Compact and simple, the Verbatim Acclaim is a basic yet elegant external hard drive that offers respectable performance and plenty of data storage capacity. Its utilitarian appearance may seem humdrum when compared to flashier portable hard drives, but the Acclaim's OS compatibility and unrivaled manufacturer's warranty make it an external hard drive worthy of comparison.

To begin with, this USB hard disk drive (HDD) offers interchangeability with both PC and Mac computers; users can seamlessly switch between both operating systems to transfer data without having to reformat the drive. Unfortunately, the drive does not have a USB 3.0 interface, which boasts significantly faster throughput speeds than the preceding USB 2.0 bus interface. As a result, the hard drive's transfer rates are mediocre at best, but this shouldn't be much of an issue for casual users who don't heavily use the portable hard drive.

The Acclaim external hard drive is conveniently factory loaded with bundled backup and encryption software. Nero BackItUp & Burn Essentials software utilizes a simple, wizard-style interface that helps users schedule incremental backups that will automatically synchronize whenever the drive is plugged in. There's also a retrieval functionality that allows users to restore lost files and folders.

Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of this drive is its truly amazing warranty. Most manufacturers offer a two- or three-year limited warranty on portable hard drives, but Verbatim handily beats the competition by offering an unheard of seven-year warranty. Effective from the date of purchase, the warranty protects against any manufacturing or workmanship defects, and Verbatim will either repair or replace (at the discretion of the company) any defective Acclaim drive. It does not, however, cover any damages incurred through user abuse or misuse, so remember this before carelessly handling the drive.

While the Verbatim Acclaim offers plenty of advantages, the drive certainly isn't without some drawbacks. For starters, there is no hardware-based encryption on the drive, only software-based encryption that allows users to password protect the drive. Any encryption on a portable hard drive is noteworthy considering their vulnerability to loss and theft, but software-based encryption simply doesn't provide the security hardware-based encryption can. Secondly, the backup software is compatible only with Windows, so Mac users can only take advantage of the storage functionality of the drive. Lastly, the hard drive does not have any drop protection and the plastic casing is particularly prone to smudging.