Freecom 31973 Hard Drive XS 1TB
31973 - World’s Smallest 3.5″ Desktop External Hard Drive from Freecom
This is a decade that has seen booming sales in external hard drives. The reason is nothing but the need of Gigabytes. Programs, applications, videos, music and images have started to eat up space like never before. Of course, with the need of storage space increasing, nobody has the patience and time to open up their computer cases and the idea of portable hard drive would be great. So, portable external hard drive with massive storage is a great idea and the Freecom 31973 Hard Drive XS 1TB is one such product.
World’s Smallest Drive:
The main campaign that Freecom has about 31973 Hard Drive XS is that, it is the world’s smallest external hard drive with USB2.0. It has very sleek dimensions of just 18.2 x 11.4 x 3.1cm, (H x W x D) taking up minimal pace on your desk. The drive does not have the stylish design which most of the other hard drives in the current market possess. It is simply a plain black rectangular box with no fancy designs and this plain matte black rubberised coating of the drive was proposed by the Belgian designer Sylvain Willenz.
Not very durable:
The drive has a rubberised enclosure preventing any kind of vibration and also providing an optimal grip, both to your hands and the desk on which the drive is placed. Though it does not have that great look, it sure does feel velvety and soft in your hands. But once the rubber is peeled off, there is nothing but a small layer of plastic that does not have any concession of protecting the drive. This Freecom drive will certainly not be the drive that you will want to take out of the desks unless there is a real need.
Ports:
The soft uncluttered design is interrupted in just two places, that is the power socket and the mini USB port that protrudes through it. The environment friendly readers out there please note that there is no power switch, so you have to unplug or switch off the power supply from the wall to turn off the drive.
Interface:
The Freecom 31973 3.5″ hard drive comes with Turbo USB2.0 interface. The turbo USb2.0 has a lot of advantages such as, high speed bandwidth and USB1.1 backward compatibility. With this interface you can have about 40% faster data transfer speeds than the other available interfaces. It only works under Windows, by using an alternative USB driver, NinjaUSB.sys. We suspect it’s from NTI, which provides the Windows back-up software, Shadow, Freecom bundles with the drive.
Capacities and Compatibility:
The Freecom XS Hard Drive is available in 500GB, 1TB and 1.5TB capacities. This XS external hard drive is compatible with both Windows and Mac operating systems.
Easy installation:
There are no complicated installation processes for the drive as the drive is a plug and play device. As the drive is pre-formatted, the drive can be used just after seconds of connecting it to your system.
Hot Swappable:
An additional advantage of the XS 1TB Capacity Freecom drive is that, it is hot swappable. This means, the drive can be connected to your PC or Mac while it is still running and can begin to function immediately. Hence, you will be able to make the saves and transfers almost immediately.
Software Bundle:
Along with the Turbo USB 2.0 software, the drive has bundled a 90 day trial of MySecurityCentre Internet Security Suite that includes anti-virus, anti-spyware, Spam blocking, Parenting controls and Phishing protection.
Lousy Performance:
The performance of 31973 XS External Hard Drive is not up to the mark when compared to some of the other external hard drives in the market. When we performed operations on a small 300GB folder of mixed file types, the read speed is decent but gave an awful write speed. While Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus took only 24.8 s seconds, this Freecom drive takes more than 90 seconds. Random access time was 15.6ms and an average read speed of 30.9MB/s and a burst speed of 33.6MB/s.
Turbo Feature:
With the Turbo feature enabled, the access time remained the same but the average read speed and the burst rate climbed to 32.1MB/s and 35.1MB/s, roughly a four per cent increase. It seems that for whatever reason the Turbo feature has limited effectiveness for us, but given that it is very easy to enable and does not require any software installation, it is certainly worth doing. However these average speeds go on to prove that it has better speeds than the Samsung Story station and the LG XD4.
But there is a gripe in using this feature. Switching the Turbo mode and off will unmount not only the Freecom drive, but also any other USB mass storage devices that you have connected.
A quiet drive:
The Freecom XS 3.5″ USB 2.0 External hard drive is absolutely quiet, thanks to its fan-less design. But lack of fans or heatsinks means that it goes a little warm during operations and there is nothing really serious to worry about it.
Warranty:
Freecom 31973 Hard Drive XS 1TB comes with one year manufacturer’s warranty. Freecom also offers you with free helpdesk support.
Verdict:
The Freecom 31973 XS 1TB Desktop External Hard Drive with simple design, uncomplicated operations and massive capacity is ideal for any kind of consumer. It can be used for both home and office needs. But the performance speed of the drive is certainly a worrying factor. Thankfully, the pricing of the drive is more enticing than its price. It has a real tempting deal with the tag.
If speed is of major concern for you, the Freecom 31973 Hard Drive XS 1TB drive is not for you. Looking for something more portable, you can also opt for the Freecom Mobile Drive XXS External Hard Drive . For those with a bigger budget there are SSD and eSATA drives available, which give much faster transfer speeds, but cost a lot more as well. But if you are looking for large capacity at a budget category, then this Freecom drive is for you.
Freecom XS 1TB Capacity External Hard Drive - Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Freecom |
| Model Name | Freecom Hard Drive XS 1TB |
| Model Number | 31973 |
| Colour/Finish | Black |
| Type | Desktop External Drive |
| Form factor | 3.5 inch |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 18.2 cm x 11.4 cm x 3.1 cm |
| Weight | 250 Grams |
| Capacity | 1TB |
| Other available capacities | 500GB and 1.5TB |
| Interface | Turbo USB2.0 |
| Hard disk type | Mechanical |
| Data transfer rate | 480 Mbps |
| Write speed | 29.0MB/sec |
| Interface | USB 2.0, can also be connected to USB 1.1 port 3.5-inch, low noise, Vibration dampening, fanless |
| Compatible OS | Apple MacOS, Microsoft Windows |
| Software | Turbo USB 2.0 software MySecurityCentre Internet Security Suite |
| Power | Power adaptor |
| Warranty | Two year warranty |
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