External Hard Drives

With the everlasting need for storage space, the hard drives are getting bigger by hour, and now we have moved on to an era where we have multi terabyte hard disk drives. However, when you wish to access data when on the move, we all look for something that has just enough storage space, small in size and one that also has some excellent built quality for portable use. The Buffalo MicroStation 32GB SSD is one such external hard drive, which not only huge space to save heaps of data, it is also designed for rough handling and is yet compact enough to be carried around. The solid state devices are up and prices are going down, so Buffalo seems to have developed this device, which is half way between a USB external hard drive and a USB memory stick, which is otherwise dubbed as a Hybrid Portable Silicon disk.

Design and Durability:

While its MicroStation Portable Silicon Disk 100GB predecessor was not too pleasant to look at, the latest MicroStation 32GB SSD has a look of the 21st century EHD. It has a very stylish design with a glossy black finish. To be short and sweet, it has a design that nobody can look and say “It looks outdated”. The words ‘small’, ‘lightweight’, ‘compact’ and ‘portable’, also suite the description of the MicroStation.  The dimensions of (H x W x D) 98 x 57 x 13mm and weight of 62 grams just justifies this. One of the biggest advantages of being SSD based is that, the chances of the drive crashing on the go is very rare, as the drive does not have any moving parts inside it.

Capacities available:

The Buffalo Microstation Portable SSD is available in two capacity flavours of 32GB and 64GB. The 32GB MicroStation retails for around £99, almost double what the Attache is now going for. Since the drives are SSD based, it goes without saying that they are quite expensive when compared to the standard USB hard drives.

SSD:

We can imagine Buffalo’s team thinking “Solid state devices are being increasingly used in notebooks, so why not put one in an external storage device”. And, that thought has resulted in the MicroStation 32GB Portable Solid State Drive.  It is around in the name of USB Flash storage and there are millions of them out there. While most of them are cheap, they are not particularly quick. However, there are a very few premium performance oriented Flash drives you will be able to purchase.

Performance:

While being based on SSD technology helps the MicroStation with portability and durability, it lets it down when it comes to performance. You will not get the full bang of SSD drives because of its USB2.0 interface. When we transferred a 4.2GB file from PC to drive and vice verse, the Buffalo MicroStation took almost 2 minutes and 43 seconds and 3 minutes and 23 seconds. When compared to Toshiba’s SecuRed 200GB drive, which took about 2 minutes and 37 seconds and 3 minutes and 19 seconds to perform the same task, the rate of the MicroStation is quite on the slower end. Though running Buffalo’s Turbo USB software helps a little to improve the performance, the MicroStation still seemed to be slower than a Toshiba Drive. However, there is one way by which you could get the MicroStation 32GB SSD to perform faster: that is, if you are running seek-intensive software directly from the drive, thanks to the device’s 0.6ms random access time.

Warranty:

Buffalo MicroStation 32GB SSD (product code: SHD-PE32U2/BK-EU) comes with 2 years warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

Though the Buffalo MicroStation 32GB SSD has a very desirable design and SSD technology, its high price tag, combined with limited performance, makes it hard for us to recommend the drive. Just as the flash drives are perceived to be slow they are also perceived to be of low capacity; again you will also find some high capacity models in the market ranging for capacities of 32GB up to 256GB. This also makes Buffalo’s 32GB and 64GB MicroStations look less attractive than they might when kept alongside a 2GB thumb drive that will set you back only a couple of quid. A similarly priced pocket size external Hard Disk Drive will give you oodles more storage space.

Buffalo MicroStation 32GB External Hard Drive – Technical Specification Table