Buffalo MicroStation Portable Silicon Disk (SSD) with TurboUSB 100GB (SHD-UHR100GS)

Buffalo technology is a leading manufacturer of networking, memory storage, and multimedia solutions, that are of great quality and hence award winning too.

Buffalo MicroStation Portable Silicon Disks look similar and even behaves similar to the 2.5” HDD based drives, but then it is entirely different form by built from flash memory. Buffalo offers this kind of external hard drives in three different capacities such as 32, 64 and 100GB. Here, we discuss the 100GB version of the SSD.

Durable and portable design:

The Buffalo External Hard Disk Drive has a very small form factor with its dimensions being just 57 x 18 x 89 mm (W x H x D), without the cable. Being small, it weighs light too, being just 60 grams, small enough to be slipped inside a pocket and go un-noticed. However, if the cable is wrapped around the device, it demands more space, making it physically utilize the space of a hard drive having a form factor of 2.5″. Its looks and built are very robust.

The micro station is attached to your PC’s USB port with the help of an attached USB cable that goes around the device when not in use, and the connector is kept secure in the casing. There is a small blue LED in the top of the drive that indicates if the device is powered or not. Having a shock resistant chassis and by having no moving parts in the SSD, the disk can be said as damage proof from any unexpected drops or shocks.

This Compact External Drive device uses USB2.0 and 1.1 interfaces. Data connection is done using the USB mini-B port which also doubles as the source of power supply which is 5 volts. The disk is also compatible with Windows 2000/Xp/Vista and Mac OS X.

The technology involved:

The micro station is Solid State Disk (SSD) based on a hybrid technology. Buffalo MicroStation Hard Drive  is made with a combination of single and multi layer cells which act as the building blocks of the flash memory. The single layer cell technology produces faster read and write speeds but then allows only lesser capacity, while the multi-layer cell is slower and cheaper. With this kind of technology, buffalo can achieve a better performance with low manufacturing costs.

Performance:

Coming to the performance, the overall work of the Buffalo SHD-UHR100GS 100GB Portable Hard Drive was quiet good. The whole drive has been split in to two segments to show its different characteristics. Both the segments perform in a similar way when it comes to reading the data at a rate of 30MB/s but then, each has a different rate when it comes to writing. While the first 50GB is done at 12MB/s, the second half is done at 22MB/s.

The TurboUSB is actually said to increase the throughput of the drive by a few megabytes per second. Since, the drive is meant to be a portable one, not all would actually like carrying around a cable with them. This kind of technology actually requires a driver in order to increase the throughput, but, buffalo has not explained how the technology actually works.

The software bundle:

Buffalo has actually bundled three software with this disk, the SecureLockWare, Memo Auto Backup and Mobile Launcher 1.25. The mobile launcher includes the Thunderbird email client and Firefox browser. All the settings are stored in the mobile launcher and hence you will always have to have your personalised browser and email settings in your buffalo drive. The mobile launcher immediately installs itself into the system tray once you establish a connection with the system. The Memo Auto Backup software automatically back-up files from your PC and MAC.

The SecureLockWare is a tool that is used to encrypt the individual files or the entire device. All that you will have to do is select the parameters for encryption and decryption of the files. Then, the performance of the encryption can be done by changing the level of compression and set the password. The encryption and decryption can be triggered very easily once you are aware of the password.

Attractive power consumption:

The maximum power consumption of the device is just 1.25 W, which is extremely good and certainly, cannot be matched by any other mechanical USB2.0 1.8” hard drive. This consumption is especially attractive you are relying over the power supply of a laptop.

Verdict:

The price tag put on Buffalo MicroStation Portable Silicon Disk100GB Drive is certainly not cheap at all. You can get hard drive based storage devices in almost half its price. You can convince people only if they can understand the robustness of the flash memory, else you will just have to wait for its price to drop down.

Buffalo MicroStation SHD-UHR100GS 100GB External Drive Specifications

Manufacturer Buffalo technologies
Model Name Buffalo MicroStation Portable Silicon Disk (SSD) with TurboUSB
Model number SHD-UHR100GS
Dimensions (W x H x D) 57 x 18 x 89 mm
Form factor 1.8″
Capacity 100GB
Colour Silver
Weight 60 grams
Compatibility Mac and PC
Interface USB 2.0 and 1.1 compliant
Bus transfer rate 480 MB/sec
Power source USB bus
Voltage 5.0v
Power consumption 1.25W (max)
Warranty Two years

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