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Hardware Reviews on
June 28, 2009 |
No Comments Storage has never been cheaper, and there’s never been more of it about, whether you opt for a classic external hard drive with oodles of data potential, or a smaller, immensely portable USB flash drive. Hard drives still offer the best mix of capacity and cost per gigabyte, but the gap is closing, and the lack of moving parts in flash drives, and their inbuilt durability does make them an interesting proposition as well. I’ve put 15 drives through their paces to find the best storage solutions for people on the move. However, it’s not just about being able to take your files from place to place easily; portable drives are now a popular way to store backups of your valuable data.
Toshiba HDD External 320G
Toshiba’s external hard drive comes in a variety of sizes, each with its own distinct colour pattern - my test device was a grey-striped 320G model. Backup software is provided on the drive, which connects via a single USB cable. The single USB cable idea is convenient, but I found that on some of my test systems it wasn’t enough to power up the drive. The Toshiba’s test scores were on the low side for a portable hard drive, making it tough to recommend. Overall I score it a 2.5/5 - Faster drives around.
Imation Atom Flash Drive
Imation Atom Flash Drive 8G
Imation’s Atom USB flash drive fits into the ‘impossibly small’ (and thus ‘easy to lose’) category, but manages to pack in plenty of storage, along with some simple password protection software. Like a lot of small hard drives, it feels rather flimsy in its plastic casing. The Atom’s writing speeds were excellent for a USB drive, second only to the super-speedy 32G Kingston DataTraveler - but at a much more agreeable price. Overall I score it a 4/5 - An excellent drive, but perhaps not the most robust..
Iomega eGo Helium 320G
Iomega Ego Helium
The eGo Helium is certainly an attractive drive - it’s designed to complement the Apple MacBook Air notebook line, and so it’s shiny and thin, and also matches the new MacBook and MacBook Pro lines. This also means it’s formatted for Mac OS X by default, and comes with Mac-only backup software. Sadly, style only counts for so much, and the drive seems to suffer from a little too much ego, as it came dead last in both read and write tests for hard-drive based models - and last overall in read speeds for any drive. Overall I score it a 2.5/5 - Looks great, but doesn’t perform in the same style.
Iomega ScreenPlay 500G
Iomega ScreenPlay
The ScreenPlay is a different kind of external hard drive - different because it’s not just storage, but also a video, photo and music playback device designed to connect to your TV once you’ve loaded it up with data. The ScreenPlay didn’t quite match up to the two speedy Seagate drives in my tests, but it was a close run drive, slightly nudging out the FreeAgent Go on the large file write test. However, it’s still primarily an entertainment drive rather than a backup one, which explains the slightly higher asking price. Overall I score it 4/5 - A good drive with great AV potential.
Kingston DataTraveler 150 32G
Kingston DataTraveler 150 32G
Kingston’s DataTraveler takes the prize for the most expensive flash-based drive in my roundup - but it’s also the drive that matches up the most storage and the single best file transfer results in its category, and by a healthy margin to boot. While the casing is plastic - and for some reason, honeycombed orange - it’s quite solid without being too bulky and blocking our adjacent USB ports. Our only reservations with the excellent drive are the price and the fact that it ships with no additional backup software onboard. Overall I score it a 4/5 - A great drive for those who need the space, and can afford it.
Kingston 4G DataTraveler Mini Slim
Kingston 4G DataTraveler Mini Slim
The DataTraveler Mini Slim certainly lives up to its slim name, although, like the Imation drive, this does give us some concerns as to its overall durability. Like the much higher capacity DataTraveler 150, it ships without any additional software - you’re just buying storage space here - but unlike the DataTraveler 150, it’s not particularly quick. The Mini Slim was only spared the humiliation of last place by the even slower Lexar JumpDrive FireFly unit, but not by much of a margin. Overall I score it a 3.5/5 - Very portable, but very slow with it.
Kodak USB Flash Drive 2G
Kodak USB Flash Drive 2G
Kodak’s USB drive is a Lexar model, but pitched as “great for photos” - hence the Kodak connection. The Kodak USB Flash Drive is a marginally more expensive than Lexar’s FireFly drive, and bears a Kodak logo - but otherwise, it’s physically the exact same drive, right down to the plastic slipcase-style cap. Or so it would seem, anyway, until I got to testing. While the Kodak drive didn’t grab any records for itself, it still managed a more average showing than the FireFly’s woeful offering, thereby justifying that slightly higher asking price. Overall I score it a 3.5/5 - A decent but uninspiring offering.
Lexar JumpDrive FireFly 2G
Lexar JumpDrive FireFly 2G
The JumpDrive FireFly has an interesting construction; the cap is almost as long as the drive, which slots fully into the clear - and I suspect quickly lost - cap. Lexar’s also offering free Google Utilities (Desktop, Toolbar and Picasa) pre-loaded onto the drive. While its design is interesting, and the free utilities are a nice touch (although nothing you couldn’t download yourself), the FireFly finds itself in the unenviable position of being the slowest drive in my roundup in most categories. Sure, it’s a cheap drive and read speeds are OK, but you’ll still be twiddling your thumbs for a while with this drive. Overall I rate it a 3/5 - Just too slow.
Seagate FreeAgent Go 320G
Seagate FreeAgent Go 320G
The Seagate FreeAgnet Go is an attractive-looking drive that lights up a star field pattern when it’s plugged in via a single USB cable. However, unlike the very similar Toshiba drive, I had no problems powering the drive from any of my test USB sources. Seagate ships a small suite of backup and encryption utilities that install by default when the drive is first powered up, which is a nice inclusion at this asking price. However, what really impressed me was the drive’s excellent native speed; the Go was second only to the FreeAgent Xtreme, but it’s far more portable and considerably cheaper to boot. Overall I score it a 5/5 - An excellent drive at an attractive price.
Seagate FreeAgent XTreme 1T
Seagate FreeAgent XTreme 1T
At $329, the FreeAgent XTreme is the most costly drive in pure dollar terms, but once you break down the fact that it offers 1 terabyte (that’s 1,000G) of storage space, it’s not such a bad value offering. I tested with its USB 2.0 connections, where it placed fastest in every write test, second only to the mostly level-pegging FreeAgent Go in the large file copy test. It’s also FireWire and eSATA-capable, and here it was astonishingly fast. Like the Go, the Seagate Manager utilities aren’t flashy, but are simple enough to use. Overall I score it a 4/5 - A great drive for the money, but a fair bit of money.
SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4G
SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4G
The Cruzer Micro hides its USB connector inside the body of the drive, which is a neat solution for keeping it safe, and more specifically unbroken. The body of the drive is still plastic, which keeps it light. The drive uses the U3 platform, which offers a range of applications, but makes the drive turn up twice - once as the storage space, and once as the applications, and it takes some space from the drive to do so. The Cruzer Micro was a better drive for file reads than writes, but it was still highly competitive, and given the asking price in relation to the amount of storage on offer, it’s very good value. Overall I score it a 4.5/5 - A good value all-purpose drive.
SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 4G
SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 4G
The Cruzer Titanium is, in essence, is the Cruzer Micro on some form of steroids. That’s specific to the build quality, which swaps out the Cruzer’s plastic body for an all-metal one that’s rather cold to the touch - but immensely durable. Like the Cruzer, the USB plug is protected within the unit’s body when not in use, and likewise uses the U3 platform for a variety of applications, including backup. The titanium costs more than the Cruzer for the same capacity, and is slightly faster, but perhaps not as quick as it should be given the price disparity. It still lagged behind the Imation and Kingston 32G drives, with its next nearest competitor being the much cheaper Cruzer. Overall I score it a 3.5/5 - Great construction, but expensive for the capacity.
WD My Passport Essential 320G
WD My Passport Essential 320G
The My Passport Essential is a hard-drive-based external enclosure, very similar to Seagate’s FreeAgent Go and Toshiba’s external drives, right down to the single USB plug for power and data. As with the Go, I didn’t hit the Toshiba problem with power. Backup software for Windows machines is provided. The Passport wasn’t the slowest drive, managing a few more megabytes per second than the Iomega eGo, but it still wasn’t a great performer, losing out in write speed to both the Toshiba and the very slick FreeAgent Go. Overall I score it a 4/5 - A good drive, but not a great one.
WD My Book Studio Edition 500G
Like the Iomega eGo, the My Book Studio Edition is designed for Mac users, and formatted for Mac OS X, although Western Digital does offer a variety of My Book models for Windows users as well. The Studio edition sports not only USB 2.0, but also FireWire and eSATA connections. Based on the Studio Edition’s very ordinary USB 2.0 performance, you’d want to be using either FireWire or eSATA, as in USB-only mode it was nothing particularly noteworthy, sitting exactly in the middle of the hard-drive based packs of contenders. Overall I score it a 3.5/5 - An average drive with lots of storage space.
Sony Micro Vault Click 2G
Sony Micro Vault Click 2G
Sony’s Micro Vault Click range is colour coded according to capacity; my green test drive was the 2G version. No matter what the colour, they all feature a sliding USB connector, similar to SanDisk’s Cruzer line. Software comes in the form of Virtual Expander, a software compression utility. The Micro Vault Click is reasonably priced if you’re just after an inexpensive drive - and it does have an appealing look to it - but that has to be tempered against the fact that just a bit more money can score you a lot more storage capacity, and more tellingly, its performance was only really average at best. Overall I score it a 3.5/5 - Fair value, but average performance.
