive enclosure and the internal Mac 80gb drive. Ive had it for 1 1/2 years and it still works fine. I only have 2 complaints with it. First, its kind of noisy. It was very quiet when I first got it, but now it seems loud compared to the nearly silent Mac Mini. Second, it runs a bit hot. The enclosure has a cooling fan, but it still gets hot. I will probably swap it for a larger quieter 5400 RPM 1tb drive that doesnt get as hot.

This herd drive installed very well

Bought this to place in the Zyxel boxy thingy.