Buy Now...
click image to enlargeIn addition to this 500GB drive the others in the series have capacities of 1 and 2TB. They each incorporate a 5400rpm, 2.5inch drive in a unit which is 119 x 81 x 14.5mm in size and weighs 150g so that it is easily carried around in a pocket or rucksack. They are available in a choice of colours -- black, silver, blue, red and white -- with a diamond check pattern embossed front surface together with the Verbatim name and logo. They are supplied with a 21cm USB 3.0 cable. It would have been useful if, as it is a portable drive and likely to be carried around and so subject to knocks, it had been supplied with a pouch to hold both the drive and cable.
These drives which do not require an external power unit draw the necessary current from a USB port of the laptop to which they are attached. When writing to disk, which is the power-hungry mode, the current drawn from the USB port is around 0.4A. Consequently, although it is a USB 3.0 device it does not consume an excessive amount of power so that an existing USB 2 port should normally be able provide adequate power. It is impossible to quote read/write speeds -- even when connected to a “super-speed” USB 3.0 port rather than the slower USB 2.0 -- because the speed of the laptop and that of its internal hard drive will all have a major influence.
Supplied formatted FAT32, and so compatible with both Windows and Mac PCs, the supplied Formatter tool (PC only) can be used to format the drive to NTFS to enable larger files to be stored. There is apparently also an option that allows the user to convert the drive to NTFS without erasing the data already stored on the drive.
For backup there is Nero basic backup software which is compatible with Windows up to and including Windows 10. It is not, however, Mac compatible.
The drive comes supplied with Green Button Software the aim of which is to increase the life of the drive as well as reducing power consumption by spinning down the drive. By default this comes in after 10 minutes even though longer times can be set. However, there is a trade-off: with the drive in its suspended state and the disc no longer spinning it will take a few seconds for the drive to get up to speed and the drive become accessible again.
This 500GB version, product number 53193, is available on Amazon at £55.55. It, and the others in the series, is aimed at a very competitive sector of the market. Nevertheless, Verbatim is a well-known brand and it comes supplied with backup and other software which may not be provided with lower priced but similar items and so many will find it to be a sensible buy.
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