.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT SHOOTOUT
.TITLE Portable hard drive hit parade
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
.SUMMARY Product shootout articles are more difficult to do than a single product review. It can often take a huge amount of coordination among manufacturers, PR reps, and our editorial team to get all the devices in and compare them side-by-side. Fortunately, we’ve managed to assemble an interesting collection of portable drives. Among our contenders is a drive that could have been great, but’s a terrible failure do to a stupid marketing decision and two drives that rate perfect 5 out of 5 scores.
.OTHER
Computing Unplugged’s product shootout features are among our most popular series. You’ve told us you really like seeing a large group of similar products compared, side-by-side. Shootouts are a fabulous tool for getting a good feel for your purchasing options and really help you see which products stand above the rest.
In this article, we’re doing a shootout among mobile hard drives (and some other mobile mass-storage media options). Although the topic of hard drives seems pretty prosaic, the pace of innovation and the wide variety of form factors and approaches actually made this an interesting article to work on. In this shootout, we’re comparing the seven media devices shown in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A We compare seven impressive media storage devices.
Product shootout articles are more difficult to do than a single product review. It can often take a huge amount of coordination among manufacturers, PR reps, and our editorial team to get all the devices in and compare them side-by-side. Fortunately, we’ve managed to assemble an interesting collection of drives. Among our contenders is a drive that could have been great, but is a terrible failure due to a stupid marketing decision, one that failed because it came out years later than it should have, and two surprising drives that rate perfect 5 out of 5 scores.
.TEASER Which drives are which? You’ll have to read the article to find out.
.H1 Seagate External Portable Hard Drive 100GB
We reviewed the Seagate External Portable Hard Drive, model number ST9100801U2-RK, shown in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B This is 100GB, although they go up to 160GB.
The one we reviewed was 100GB, although the drives are available up to a 160GB capacity. We found the 100GB unit available online for between $150 and $190, which isn’t bad for a portable, external drive.
.CALLOUT This was a cost-saving strategy on the part of some short-sighted product manager and is inexcusable.
We really liked the drive, but it has a fatal flaw which brings its rating down tremendously. As is the case with most larger capacity hard drives, this device draws considerable power — in fact, more than a single USB 2.0 connection can power. Seagate attempted to solve this problem by splitting the USB cable, giving you two USB connectors to plug into your computer, one for an additional power feed.
Unfortunately, not all computers generate enough power across even two USB feeds to power the drive. And some laptops, like our sleek, little Dell Latitude, only have one USB port on the drive. As a result, the drive performance is sketchy.
We tried plugging both USB connectors into a variety of our desktop machines and found that only about 25% of them provided enough power for the drive to run reliably. On those machines where the drive didn’t get enough juice, we observed a variety of fatal (and very disturbing) behaviors. On one machine, the drive simply crashed, and we found we were unable to get to the drive’s data until we did a disk scan and repair. On another machine, the entire box died very hard, and we wound up having to repair our Windows XP installation.
Here’s where Seagate’s marketing folks blew it with this product. It’s not that the drive draws too much power for many USB connectors to meet the demand. It’s that the power brick that could power the drive is not included in the package. If your drive crashes or you have problems, we’re told, you can call Seagate, and only then will they send out the power brick that’s necessary to make the drive work.
This was a cost-saving strategy on the part of some short-sighted product manager and is inexcusable. If you’re in the business of making hard drives, data integrity needs to be at the top of your list. Selling a drive knowing it might fail, and then, if it does, then sending the power brick to the buyer — all to save two bucks off the product’s cost of goods, is a bad move and is very disrespectful of customers’ data, time, and stress levels.
Had the power brick been included, this product would have gotten a four-star rating. But since the company clearly didn’t care enough about the reliability of its customers’ data to include a two buck part, we’re forced to drop the rating of this drive to a 2 out of 5. Sadly, we cannot recommend you buy what would otherwise have been a perfectly good, sweet little drive.
.RATING 2
Before we go on, we need to say that Seagate normally makes great hard drives. In fact, later in this review, we’ve got a Seagate drive with a perfect score. Don’t rule the company’s drives out simply because one product manager somewhere got a little too enthusiastic crunching his COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) numbers in Excel.
.H1 Kano SureFIRE 800 60GB
Unlike Seagate, the folks at Kano Technologies did not choose to cheap out on their product. Kano sent us their SureFIRE 800 60GB external portable hard drive, shown in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C This is a fast drive.
The SureFIRE 800 supports FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0, making it compatible with most Windows and Mac systems. Now, this is a drive we would have reviewed far earlier than when we’re publishing this article. We gave it to a Macintosh enthusiast who promised to write us a detailed review. Months and months went by. No review.
After contacting our buddy a few times, we finally figured out what the problem was. He figured that if he wrote the review, he’d have to give back the drive. But if he kept on procrastinating, he’d be able to keep the drive longer. That ought to give you an idea about how good the drive is.
.BEGIN_KEEP
After we finally extracted the drive from our "reviewer’s" hands, we finally got to test it here. And we could see why he liked it so much. The fact that it works well with both FireWire 400 and 800, and with USB 2.0 makes it a very versatile device. The only issue is the price. At over $200, the price per megabyte is considerable.
But, if you want the versatility of virtually any interface and capacities up to 100GB, we can strongly recommend the Kano SureFIRE, which fires off a 4 out of 5.
.RATING 4
.END_KEEP
.H1 The Apricorn EZ Bus Mini 40GB
When the box for the Apricorn EZ Bus Mini came in, we figured we had a cheap knock-off product on our hands. The box looked, well, uninspired. And when we opened it up, we found that the drive had simply been shrink-wrapped to a piece of cardboard and stuck into the box, as you can see in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D This did not look promising.
This did not look promising. Hard drives should be packed well, surrounded by loads of foam and with space to absorb the shock of shipping. Strapping a drive to a piece of cardboard and throwing it into the box seemed like a bad idea.
What we didn’t know, until we took the drive out of the packaging, was just how cool a product this thing is. First, it turns out the drive was packed in foam. It comes with a little foam case (like a PDA case, but with a foam liner). It was packed in that case, under the shrinkwrap. That was a relief.
It’s the drive itself, though, that’s such a winner. First, it’s small and light, weighing in at only 4 ounces. The other two drives we’ve looked at so far were 11 and 8.5 ounces, respectively (plus they needed power bricks and cables).
Second, as you can see in Figure E, the drive’s cable is tucked right into the base of the drive.
.FIGPAIR E The top of the drive is shown on the left, the base of the drive is shown on the right.
This tucked-in cable feature makes the drive nearly as portable as a thumb drive, but with a full 40GB drive. And because the EZ Bus Mini uses an ultra-portable 1.8" mini Hitachi drive, it doesn’t need external power at all. Thumb drives are nice, but they’re often not big enough to carry a full project on them. I, for example, do a lot of programming. None of my thumb drives can fit my entire development environment and source code. But this drive can. As a result, it’s very easy for me to move my development system to a test box (or to my laptop), without taking the time for a network transfer.
At $199 for the 40GB model, the EZ Bus Mini isn’t cheap. Without a doubt, though, this is the one larger capacity drive you’ll want in your toolbox. We give the EZ Bus Mini a not-so-mini perfect 5 out of 5 score.
.RATING 5
.H1 TOPY Mini Writer 500MB
Our next product is the TOPY Mini Writer, shown in Figure F.
.FIGPAIR F The TOPY Mini Writer uses DataPlay disks.
Unlike the drives we’ve discussed so far, this is not, technically, a hard drive. Instead, the TOPY uses strange little DataPlay disks, reminiscent of teeny floppy disks. Now, if you were reading the trade press way back in 2001, you probably knew about DataPlay. Back then, the idea of little tiny 500MB disks seemed astounding.
But the disk format never got off the ground. DataPlay spent so much launching the product that they went bankrupt before anything reached the market. Then, in 2003, the intellectual property that made up the DataPlay technology was bought out by DHPI. And, eventually, we got to see the DataPlay format in a few products, like the TOPY Mini Writer we’re reviewing here.
Unfortunately, the TOPY Mini Writer is too little, too late. The DataPlay disks hold only 500MB, less than a CD-ROM. The disks themselves are hard to find, costing about $6 each from the few small mail-order shops we found that carry them.. That’s a lot more than it costs to buy a blank CD or DVD, both of which store more. Now, admittedly, the DataPlay disk is far smaller. But the technology has been eclipsed by high capacity SD and Compact Flash cards, and I can’t really think of a compelling reason why you’d want to buy this product.
Available for about $120 with three of the DataPlay disks, the TOPY earns a dopey 3 out of 5. It’s a shame, too. Back in 2001, we would have killed to get ahold of this thing.
.RATING 3
.H1 Seagate Pocket Drive 5GB
Next on our hard drive hit parade is another Seagate, but this one’s a winner. The Seagate Pocket Drive, shown in Figure G, is a very slick little drive.
.FIGPAIR G This Seagate rocks!
Seagate’s Pocket Drive is 5GB and, unlike its big brother, is powered completely and reliably off the USB 2.0 cable that’s built into the drive. What makes this 2 ounce drive so sweet is how small and portable it really is. First, the cable wraps up inside itself, so when you use the drive, you turn the black shell of the drive and out pops the cable. There’s no chance of the cable getting tangled or lost.
Second, the round form factor fits comfortably in a pocket and is nicely protected. From purely a geek chic perspective, when the drive is running, the center of the circle lights up with a very cool neon blue.
While thumb drives (with no moving parts) are catching up in terms of capacity, the Seagate Pocket Drive probably has a year or so of life in its 5GB capacity. Hopefully, we’ll see the capacity increase over time. Even so, for about a hundred bucks, the Seagate Pocket Drive earns a perfect 5 out of 5.
.RATING 5
.H1 Thumb drives
We decided that no shootout of portable media would be complete without discussing thumb drives. I recently picked up the 2GB Memorex TravelDrive, shown in Figure H, for all of $89, on sale at the local Staples.
.FIGPAIR H Thumb drives are light, cheap, and have more and more capacity.
Now, you could probably substitute any other thumb drive for the one in this article. They’re all amazingly convenient. This one weighs just a tad over a quarter of an ounce and has a 2GB capacity.
We’ve been finding that manufacturers are seeking to differentiate their thumb drives by design and even by fashion statement. Frankly, we don’t care that much about the fluffy factors. The key is to get a nice, solid drive, and get it inexpensively. One of the techniques is to keep an eye on sales and bargain sites, and only buy when the drives are cheap. The drive I got, for example, listed for $179, but was on sale for far less.
We give the very nice, very inexpensive (if you can find a sale) 2GB Memorex TravelDrive a 4 out of 5.
.RATING 4
.H1 Using your iPod as a portable drive
Like thumb drives, no discussion of pocket drives would be complete without discussing the iPod. These things are everywhere and while you may enjoy listening to your music or podcasts on them, you may not realize they’re perfectly functional little portable hard drives.
All you need is your USB or FireWire cable. Plug the cable into your iPod and into your computer and the iPod will show up as a drive on your computer. If, for some reason, your iPod doesn’t show up as a hard drive, launch iTunes, select your iPod, then iPod options, and then check Enable Disk Use.
Of course, an iPod makes a particularly expensive external hard drive and if you’ve filled it with music, you won’t have space to fill it with files. But it works, doesn’t require external power, and you might already have one you can use.
.H1 Final thoughts
After looking at all these devices, if you had to choose just one device, we’d have to recommend the Apricorn. It’s got the capacity, the portability, and the ease of use. If you’re going for a cheaper solution with less capacity, the Seagate Pocket Drive is just so darned cool. And, of course, everyone should have a thumb drive or ten.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on the Seagate External Portable Hard Drive 100GB, visit http://www.seagate.com/products/personal/portable/index.html.
For more information on the Kano SureFIRE 800, visit http://www.kanotechnologies.com/products/SF800-60.cfm.
For more information on the EZ Bus Mini, visit http://www.apricorn.com/product_details.php?ID=414.
For more information on the TOPY Mini Writer, visit http://www.ritekusa.com/ebproductdetail.asp?id=40.
For more information on the Seagate Pocket Drive, visit http://www.seagate.com/products/personal/pocket/index.html.
For more information on the Memorex TravelDrive, visit
http://www.memorex.com/html/products_detail.php?CID=12&SID=16&PID=966&FID=143.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
