Unfortunately Scott doesn't address another failure point which is the instability of the devices when inserted and removed from the USB bus. There isn't much talk about this issue, but being one who has been involved in the design of these devices, users should be aware that it is a concern especially when using them for backup of data which more people are doing. While they are much more stable on insertion/extraction than early units, you often get what you pay for with the cheaper designs taking shortcuts protecting the data on power cycling. As for me, I don't consider them acceptable for data backup nor will I recommend them to my clients. Keep in mind, I am talking about reliability for use as a data backup device not data transfer which they are outstanding for.