Portable Data Storage
Buy Now...
While your computer might provide the ideal storage for your collection of digital media, it is not always the most convenient location. This is especially true if you need to travel light. Up to now the only real solution for those in this type of situation has been to make use of one of the flash devices that are currently available. Seagate has come up with a viable alternative.
Well known for its hard disk technology, Seagate has put that experience to work and come up with a portable hard drive that allows you to carry your music, photos, videos and any other type of data as you go on your travels. Available in either 2.5GB or 5GB versions, this device is appropriately entitled a USB 2.0 Pocket Hard Drive. This review is based on the 5MB version which can store up to 80 hours of digital music. Those preferring a more visual stimulus can transport over 2000 images at 5 mega-pixels or 13 hours of video clips.
Resembling a yo-yo, the matt silver and black casing conceals a one-inch hard drive and holds a retractable 5.5 inch USB 2.0 lead. The unit draws its power for its 3600 RPM drive from the computer when attached via USB. When data is being transferred, in either direction, a circular window on the front of the device flashes blue to indicate that activity is occurring.
The device will be displayed as a removable drive on your computer. Copying data to or from the device is straightforward using standard Windows or Mac conventions. The drive has a 2MB cache to help speed up data transfer. As a test I copied three folders holding a mixture of MP3 files and games related software to the Seagate device. In total the 1012MB of data consisted of just over 450 files. The transfer took five minutes and eight seconds.
It has to be remembered that this device is a storage unit pure and simple. You do not get any features allowing you to view or play the content in standalone mode. However Seagate has included a basic toolkit for use with the device. Installed on your computer, this toolkit will display the free and used space plus the devices drive letter. It will allow you to create a boot disk; partition or format the device; add a password and enable write protection for those important items.
Priced at around £80, this pocket size hard disk is a convenient way to transport data from one location to another. I have one minor criticism regarding the lack of a carry pouch or belt clip to help protect the device.
| add to del.icio.us | Digg this review |
| StumbleUpon | |
!!
