External Hard Drives

HDDR250E03E – 2.5″ USB 2.0, 250GB Capacity Portable External Hard Drive from Toshiba

You can experience the ultimate convenience and freedom of having your data everywhere you go, whether it is your private photo gallery, personalised entertainment or backup files. The Toshiba Portable External Hard Drives have a unique combination of and uncompromising Toshiba HDD technology. Toshiba’s external storage devices have world renowned OEMs with state-of-the-art embedded hard disk drives and storage technology. The following review is on the 250GB 2.5-inch Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive (product code: HDDR250E03E) of Toshiba.

This 250GB 2.5-inch hard drive is the new version has upgraded lots in terms of design, unfortunately, the performance of the device remains to be unchanged.

Attractive design:

The Toshiba 250GB 2.5-inch external hard drive has a glossy black finish with beautiful red stripes, graphical design running in the facia. It has a small, sleek lightweight design and is not much bigger than that of an iPod, having its dimensions as, 0.65” x 3.2” x 5” (H x W x D) inches and weighs just under half a pound. Button-less, status light-less, the only break from the glossy design is the small USB slot on the back so you can connect it to your computer via a USB 2.0 cable. It has anti-slip foot on the base so that it does not slip off your desk. This portable hard drive has the style factor mixed in it without compromising on the reliability and the durability of the product. Toshiba has paid extra attention on the overall aesthetic and technology. This can be said as the only main reason why you can choose the Toshiba 250GB portable hard drive.

Other capacities:

Toshiba 2.5-inch Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive is available in various capacities such as, 160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB. These models are available in the Gecko green, Hot Rod Red, Carbon Grey and Frost White colours respectively.

Compatibility:

The Toshiba HDDR250E03E 250gb Portable Hard Drive is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, or, Vista and Macs with OS X 10.3.9 or later.

Equipped with USB2.0:

When an external hard drive is equipped with USB2.0, it is always a very safe bet as almost any modern computer will be able to use it. The Toshiba USB 2.0 200GB External Hard Drive can work with both USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 ports, but an additional cable is required to power the drive if used on a USB 1.1 port. The USB 1.1 power cable is included with the drive.

Internal shock sensor:

The internal shock sensor that has become very common with the other external hard drive models, is available in this model too. This sensor helps to protect your data from low impact drops. Toshiba has not specified the height from which the drive could be dropped, which makes it hard to determine how good does this feature. However, when dropped from a hand level height of four feet on a hard surface, the drive works perfectly fine.

NTI shadow software:

The NTI shadow software comes preloaded on the drive. This software, once installed can schedule automatic backups that run in the background of the system. NTI shadow software is easy to use and set up and once configured you can have your data backed up daily, hourly or by the minute with the interval mode. You can also choose continuous backup, which gives you up-to-the-minute backups of your computer data. This drive does not offer any online backup storage as a bonus. This drive also does not include any encryption software for securing sensitive data.

Performance:

This Toshiba 250GB external hard disk rive has a cache memory of 8M. We have nothing to complaint on the read speeds of the Toshiba hard drive, but the write speed is simply horrendous. When compared to the other portable external hard drives, they offer the same amount of storage for the same cost with a much better performance. The average read rate is 27.7MB/sec, the burst-read speed is 33.8MB/sec and the average access rate of the drive is 17.7 milliseconds. Its processor utilization rate starts at 22%, drops to 5% and seems to level off at 10%.

Package:

Everything that you would ever need to use along with the Toshiba 250GB external hard drive comes along with the package. The package includes the Toshiba 250GB 2.5-inch Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive itself, a USB cable, backup software, warranty information, and a quick install guide. The FireWire port is missing, which is one of the major disadvantages of getting this hard drive.

Warranty and support:

Toshiba 250GB 2.5-inch portable hard drive comes with a limited three year warranty. Toshiba offers a technical support line for storage available weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. You will also be able to find solutions for your questions of the FAQs part of Toshiba’s website.

Verdict:
Toshiba 250GB 2.5-inch external hard drive is an attractive and portable hard drive wit a very decent price tag. But the write speed is not up to that of the other external hard drives of the same capacity and the absence of firewire is also disappointing. The lack of performance of this drive, makes us hesitant to fully recommend this external hard drive. Rather, you can opt for the SimpleTech Signature Mini or the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus.

Check best selling hard drive reviews, specification details of best selling 250gb capacity hard drive from western Digital – My Passport Essential 250gb in this website.

Toshiba 250GB External Hard Disk Drive HDDR250E03E – Technical Specification table

Manufacturer	Toshiba
Model Name	Toshiba 250GB 2.5-inch external hard drive
Model number	HDDR250E03E
Dimensions ( H x W x D)	0.65″ x 3.2″ x 5″
Form factor	2.5″
Capacity	250GB
Available Colours	Hot Rod Red
Spindle speed	5,400 RPM
Compatibility	Mac and PC
Interface	USB 2.0
Bus transfer rate	480 MB/sec
Power source	USB bus
Warranty	Three years