Memorex Essential TravelDrive Review
Memorex, a portfolio brand of the Imation Corp, is one of the trusted and recognised consumer brands in the modern marketing history. They now have a new series of portable hard drives created for the masses; the Essential Travel Drive. A handy external hard drive is a must have for people who likes travelling a lot. Having an ergonomic design and employed with the standard USB interface, the drive also features the TotalMedia Backup and synchronisation software for the PC and Mac users. Is it the one you were looking for? Read on to find out more.
Design:
The Memorex Essential TravelDrive relatively slim, sleek and light; which makes it an excellent device to expand the storage need of your netbooks and laptops without having to replace the hard disk. The budget price of the drive does not mean that it has sacrificed in any way at the quality of its construction to achieve a lower price tag. The grey and charcoal plastic with some curves does not seem to be in touch with the fashion world, but it does feel very durable and its matt finish is sure to withstand any scratch and smudge. It also has a flashing blue LED data transfer indicator. The cool silver is just one of the six nature inspired colour finishes the drive is available in, and the others include tropical green, spring blossom, Caribbean blue and the two other shades which will be released soon.
Capacity and Compatibility:
This Essential TravelDrive will take in only 2.5 inch external hard drives and can work with either Mac or Windows platforms. The drive is available in three capacities of 160GB, 250GB and 320GB, so you can choose the capacity you will need.
Backup:
The Memorex Essential TravelDrive 2.5″ Portable Hard Drive, includes a copy of Arcsoft’s TotalMedia Backup software; we remember that this software was the one that was included in the Imation Apollo Portable hard drive. The software is quite simple to install and provides you with heaps of customisable back up and restoration features. When the drive is plugged in for the first time, you will find two folders, the ArcSoft backup software for Windows and Mac. This backup software provides one time and planned backups, which can be either incremental or complete. The wizard style interface is useful for novices. Make sure that you have a backup of the installation files if you wish to format the disc. Since the drive is at standard FAT32 file system, formatting is required only with the Windows XP or Vista.
The 250GB storage space is ample too, and should be enough for a couple of backups with spare space.
Read and Write speeds:
When it comes to the read and write tests, the Memorex Essential was not very consistent: it takes 5.4secs to read a collection of 1000 files which comes to 100MB; while writing those files back to the drive took 20.5 seconds. So, the read speed fantastic for a USB-based portable device and the write speed seem to be quite below the average. A single 50MB test file takes 2.1secs to read and 1.8secs to write, which is certainly highly regarded.
Price and Package:
The 250GB Essential TravelDrive costs approximately £52 exc VAT, and the resulting 20.8p per gigabyte is about as cheap as portable external drives get. The package of the drive is quite small with just the drive, a USB cable, the software CD and a small manual.
Warranty:
The Memorex Essential TravelDrive external hard drive comes with one year warranty for parts and labour and you can increase it to two years with a few extra pounds.
Verdict:
Despite the mixed performance in the read write speeds, there is not too much wrong with the slim and sleek Memorex Essential TravelDrive external hard drive. Its price tag is quite on the very affordable range, its build quality is vigorous and even though performance is not the fastest, in real world applications you would not notice it. And they are also a handy way to back up critical files and documents quickly. On the other hand, if you are looking for a portable USB drive on a small budget, the TravelDrive is an excellent buy with quite a low cost per GB of 21p, but if you will be able to stretch your budget more, Freecom’s Mobile Drive Classic is also quite a god value at just 18p per GB.
Check other Portable External Hard Drive Reviews in this website.
Memorex Essential TravelDrive (160GB, 250GB, 320GB) – Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Memorex |
| Model Name | Memorex Essential TravelDrive |
| Model Numbers | 160GB: 97939 250GB: 97940 320GB: 97941 |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 85 x 15 x 127 |
| Form factor | 2.5″ |
| Interface | USB 1.1, USB 2.0 |
| Capacities available | 160GB, 250GB and 320GB |
| Cache | 8MB |
| Compatible OS | Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7, Mac® OS® 8.6 or higher |
| Data transfer rate | 480 Mb/s |
| Spindle Speed | 5400 |
| Backup Software | Arcsoft’s TotalMedia Backup software |
| Features | Ultra slim Ergonomic design TotalMedia Backup and synchronisation Standard USB interface Six nature inspired colours Cross platform compatible |
| Package contents | Memorex Essential TravelDrive external drive A USB cable The software CD A small manual |
| Warranty | 1 year parts and labour |
February 21st, 2011 at 10:08 pm
We have a Memorex essential traveldrive, model ETD250CS. I cannot find a manual for it. We paid someone to connect/set up the external drive. It has never worked. It has been installed on the computer, but the drive itself is not connected. It has a split cord with one end that is connected to the external drive. The other end has 2 USB ends. Where do I connect those 2 ends?