Maxtor Enhances Its One Touch Line

The Milpitas, Calif.-based hard-drive maker has released its OneTouch II, with storage capacity of up to 300 Gbytes, into a market that is growing hungrier for storage capacity as high-definition audio and video become ubiquitous.

"We have completed a top-to-bottom redo," said Paul Streit, senior manager of solutions marketing at Maxtor. "What we want to do is make it an increasingly simple product to use."

Maxtor designed the initial OneTouch device as a PC backup unit that integrated backup storage software and launched with a single touch of a button on the USB- or FireWire-connected hardware. Streit said the company has built on that design by adding password-protected security, Dantz Retrospect backup software and more detail-capable restore features that enable drilling down to all previous versions of a given file.

The OneTouch line has become a product of strategic importance to Maxtor. In its most recent annual report, the company said the personal storage products had become a key driver of its overall revenue growth. That was at the same time as the company battled inventory and gray-market issues and stumbled on Wall Street.

Earlier this month, Maxtor CEO Paul Tufano, however, told investors at a New York technology conference that the company's second quarter was tracking to expectations as it appeared its business was in line for at least a modest rebound.

Solution providers and resellers appear to agree with the conventional wisdom and numbers, saying increasing data stores due to new PC-based audio, video and graphic capabilities are giving a boost to the external drive segment.

"We have seen an increase in demand in that area," said Bill Willett, CEO of Programmer's Paradise, a solution provider based in Shrewsbury, N.J.

A 300-Gbyte version of One Touch II with 16 Mbytes of cache lists for $379.95, while the 250-Gbyte version with 16 Mbytes of cache lists for $329.95.