The Drive
Samsung Spinpoint M 2.5" Hard Disk Drive (HM500LI) Spinpoint M6 capacity : 500 GB interface : SATA 3.0Gbps buffer memory : 8 MB Features ATA Security Mode Feature Set SATA Native Command Queuing Feature ATA S.M.A.R.T. Feature Set TuMR/PMR head with FOD technology SilentSeek™ Serial ATA 3.0Gbps Interface Support NoiseGuard™ Load/Unload Head Technology
Drive Configuration Capacity 500GB Interface SATA 3.0Gbps Buffer DRAM Size 8 MB Byte per Sector 512 bytes Rotational Speed 5,400 RPM   Performance Specifications Average Seek time (typical) 12 ms Average Latency 5.6 ms Data Transfer Rate / Buffer to/from Host(Max.) 860 Mbits/s Data Transfer Rate / Buffer to/from Host(Max.) 300MB/s Drive Reday Time (typical) 5 sec   Reliability Specifications Non-recoverable Read Error 1 sector in 10^14 bits Start/Stop Cycles 600,000   Acoustics Idle 2.5 Bel Performance Seek 2.7 Bel   Environmental Specifications Temperature / Operating 0 ~ 55 °C Temperature / Non-operating -40 ~ 70 °C Humidity (non-condensing) / Operating 5 ~ 90 % Humidity (non-condensing) / Non-operating 5 ~ 95 % Liner Shock (1/2 sine pulse) / Operating 325 G Liner Shock (1/2 sine pulse) / Non-operating 900 G Vibration / Operating 0.76Grms Altitude (relative to sea level) / Operating -300 to 3,000 m Altitude (relative to sea level) / Non-operating -400 to 15,000 m   Power Requirements Voltage +5V±5% Spin-up Current (Max.) 1000 mA Seek (typical) 2.6 W Read/Write (typical) 2.3 W Low Power Idle(typical) 0.6 W Standby (typical) 0.25 W Sleep (typical) 0.2 W   Physical Dimensions Height (Max.) 9.5 mm Width 69.85 mm Length 100 mm Weight (avg.) 115 g

The Software Utilities... a $200 value

Prosoft Engineering® Data Backup for Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later  
Backup Made Easy. Data Backup makes it easy to backup to FireWire and USB drives, network drives, CDs and even DVDs. Make schedules so you don't need to 'think' about backing up... It does it for you.

NovaStor NovaBACKUP® Solution for Windows®
NovaBACKUP has been helping millions of users recover from data loss and disasters for over 18 years. Feature rich, NovaBACKUP provides a powerful backup solution. Built-in support for hundreds of the most popular storage devices and a step-by-step backup and restore wizard makes NovaBACKUP extremely easy to use. Requires Windows 2000 and later.!

Intech® SpeedTools Utilities™
Intech Hard Disk SpeedTools consists of a suite of utilities managed by an application which controls the launching, documentation and version control of each individual component utility, such as Disk Defrag and QuickBack. An easy-to-use installation and removal application is provided to make installation a snap, yet powerful enough to allow you to customize which utility component set you would like to create.

Carbon Copy Cloner© for Mac OS X 10.4 or later
CCC 3 features an interface designed to make the cloning and backup procedure very intuitive. In addition to general backup, CCC can also clone one hard drive to another, copying every single block or file to create an exact replica of your source hard drive. CCC's block-level copy offers the absolute best fidelity in the industry!