Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive 500GB
Now for those of you who believe in the old saying “it’s what on the inside that counts” might want to change your opinion when it comes to choosing your hard drive, especially the Verbatim Store n Go USB 3.0 Portable 500 GB HDD, as the company has decided to splash some extravagant colours to the otherwise dowdy storage needs. Oh yes, the 500GB Store n Go drives are fairly standard, but come in dashing colours like the Caribbean Blue, Sunkissed yellow, Volcanic orange, Eucalyptus Green, Hot Pink, Violet, Graphite grey, Silver and Black that sure does pair up well and can be hauled around all your fancy computer peripherals. Global leader of data storage technology – Verbatim is famous for its line of products which include portable hard disks, CDs, memory cards, USB flash drives and Blu-ray discs who have now decided to attract all PC junkies with their storage products.
Verbatim a pioneer in data storage solutions aim at delivering customers needs without compromising on anything, be it rapid transfer speeds, reliable back-up or sleek aesthetics, and the Verbatim Store n Go USB 3.0 hard drive is no exception to the above. This drive doesn’t just impress users with its lightning fast speed and ability to provide reliable backup anytime anywhere, but also thoroughly seduces users who are on the look out to get the best of both – function and form. Along with storing, saving and sharing your photos, videos and music, it also doubles up as a vibrant accessory to the existing gizmos.

Again the drive is compatible with any USB port and also includes the Nero BackItUp & Burn Essentials software that takes care of all backup and restoration process along with scheduling an automatic backup based on time/date. There is also a provision for password-controlled backup option (encrypted). Additionally, there is also an optional software onboard – the Green Button Software that comes with 3 sleep/suspend settings in an effort to save energy (with the drive being idle) together with a Formatter Software that aides in changing the drive’s format from FAT32 to HFS+ or NTFS, thus maximizing the flexibility of the drive and covering a wide range of users.
Pack Contents
- 1 x Store ‘n’ Go Portable Hard Drive USB 3.0
- 1 x USB 3.0 cable
- 1 x User Guide and Nero BackItUp/Burn Essentials software which has been included in the drive
- 1 x Quick Start Guide (in 27 language)
- Green Button Software User Guide and Green Button Energy Saving Software also included on the drive
System Requirements
- Windows XP/ 2000 / 7 / Vista
- Mac 10.1 or higher
- USB 2.0/3.0
- Linux Kernal 2.6 and higher
Features
- Super Speed USB 3.0 data transfer.
- Securely stores and backs up all files from a laptop/PC.
- A stylish sleek design that is compatible with desktops and can also be transported effortlessly.
- A quick start guide that is available in 27 languages.
- Includes the Nero BackItUp/Burn Essentials software that helps with creating your own back up both from a PC or Laptop’s hard drive to a portable hard drive.
- Easily transfer files/data from both home and office.
- Plug n Play USB that requires no additional power.
- Green Button software helps with saving energy while not in use.
Specifications
- Available in dashing colours like Caribbean Blue, Sunkissed yellow, Volcanic orange, Eucalyptus Green, Hot Pink, Violet, Graphite grey, Silver and Black
- Data Transfer Rate: up to 4800 Mbits per second – USB Bus Speed
- Power: Bus powered via USB 3.0 cable
- Cache: 8MB or more
- Interface: USB 2.0/3.0 port
- Rotational Speed: 5400rpm
- Almost compatible with any USB port
- High capacity storage of 500GB
- A whopping 7-year warranty
First Impressions
A single glance at the package is all it takes for one to realize that the drive is a USB 3.0 device with a 500GB capacity. It carries a whopping 7-year warranty which indeed is the key selling point of the drive. Getting to the rear, you will be greeted by a graphic of the hard drive along with a chart that provides info on the speed gains that the USB 3.0 is capable of. Additionally, there is a bonus of a 5GB 60-day trial of Norton Online Backup, which is Norton’s cloud backup that allows for uploading as much as 5GB of data that is ready for retrieval at any given point in time (in the active subscription period). Towards the side of the package would be stuff like the package contents and system requirements in both French and English. And Yes! it is compatible with both a Mac and PC that has an USB port on offer. Again, the disc is backwards compatible too such that both High Speed USB 2.0 and Super Speed 3.0 can be used.
Getting to the insides of the package, lies a single brown box that houses the hard drive with an USB 3.0 cable measuring about 1 meter (3 feet 3 inches). It is also safely wrapped using a protective film thereby safeguarding the outer shell from scratches. It is advisable to retain this film on the drive if users are looking at keeping fingerprints at bay as the glossy outer shell looks to be a magnet for fingerprints.
So looking at the above cable, it would be hard to ignore the blue connector on it as against the conventional black/white; it is because it is a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 cable that has been designed to be congruent with the latest USB 3.0 technology. Also the blue colour is to hint that one needs to hook it up in to the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port in a computer, which comes blue coded too. Again, it is not an issue if you do not have one, as it is backward compatible too with USB 2.0 ports, but then you will have to put up with USB 2.0 speeds at about 30MB/s.
So, let us get to the main attraction of the drive shall we? This Verbatim 500GB Store n Go portable hard drive comes in the measurements of 121 x 80 x 15 mm and weighs a bare 150g and is an easy fit into anything, be it a purse or a pocket or a laptop bag. Then again, as mentioned, the glossy enclosure would be both a boon and curse as it turns this elegant drive into a magnet for fingerprints.
Getting to the back, the drive’s interface starts to get evident (USB 3.0), with the connector not just coming in handy to transfer data, but also serves as a power for the drive. So once the drive is plugged in, a plain blue LED glows (as show in the image above) indicating that it is powered and flashes every now and then making it evident that the drive is in use. Well, for those of you all who are anti-LED’s, the only way out to escape it would be to tape it away. Again, the hard drive doesn’t require any secondary power cable as the USB interface feeds it with all the power needed, as mentioned above. This Verbatim hard drive has a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 spinning inside of it with an 8MB cache and SATA 3.0Gbps with a rotational speed of 5400 RPM. Again, the Store n go comes in the FAT32 format offering a space of 465GB to be utilized of which 419MB is eaten up by the Mac and PC software that has been bundled with this hard drive. Also Verbatim’s got their very own disk formatting utility onboard this drive wherein the VHD Formatter offers the option of formatting the drive via NTFS or FAT32 or even the possibility of converting it from a FAT32 to NTFS, all without any loss of data.
Additionally, the Store n Go comes bundled with the BackitUp & Burn Essentials suite from Nero that includes disc burning, backup and file recovery software, of which the main component (Nero BackItUp) takes the responsibility of protecting data with a backup to the optical disc, hard drive, network share, memory card or an FTP server. Together with a simple single-click Autobackup option, BackItUp is also capable of performing a differential, full and incremental backup of either the entire hard drive or selective files.
Again, the Nero RescueAgent comes to your help in case you end up deleting a file that you forgot to do a backup of. This is done via advanced data recovery technology that traces and recovers deleted files from CDs, hard drives, flash storage devices and DVDs. Then there is the Nero Express that takes care of the disc burning duties, a software that walks you through the process of burning audio, video or data to a DVD, CD or Blu-ray disc. Together with the BackItUp & Burn, the Store n Go is also loaded with a handful of Verbatim’s very own applications.
Moving on, lets us find out what exactly happens upon hooking the drive with a computer – Mac/Windows detects the drive and instantly by default installs all drivers required. It will further be displayed as a Mass Storage Device and thus can be accessed at any point in time. Upon exploring the drive, you will get to see one .EXE together with 3 folders that contain the necessary files for the .EXE to install all the backup software on your PC. One can also find the files containing the manual that can be accessed from the drive’s root via the “Start PC” launcher. Now in order for one to ensure that they don’t lose these files upon running the setup program, just click on the “Save Verbatim Files”.

Upon launching the program, the Verbatim software installer greets users and is fairly straight forward. Just by clicking the right-sided tabs you are allowed to read manuals, install bundled software or have an idea of the support offered by Verbatim on its other products. As mentioned above, there is a 7-year warranty offered on this product and this info can be accessed by clicking on support. Well, it doesn’t require any registration as such, but you might want to cling on to the original invoice, as it comes in real handy should there be a need to service the drive for any reason. Also, the drive is fairly silent while it functions or during any backup process and barely gets warm to the touch. It takes roughly about half hour for a 65GB backup to be processed.
Verbatim has been thoughtful enough to keep environment in mind when they designed this drive with a Green Button energy saving software that suspends the drive from spinning when not in use, thus saving energy as well as increasing its efficiency. And how exactly is this done, well for starters there are 3 Sleep setting options. Users can set the suspend mode to be active after 10 minutes of using the disc or in 10-minute increments going as far as 120 minutes. The drive can be set in two different ways – either have it suspended immediately by double clicking the Green Button icon on the desktop or set it in the Never Suspend mode.
Performance
Performance-wise, the Verbatim 500GB USB 3.0 Store n Go manages to reach a read and write speed of 81.71 MB/s and 79.68 MB/s respectively. When it comes to USB 2.0, the read and write speeds drops down drastically to a 33.47 MB/s and 33.01 MB/S respectively, thus making the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 141% faster on the write test and 144% faster on the read test. Now this doesn’t look that shabby for 5400 RPM USB-enclosed drive. When it comes to the read performance, it manages to pull an average speed of 64MB per second with the burst speed touching 113MB per second and access time of 18.8ms.
Final Take
There is abundant storage space offered by this Verbatim Store n Go SuperSpeed 500GB USB 3.0 for any extensive media collection, and is only too happy to stockpile on photos or full length movies. Available at a street price of about 75 Euros it indeed manages to balance out well on the performance-price ratio. The blend of lightning transfer speeds and simple operation packed in a simple two-colored casing with a robust outer hull is indeed impressive. On the flip side, the disk’s reliability is kind of questionable on each interface owing to its high booting energy consumption. So it is recommended only for those users whose interfaces are powerful enough to provide the disk with such kind of power. Otherwise, if you are on the lookout for a pocket-friendly storage which takes thorough advantage of zippy USB 3.0 speeds, the 500GB Store n Go doesn’t disappoint you one bit.
Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Verbatim |
| Model Name | Store ‘N’ Go USB 3.0 500GB |
| Type of Drive | External |
| Colours available | Caribbean Blue, Sunkissed yellow, Volcanic orange, Eucalyptus Green, Hot Pink, Violet, Graphite grey, Silver and Black |
| Form Factor | 2.5-inch |
| Dimensions | 121 x 80 x 15mm |
| Weight | 150g |
| Buffer | 8MB or greater |
| Available Capacities | 250 / 320 / 500 / 640 / 750GB and 1 / 2TB |
| Interface | USB 3.0 / 2.0 / USB 1.1 port |
| Compatibility | Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7, Mac OS X 10.1 or higher, Linux kernal 2.6 and higher |
| Power Source | USB powered |
| Transfer rate | USB 3.0 up to 5GB/s USB 2.0 up to 480 Mb/s |
| In the Box | Store ‘n’ Go Portable Hard Drive USB 3.0, USB 3.0 cable, Quick Start Guide printed in 27 languages, User Guide |
| Warranty | 7-year limited warranty |







