External Hard Drives

There have been heaps of ruggedised storage devices in the current market and the Hitachi Simple Tough is one of them. The most popular ones in the current market include the Iomega eGo Camo and Transcend StoreJet and there is not much to differentiate this Hitachi drive from the other rugged drives except for the fact that it does not look quite as bricklike as the alternatives. While the Iomega eGo Camo and Transcend StoreJet 25 Mobile hard drives offer a protective exterior that is designed to survive drops and physical abuse, we would gladly like to say you that Simple Tough seems to be the toughest of them all with the ability to resist drops of up to 3m.

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

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