Design:

The FreeCom ToughDrive Sport Hard Drive has a ridiculous outdoor sports styling, you will love it or hate it. This USB powered portable drive possesses an intelligent piece of design; you just need to look past the fact that FreeCom seems to be suggesting it is a climbing accessory. For instance, the built in rope styled USB lead clips away neatly and gets attached to the drive, so theoretically, you will never lose it. The case itself is not as rubberised as we would have liked but does feel like it could absorb knocks and scrapes with ease. It features a stylish red and black design with a hole at the top end to thread the supplied karabiner clip though, as a secure way to carry it on a belt or bag. The red and black USB plug slots cleanly into the case, giving the whole thing very smooth lines. The makers obviously envisage you climbing with the thing attached to your belt. There’s a brushed metal ring which you can thread your rope through in one corner – hence the carabiner.

So, why is it named Sport? It certainly looks sporty. The red and black design hints at Formula 1 which what seems to be a carrying handle appears to be a thin climbing rope. The climbing theme continues with the inclusion in the plastic package in which it arrives of a carabiner, one of those loops that people when scaling mountains. However, the large warning stamped into the carabiner - “NOT FOR CLIMBING” is very clear.

Installation:

Installation of the FreeCom ToughDrive Sport ultra portable external hard drive is extremely simple. As you would expect these days, this drive is a plug and play device. This kicks in the first time you plug the drive in, taking the form of a hard drive protection wizard that will walk you through the process of setting up a password for your data. The drive is compatible with both Windows and Mac Operating Systems, and the drive is available in capacities of 320GB, 500GB and 640GB. We tested the module in our Windows Vista Laptop. If you explore the drive, you find two installer applications: one for Macs and the other for PCs. This allows you to install any or all of the included software: a Turbo USB 2.0 driver, Adobe Reader, a 30-day trial of NTI Ripper, an auto-archiving application for digital music and a 90-day trial of CA’s MySecurityCenter anti-virus software.

Features:

Really Tough:
This 2.5″ protects data with a range of technology that includes an anti-shock mechanism, integrated USB cable and a toughened exterior that can allegedly withstand drops onto a hard surface from two meters.

Password Protection:
In addition to this exterior protection, FreeCom has equipped the device with a built in 256 bit password that should keep your data safe and sound if somebody nabs it. If you choose to make use of this feature, the password will be required any time the device is plugged in to access data or view the contents. In case you stuff up with the password and forget it, the only option is to reformat the drive, thereby erasing the contents to start again from scratch. Fortunately, encryption can be removed using the preloaded software which then allows the drive to be accessed as normal.

NTI Shadow back-up software:
FreeCom has also supplied the NTI Shadow back-up software, which allows you to create and modify backup jobs based on common file formats such as audio, video, photos and documents, or custom types and manual file or folder selection. Once installed, you can choose which files and folders to back up from a simple check-box listing. After choosing which files you want, you then decided how often you want to back up. This can be every time you make a change to a file in a selected folder, with a certain frequency, say every 10 minutes, or on a specific day at a specific time each week.

Other Software:
The application is quick and easy to configure and uses a wizard to walk through file selection and scheduling, with multiple-file version backups available if necessary. FreeCom has also included a trial version of NTI Ripper for grabbing tunes from audio CDs and MySecurityCenter Internet Security Suite, which includes anti-virus, firewall and anti-spam protection. As you might loose all these software if you have to format the drive after forgetting a password, Freecom encourages you to save it all to a local folder on your hard drive, and a small application is even provided to do this.

Performance:

As the name of the FreeCom ToughDrive Sport USB external hard drive suggests, its highlight feature is being durable. So, let us see here how far it does so. Despite subjecting the drive to numerous 2m drops, kicking it around vigorously in a rucksack and letting a toddler do his best to destroy it, there was no data corruption on our test files. We also dropped it mid-way through saving a large file with no ill effects.

With the Turbo USB driver installed, the manufacturers say that data transfer speeds of up to 480 Mbit per second are possible, although you will never reach this in practice. Since the ToughDrive Sport supports Turbo USB 2.0, it allegedly offers transfer speeds of up to 40 percent faster than the regular high speed USB devices, and this driver can be enabled from the software provided. With transferring speeds, the drive transfers 1GB data in 48 seconds with a regular connection dropped to 45 seconds with Turbo USB 2.0 enabled. Not quite the quoted 40 percent, but it is pretty fast anyway so we cannot see too many people complaining. It is still fast but perhaps one fifteenth of the theoretical maximum data rate.

Warranty:

FreeCom ToughDrive Sport External Hard Drive (320GB, 500GB, 640Gb) comes with two years manufacturer’s warranty for parts and labour.

Conclusion:

Computing and rock climbing are not natural bedfellows. But if they were, this rugged-looking ToughDrive Sport USB hard disk from Freecom may suggest itself as the very accessory you are looking for. If you are carrying data around with you on the move, it is usually prudent to invest in portable storage that is more rugged and durable than your average external hard drive. Typically, there will not be much of features in a tough external hard drive, so we were impressed to see attention to detail in additions like the auto-encryption, effective backup software and the range of other tools and applications provided here.

The drive strikes a good balance between being easy to configure and offering genuinely useful features and combines with a stylish, rugged design and choice of capacities from 320GB to 640GB to offer a solid all-round solution. As external hard drive packages go, Freecom has done a nice job of making the Toughdrive one of the most versatile and appealing on the market. At £130 exc VAT for 500GB it is certainly not cheap, though; non-rugged drives at this capacity will be around £100 or lower. As a portable durable data drive, then, it is one of the best at its price point. Just do not bother taking it up Kilimanjaro.

Check other Freecom External Hard Drive Reviews in this website.

FreeCom ToughDrive Sport (320GB, 500GB, 640Gb) - Technical Specification Table

Design:

Identical:
The peculiar thing about ClickFree drives is the fact that most models look alike.  Made up of brushed aluminium, the drive is capable of standing on its side or lies flat without any additional hardware. The model we reviewed was white in colour with 2 metallic covers at the top and bottom.  There are 2 Blue coloured LEDs on the upper right corner of the DVD.

Backup Button:
Another neat add to the design of the drive is the backup button on the drive. Pressing the button would automatically backup the entire data of the computer. It involves no other step and is the easiest way to backup data.

Dimensions:
The hard drive is roughly about the size of a cigar box. It measures (H x W x D) 47.5 x 4.5 x 1.5 inches and weighs roughly around 2 pounds. So, it can easily fit in a pocket and be carried around. This does make backing up data even more convenient.

Connectivity:
The ClickFree HD1035 Desktop Hard drive uses a mini USB connector which comes along with a cable that one could also use for host of devices such as cameras.  Had an eSATA port been present, the drive’s PC performance would have been greatly enhanced.

Features:

Incremental Backup:
The idea is simple. Instead of providing software to make copies of data, the company has put the backup software right on the disk that will be used for backing up data.  Unlike the Iomega eGo Brown Leather, the ClickFree drive does not need any effort to backup files. When plugged in, it finds all of the user files and stores them into the drive. Each time after that, it will back up the newer files or the ones that have been changed.

How it works:
When the drive is plugged in, it assigns 2 of the same file letters to the host drive: one for software’s executable file and another for drag and drop dumps. After the pre-installed proprietary software is launched, one can connect the drive to view details about the host and the drive contents. One can alter the settings to choose what files to backup and even specify sub folders to check for new files. There is an option to make a copy of the entire desktop drive. While we cannot copy files into the drive while a backup is in progress, the fact that the drive is capable of storing an entire Microsoft Outlook database including events, mail etc.

More about the drive:
While it does take some time for the first backup, the drive will take cut down the subsequent backup times to lesser than 5 minutes. Even if you delete files from your computer, the drive would not do the same, in case you might need it at a later time.

Organised:
Once all files are backed up, they are sorted according to the type of file extension. The pictures, the videos, the word documents, the spreadsheets, all those are arranged and organised.

Supports Several Formats:
The HD1035 is capable of backing up files of about 400 types such as photos, music, video, Microsoft Office documents, email and website data.  It even is capable of backing up XML formats from Office 2007.  There are some pretty uncommon file extensions such as .NEF as well.

Hassle Free:
Another pretty neat feature is that one can backup their Outlook database even while it is running. Consider that many drives require one to shut down the program in order to back up. It is an added hassle that most people would rather not deal with.

Memory:
The ClickFree HD1035 Drive has a capacity of 1TB which is a huge amount of space even by present standards. It can be used to store about 220,000 songs, twice the number of pictures and 10 times the documents. It uses a 3.5 inch drive with a spindle speed of 7200rpm.   The drive is compatible with Windows and Mac as well.

Issues?
There were little quibbles we had with the drive. For starters, one cannot decide on how the drive would back up data as.  Also, when one wants to update a file on the drive, ClickFree replaces the older one with the newer one.  Some backup software have the options to preserve older versions of the same file whereas ClickFree does not. As we did tell earlier, once you delete a file from the computer, the drive does not remove it. One needs to tell the software to delete them. Another issue we had is the fact that the drive dumps all restored files into one single folder, whereas there are drives that restore files into folders from which they were originally backed up.  However, they are minor issues for the majority of users who just want to backup their data.

Performance:

2 words: Simply Amazing. When we tested the drive against some of its rivals such as the drives from Maxtor, Seagate and Iomega, the drive had the best rates amongst them. With speeds of 25MBps read and 23MBps write, it is both friendly on the wallet as well as has great transfer speeds. How can we not like it?

Warranty:

There is a warranty of one year on the drive and is considered for exchange only if the original receipt with the date of purchase is produced.  While there is adequate support on the site present in the form of FAQs as well as toll free support lines, the drive would have been a better product had the warranty period been longer.

Verdict:

The ClickFree HD1035 is an excellent and cost effective choice for regular users as well as small businesses. It does backup files easily and stores a lot of different formats. Our issues with the drive are minor but if they do matter to you, you could choose drives like the Lenovo ThinkPad USB Secure drive.  Overall, if you want a hassle free way to store a lot of data, this is a great choice.

ClickFree HD1035 1TB External HDD - Technical specification Table

Western Digital has upped the ante time and again on its wide range of external storage solutions. The biggest face lift is for the My Book desktop external hard drive series which now features the My Book Elite and My Book Studio. Today, we will be reviewing the My Book Elite which is now, much smarter and sleeker than ever featuring a customisable elabel, automatic, continuous backup and also a new smaller size to fit snugly on your desktop. Out of these features, the one feature that the label boasts that most of the other external hard drives do not have is the customisable elabel which will remain visible even when there is no power supplied to the unit. On the eve of USB 3.0 drives, the Western Digital My Book Elite 2TB seems to be the state of the USB 2.0 drive art. Read on to find out about some of the other features and performance.

Design:

Sleek:
The Western Digital My Book Elite desktop external hard drive has a design that is very similar to that of its predecessors, but is much sleeker than them. The new sleeker design brings the beauty and brains together. As you can imagine, this book-like shape takes up minimal space on your desk and allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf. The design also allows it to be sat horizontally or vertically and additional units can be stacked on top of each other.

The e-label:
Fascia is that part that has gone through the biggest change; the slim LED capacity gauge has been replaced by an eInk display to indicate the capacity and the very useful information of security status. Since the display is eInk, the label lasts for six months before asking for power again. This display can also be used to label the device using the WD SmartWare software, which is definitely much handy if you have more than one drive to handle. For instance, you can customise the label to remind you of what is stored in the drive. The good news is that, it is still passively cooled through the vents that are available on the top and rear, and hence, the device runs much silently.

Features:

Interface:
Coming to the part of interface, the Western Digital My Book Elite Desktop External Hard Drive has a single mini USB2.0 connection, which is same as the one that is used in the vast majority of devices. Given the Elite moniker, we would certainly like to have seen some faster connectivity options like FireWire 800 or eSATA.

Compatibility:
Though the WD Book Elite Desktop Drive is formatted in NTFS for Windows PCs out of the box, the device is compatible with the Macs as well. To be specific, the drive is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. Western Digital has included both Mac and Windows versions of the bundled software on a reserved partition of the drive. This just means that, even if the drive is formatted, the software remains in it.

Capacities available:
The Western Digital My Book Elite comes in capacities that suite everybody’s needs. For people who need huge capacities, there is the 2TB (WDBAAH0020HCH), 1.5TB (WDBAAH0015HCH) and 1TB(WDBAAH0010HCH) and if you are a light user, the Elite is also available in a much smaller 640GB(WDBAAH6400HCH)  capacity.

WD Smart Ware:
The WDSmartWare Software included is one of the best. It is a configuration hub that allows you to choose the backup schedules, alter the eInk label and also enable the drive’s password protected 256 bit AES hardware encryption. New users will be pleased to know that whenever the My Book Elite drive is plugged in for the first time, a simple and intuitive first backup process will initialise. It features a real-time visual interface of WD SmartWare software that offers users a reassuring view of their backup as and when it happens. Real time visual interface in the sense, the software will present you with a graphical representation of all the various bits of data in 6 main categories: System, Pictures, Other, Music, Movies, and Documents. Once the initial backup system runs, users’ files will be backed up automatically every time there is a change or a file is added to a particular directory. You will be able to effortlessly retrieve your valuable data to its original location whether you have lost all your data or just overwritten an important file.

You can either select all or pick and choose the particular types of files you want to be automatically backed up when your My Book Essential is plugged in. Then simply click ‘Run Backup’ and voila, your files will begin to copy automatically. SmartWare will continuously update the graphical representation with the status of your backup. By default, the software is set to run as a low priority while your machine is in use and will speed up when the machine is in idle state.

As you can see, backing up of the WD My Book Elite is quite intuitive. It offers automatic and continuous backup to make sure all your data within remains safe and sound most of the time. Similar to the software on the HP SimpleSave Portable, WD’s SmartWare automatically categorises data on both your PC and the External Hard Drive based on file extensions. From here, you will be able to choose the types of files to back-up. However, unlike the SimpleSave Portable, you will not be able to set your own custom extensions. And, as a result, the obscure media formats will be simply listed as ‘other’ and bundled with some of the other miscellaneous system files. The Western Digital SmartWare supports up to twenty five sequential backups of the same file.

Data lock:
To up the ante security wise, you will find a combination of user-selected password protection with 256-bit hardware-based encryption to be more than sufficient to prevent unauthorized data theft. WD never receives your drive’s password. In other words, you are the only person who knows the password. Should it be lost, the drive will remain locked or must be re-formatted to use again. We can live with that.

Performance:

Speed:
With this 256-bit hardware-based encryption, you can be sure that the new My Book Elite desktop drive will not disappoint you much on the notes of performance and capability. The drive has read speed of 27.7Mbps and write speed of 24.1 Mbps as far as the large files are concerned and with the smaller files like 3GB ones, the drive has read speed of 24.6Mbps and write speed or 15.2Mbps. However, there are much faster USB 2.0 based external hard drives that have passed through our tests, and the Western Digital My Book Elite does not offer any alternative connections like eSATA. Generally speaking, the drive is pretty quiet, although there is the usual buzz and hum during large backups.

Earth friendly:
My Book external drives are designed to save energy. WD GreenPower Technology™ lowers internal drive power consumption by up to 30%, a sleep mode reduces power during idle times, and a power-saving feature turns the drive on and off with your computer.

Package:

The package contents include the My Book Elite external hard drive, WD SmartWare software (pre-loaded), USB cable, AC adapter and Quick Install Guide.

Warranty:

Western Digital offers its latest My Book Elite Desktop drive three years limited warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

The Western Digital My Book Elite is a decent desktop external hard drive. The drive manages reasonable read and write speeds while dealing with both small and large files, but it is not the fastest USB 2.0 drive around in the market. A much faster interface like FireWire 800, would have certainly made a difference if you are transferring huge files. We wished the software offered more control over which files and folders you want to include/exclude from the backup, but in terms of a complete and idiotproof backup system, SmartWare does a respectable job. The My Book Elite is reasonably priced, powerful, and intuitive, and the drive offers users easy backup and restore, full-disk encryption, and an awesome e-ink label. The maximum capacity of 2GB does not hurt either.

Western Digital My Book Elite Hard Drive - Technical Specification Table

All this seems to be changing at a rapid pace, thanks to technologies such as software virtualisation and development of the Small Form Factor drives that require lesser power. This means, you will be really able to take a hard disk and turn that into a portable desktop environment; and this is exactly what has done with the FreeAgent Go. There are two Seagate FreeAgent Go models: the regular model and the Special Edition. In the following review, we will be seeing about the latter one. Apart from the cosmetic trim, the only difference between the both is that, the Special Edition includes a basic USB dock, allowing you to seat the drive in a upright fashion, just like an iPhone dock.

Design:

Pocket it:
With its glossy aluminium finish, chrome trim, and jet black top and cover, the Seagate FreeAgent Go Special Edition makes it extremely convenient to carry your photos, music and videos anywhere, without sacrificing the good looks. The drive is extremely pocket friendly with dimensions of just (H x W x D) 5.1 x 3.1 x 0.4 inches and weighs a mere 0.16 Kgs and hence, is light enough and tiny to slide into basically any bag as well. The drive looks absolutely spectacular and in addition to the amazing looking drive and it even sports a series of white lights on the bottom portion of the top cover that pulsate when the drive is active, and slowly fades down as the activity of the drive decreases. Apart from the slim figure of the drive, the shape of the drive looks similar to many of the other external drives. The top of the rectangular case has a brushed metal finish that looks sleek and even passes our scratch test with very impressive resilience. The bottom of it covered with a slightly rough material that prevents the drive from sliding around on a hard surface.

The stylish dock:
Seagate has made things even better with the inclusion of a piano black desktop dock. This dock has made it easier than ever before to connect the drive to the computer without having to fumble all the wires. The best part of the drive is that, it has a massive amount of storage, without taking up a massive amount of space. The drive is available in bright red and Piano black finishes. Of course, you can choose to buy the original FreeAgent Go which is available in a range of finishes of blue, red, silver and black.

Port and connectivity:
The only port in the front of the drive is that of the USB2.0 powered port that connects the drive to your computer. While other drives such as the Iomega eGo Camo ship with a long 1-metre USB cord, the Seagate’s falls short at less than half a metre long. If you are not lucky enough to have a USB port on the front of your computer, you will find yourself wishing for an extension cable.

Capacity and Interface:

The Seagate FreeAgent Go Special Edition Model is available in capacities of 640GB and 500GB. Note that, this Special Edition is a Windows only Portable drive and if you a Mac person, the FreeAgent Go Mac Edition is also available which is especially for the Macers like you.

Ease of use:

The Special Edition FreeAgent Go comes pre-loaded with an easy to use software that helps you to retain data without automatic data backup and encryption of your important files, folders etc. This Windows only Seagate Manager was up and running in no time.  If you do not have autorun enabled, you can go in manually and start the software. This is where it starts to get clever. The Ceedo software, which Seagate has licensed from its eponymous developer, creates a virtual area within the system - you can install and run apps, and sync data onto it, all without any permanent effect on the host PC. Then when you dismount and unplug FreeAgent, it cleans up after itself and is ready to run on a different PC, with all your apps and data just as they were.

There were options in the software for us to pick specific files and folders that we wanted to back up for safe keeping swiftly. We were also able to quickly set a day and time when we wanted the backups to occur. After that, the software was basically on auto-pilot, and did everything by itself just as it was told. The software is really convenient for the PC; it reminded us of Time Machine, which if you do not know is the Mac backup program that is built-in to every Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. Seagate Manager also let us create a password-protected folder that safeguards files with 256-bit AES encryption. Lastly, the Sync option permits users to access our data when we plugged the FreeAgent Go Special Edition hard drive into another PC, so we always had the most current versions of my files at my fingertips when moving the drive from PC to PC.

Performance:

Performance wise, the FreeAgent Go Special Edition (500GB, 640GB) Hard Drive proved to be pretty fast for a USB drive and although it takes the prize for the best value as far as we know. It read about 5GB of videos, photos, music and documents in less than four minutes at an amazing rate of 22Mbps. And in our tests, the Go managed to achieve about 20Mbps. Hence, we still prefer the FireWire drives, as they are just way faster and require just one wire to connect. But still, this FreeAgent Go has become one of your favourite external hard drive by far.

Warranty and Service:

The Seagate Web site contains a comprehensive list of forums, knowledge bases, driver downloads, installation help and FAQs to help you troubleshoot your drive, which is all a great help for those who are new to external hard drives. And, Seagate offers a very generous five year limited warranty on parts and labour for the Seagare FreeAgent Go Special Edition.

Verdict:

Overall, the Seagate FreeAgent Go Special Edition has managed to impress us a lot. The stunning design, the convenient capacities and the overall experiences were all positive. If we have any winging to do, it is only that, it would been the ultimate drive if it had the FireWire capabilities.

Seagate External Hard Drive Reviews in this website.

FreeAgent Go Special Edition Hard Drive - Technical Specification Table

Design:

Stylish leather casing:

In this era of digital entertainment, we often find the need to store data in external hard drives. But very often, the drives are either bulky or ugly looking. But the Iomega eGo leather Hard drive is a classic exception. It is amazingly fancy. Designed to add class to storage activities, it is wrapped in rich brown leather making it look like a hip drinking flask rather than a storage device. The chrome end caps add an exquisite touch to it.  Had a spout been present, people would have assumed you to be a closet drinking alcoholic.  The leather adds a bit of a soft feel to the device making it easy to carry.  However, the leather would get abused over time and we suggest treating the cover of the drive with Lexol every couple of months to keep the skin soft and supple.

White LED indicator:

At the bottom of the drive is a white LED activity indicator. While most drives in the market feature LEDs that are blue, green or red and are usually super bright, the LED on the eGo is bright enough to be noticeable. Beside the indicator, there is also a USB 2.0 port which also functions as a charging point.

Great Build Quality:

When it comes to build quality, the eGo leather 3.5″ External Hard drive features one of the most durable designs we have ever seen.  The leather wrapped all around the aluminium shell provides the much needed shock absorption providing it with the necessary edge to survive those nose dives on to hard floors.  The drive scores points for being able to combine style with a purpose.

Plug and Play:

The Drive has a USB 2.0 interface and is preformatted. Hence all you need to do is just plug it in to start backing up data.

Features:

Drop Guard Technology:

As the name suggests, the guys at Iomega have come up with a new feature called the Drop Guard Technology which makes the drive resistant to what they call ‘un-sportsman’ like falls.  As per Iomega’s claims the drive is capable of resisting damage by falls from a height up to 51 inches. That is roughly about 40 percent higher than the industry standards.  Is the claim true? We dropped the drive several times from a height of 4 feet and the drive is still going strong. While we cannot exactly state the consequences of repeatedly dropping it, we feel it can resist the normal wear and tear of regular use.

Capacities:

The eGo leather portable USB External hard drive is available in capacities of 160GB, 250GB and 500GB. The drive of 250GB capacity, theoretically can hold up to a million photos and about 4700 hours of music or 400 hours of video. It is sufficient for most backups and is a nice choice for additional storage.

EMC Retrospect Express:

The eGo drive includes a license for the EMC Retrospect Express which allows fast backups and added protection for data. The interface allows one to schedule backup, personalise backup schedule and location, backup open files, encrypt files and obtain backup verification. The first time we used it; it erased the entire volume and required the usage of the hard drive exclusively for backup. This backup software also features integrated Mozy Home Online backup software that allows one to store data online and recover whenever needed.

Cost per Gigabyte:

After doing the entire math, we figured that it would be roughly 0.41 pounds per gigabyte. That makes it an average price for an EHD and a better deal than the 160 GB model released last year. The best drive in the segment is the Western Digital my Passport Studio for 0.39 pounds per gigabyte but the Iomega comes pretty close second.

Performance:

Read and Write Speeds:

The USB 2.0 interface translates to great compatibility but not great transfer speeds when compared to the SATA interface. It’s read and write speeds are about 149 megabits per second. While it is most certainly not slow, it is not setting new standards for speed either. If the drive used eSATA or the native internal SATA connection, the speeds would have been double than those of the USB interface. When compared to the 320 GB Western Digital Passport drive, the eGo has a faster access time, lower processor usage and faster read & write speeds.

Heat and Noise:

The drive is so quiet, that one would not be able to distinguish whether the drive is in use or not without looking at the LED. The leather cover, we believe, isolates any sound produced from the drive making it one of the quietest in its category. A tick from the drive once in a while is not really much of noise.

The drive always felt slightly hotter than the room temperature.  But of course, the internal drive is only 5400 rpm and hence we were not expecting much heat from the device.

Power:

The eGo is powered totally through a USB 2.0 port, but in case your PC would need an extra push, Iomega includes a cable with 2 USB connectors for extra power. There is also a five volt AC power port available too but we do not think it that a need for that would ever arise. A power cable is not available as an accessory and the manufacturer sells the power brick separately.

What is in the Box?

Apart from the eGo Brown leather portable hard drive, there is a USB 2.0 cable, a Quick Install guide, a HTML User Manual and Help files, Backup software license and Trend Micro Internet Security included in the package.

Service and Support:

Iomega provides a limited warranty of one year on all eGo hard drive series.  The warranty covers damage at manufacturer’s discretion. All defective hard drives would be replaced and if they are unable to solve your problem, there will be a refund of the full retail price. The site features additional troubleshooting and other support items such as forums.  Registering the drive on the site allows the warranty period to go up to a period of 3 years.

Verdict:

The Iomega eGo Leather Portable drive is an excellent little storage device with great looks, amazing durability and a decent performance. Often times we think of these portable drives has the equivalent of bringing a briefcase of information around with you, but much, much more, of course. For the professionals among us, why not bring your data with you in style? This portable drive is wrapped in a rich brown leather, making it look like a portfolio rather than a piece of tech equipment. Plus, the chrome end caps add an exquisite finishing touch. It has an edge against simple and plain dull hard drives and is sure to surprise most people around when one pulls it out. It would have been even better had an eSATA interface been available, but other than that there is nothing really that the drive lacks. Hence, we recommend the drive without any hesitations.

Check other Iomega External Hard Drive Reviews, Latest Portable Hard Drives in this website.


Iomega eGo Leather Hard Drive (160GB, 250GB, 500GB) - Technical Specification Details

Design:

First Impressions:
The first impression you get on seeing the drive is how well designed it is considering the fact that it is cheaper than the Western Digital My Book Essential drive.  The body of the drive is slim and is perhaps made out of aluminium. The enclosure seems to be made up of good quality material and it looks pretty compact and sturdy.

Body:
The front of the drive has a black covering whereas the rest of the body is silver toned. The Fujitsu Siemens logo is embossed on the left side of the front.  On the right side are present two buttons: One for power and the other for backup. There is also an eye catching LED status indicator, which is a long strip of blue almost as long as the length of the device. The back side of the device has two ports. There is a USB 2.0 port that one can use to plug into the PC and there is a DC Input port as well.  So, the device looks sleek with minimal buttons and decent functionality.

Quality:
The built of the StorageBird device is solid and concrete like.  Though the device is a bit smaller than most other drives of 1TB storage size, it can resist external pressure thanks to its rigid aluminium body. The threshold limit is high enough that if it slips from your hand, there would be neither any scratches on the device nor any sort of internal damage. This is a good thing considering most of us are extremely clumsy.

Dimensions:
There was a time when external hard drives were so large that they needed to be in air conditioned rooms. A lot has changed since then. At dimensions of (W x H x D) 203 x 38 x 118 cm, the device is pretty sleek and compact. It weighs a measly 1.2 Kgs and that includes the adapter. That makes it perfect for people to carry it around just like a mobile phone.

LED Status Indicator:
One of the aesthetic highlights of the Fujitsu StorageBird 35 UB is the blue status LED indicator. Enormous is not enough to describe how huge it actually is. It lights up whenever the drive is working. When it flashes, it fills the entire room with its colour. This could be distracting for many people and trying to face the drive away would solve this minor issue.  However, we noticed that the light leaks a bit from the metal body and plastic end. Minor design flaws, not really a huge issue.

Vertical and Horizontal Operation possible:
There is a stand provided with the drive for smooth vertical operation. It is smooth and has a grippy foam rubber that stays with it while you lift it.  The stand allows a better air flow and the rubbery base ensures vibration is reduced when it is on a hard surface.  The drive works in both horizontal and vertical position and hence can be placed on a desk according to one’s needs.  We suggest you go for the horizontal position if you have kids or pets.

Interfaces:
The Fujitsu StorageBird Solo 35 UB sports a USB 2.0 interface that supports almost all portable USB devices. With a transfer rate up to 480mbps, the drive’s interface makes it compatible for any kind of digital media. However, there are drives that have the Firewire and eSATA interface as well. Thus, the Solo 35 UB loses out to such drives when it comes to a better compatibility. But if only backing up of data is your concern, a USB 2.0 port will suffice.

Setup:

The Fujitsu StorageBird Solo 35 UB external hard drive is a plug and play device. So, that means to start storing data all you need to do is just plug in the drive to your PC and store files in it. All hassles of installing separate software to use the drive are eliminated. This is a standard feature in almost all EHDs in the market and this is a feature expected in standard 1 TB drives, so nothing extraordinary here. However, for backing up data, you would have to install the Nero Backitup2 Essential software provided along with the drive on a CD.

Capacities Available:

The Solo 35 UB meant for storing larger amounts of data is available in capacities starting from 500GB.  There are 750GB and 1TB versions of the drive available as well.  The 1TB drive being reviewed is capable of storing about 25,000 songs theoretically assuming each song is about 4 MB each.  The actual memory is lesser due to restrictions placed by operating systems and formatting.  The 1 TB drive has only about 930 MB of space meant for usage. That is still a huge amount of space for most users.

Compatibility:

The Drive is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP , Microsoft Windows Vista and all their editions. It is preformatted to FAT32 which is fine if you would not transfer files larger than 4 GB as FAT32 does not support it. There is an option to reformat this to NTFS on Vista and Mac.

Features:

Nero Backitup 2 Essentials:
The Nero Backitup 2 Essential software enables one to do instant backup of files, folders and the entire main hard drive by just plugging in the hard drive using the USB cable. The software has features that include full synchronization and backup from a PC or a notebook’s internal drive.

Backup Button:
One of the USPs of the device is the Backup Button. On the plastic black end of the drive is present the backup button represented by a ‘b’.  This button enables one touch backup of your data. When the drive is plugged on to your PC and you click the button, and all data is synchronised and information stored in their PC or laptop would get stored in the drive. Thus it allows storage of all important data in a separate safe location at the touch of a button.

Powered using External Power Supply:
Unlike certain USBs that are powered by being plugged to a PC, the Fujitsu StorageBird is powered using an external power supply.  The presence of a power button allows one to switch on or off the drive whenever needed.  Also another noteworthy feature is the presence of Intelligent Power Management feature. The drive switches itself off after certain time of not being in use and thus saves a lot of unnecessary wastage of power.

Performance:

Decent Read and Write Speed:
The Fujitsu StorageBird Solo 35 UB Desktop Hard Drive has a reading speed of 30.5MBps and a writing speed of about 26MBps under test conditions. When we plugged it into a notebook and tried transferring files of 100 GB size, it took little over 3 hours to transfer. These are reasonably decent values and hence the drive is okay if one is looking for a no frills drive for the sake of backup. There are drives with better speeds such as the Western Digital My Passport SE (has an average of 34MBps reading speed and 29MBps writing speed) but they are not as economical as the Fujitsu drive is.

Less Heat and Lesser Noise:
We did leave the drive to run for about 3 hours while transferring 100GB of data and after that, the drive was lukewarm at 33 degrees. Using the drive in an open and well ventilated place while usage will help in keeping the drive cooler for a longer while. When it comes to the noise, the device is pretty quiet and we literally heard nothing even while transferring the biggest of files.

Low Power Consumption:
Under test conditions, the drive consumed about 17 watts of power and lesser than 3.5 watts while in sleep mode. That is pretty low energy consumption and hence the drive scores points here on being energy conscious.

What is in the Box?

The Fujitsu StorageBird Solo 35 UB comes along with a Power pack, a USB cable, a detachable base for vertical operation, Backup software on a CD ROM and a Quick Installation Guide.

Warranty:

The StorageBird Solo 35 UB has a warranty of one year which is highly disappointing as there are EHDs in the market with warranties up to 5 years. Considering that there have been complaints of instability of the Western Digital hard drive inside, one year simply does not seem sufficient.

Verdict:

Does Fujitsu succeed in delivering a great product? The answer is a yes and a no. The StorageBird Solo 35 UB is a decent EHD with a huge memory and good transfer speeds. Not only that, it seems to outdo many of the aesthetically challenged drives in the market as well. The device feels sturdy and is resistant to scratches and damage. The one touch backup feature is yet another noteworthy feature. All this bundled along with the Nero Backitup 2 Essential software make it an ideal drive for storing data. However, the drive has its share of flaws. The LED is a bit too bright and does attract criticism for not being discrete.  But the major problem is with the growing number of complaints regarding the failure of these drives after a short period of time. One user reportedly said “The Drive was great while it lasted”.  Let us hope that Fujitsu finds solutions to this problem soon. If they do, this product will certainly be a great hit.

Read reviews of latest, best selling External Hard Drives in this website.


Fujitsu StorageBird Solo 35 UB - Technical Specification Table

Everybody wishes to backup their data, but in the past, backing up your data meant fiddling with heaps of CDs, non-intuitive software, tape cassettes and multiple DVDs; in short, back up is usually either tedious or complicated. External hard drives came in as a great relief and Apple seems to be providing a simpler solution known as the Time Machine which comes with Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard”, which provides a hard drive for backups as well as AirPort Extreme functionality. The Time Capsule is a wireless base station with built-in hard drive. You will be able to expand its storage by plugging in a USB2.0 hard drive and use it to share a printer and integrate it into the existing wireless networks. It is basically an Airport Extreme base station with a 500GB or 1TB internal hard drive which is designed to be a wireless Time Machine target for one or more Macs as well as a NAS (network attached storage) device.

The eighteen month curse:

Unfortunately, the first Time Capsule released by Apple started to die just about eighteen months of backup. The users of Apple Time Capsule had taken to the web with their complaints about their dead storage and wireless devices and tallied the hardware failures in an effort to convince Apple that there is a problem. A Mac user created an Apple Time Capsule Memorial register went live October 2009 and in one week it had logged more than 300 dead devices. Many users added to the two most popular threads, which together boasted more than 60,000 views and over 600 messages claiming that their Time Capsules failed just without any warning.

Is this the solution?

Apple then released its new version of Time Capsule on November 2009 as an upgrade to the failed model of 2008 and the one released in early 2009, which also had some speed and performance concerns. Without any doubt, the Apple Time Capsule is just one of the very few wireless N routers with built-in storage, making it a rare and simple all in one router and backup option for your home.

Design:

A bigger version of AirPort Extreme:
The minute you look at the Apple Time Capsule, you would realise that it just looks like an oversized AirPort Extreme 802.11n base station, with a chrome Apple logo on top. It is only slightly taller than the base station, but then, has a much larger footprint which might be because of the accommodation of the built-in-hard drive, cooling fan and circuitry. Functionality wise, the Time Capsule is basically just an AirPort Extreme Base Station with a hard drive that is built-in. For a wireless router, we feel that the Time Capsule is bulky, but is relatively compact when compared with the other competing NAS servers. It possesses a clean square design and is classically Apple in white.

Minimal controls:
On the facia of the device, there is just one status light that changes colour according to the working condition of the device. Solid green means that everything is in good working condition, if blue, then it is ready for the wireless client and if the light flashes amber, it simply says that you are in trouble, oops! Your device is in trouble. You will be surprised to find no external antenna, buttons or switches apart from the tiny reset hole on the rear.

Connectivity:
In the rear, you will also find three gigabit Ethernet ports and a USB port. You get only three gigabit Ethernet ports, which is one lesser than what most competing routers offer for use with wired clients and the USB port is used to host another External Hard Drive or Printer. To reset the router to its default manufacturer settings, just stick a pin in the hole at the rear of the device.

Capacities:

The latest Apple Time Capsule is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities.

Interface:

No Web Interface:
As in the case of the base device, the Apple Time Capsule does not offer a web interface and this means you have to install the AirPort Utility software that is included to set it up. The software is available in both Mac and Windows versions. The Windows version installs a number of other services too, like Apple’s networking service Bonjour and the AirPort Base Station Agent that runs whenever you system boots up. Installing any new software will have adverse effects on your system’s performance, but without the Bonjour, Window’s will not be able to connect to the device. The AirPort Base Station Agent aids by automatically detecting the shared folders of the Time Capsule.

Most of us prefer devices that you will be able to access and manage via web interface that allows you to get the job done conveniently from any system that is connected to the device over the network. Sadly, Apple is the only networking vendor that does not offer this type of interface. Whereas, vendors like Linksys also offer you with a desktop software application that is also available for both PC and Mac to aid those users who are just not comfortable using browser for the task.

The AirPort Utility:
The AirPort Utility makes setting up the Time Capsule easy for the novice users to its credit. The wizard mode of the utility walks you through the process of configuring step by step.  If you are one of those techies and want to customise the router beyond the recommended settings, the utility also offers a manual mode that gives you access to some of the much more advanced functionalities. The Time Capsule demands a restart for any of the changes in the setting to take effect, and this is extremely annoying because, having to do so interrupts the connections of all users and makes the process of setting up very time consuming than we are usually accustomed to. Note that, most of the other high-end routers will be able to apply most of the minor setting changes without a restart. However, there were no gaffes while setting up the Time Capsule and it was all up and running in just ten minutes. Just like its sibling AirPort Base Station Agent, the Apple Time Capsule supports a maximum of fifty clients at a time as per Apple’s specification, which is a lot fewer than the 200 clients that the routers of other vendors claim to support.

Complicated advanced settings:
Though the Time Capsule is easy to use at its most basic configuration, the device can be really frustrating when you would want to use the most advanced features available. For instance, if you wish to add a client to a DHCP Reservation or the Media Access Control address list, you have to reach out for the “Log and Logistics” window in order to view the list of connected clients then, copy the MAC address of the client in question and finally, go back to the list in order to enter it. Whereas, with many of the other routers such as those from D-Link, Linksys and Netgear displays the information much more conveniently and allows you to complete the same task in just a few mouse clicks.

Features:

Networking features:
The Apple Time Capsule is just one of the very few routers who offer very few in terms of networking features and, same is the case with the AirPort Extreme Base Station. Some of the other high end routers like the D-Link 825 and Linksys WRT610n seem to be including a website and service filter which basically allows you to hook up your clients to the network at just press of a button and as an additional advantage; they also have the Dynamic DNS. Unfortunately, the Time Capsule has none of these essential features.
Some of the service providers, especially in college dorms, it requires the users to register a client’s MAC address in order to get access to internet. Again, the Apple Time Capsule does not have this ability in order to replicate the client’s MAC address, while most of the competing routers will be able to take a client’s MAC address as its own.

Wireless:
Moving on to a lighter note, the Time Capsule offers true dual-band Wireless-N and this means that it will offer Wireless-N (802.11n) signal in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies simultaneously, making it support virtually any existing wireless-networking client. But, we found that it offers the users lesser control over the wireless aspect than most routers in market.

Apple recommends you to use the SSID (Same Service Set Identifier), a wireless network for both of the 5GHz and 2.4GHz Wireless-N and it picked the 2.4GHz each and every time. We just were not able to figure out, why exactly it happened and the router did not allow us to manually set the machines to choose the 5GHz band to take advantage of the higher throughput speeds. Hence, we would always recommend you to have a separate wireless network name for each of the bands and so, you can have more control over which band you would like to connect your client to. This will allow you to get the router to work as 2.4GHz only or 5GHz only wireless network is just not possible. Most of the other true dual-band routers give the more control over the router’s wireless functionality. This is not a small issue, as in most situations, you will want to use only the 5GHz band and turn the 2.4GHz band off in order to just save power or even to keep the spectrum cleaner for the other devices. You simply cannot do this with the Time Capsule and this is totally frustrating.

Guest Networking:
In continuation with less control woes of the Apple Time Capsule, you have even less control with its Guest Networking Feature. The Guest Networking Feature allows you to create a separate wireless network that has access to the net, but not to the local resources like your computer or printer. Though the feature worked fine in our trials, we felt that its functionalities were quite limited. All that you could possibly do with this feature is, change the name of the network, apply encryptions to it and just give the guest clients the ability to interact with one another. The Time Capsule will not allow you to choose which band you want the Guest network to operate in and nor does it allow you to make a separate guest network for each of the bands.

Printing:
Now, let us move on to our favourite storage and printing part. We tested the Apple Time Capsule with Samsung and Brother Printers. As we had mentioned previously, you will have to install the Bonjour on any of the Windows-Based machines in which you would want to share either the printer or the Storage on the Time Capsule. You will also have to check this ahead of time, in order to make sure that your printer supports Mac. We also have to let you know that the setup with some printers did not go smoothly and when we plugged in the printer via the USB connection, the Time Capsule refused to show any reaction. The other printer was recognised by the router, but then, there is no Mac version of the printer’s software driver. At the end, we just figured that it would have been easier to install if only there had been a driver, as the printer appeared in Macbook pro’s “Print and Fact” utility. The other routers usually have much better support for the printers.

Apple Time Capsule’s support for USB external hard drives was much better than for the USB printers and in fact, better than AirPort Extreme Base Station’s support. But, it is still far from perfect.

Storage:
Formatting:
The Time Capsule does not read drives that are formatted in the NTFS file system and it reads only the files formatted as FAT32 and Mac OS Extended. Flatly, we can say that it is just harder to format a drive that is larger than 32GB using FAT32 than using NTFS. This is totally ridiculous; as majority of the external hard drives of today are much larger than 32GB and hence, most of the Windows users will not be able to plug-in most of their USB hard drives into the router and expect to share the data contained on it. If you wish to reformat your drive, you will have to use another computer as the Time Capsule does not include a formatting functionality.

The Time Capsule was able to quickly recognise the external hard drive that was formatted using FAT32 and it also worked fine when formatted in the Mac OS Extended file system. As soon as the drive was plugged in, the Time Capsule recognised the drives and began to share them and the sharing feature worked well in Windows as well. However, you will be able to share the hard drives only as one shared folder and you will not be able to make multiple folders and share them separately with different access privileges, which is a common NAS feature. In this case, however, you will be able to use the AirPort Utility to create user accounts that has a private folder of its own.

Backing up:
Time Capsule’s marquee feature is its ability to back up your Macs running Leopard using Time Machine over the network. Apple recommends that you connect your Mac directly to the Time Capsule for the first backup, which makes a copy of all files on your Mac; backing up that much data takes a long time over the network. We backed up my MacBook Pro’s 120GB of data to each Time Capsule connected via Gigabit Ethernet and it took a little over nine hours to complete the first backup. After that initial backup, Time Machine will back up to the Time Capsule every hour, unless the Mac has been powered down or the previous backup took longer than an hour. These hourly backups are incremental that is, they back up only files that have changed, or have been added since the last backup. Such backups take less time and are generally handily accomplished over a wireless connection.

Missing popular features:
The internal hard drive of the Time Capsule allows you to erase its contents and manually archive it to an external hard drive and you will also be able to change the default share name to one of your choice. Unfortunately, you will not be able to physically access or replace the hard drive on your own, while most of the NAS servers and External Hard Drives allow the users to replace the internal hard drives. Apart from file sharing, the Time Capsule does not seem to offer none of the more popular NAS features. As you might be aware by now, the device cannot be used as iTunes or Media server in order to stream digital content from the device to the computers, set-top boxes or even gaming consoles which is just ironic, considering the fact that most of the other NAS servers that we have tested before feature a server for Apple’s own iTunes software. In addition to this, the Time Capsule will not be able to download files on its own or work as an FTP or HTTP server; both the features which are usually found in NAS servers.

Remote access:
The Apple Time Capsule allows the Mac users to access the shared folder remotely via the Internet using a MobileMe account, to which you will have to subscribe after the free trial offer of 60 days. During our tests, everything seemed to work just fine as if a computer was connected to the device directly through its wireless or wired connectivity. The shared folder appeared as it was when accessed via the local network, but it took a little bit longer because of the internet connection. We will also be able to make use of the Time Capsule’s settings by this way via the AirPort Utility. Note that, the remote access feature is Mac only and is not available for Windows users, even if you possess a MobileMe Account.

Another fact that you must be aware of is that, the remote access feature might not work at all if you access the net via a corporate network, where certain services of the Base Station can be blocked for security reasons. Though it is very true that the corporations tend to have tight control over their networks, some of the other NAS server’s remote access features, such as those of the Western Digital My Book World Edition which worked fine with some of the corporate networks. The way the Time Capsule shares its files with the remote users is very disappointing, as the other NAS servers, like the Synology and WD allows the users to share files with multiple users or share photo albums, but the Time Capsule only works with one MobileMe account at a time. And, unlike the Time Capsule, most of the other routers support DDNS, which allows you to set up remote access without having to pay anything at all. But, you need to have some networking know-how in order to make that work.

Operating System:
If you have the Mac OS 10.5 Leopard installed, the Time Capsule compliments the Time Machine well, which is Apple’s fancy backup software. All that you have to do is, run the Time Machine utility and choose the Time Capsule as the backup destination. The actual time taken to do any kind of backup job could be really long and it totally depends on the amount of data you have on the system’s hard drive. Most of the time, you would actually want to connect the computer to the Time Capsule through one of its three wired connections for the first job of backup. For the Windows users who want to use the Time Capsule as a robust backup solution, you will have to invest in a backup software application such as Acronics. Although the built-in backup utilities of both Window’s XP and Window’s vista work with Time Capsule, as they would with any other external storage device, they, especially XP is far from being comprehensive. Again, this is another disappointment as most of the network storage devices we have reviewed comes bundled with backup software and does not require any additional utilities to work comprehensively in Windows. The Time Capsule also does not incorporate a way to automatically backup the contents of its internal hard drive onto an external hard drive. Hence, in order to preserve all your important files and data, you may have to do it manually.

Security features:
The security features have been done similar to that of the AirPort Extreme Base Station. The Apple Time Capsule features a built-in firewall and also supports WPA2 and also a 128-bit WEP for the purpose of wireless encryption. The device also supports RADIUS access control, which allows you to manage wireless clients from a centralised location. Though Time Capsule does not give parents the freedom to filter specific websites, it will allow them to set time limits for kid’s access, provided, they follow the steps to get the MAC address for their kid’s computers.

Performance:

In performance testing, the new Time Capsule showed an enhanced performance than the old one. In 5GHz throughput test, the new Time Capsule scored 60.4MBps and the old one scored 57.8MBps and the difference is similar in the 2.4GHz band with the new Time Capsule scoring 29.4MBps and the old one scored 24.9MBps. Coming to range test, the new Time Capsule scored 33.8MBps at 2.4GHz faster than the 20.3MBps of the older Time Capsule. At 5GHz, the new Time Capsule scored 51.5MBps and the older device could not hold a 5GHz connection at that range long enough to complete the test. In other tests too, like the mixed mode test and NAS tests, the Nov2009 Time Capsule showed an enhanced performance than the early2009 version.

Heat:

The Time Capsule was very hot throughout our testing and it made us concerned about the lifespan of the device. We recommend that you leave it in an open and well ventilated space when in use. As we had mentioned in the introduction, there were numerous claims from consumers that the Time Capsule dies after 18 months of use. So, we hope Apple take the necessary steps.

Service and support:

Apple offers its Time Capsule one year standard support. This is extremely less considering the fact that the device has a non-removable, built-in hard drive and also runs very hot. We recommend you to purchase an extended AppleCare coverage plan and also note that, if your Apple computer or Apple TV is covered under Apple Care, then your Time Capsule is also covered. Apple offers 90 days of complimentary, toll free phone support and as always, at Apple’s website you will be able to view FAQs, troubleshooting articles, user forums and also the manuals and software.

Verdict:

Apple Time Capsule is one of those devices that some geeks were just waiting for. Once again Apple has delivered another impressive product. Its elegant integration of two things most people need in their lives network storage and a high-speed wireless router makes it a highly useful product for both Mac and PC users. Obviously, Mac users will get more mileage out of it due to its ability to work with Time Machine so it is less of a must-have for PC users. It is a shame we ran into a few setup issues because once we ironed the problems out the unit performed flawlessly.

The bad news is that it is really expensive. Even the latest versions remain costly and though the device has a much improved performance than its previous version, it still seems to be suffering from some of the key shortcomings such as, lack of many of the NAS and networking features, no iTunes, a nonuser serviceable hard drive and no web interface management or media server support. For that cost, you will be able to get the Linksys WRT610N plus a 2TB version of Western Digital MyBook Mirror Edition external hard drive, which will give you all the basic functions of a Time Capsule as well as the missing features that we have mentioned above. However, we also have to admit that Apple’s Time Capsule is the only wireless router and network storage combo that comes in a very good looking package.

Apple Time Capsule 1TB, 2TB - Technical Specification Table

Pros:

• Support for all versions of Windows and extended support for Macintosh.
• Hard disk speed of 7200 rpm and a cache memory of 8 MB and 16 MB to ensure fast input output streaming.
• Dedicated one touch immediate data backup button.
• Metal finish that ensures both shock resistance and water resistance.
• Unmatched data security, data protection.
• Solid metal casing body for sturdiness and a glossy finish for beauty.
• Small, compact and easy to carry around.
• Special LED indicator that provides information on the amount of disk space left.
• It never heats up even after long hours of continuous and heavy   usage.
• Produces the least amount of noise while working.
• Good software support and complete background data redundancy check.

Cons:

• WD MyBook has no support for Linux.
• Instead of going for platform support, WD chose OS support for this device which means it will not be compatible in the OS’s launched in the future including Mac and Windows.
• It has a very low write time on the disk and a moderate read speed which is unexpected from a device that is power packed with features.
• The USB and Firewire ports do not quite live up to the expectations.
• At times, the data redundancy checks make the system too slow and thus have to be reconfigured form time to time.
• The device feeds of power and resources for the CPU and thus increases the load on the processor even when the hard disk has resources of its own.

Review:

Bill Gates had once famously remarked, “I am sure nobody on this earth will ever need more than 100 KB of hard disk space for their personal needs”. Well, I think Mr. Gates was mistaken. Ever since the dawn of evolution in the world of computers the only thing that has increased at an alarming rate (probably faster than India’s overwhelming population) is the demand for storage space in the virtual world. Gone are the days when we had to buy tons of CDs to store all their data. Even pen drives are turning out to be the thing of the past. Because, the big boss, External Storage Devices are here!

The Western Digital MyBook Premium Edition external hard drive is “the next big thing” as promised by its makers Western Digital better known as WD. It is one of the best portable devices around although it does not feature much in terms of storage capacity. It sports a sleek, trendy and sporty look much like a Ferrari sports car. Let us see if it lives up to its much hyped expectations.

Design:

A smoothy:
The WD MyBook Premium Edition Hard drive is typically candy shaped with curved smooth edges. It has the WD logo at the bottom right and this time it also sports a brushed metal plate that can be customised to imprint user details using LASER printing. Though this really adds cream to the biscuit, how many people would really go for it is the main question. Western Digital was the first to style their external storage devices to add a bit of a feel to it. Moreover the WD MyBook external storage devices also sport an anodised finish of oxidised gun metal and are completely encased in white protective covering. The best part is that WD MyBook external storage drive comes with a glossy metal finish enhanced with self clean technology. This ensures a completely smudge free device with a glassy look which is unheard of in other glossy finished items.

Dimensions:
With dimensions of (W x D x H) 2.2” x 5.6” x 6.8”, this device is as sleek and compact as it could get. And weighing just 2.9 lbs, people really could not have asked for more. All this and more make this device a real pleasure to hold, to look, to use and even to carry it around in your pocket much like your trusted mobile phone. What is more, this device is just perfect for the occasions when your friends decide at the last moment to have a bash and you do not have the time to look for your music CDs. Just put this device in your pocket loaded with all that you need and it is fun on the go.

Durability:
With great power, comes great responsibility. And what more could a portable drive’s final mark depend on rather than its portability? An external drive with gigs of storage and great features is useless until and unless it can take responsibility of the data stored in it; and this where the portability comes in. The Western Digital Devices are highly portable especially the MyBook which ensures that data remains safe and protected even if it falls in the wrong hands. Whether the MyBook falls out of a fast moving car, an aero plane or even falls in the sea, relax! Your data will always remain safe. With its compact shock and tamper proof design it can withstand shocks when dropped from up to 500 meters height. Moreover, it also has a very high water resistant capability and is water resistant up to 100 meters depth. The only thing that was left unnoticed in the test was perhaps what would happen if you threw the device in a volcano.

Connectivity Options:
A good external hard drive is not only the one, which promises the largest data space or the fastest data usage. It should also host a variety of connectivity features so that the device is usable on all devices and platforms over the world without the slightest technological glitch. This one of the primary reasons why external storage devices today are going for multiple connectivity options. The Western Digital MyBook Portable external hard disk is surely in the league perhaps at the top with the bundle of connectivity features it is providing. It already supports USB 2.0 and has five USB 2.0 ports that ensure that this device can be simultaneously connected to more than one device. It also sports an extremely fast Fire wire 400 port even though many external devices today are providing up to fire wire 1000 port. And with just one Firewire 400 port, it leaves a lot to be craved for.

Capacities:
The Western Digital MyBook Premium Edition external hard drive comes in a variety of storage capacities that includes 160GB, 250GB, 320GB, 400GB and 500GB. All the hard drives have 7200 rpm hard disk. This really is cool because one has loads of varieties to choose from and one of the best features is the fact that all hard drives right from the lowest capacity to the highest capacity have the same amount of spindle speed.

Features:

Cache Memory:
While most of the manufacturers seem to ignore the cache memory of their hard disks, it is really worthwhile to mention that Western Digital has pushed the limit up by paying careful attention to the cache memory of their hard drives. While the 400GB and the 500GB versions have a whopping 16MB of cache memory, the other variants including the 160GB, 250GB and 320GB models are not far behind with a good 8MB of cache memory. This really is the best thing Western Digital could come up with. While most people think that it is the USB speed that matters for data transfer rate, they must also note that the cache memory plays a vital role in data redundancy check and determining input and output rates.

OS Support:
The Western Digital MyBook Premium drive supports a variety of operating supports. A very surprising thing is that this device supports the entire Windows family. Yes, right from Microsoft Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows XP, it supports all versions and it did not leave out the Macintosh operating system either. It even has support MAC OS version 10.28+ and above. What is really annoying is the fact that Western Digital chose to ignore Linux in the list of OS support. It could have at least included support for Red Hat or Fedora which were released well before Windows XP and have quite some fan following. Also, with more and more new operating systems making the mark, Western Digital should have taken care to ensure multi platform support rather than multi OS support. No brownie points for this.

Software Included:
While most of the hard disks coming out from the stables these days are more of a pen drive with enhanced storage capacities, Western Digital made sure that this device lives up to what it really claims to be. An external storage device! One of the most basic features of a storage drive: one-touch ready backup with full software support; and this is just what the WD MyBook Premium has. Apart from a dedicated ready backup button, it also has a slew of software’s up its sleeve that ensures data backup, data safety, protection from data theft and lots more! The most notable software is the EMC Retrospect Express Backup and System Recovery Software (on drive). Although it is proprietary software, it is no less than the commercially available ones out there. It also includes AVG personal edition for data and file security and E-Theft for protection against data theft.

Notable Design Features:
All though the design of the Western Digital MyBook external storage device has been discussed in detail, it still really has some out-of-the-box features that are worthy of a separate mention altogether. And with its anodised finish of oxidized gun metal, this device ensures optimum working performance even in the harshest conditions. Also with its glossy metal finish, the device stays clean as ever even if you deliberately drop it in the mud to test its glossy look. And still, the best design feature of his external hard drive is the complete encasing of the hardware and interiors in a white protective covering coupled with a conducting material layer that ensures rapid heat dissipation when the device is used for long hours at a stretch.

Cool and Silent:
One really cool feature of this device is Silent Play. With twin coolers at the top and button and cooling fans at the back, this device is always cool no matter how long it has been used. Thus the device never heats up, which is a real boon as it ensures long life and enhanced data protection.

Additional Features:
One really cannot do without a few free goodies isn’t it? And this is what Western Digital expected from its customers and hence added lots of special functionality, which are worthy of mention here. The best additional feature is perhaps the Capacity Gauge. It is a backup button that features an LED. The LED works like an indicator and thus keeps the users informed or rather warned the amount of disk space left in their drive. Another note worthy feature is the Auto OFF option. This ensures that if the device is not used for a certain amount of time, the drive shuts down automatically to save power and battery backup. And since the time for Auto OFF is configurable, it thus depends upon the users to set their own time according to their own requirements.

Performance:

Start up:
It is the performance that finally decides whether the device is what it really claims to be or just another cosmetic from the tech stable. Various tests were conducted on this device and surprisingly, though it managed well in some, it also faltered in some. As claimed earlier, the Western Digital MyBook Premium Edition proved to be a mix bag of surprises. What is really surprising is the fact that in spite of its 7000 rpm hard disk, it fails to deliver what it could have. However it really does have a good start up time and when switched on, it gets started up in less than 15 seconds. The device functionality is also very impressive as it can really work for hours on end without getting heated up. It also has a very impressive track to track seek time of 2 milliseconds and an average seek time of 8.9 milliseconds. It also sports an average latency speed of 4.9 milliseconds. Another thing that is really creditable is that the device worked really well in the most extreme conditions.

Read and Write Speeds:
However, the big disappointment came when the WD MyBook external storage device was subjected to data storage test. While in the writing test, the hard disk took almost 36 minutes to write the 10GB test folder, it took about 15 minutes to read the 10 GB test folder. Though the reading time if the MyBook is not really slow, it cannot be called impressive too. And the writing time of 10 GB for the test folder was one of the slowest writing speeds of an external storage medium. However, when clustered files of up to 4 GB were written onto the storage device showed a somewhat better performance. However, despite this heavy workload, the MyBook external hard drives remained as cool as ever. Also one of the striking features that was revealed by the test was the fact that the device rarely produced any sound. It was as silent as anything and made the least bit of noise.

Effect on the CPU:
The test further produced some really interesting results. For example after hooking the MyBook to a CPU through the USB port showed that the random access time was over 15 milliseconds and this affected the read write performance in general. CPU utilization figures were the most interesting and they started showing the ill-effects of MyBook’s interface. CPU usage was up by 11 percent and when switched to Firewire port from the standard USB port, CPU usage further increased by 10 percent. That means, the device was feeding off the resources from the CPU despite being provided with a well stocked larder of its own. However in the synthetic benchmark tests such as HDTach and SiSoft Sandra, the Firewire interface of MyBook emerged as a clean winner. However, it performed poorly in the real world transfer test. Even though the WD MyBook is well ahead of its competitors it still really needs to brush up on it’s reading and writing speeds in order to win.

Miscellaneous:
The Western Digital MyBook Premium Edition USB 2.0 external hard drive sports an IEEE 1394 FIREWIRE based interface with enhanced hi-Speed USB support.  The MyBook external hard drive also comes with an expansion connectivity interface with 2.0 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) ports. It also includes 4 pin USB Type B and 1.0 x Hi-Speed USB - 6 pin FireWire port. It also has a Buffer memory of 16MB and an operating frequency of a maximum of 50Hz. This device can also work very fine at a temperature of -10 degree Celsius to 60 degrees of Celsius. And with a disk speed of 7200 rpm, it just gets better. It has a rechargeable lithium ion battery but also works on AC 210/230 Voltage and is fully RoHS compliant. Other than this it also adds some fun software like Google Earth, Google Picassa and Google Desktop. The 500 GB also comes with 2 free full version games by EA and also includes the latest Britannica.

Package Contents:

The Western Digital MyBook Premium Edition package comes with an included software installation CD, a battery adaptor and charger, an AC adaptor, a protective case, getting started manual and a quick start user guide apart from customer registration form to be processed online. And also included in the package is mini booklet of other WD devices and gadgets.

Service and Support:

The Western Digital goods are famed for their after sales service and support and the MyBook Premium Edition is no such exception. The MyBook comes with 2 years warranty and toll-free call support from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM from Monday to Friday and 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturdays. There is also an entire page dedicated to MyBook where user can submit their queries through an online form look at FAQs and search on related topics. The MyBook dedicated webpage also provides softwares and device drivers for free download to ensure the device does not become obsolete in this fast changing world of technology. With such superb after sales support this device should really make head turn. But we must also remember “all that glitters is not gold” and definitely only its performance will determine whether the device lives up to its much hyped image and delivers the power packed wining punch.

Verdict:

After going through all these data, the extensive reviews its pros and cons, now it is time for the big question. Is the device worth the money? Yes it is! True that the device has its own share of problems and issues but after all, it’s a device we are talking about. It is slow but it is sturdy. It is resource hungry but it is solid. It can also provide a very strong data protection and anti-theft solutions to prevent data from falling into the wrong hands. And with so many devices out there trying to make their presence felt, this one really has done something. Taking features, performance and speed per GB into consideration, Western Digital’s MyBook is the winner. It is true that it has loads of features, interface, connectivity options and even pre-loaded software but what is disappointing is the fact that it can’t deliver the winning performance even though it has been designed with the help of latest cutting edge technology. What is really surprising is that this device is a mixed bag of pros, cons and features. Its compact design and flawless mechanism still have some loophole somewhere else it would have emerged as the undisputed winner. Interestingly, a famous tech website even claimed that the Western Digital MyBook Premium Edition External Hard Drive (160GB, 250GB, 320Gb, 400GB, 500GB) offers the most mixed performance of any hard drive ever tested.

Despite its somewhat sluggish performance the MyBook Premium Edition makes up for the lost ground by offering better features, looks and software support. True there are many devices to choose from in the external hard drive section but somehow, this device is different. It is finally the choice of the user whether he goes for the device or not. After all, it is a machine. So if it works wonders for one, definitely does not mean that it will do the same for others.

Check other Western Digital External Hard Drive Models, Reviews, Specs in this website.

WD MyBook Premium Edition External Hard Drive - Technical Specification Table

Rugged design:

We know just exactly what you are thinking. It seems to be a rule of thumb with the ruggedised drives that tougher the device is, uglier it looks. The Hitachi SimpleTough walks on a fine line between unforgivable hideousness and beefed-up durability. The drive’s exterior is wrapped in carbon black rubberised weave with a smooth texture which has a surprising amount of grip. Any of the concerns that we ever had about the drive’s backbone was immediately shut down by its large rubberised shock bumpers that protects the drive on both sides. All these barriers seem to be sturdy enough to protect all your precious data from 3 meter drops and pressure of up to a tonne, which is twice higher than what the eGo Camo could survive. Pulling apart the SimpleTough Rugged Hard Drive gave us a better idea on why it is so rugged; with the rubber walls removed and hard plastic casing taken apart, we found two large rubber sleeves wrapped around the Hitachi Travelstar hard drive.

The drive was very light, weighing just 267 grams and measured just (H x W x D) 15cm x 10cm x 3cm. Given the durability features, the dimensions seem to be very reasonable.

Interface:

The Hitachi SimpleTough comes with only USB interface to connect it with the PCs and we wish it also had FireWire for the Mac users. The drive comes with a very convenient built-in chord that wraps around neatly and hooks itself underneath the chassis. But we were really annoyed with how clumsy and difficult it was to reattach the cable to the enclosure. This is a more user friendly and practical design compared to the other rugged drives. Even the chord is wrapped in hard plastic which will also last as much as the body itself. Since the drive is USB powered, there is no need of any external power source.

Capacity and Compatibility:

The Hitachi SimpleTough is available in three capacities of 250GB, 350GB and 500GB. All three of the drives feature a 2.5” form factor and USB2.0 interface. The Hitachi external hard drive is preformatted with the FAT32 file system, so it is compatible with both Macs and PCs.

Two-tiered Protection:

Not only does Hitachi offer physical protection to your data, it also gives two tiered solution in order to prevent data loss due to other circumstances. First solution is that, the local backup software allows you to set-up automatic backups to host system, Acronis TotalMedia Backup, which is easy to use and provides comprehensive backup and synchronisation options. Backups can be scheduled or initiated based on folders or file types, with presets for regularly used file formats. Unlike the WD SmartWare software that accompanies Western Digital’s My Passport Essential SE, advanced users will be able to add their own file formats to be backed up.  The other is Ultimate Backup Software offers you 2GB of free online storage via Hitachi’s off-site servers. The company also offers you a freebie; a copy of Joggle which is Hitachi’s media organisational tool that allows you to view and arrange photos, videos and music without going through the hassle to clicking through the multiple menu levels and websites. Additionally, the software also makes it easy for you share content via social networks and personal web pages.

Performance:

Read write speeds:
As always, we did some tests to compare Hitachi SimpleTough with three other external drives in a similar price range: the Iomega eGo Portable, Fujitsu HandyDrive and Trancend StoreJet 25F. On the tests, SimpleTough managed to come second next to Iomega eGo Portable with its read and write speed of 28.6MBps and 22.3MBps to do operations on a 6GB folder of mixed file types. But the differences in speed between the drives were very minor that you will not even notice it unless you are planning on transferring a 10GB folder.

Ruggedness:
How can we ever leave an external hard drive that claims to be shock resistant and spill proof without testing its ruggedness. After abusing it for a few days, the Hitachi SimpleTough certainly lived up to all our expectations and came out with flying colours, surviving multiple drops from a height of 4 meters and being showered with some water and no damage was done to the data whatsoever. But we found user complaints that bending the ribbed USB cable damaged it to a point that the drive refused to work unless it was on a certain angle. There were even complaints that some of them ran into issue within days of using the drive under normal conditions. So, we punished the chord in every possible way we possibly could, but time and again, it had no issues whatsoever. So, this comes to two conclusions: either the design flaw had been corrected silently or there was just one defective batch that went on the shelves.

Cost effectiveness:
The cost per gigabyte of SimpleTough USB External Hard Drive comes at exactly the average for an external hard drive. Though some other drives like the Seagate Black Armour costs a bit more, the one we have in our hands is certainly not the cheapest in the market. As far as budget is concerned, the winner is Fujitsu HandyDrive.

Warranty and Support:

Hitachi offers SimpleTough portable external drive a warranty of three years, which is certainly appreciable.  A comprehensive list of FAQs, user guides, and drivers are all available on the Hitachi Technical Support Web site, and telephone support is available 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Verdict:

Hitachi SimpleTough sure does impress us a lot with its ultra-durable design, a very handy software and convenient integrated USB cable. That said, carrying a hard-wearing portable hard drive like the Hitachi SimpleTough will ensure that if things get a little rough, you will not have to go though the inconvenience of data loss. After testing the drive thoroughly, we could not find any fault with it. It would have been nice to get eSATA support, as this interface provides significant performance improvements over USB2.0. Considering most competing products also lack it, we cannot give Hitachi too much grief for overlooking the technology, but it would have certainly given them an edge. It is certainly great value for money. Combined with a conveniently integrated USB cable and a comprehensive three year warranty, the Hitachi SimpleTough is the ideal carry-along for the traveller who needs more space and an ultra-durable design.


Hitachi Simple Tough Hard Drive - Technical Specification Table

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