External Hard Drives

OCZ’s Enyo has managed to bring together two very interesting developments in the technology industry; the SSD and USB 3.0.

Design:

Sleek and Minimalistic:

The design is the area in which the Ocz Enyo external hard drive really shines, with tapered edges that lend it a sleek, minimalist aerodynamic design appeal. It is one of the great looking storage devices that we have come across. At (H x W x D) 5.6 x 12 x 1cm, the Enyo is longer and slimmer than a 2.5” drive in an enclosure, it is more the size of a slim phone.

Apple Inspired:

OCZ has managed to take further inspiration from Apple in the attractive packaging, and the provided data cable is also white rather than the more common black or blue. Well, it is ugly compared to the device, though, as the plastic plug at the Micro USB 3.0 side is actually taller than the drive you are actually hooking it up to. Ironically, as you can imagine, its aesthetics make it the ideal Mac partner, but we would not recommend purchasing the Enyo if you happen to be an Apple user as it will be limited to USB 2.0 speeds.

The cable:

You might notice the cable is unique to the Enyo drive; this is a part of the new USB 3.0 standard and will be seen on slim devices like the Enyo, as well as on cell phones, etc.  So while cables like this might be common in the future, for now they definitely are not and that is one potential drawback to getting the Enyo today.  You will always need to carry this cable with you and buying another or assuming others will have one for you to use is not likely at the moment.

Capacities available:

Enyo has incorporated wide range capacities of SSD, from 64GB to a whopping 256GB, into an anodised aluminium shell that is almost Apple like in its minimalist attractiveness. OCZ might produce larger capacity Enyo models in the future at correspondingly higher prices.

Features:

Indilinx controller:

The Ocz Enyo external hard drive’s 128GB of MLC flash and 64MB of DRAM cache are controlled by a Barefoot Indilinx controller. Though the recent SandForce SSD controller is the new industry darling and offers unrivalled performance, the Indilinx controller used by the OCZ Enyo is still one of the better controllers on the market. It seems to be consistent, proven operation and full TRIM support irrespective of if you are using Windows 7 or an older OS. So, it is essentially a last-gen OCZ Vertex or Agility or any other Barefoot drive and a SATA-to- Symwave USB 3.0 controller in a slightly different chassis.

Speed:

With about 64MB of cache on board, the Ocz Enyo range makes use of the MLC Flash and offers some good speeds, starting off at an impressive 225MB/s read and more pedestrian 135MB/s write for the 64GB model. The 128GB drive pushes this up to 260MB/s and 200MB/s respectively, which is quite good and beats any SSD we had previously looked at. The sustained write speeds also experience a dramatic difference, going from a pathetic 40MB/s on the smaller drive to 150MB/s on the 128GB drive. Speeds on the £570 256GB model are identical, so the 128GB model of the Enyo hits the sweet point between performance and value.

Performance:

With theoretical figures out of the way, let us see what the actual performance like. Taking into consideration this drive is most likely to be used as a glorified memory stick rather than a boot drive, though that might certainly be an option. With a single large file, this OCZ SSD showed off its strengths. Performance better than tripled from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0, and perhaps more importantly, it significantly outperformed OCZ’s own throttle over eSATA. Considering that, if anything, eSATA holds a very small bandwidth advantage over the USB 3.0, this superior performance is mainly due to the SSD compared to the Throttle’s ‘ordinary’ memory.

With a smaller selection of random files though, the Throttle just about piped the Enyo to the post. To be honest the difference is quite negligible, but considering the latter’s price it is slightly disappointing. Read performance with large files is where USB 3.0 really makes its advantages over its predecessor felt, and again the Enyo performs like a champion. OCZ’s highest-end external storage really is a niche product for the well-heeled. At £273 it is more expensive than OCZ’s own SandForce-based Vertex2 internal SSD, which for £30 less should outperform it across the board in real-world scenarios. The only really viable scenarios for this drive are either when wishing to share a single boot drive between two computers, like a laptop and desktop obviously both equipped with USB 3.0; or if you need an external memory stick with fast performance. In the latter case it is not such a bad value proposition, as a ‘plain’ eSATA memory key of the same capacity will set you back around £230. However, even then there is the size advantage of the average memory stick to consider, not to mention not needing to carry around a separate ugly and thick cable.

Warranty:

The Ocz Enyo USB3.0 External Hard Drive comes with three years manufacturer’s warranty for parts and labour.

Ocz Enyo USB 3.0 Portable Solid State Drive - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	OCZ
Model Name	Enyo USB3.0 External Hard Drive
Model Numbers	64GB - OCZSSDU3-1ENY64G 128GB - OCZSSDU3-1ENY128G 256GB - OCZSSDU3-1ENY256G
Colour/Finish	Silver
Type	USB 3.0
Form factor	Sleek
Dimensions (W x D x H)	56mm x 120mm x 10mm
Weight	75g
Capacities Available	64GB, 128GB and 256GB
Interface	USB 3.0 Interface Backwards compatible with legacy USB ports (2.0)
64GB Max Performance	Read: Up to 225 MB/s Write: Up to 135 MB/s Sustained Write: Up to 40 MB/s
128GB Max Performance	Read: Up to 260 MB/s Write: Up to 200 MB/s Sustained Write: Up to 150 MB/s
256GB Max Performance	Read: Up to 260 MB/s Write: Up to 200 MB/s Sustained Write: Up to 150 MB/s
Cache	64MB Onboard Cache
Seek time	<.1ms
Compatible OS	Compatible with Mac OS X (USB 2.0 operation only)
Software	NA
MTBF	1.5 million hours
Features	MLC Flash Background Garbage Collection Shock Resistant up to 1500G Blue LED Indicators Anodised aluminium housing 3’ white USB3.0 (A to Micro B)
Power	1.1W idle
Power consumption active	Low Power Consumption: 2.4W in operation
Warranty	3 years

We are pretty sure that at least once in a while, you will struggle to find a file just because your external hard disks are too dis-organised.  You could just buy a JBOD or RAID capable external hard disk  drive array, but these desk bound disks are expensive and not very portable. And, that is exactly the issue that Freecom’s CLS drive system, which stands for “Collect, Label and Store” is designed to resolve. Technically, it cannot get even simpler.

 

Capacities:

The Freecom Mobile Drive CLS 2.5″ External Hard Drive come in exactly same range of sizes, from capacities of 250GB, 320GB, 500GB and 640GB. Indeed, you can even stick in a FreeCom Mobile Drive XXS drive into one of those CLS slots, however, the snugly shaped design does not allow you to use drives from any other manufacturer.

Interface and Speed:

Freecom’s powered CLS dock connects to the PC via a USB cable and offers you with three slots with mini USB connectors at the bottom of each that can take up to three 2.5in CLS drives. You can only dock three CLS drives at once, although there will be nothing stopping you from connecting additional drives through the standard mini USB cables. It is a simple but elegant solution that we can see coming in pretty useful in the right environment, providing that performance is up to scratch. It works very well and quickly represents any connected drives individually in Windows Explorer, although we did experience some issues when devices are mounted in quick succession. This can be solved by waiting for one to appear on your system before connecting another. There is nothing complicated here as they are just your standard USB 2 devices that offer the standard USB 2 levels of performance around 30 MB/sec when reading and writing large files, falling to around 20 MB/sec with small files.

Warranty:

The Freecom Mobile Drive CLS External Hard Drive comes with two years return to base warranty.

Freecom Mobile Drive CLS External Hard Drive (250GB/320GB/500GBb/640GB) - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	Freecom
Model Name	FreeCom Mobile Drive CLS External Hard Drive
Model Numbers	250GB: 35237 320GB: 35238 500GB: 35239 640GB: 35240 CLS Dock 3 ports: 35236
Colour/Finish	Black
Type	Portable External Hard Drive
Form factor	2.5 inch
Dimensions (W x D x H)	110 x 79 x 14mm
Weight	146 Grams
Capacities Available	250GB, 320GB, 500GB and 640GB
Interface	USB2.0
Hard disk type	2.5? Samsung HM252HX
Data transfer rate	480 Mbps
Connectivity	Integrated USB 2.0
Spindle speed	5400 rpm
Cache	8MB
Seek time	12ms
Compatible OS	PC: Intel or AMD CPU, 1.6GHz or higher, 512MB RAM, 2GB free hard drive space, available USB port (3.0/2.0/1.1), Windows XP SP2/Vista/7 MAC: Power PC G5 or Intel Mac, 512MB RAM, 2GB free hard drive space, available USB port (2.0/1.1), Mac OS X v. 10.4 or higher
Software	Nero BackItUp2 Essentials Nero RescueAgent Green Button
Power	USB from host, external
Power consumption active	6W
Warranty	Two years RTB

As one of the biggest manufacturer in the world, of course after their acquisition of Maxtor, it is only natural that Seagate would have hand in the external hard drive backup market. This is a very lucrative market as it allows the hard drive companies such as Seagate to create value added products from hard drives that have essentially turned out to be commodity products. Among Seagate’s offerings is the Pushbutton Backup External Hard Drive.

Boring design:

The design of the drive casing is not quite up there with the aluminium clad external Maxtor drives, but the silver and black design is as boring as a plastic case can be. The drive can either sit on your desk horizontally on top of a rubber ring that attaches to its side or it can even be mounted vertically using a supplied stand. The Seagate Pushbutton Backup HDD is a boxy 7.125 inches deep by 6.5 inches wide by 2.25 inches high.  The drive has a power switch, two FireWire 400 ports, and a USB 2.0 port on its back panel. The power and data LED’s are blue and the push button backup button is surrounded by a yellow LED.

Seagate hard drives are safeguarded by built-in self-monitoring technology that continuously checks your hard drive for data safety and drive performance. SeaTools diagnostic software is included.

Interface:

Seagate circumvents the lack of an eSATA standard by equipping the drive with a built-in half-height, half-length PCI SATA II interface card manufactured by Promise Technology Inc. Thanks to its USB 2.0 and FireWire interface the drive can be used with both PCs and Macs right out of the box, with backup software for both systems supplied on the CD. However, you will have to reformat the drive if you have got a Mac. If you’re using an NTFS filing system and you have a few hours to spare, reformatting the drive to NTFS will make it more efficient.

The sleek, silver case with its rounded corners houses a 7,200-rpm drive with a 16MB cache. Seagate offers six capacities of the Pushbutton Backup drive: 200GB, 250GB, 300GB, 400GB, 500GB and 750GB.

 

 

 

Warranty and Support:

Seagate provides a one year limited warranty for parts and labour with the Pushbutton Backup drive, but toll-free phone support is available for the life of the product, although only from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays.

 

Seagate Pushbutton Backup External HDD - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	Seagate
Model Name	Seagate Pushbutton Backup External Hard Drive
Model Number	200GB: ST3200801CB-RK 250GB: ST3250801CB-RK 300GB: ST3300801CB-RK 400GB: ST3400801CB-RK 500GB: ST3500801CB-RK
Form factor	3.5″
Dimensions (H x W x D)	7.1″ x 2.5″ x 7″
Weight	2 lb
Casing	Plastic enclosure
Storage Capacities available	200GB, 250GB, 300GB, 400GB, 500GB and 750GB
Spindle Speed	7200 rpm
Cache	8MB or 16MB cache
Interface type	IEEE 1394 (FireWire) / Hi-Speed USB
Interfaces	1 x Hi-Speed USB , 2 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) - 6 pin FireWire
Other features	Hot swappable Stackable Pushbutton backup On/Off button
Software included	BounceBack Express backup software by CMS Seagate SeaTools
Compatible systems	Window 98SE/ME/2000/XP and above Mac OS X/9.2.2
Cables Included	1 x USB cable - External 1 x IEEE 1394 cable - External
Package contents	3.5-inch external hard drive USB cable AC adapter and power cord Quick start guide Bundled software CD
Voltage Required	AC 120/230 V
Warranty	1 year Limited warranty  Parts and labour

Overview:

Pros:

• Sleek and clever design
• Versatility
• Reduces clutter
• Dual functionality

Cons:

• Lack of interaction between the devices
• Performance is not up to the mark
• Expensive
• The dock is USB only

Review:

One of the major issues with most of the cool portable gadgets on the market today is that, they tend to make a lot of desk clutter; especially if they are things you might want to take with you at all times, for instance a phone. For the sake of iPhone and iPod users, Buffalo technology has come up with the Dualie, which is a dock that combines both a charging dock for an iPhone or iPod along with a 500GB portable hard drive that can be popped out and taken anywhere.

Design:

You will be able to easily carry you iPhone in one pocket and the hard drive in the other. In order to donate activity, there is a stylishly curved blue LED at the top. As we just mentioned, you need just the USB cable to connect it to your system, however, there is also a power adaptor if you need to plug on. The tidiness of the dock cradle is very appealing and will serve the purpose of keeping your desk clutter to a minimum.

Interface:

Leaving the novelty aside, the Buffalo Dualie comes with a 500GB dual interface hard drive which includes FireWire 800 and USB2.0. It is a 2.5″ SATA drive with a spindle speed of 5400rpm. Buffalo makes use of Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi or Samsung drive mechanisms in its drive enclosures. The Dualie’s drive can be reformatted to work with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7, giving PC users the same one-cable convenience.  While these on-screen instructions are comprehensive with appropriate illustrations, they do require a certain amount of switching to and fro with the formatting settings window.  Novice users could easily become confused when the instructions mention selecting “Delete Volume” yet this option was greyed out and unobtainable when we attempted this action.  Experienced users should have no problems.

The dual functionality:

While it is true that the Buffalo Dualie HD-PA500IBU2D hard drive recharges the iPhone and also connects both the phone and external hard drive to your computer, there is actually no interaction between the two hardware devices. You will not be able to backup your iPhone or iPod with the Dualie or drag files to and fro. But of course, you could always put the files you want on your phone from your system and back them up on the drive. However, the lack of interaction might disappoint a lot of the consumers, just as it did us. In a gist, the Buffalo Dualie effectively accomplishes both the tasks without any enhancement in either of them and so, do not expect it to enhance your overall experience in any way in either device.

Performance:

In the performance matters, the Buffalo Dualie 500GB portable hard drive offers decent speed scores. It is possible to connect the Dualie to a FireWire 400 port, although the appropriate FireWire 800-to-400 adapter cable is not included in the box. The Dualie’s USB and FireWire 400 times are also slightly behind the Elite-AL Pro Mini. The duplication results are also quite similar. The 46 seconds score of the Dualie’s FireWire 800 could not compete with the Elite-AL Pro Mini’s score of 40 seconds. The latter’s FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 scores are also marginally better than that of the Dualie’s.

While the device produces copy and duplication scores that are comparable to the desktop drives, their bus powered mechanisms ultimately struggle with some of the low photoshop tasks. This does not come in as a surprise as the desktop drives are designed for doing the heavy lifting jobs, but the degree of difference might be surprising. While a typical desktop hard drive takes a little a over a minute to complete the low memory photo shop tasks with USB 2.0, the Dualie took about 4 minutes and 10 seconds. The difference between the two portable drives becomes quite evident when each use their FireWire 800 connection types and the Dualie was able to do the job in just two minutes and fifty one seconds, which is a far superior score.

It is quite obvious that the Dualie is designed for the casual user, rather than the graphics professional who needs to transfer large files using external hard drives.

Price tag examined:

When you consider the price per gigabyte of the Buffalo Dualie Portable, it is extremely high for a portable external hard drive, but of course what you are paying is not just for the hard drive, but of course, you are not paying just for the drive, but a docking station too. Some might think that it is worth shelling out the few extra bucks for a dock station to clean up the desk while some might be turned off by the price wonder why they have to chuck so much for a slow hard drive coupled with an iPod dock when their USB cord works just fine.

 

Warranty:

The Buffalo Dualie Portable Drive comes with two years return to base warranty.

Verdict:

The Buffalo Dualie Portable Drive 500GB Capacity has respectable speed, very portable and is a versatile unit too. Yet, if it were not for the included dock, the nondescript hard drive would have hardly made any waves. Whether or not you will find the reduction in chords and stylish dock worth your time and money is up to you. When it comes to performance, the Buffalo Dualie is decent but by no means is speedy. The Dualie is appealing if you want to reduce desk clutter and it actually costs a few pounds less than buying Apple’s universal iPod dock and a LaCie FireWire 800 500GB portable disk separately. However, if you do not need FireWire then you can save around £20 by buying a USB-only disk instead although you don’t get the one-cable convenience of the Dualie.

Buffalo Dualie 500GB 2.5″ Portable Drive - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	Buffalo
Model Name	Buffalo Dualie Porable Drive
Model Number	HD-PA500IBU2D
Form factor	2.5in
Storage Capacities available	500GB
Dimensions (H x W x D)	135 x 84 x 20 mm
Weight	224g
Casing	Elegant aluminium tone finished chassis
Capacity	500GB
Formatted capacity	465GB
Hard Drive	Toshiba MK5065GSX
Spindle Speed	5,400rpm
Cache	8MB
Interfaces	USB2, FireWire 800
Seek time	12.0ms
Power Source	USB from host, FireWire from host, external
Software included	none
Compatible systems	Pre-formatted hard drive for Mac® users. Includes all necessary drivers for Windows users.
Package contents	Includes hard drive, dock adapters and all necessary cables
Warranty	Two years RTB

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