CBA Digital is a company that does not need any introduction. With over 20 years experience in the market place of digital storage, they are the only company that assembles, support and supply their range of products in UK. The products are assuredly of high quality and are covered with UK based service and support. This time the focus is on their CBA Digital 100GB 2.5″ portable hard drive.  The 2.5 inch hard drive is housed in a fantastic and durable enclosure with a black rubberized surround for extra protection. Like all other CBA drives, the 100GB drive features One Touch capability for PCs.  Compatible with both PC and Mac, the drive is focused at users who want a basic storage device minus any sort of frills.  Does it deliver? We tested it and let us see what it has to offer and whether this really suits your needs.

Design:

Simple and Sleek:
The CBA Digital is not really a particularly eye-catching design. Do not get us wrong, it is not very bad. It is simple, small and comes in a rubberized black surrounding that offers protection from a lot of accidental drops. The centre of the drive has a glossy finishing and is bland. The company name and their specialization are embossed on it. Perhaps, they were trying to keep things simple and give it a high tech look. The black enclosure not only is for protecting the device but also is designed to reduce the temperature of the drive even after hours of usage.  The device is also available in a white enclosure.

Compact and Portable:
The 100GB CBA Digital External Hard drive is designed in mind keeping the portability factor.  With dimensions of  (H x W x D) 13 x 8 x 1.5cm, it is relatively small and can fit into a pocket without a problem.  At the bottom of the device is present an LED that glows when the device is in use (that is during transfer/back up or copying of files). On the right of the LED is present the One Touch button that activates the One Touch Storage- the USP of the device. On the left is present the USB port to which one can connect the cord and plug in to the computer.

Features:

Compatibility:
The CBA Digital 100GB USB Hard drive is compatible with both PCs and Mac as well.  In the Windows range, the drive works with all versions of Windows 7 (Ultimate, Professional and Home Edition), Windows Vista and Windows XP.  It works with Mac OS X as well. For Mac users, in order to get their drive working, they need to reformat their drive as it comes preformatted for a PC.  Mac users should also note that though the drive is compatible with both Windows and Mac, the One Touch feature software is capable of working only on PCs and not on Macs. The drive functions as a standalone external hard drive on Mac and this incompatibility will disappoint many Mac users.

USB 1.1 and 2.0 Compatible:
Like many other drives in the market, the CBA digital Portable hard drive is a USB based drive and hence eliminates all sorts of wires and other hassles. All you need to do is plug in the device to use it or power it without any additional power. Once you plug it, you can use it for transferring backing up of files and copying of data without any need to install new software irrespective of whether you are using a Mac or a PC. The unit is compatible with USB1.1 and USB 2.0 as well.

Capacities Available:
The CBA Drive we tested is available in capacities of 40GB, 80GB, 160GB, 250GB, 500GB and 640GB.  CBA Digital is offering an extra storage space of 20 GB with any drive you buy. Choose a 40 GB one and you can get a 60GB and choose the 100 GB one and get 120 GB for the cost of the 100 GB one. The offer is limited to a maximum of 2 units per customer and is valid till stocks last.

One Touch Capability:
The single biggest selling point of the CBA Digital 100 GB external hard drive is the One Touch feature.  The One Touch features is a function that allows you to select some specific data that you would want a backup of and all you need to do to back them up is select the button and you are ready. The action of pressing that one button will immediately backup all the data. One has the choice to activate using the free software provided along.  If you decide not to use this feature, you need to drag and copy all the files into the drive to back them up.

Internal Drive Details:
The Drive uses a 2.5 inch Hard Drive mechanism and has a storage capacity of 100GB. 100GB will approximately be able to hold about 1700 hours of music, 35000 digital photos and 100 hours of digital video and thousands of business files.  Mind you, this is a rough estimate and one can have variances here.  CBA has employed the usage of SATA drives in their One Touch portable range that allows for faster data transfer than the older PATA and is more energy efficient.

Performance:

Thanks to the SATA technology used on the drives, transferring of files from your computer to the PC is much faster than PATA. The theoretical limit is about 480 mbps and smaller files such as photos and Word documents took literally no time and the bigger files were transferred at a pretty decent rate. We noticed that the bigger the size of the file being copied, the faster the speeds were.

Heat and Noise:

In spite of using the device for hours together, the drive was still cool thanks to the rubberized coating.  File transfer was noise-less. Huge files were copied without any sort of indication that the drive was working at full speed.

What’s in the Box?

All CBA drives are assembled supplied and supported in the UK and are tested rigorously before dispatch. The 100GB drive is fully formatted and is ready to be used right out of the box. Along with the drive, a USB cable, a carrying case and a software CD is provided. The USB cable is of a reasonable length and the case provided is to ensure the drive is protected while on the go. The software CD provided has the One Touch capability software and the installation of the software is at user’s discretion.

Power:

Being a plug in and play drive, there arises no need to power the drive. In order to use it, one needs to connect it to the PC using the USB cable.  No power adapter hassles here!

Warranty:

The CBA Digital 100 GB external hard drive comes with one year limited warranty. The higher capacity ones such as 250 GB, 500 GB and the 640 GB come with a warranty period of 3 years.

Verdict:

CBA Digital has yet again launched a no frills simple drive. They have focused on what users want from their drive: Storage without hassles. The drive looks pretty decent, is portable, reliable and durable as well. 100 GB is a huge space and thanks to SATA and USB 2.0 interfaces, data transfer was pretty fast. However, the main highlight of the device was the One Touch Software. It worked without any problems and is extremely easy to use. It also eliminates the tedious task of dragging and copying files for backup. However, the fact that this software is incompatible with Mac is a huge negative.  With a reasonable price tag, the drive is perfect for PC users with small storage needs. Mac Users have better choices than this in the same segment

Check out the other portable hard drive reviews, other CBA Digital Hard Drive Reviews, Specs in our website.

CBA Digital 100GB Portable Hard Drive – Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer CBA Digital
Model Name CBA Digital 100GB Portable 2.5 Inch External Hard Drive
Device type Portable hard drive
Form factor 2.5 inch
Enclosure colours available Black and White
Hard disk drive capacity 100GB
Other capacities available 40GB, 80GB, 120 GB160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB
Buffer Size 16MB
Hard disk interface Serial ATA
Hard disk rotational speed 5400 rpm
Data Transfer Rate 480 mbps
Standard Compliance USB 2.0 and USB 1.1
Connector Types 1 x USB 2.0
Software One Touch Software
Number of Ports One
OS Support Windows Vista , Windows XP/2000 & MAC OS X
Package Contents CBA Digital 100GB Portable Hard drive, a USB Cable,
Software and a Carry case
Warranty 1 year

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