With the move to eSATA, many consumers are looking for a way to quickly and easily clone or move their content from their current SATA or IDE disk drive to a new eSATA drive, or they may be looking for a way to connect a new eSATA drive to a USB port for quick and easy access to data from another system. In either case, most of those looking to use this kind of product are professional techies within the IT Support Function of a company or service provider looking to deliver quick and easy service to their clients who want their important data moved between an old system and a new one, or have had a system failure and want quick access to recover their data. StarTech, the maker of many useful gadgets to connect everything from your home theater to your servers and USB devices, asked The Gadgeteer to review the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock. While I do not regularly need to clone disk drives, I do have the need to copy my trusty USB 500GB hard disk drive to a eSATA drive that I am installing in my kids’ PC so I have an online backup copy of my content. Read on to see how the product fared and if it ended up in my gadget graveyard or not.

I received the box and quickly opened it to find the following:

• StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock
• AC Power Supply for the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock Product Review
• USB to eSATA Cable
• Mini USB to USB Male Cable
• Product Manual written in several languages

The StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock is tiny and easily fits in the palm of my hand. Weighing 1.59 oz (45G) and measuring in at a scant .64″ (16.3mm) high x 2.76″ (70mm) wide x 3.15″ (80mm) long it is easy to see how taking the product along for the ride would be simple.

The Hard Drive Duplicator Dock is well labeled with ports for every hard disk drive interface that you can think of, save for SCSI, but no one really uses SCSI devices any longer. With that said, the weight of the product and size does not include the required power supply, which easily quadruples the weight. I would have thought that StarTech would have gone for a smaller cell phone style pop up AC prong charger to match the scant size of their Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock, but then they would have had to pick a voltage and made two part numbers, one for the 240 folks, and another for the 110 folks. This way, they killed two birds with one AC Adapter, but gave up on the ultimate portability.

I used the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock to duplicate one of my USB hard disk drives to a new eSATA drive that I planned to install in a PC that my kids are using. To use the device, one simply connects the AC power and the source and target hard disk drives to the correct ports on the Hard Drive Duplicator Dock and presses a button and the cloning magically happens. The process can be monitored by looking at the progress bar LEDs that are broken into four 25% segments. Depending on your drive size and drive characteristics, the cloning process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours for larger drives and those with slower interfaces. When I cloned my drive, a 500GB disk drive it took a bit under two hours. The drives were connected via USB and the eSATA connections. From my review of the clone drive, it was a perfect copy of the original – there were no issues with the files nor directory structure of the cloned drive. I used the Drive Duplicator to connect the eSATA drive to my laptop via USB, as the dock enables one to use an eSATA drive through USB in a slave mode. I tried a number of drives and the device was a bit finicky on which drives it would connect to, but after a bit of fiddling with the connection and powering the device off and on I was able to see the drives.

The Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock can also be used as a slave device to allow you to connect your USB, SATA, or eSATA devices to your PC or Mac to browse the contents of a disk drive. To change the mode of the device, one simply presses the Mode Selection Button and the color changes to show you that the mode has been switched. I should add that the device also shows that source, target, and slave devices have been successfully recognized by changing colors on the LEDs. This is important as you need a visual “OK” to show you that you are ready to go. The Slave Mode is a very useful feature as I was able to connect my PC drive to my Mac without the use of a drive enclosure. For a professional techie or service technician this capability is invaluable as one can show up at a job site and access any disk drive type simply and easily. As we all know, or should know, when you have a system failure, the first thing that you do is worry about your precious data and many of us do not backup our data as we should. Being able to connect up any disk drive type to your laptop and check that the information is ok is worth the $75 asking price alone. Having drive cloning capability on top of that is an added benefit along with the size and portability of the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock.

To sum up the review, I would happily recommend the StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock for any professional techie or service technician that needs to quickly and easily clone or access the contents of a disk drive. The Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock is available on the StarTech website as well as your favorite gadget retailers for around $75. The StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock will live on, perhaps not in daily use, but at least a couple of times a year.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Duplication, eSATA, Hard Drive

StarTech Portable eSATA USB to SATA Standalone HDD Hard Drive Duplicator Dock Product Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 26, 2011 at 12:30 pm.

Seagate has upped the ante for desktop external hard drives with their new FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Drive that is available in a 4TB capacity. That’s currently the highest capacity hard drive in the industry. The 4TB version ships with USB 3.0 connectivity, but it is possible to upgrade it to use a FireWire 800 connection with an optional adapter kit. These drives are compatible with PCs or Macs and are priced at $249.99 for the 4TB version.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, News

Tagged: Hard Drive

Seagate Announces 4TB External Hard Drive originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 7, 2011 at 12:33 pm.

Adding more storage capacity to a desktop or laptop computer used to involve having to take the computer apart and adding in the extra drive, not to mention on some computers the pain and frustration of getting to the drive to remove it. Not so anymore with all the external drives coming out on the market that utilize the ever popular USB connection. Just plug the external drive into an available USB port and you have instant disk space that you can take anywhere you need to go. Portable hard drives are a necessary requirement in today’s demanding world. I carry one with me everywhere I go. This allows me to take my personal computer data with me to any computer.

External drives come in many different flavors to choose from, ranging anywhere from 100 GB to 300 + GB. The Seagate GoFlex Slim USB 3.0 + USB 2.0 320 GB Ultra Portable Hard Drive is lighter than any drive I have seen at this capacity, the drive is so small and thin, about the thickness of a #2 pencil, and easily fits into your pocket for ultra portability. This drive is only offered in 320 GB as of now and I am not sure when other sizes will be available. I am a huge fan of Seagate drives their reliability and performance are just a few of the reasons I stick with them when buying a drive.

Available in 320 GB only, this drive comes in a nice black anodized finish that compliments any computer work area. Also included in the package is and backup software with encryption that is pre-loaded on the drive, quick start guide and an 18-inch USB 3.0 cable.

Hardware Specs
7200 RPM
USB 3.0 plug and play connectivity for up to 10x faster transfer speeds, USB 2.0 compatible
Height: 124mm (4.91 in)
Width: 78mm (3.07 in)
Length: 9mm (.354 in)
Weight (typical): 160g (.356 lb)

This drive is truly plug and play, with no port for an AC adapter or power button to mess with.

The included USB cable is the only connection you will need, just plug the cable into the back of the drive and the other end into your computer and the computer will recognize the drive and install necessary drivers for it. You will know it is connected and ready to go by the small rectangular light blue led light on the end of the drive.

The drive is pre-formatted for NTFS and is ready to go with 297 GB of storage ready for you to start dragging and dropping files onto it. You can re format the drive to FAT32 if desired. The drive can also be used on a MAC computer with the included NTFS driver for MAC preloaded on the drive. This driver offers seamless interchangeability between PC and MAC without performance loss or reformatting. The I/O interface between the drive and the computer is impressive, even though I could only test the drive with USB 2.0. I ran a few tests to show the speed of the drive:

All testing done was with 3.84 GB MPEG-4 file, this test was performed 3 times with an average speed taken for each:
• 2:30 copied from drive to PC
• 3:22 copied from PC to drive

All testing done was with 2.01 GB MPEG-4 file, this test was performed 3 times with an average speed taken for each:
• 1:43 copied from PC to drive
• 1:20 copied from drive to PC

The preloaded Seagate Dashboard software that comes pre-installed on the drive gives you a quick glance at how much free space you have available on the drive and also has a link to the included Memeo Sync and Premium Backup software.

The included Memeo Sync software allows for quick and convenient file synchronization to make sure that you always have the latest files on hand.

The Memeo Backup Premium software allows for a one click backup of all your files from your PC to the drive with powerful backup encryption.

The included software does a great job of backing up your computer, allowing for a convenient way to restore your computer to a previous state if it crashes. The drive itself has a nice feel to it, it is one of the smallest drives I have seen, extremely quiet, does not get hot while running, it does get a little warm, but like all electronics that is normal operating temps. The drive gives you all the portability you will ever need and can easily be carried in your pocket or in your gear bag for quick access.  I like the fact that this drive is extremely quick in accessing my important data.  Seagate has always been out in front when it comes to technology, this drive is sure to please most with its very small footprint to its generous size of storage capacity.  Hopefully Seagate will have this in more GB sizes soon.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Hard Drive

Seagate GoFlex Slim USB 3.0 + USB 2.0 320 GB Ultra Portable Hard Drive Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 29, 2011 at 4:30 pm.

Have you ever needed a convenient way to clone several hard drives at once? Last weekend one of my computer hard drive started having a lot of problems, I contemplated buying a new computer, but I am in the process of building a sweet gaming computer and as we all know it takes time and money, money, money. So I opted to just get a new hard drive to get back into my World of Warcraft fix. I was offered the new StarTech.com 4U3E SATA Hard Drive Docking Station and I was literally impressed with the ease of setup and use of this sweet device.

What’s included:
• 1 x 4-Bay SATA Docking Station (SATDOCK4U3E)
• 1 x USB 3.0 Cable
• 1 x eSATA Cable
• 1 x Universal Power Adapter
• 3 x Power Cord (NA/UK/EU)
• 1 x Instruction Manual
System Requirements:
• Available USB and/or eSATA port
• Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/Server 2008 R2/7 (32/64-bit) or Linux

Installation was a breeze, just connect the included external power adapter from the hard drive docking station to a AC power outlet, insert 2.5” or 3.5” hard drives into the top loading slots, connect the hard drive docking station to your computer with either the included USB cable or eSATA cable, the computer I used did not have a eSATA connection, press the power button on top of the hard drive docking station and your computer will install the necessary drivers to operate. No special drivers are necessary. Once all connected the hard drive docking station will be detected and show up as separate drives depending on how many drives you have in the device. The hard drive docking station features SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connectivity, which is also compatible with USB 2.0, which offers data transfer rates up to 5GBps (10x faster than USB 2.0) or eSATA with Port Multiplier connectivity up to 3GBps. Unfortunately I only have USB 2.0, need to figure out what I need to do to upgrade to USB 3.0, then I will test the speed on the hard drive docking station and let everyone know what the difference is.

The hard drive docking station is a well designed device, I like the fact that it has hinged slots on top that allow the use of 2.5” or 3.5” drives without having to use removable plates like most devices out there. If you are like me I will always end up losing the plates. The construction of the docking station fits nicely with other equipment, it is made of a durable plastic, it looks like Poly Propylene to me but I am not a plastic expert. It has all the connections you need on the back side of the device including Speed control for Fan 1, eSATA connector, USB 3.0 connector, DC power connector and the speed control for Fan 1. As you can see the device has some vents on the back side where the fans are located inside the docking station to cool off the docking station, but I never noticed any heat coming from the docking station at all. The only heat I encountered was the heat from the drives themselves. The top of the docking station has 4 bays to connect up to 4 drives, drive eject buttons and independent Power Button, Power/Activity LEDS for each drive bay.

Rear View

Top View

LED View

Now onto the testing, the computer I used for testing was a ACER ASPIRE 6920 (INTEL Core 2 DUO T5550 1.83 GHz, 320 GB HDD and 3 GB DDR2 ram), Hitachi Deskstar 82.3 GB HDS728080DLA380 HD, Western Digital WD1600JS Caviar SE 160 GB WD1600JS-22NCB1 HD and EASEUS Todo Backup Home 2.0 software.

All files used in my test were .mp4 movie files.

Acer computer to Hitachi Drive

• 253MB copied in 19s
• 699MB copied in 34s

Acer computer to Western Digital Drive

• 253MB copied in 15s
• 699MB copied in 35s

Acer computer to Hitachi Drive using multiple files

• 1.35GB copied in 64s

Acer computer to Western Digital Drive using multiple files

• 1.35GB copied in 63s

Hitachi to Western Digital using multiple files

• 1.35GB copied in 119s

Western Digital to Hitach using multiple files

• 1.35GB copied in 122s

Hitachi Drive to Acer Computer

• 1.35GB copied in 59s

Western Digital Drive to Acer Computer

• 1.35GB copied in 59s

The hard drive docking station works great and allows you to duplicate hard drives in no time, I was able to clone a 100GB drive in about 3 hours and had all my programs, operating system and important files on the new drive and back into my computer ready for me to start playing games again.  The only thing I noticed with this device was that the fans were a little loud, I could hear them running while I was conducting my tests and I even had my television going in the background.  I left the fans on the whole time but I am not sure if they have to be on, maybe if you have 4 drives in the device then they would come in handy.  Other than the fans being noisy I think the docking station does a pretty good job of transferring files and will keep even the most computer tech savvy happy.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Hard Drive, SATA

StarTech SATA 4-Bay Hard Drive Docking Station Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 17, 2011 at 1:00 pm.

If you are like me you probably have some old hard drives lying around from computers that you no longer have or have worked on for friends and family. I know I have a hard time throwing away any computer item I have even if it is so old it will not work in today’s newer computers. I have two closets full of computer parts from motherboards, video cards, cases, power supplies to you name it and I probably have it. But my biggest collection of computer parts is hard drives.

This is only a few of my hard drives that I have pulled from my own systems and from other people’s systems that I have worked on over the years. But what do you do if you want to be able to get the data off these drives or to see what is still on them. Well you could build a test computer to hook each drive up to, turn on the computer and copy the information from the hard drive to another hard drive you have hooked up to your test computer. But I find that cumbersome at times. I mean why go through the trouble of turning your computer off, fiddling with unhooking/hooking up cables and wires, turning the computer back on and waiting for the computer to boot up just to copy data or to see what is on the hard drive, or to even check the hard drive for failures.

Well Brando has a pretty nifty gadget that I have found to be a perfect companion to my arsenal of computer repair gadgets. It’s the Unitek USB 3.0 SATA HDD Dock with One Touch Backup.

Package Contents

• USB 3.0 SATA HDD Dock with One Touch Backup
• USB 3.0 Cable
• AC Adapter (100-240V, 50/60Hz, 0.8A, 12V/2000mA)
• User’s Manual
• CD Driver
Features
• Support 3.5″ SATA HDD / 2.5″ SATA HDD / SSD
• Super-Speed (5Gbps) / High-Speed (480Mbps) / Full-Speed (12Mbps)
• SATA Gen2i (3Gbps) & (1.5Gbps)
• Support 2TB over HDD
• One Touch Back-up Function (Multi-Language driver)
• Plug and Play, Hot Swappable
• Power LED indication
• On/Off switch
• Support Window 7 / Vista / XP / 2000

The Unitek USB 3.0 SATA HDD Dock is an amazing product that makes transferring files, checking hard drives and making hard drive clones a breeze. The included HDD Dock is well built and really compliments a computer desk if you want to leave the device plugged in all the time. As you can see in the picture the included AC Adapter I believe is for the UK, but no problem there because I was sent a adapter to adapt to US plugs as well. USB 3.0 is a newer technology that can deliver speeds up to 5Gbps. Here is a comparison of transfer speeds:

USB 3.0 = 5Gps = 5120 MB/s
USB 2.0 = 480 Mbps = 60 MB/s
USB 1.0 = 12 Mbps = 1.5 MB/s

These speeds are all theoretical.

I’ll be reviewing this adapter with a 3.5 inch Western Digital WD1600JS 160 GB SATA 2 drive and a 3.5 inch Seagate ST36531A 6.51 GB IDE drive. All my testing was done on a HP Media Center computer with a AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core Processor and USB 2.0.

Hooking up the USB 3.0 SATA HDD Dock is very simple, just connect the included USB 3.0 cable to the HDD Dock and the other end to an available USB port on your computer, plug the included AC Adapter into the HDD Dock and then plug the unit into the wall receptacle, slide the hard drive into the HDD Dock, turn the power switch on HDD Dock on and after a few seconds your computer will recognize the drive.

My first test was with the 3.5 inch Western Digital WD1600JS 160 GB SATA 2 drive. As you can see you do not have to mess with any cables to hook the drive up.

The second test was with the 3.5 inch Seagate ST36531A 6.51 GB IDE drive. The USB 3.0 SATA HDD Dock can be used with IDE drives as well with an optional IDE to SATA HDD Docking Converter also available from Brando.

Hooking up a IDE drive is a little more cumbersome, first you have to use the IDE to SATA HDD Docking Converter (which Brando also sells), this device slides onto the end of the drive and has a power adapter inside of it along with IDE connectors that hook right up to a IDE drive. It is a very tight fit to try and hook the power connector up. As you can see from the picture there is not much room, but once the IDE to SATA HDD Docking Converter is on and mounted to the drive it can be slid into the HDD Dock.

At first I thought I could just hook the IDE to SATA HDD Docking Converter up without using the supplied mounting screws, be warned I spent about 15 minutes trying to pry the IDE to SATA HDD Docking Converter out of the HDD Dock.  The connection is pretty snug and if you don’t use the supplied mounting screws while pulling the drive out of the HDD Dock the IDE to SATA HDD Docking Converter will stay in the HDD Dock.  Read the instructions with IDE to SATA HDD Docking Converter, I know I am guilty of not wanting to read all instructions.

I had no problems transferring files from the HDD Dock to my computer and vice versa.  I was even able to reformat the drives with the HDD Dock, once the drive is inserted into the HDD Dock and turned on the computer recognizes it and assigns it a drive letter.  Now on to the actual test results.

3.5 inch Western Digital WD1600JS 160 GB SATA 2 drive
1.36 GB File copy from and to

8.38 GB file copy from and to

As you can see on the SATA drive my average speed was 16.8 MB/s, USB 2.0 theoretical is 60 MB/s but the actual speed can really only reach 40 MB/s depending on software and hardware.

3.5 inch Seagate ST36531A 6.51 GB IDE drive
1.33 GB file copy from and to

As you can see on the IDE drive my average speed was 3.18 MB/s, not sure if this is because of the IDE adapter being used because the theoretical speed of ATA-3 is 16.7 MB/s.

I am very pleased with the Unitek USB 3.0 SATA HDD Dock.  If you have some old SATA drives lying around, it is nice to be able to slide the drive into the HDD Dock and now you have yourself a external hard drive to copy files to and from.  If you are using IDE then it can be troublesome, but it can be done.  The HDD Dock is probably one of those things you may not use very often but it works great and is nice tool to have around when you need it.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Hard Drive

Unitek USB 3.0 SATA HDD Dock with One Touch Backup Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 7, 2011 at 11:30 am.

If you have a need to move files around from computer to computer or just need an external storage drive for your numerous  files then you know having an external drive is a must. And having an external hard drive that is durable, slim, fast and portable isn’t so bad either. Introducing Cirago’s USB 3.0 500 GB external hard drive, the CST6000.

This hard drive is a nice sleek, durable portable storage drive. Thanks to the aluminum housing, this hard drive can withstand heat better than the plastic ones. However, I did not encounter any overheating while using this hard drive. But it’s a nice feature too have if it ever does get to the point of overheating. It has an Active LED Power Indicator and supports PC, MAC, and Linux operating systems.

This hard drive measures 3.25″ x 5.3″ x 0.5″ so it’s a nice size to tuck away in your purse, laptop bag or backpack without causing any bulk. It is nice and slim also. This is nice compared to other portable externals I have which are almost 2″ thick.

This hard drive is excellent for holding all kinds of data such as pictures, videos, music, and documents. I have many video files stored on mine and playback seems to run smoothly.

A nice feature the Cirago has is that it is backwards compatible with 2.0 and 1.1 USB. It is comforting to know that you can back up files from an older computer or laptop to this hard drive. The company claims that it has a high performance transfer speed of up to 5GB. I don’t have a 3.0 USB port so I didn’t have a chance to try out the 5GB speed. However, with just a normal 2.0 USB it seemed pretty snappy.

The hard drive supports Windows 7, Vista and XP. Naturally, the hard drive is plug and play so there is no need for an installation CD. The system requirements are 500 MHZ or higher, 128 MB of Ram or higher, and a USB port.

It comes with a blue USB 3.0 cable, an auxiliary USB power cable, and a soft black carrying pouch.

The USB power cable is there in case your computer’s USB port can’t provide enough power to support the Cirago hard drive. Just plug it in for added power. However, just be sure you have an extra open USB port if you should need that extra power.

This hard drive is also available in other capacities: 250 GB, 320 GB, and 640 GB. So if you are looking to expand your storage then this light-weight and portable hard drive is a perfect addition.

The CST6000 goes for $89.99. The other models range from $69.99 to $99.00.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: 3.0, Hard Drive, USB

Cirago USB 3.0 Portable Storage Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 22, 2011 at 2:11 pm.

The Cirago USB 3.0 Hard Drive Docking Station is one of those standard external USB docks for the drive freak in all of us. If you’ve got a small pile of SATA drives collecting dust because you’ve upgraded your laptop, or desktop, or both, and you don’t really need yet another USB drive enclosure, this docking station will let you pop a drive in and use it for backup, moving files, whatever, with ease. Support for USB 3.0 means that eventually, you’ll be able to do that a bit faster, too.

Setup

The dock is powered by a wall wart, and connects via a standard USB cable. Once you plug it all in, you turn on and off the power via the on/off switch on the back. This is handy, since you’ll want to power off the dock before inserting or removing a drive.

Drive Insertion

Peering into the dock you’ll see the SATA/Power connections in the bottom of the dock, in the upper left corner.

This placement means a full size disk will fill the dock, and a laptop disk will only be supported on one side.

What this means is you’ll probably want to remove laptop drives from the dock when not in use, since any jolt is going to put stress on the connectors in the dock and the drive itself.

Test Drive

The dock does not require any non-standard drivers, and worked with every OS I have handy (Linux, Windows XP/7, MacOS X) as a standard external USB drive. Other than the the ability to swap drives in and out of the dock, it’s just an external USB disk as far as your computer is concerned.

Speed – USB 2.x vs. 3.0

Most people aren’t going to have any USB 3.0 ports. They’ve been available for more than a year, but most manufacturers have been slow to adopt them because there hasn’t been too much demand for them, or even many peripherals that support them. I happen to have both USB 2.1 and 3.0 ports on my Linux box, so I was able to test the raw transfer speed when using both. I happen to have a pair of fairly speedy half gig Seagate drives – one internally connected via SATA, and the other I put into the Cirago docking station. I tested the read speed of the drive when connected to SATA, and when docked connected to USB 2.0 and 3.0:

• Internal SATA:  73MB/sec read
• USB 2.0:  32.5MB/sec
• USB 3.0: 55MB/sec

These are sustained read speeds, not cached reads. The internal test shows the limit of the drive itself, while the two USB tests show that even with USB 3.0, the drive is faster than the USB link. However, it also shows that you’ll get nearly twice the speed out of a USB 3.0 connection, and that’s nothing to sneeze at. The fly in this speed ointment is that you’ll actually need a drive that can keep up with those speeds, and most drives do well to maintain 40MB/sec on write – not much faster than USB 2.0 can deliver. Small 2.5″ laptop drives are generally even slower. Depending on what you cram into the dock, you may see only marginal speed improvements even if you do have a USB 3.0 port on your computer.

Parting Dock

This was one of those products I didn’t know I really needed. While reviewing the Cirago Hard Drive docking station, I found that I actually have a decent pile of raw SATA drives laying around due to upgrades. The ability to toss one into the dock and use it for a backup without hassling with using one of my drive enclosures was amazingly useful.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Hard Drive, HDD Dock, USB 3.0

Cirago USB 3.0 Hard Drive Docking Station Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 20, 2010 at 11:09 am.

Adding additional file storage to your desktop and laptop computers is a snap these days with the variety of USB hard drives that are on the market. Seagate is a brand that I’ve come to trust over the years, so when they asked if I would like to take a look at their FreeAgent GoFlex Home Networked Drive and their GoFlex Ultra-Portable drives, I was happy to do so. Let’s check them out.

FreeAgent GoFlex Home Network Storage System

The FreeAgent GoFlex Home drive is perfect for families with several computers. Once setup, it will allow up to 3 computers on your home network to wirelessly access the drive for automatic backups and file sharing. It’s available in 1 and 2 TB capacities and compatible with both Windows and Mac computers including a mixture of both.  It can also stream media to networked players and game consoles.

Package Contents

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Home Hard Drive
Network Dock
Ethernet Cable
Power Supply
Quick Start Guide
Install CD

The first thing you notice about the GoFlex Home is that there are no obvious connectors, buttons or LEDs on the drive. It’s just a large shiny Black plastic brick.

But then you turn it over and see the special connector on the bottom.

The drive plugs into the included network dock, which has 2 Status LEDs on the front…

And a power button, AC adapter port, Ethernet port and a USB port on the back.  The USB port can be used to share a printer with your home network or for additional USB file storage.

Setting up this drive is pretty simple. All you need is a free Ethernet jack on your wireless router, a free wall outlet for power and a computer to setup the drive. The setup consists of inserting the included CD in a Windows or Mac computer (an iMac in my case) and following the prompts.

Step 1 registers your drive and allows you to create an account so that you can access the drive from a browser. Step 2 installs some optional desktop applications for the Mac that are basically just shortcuts to the drive through your browser and finder windows. Windows users will get a copy of Memeo backup software and Seagate Dashboard software.

This is the interface that you’ll use to access the GoFlex Home drive through a web browser such as Firefox on the Mac.

Through this interface, you can see all your files, create new folders, copy files into folders, etc. You can also create shares which are like playlists of files on the Home drive. Deleting a file from a share does not delete it from the Home drive. But deleting a file from the Home drive will delete it in any Share that it happens to be part of.

The web interface allows for thumbnail viewing.

There’s a slide show interface and a music player interface for your audio files.

The web interface is fine, but I prefer to work in the regular OS X finder (file manager) because you can’t easily drag and drop files into folders in the browser. You have to click on the folder, then choose upload, then click the drag and drop link, then drag and drop the file. That is too many steps in my opinion.

During the setup process, three folders are automatically created on the GoFlex Home drive for you:

•    A Public folder, where files can be stored and accessed by everyone on your home network.
•    A Personal folder that only you can access, where you can store personal or private files that you don’t want anyone else on your home network to see.
•    A Backup folder that only you can access, where all your backup files are stored.

Once I setup the drive, it was then automatically visible on all the other computers on my home network. I didn’t have to install any special software, it just showed up in the Shared drives section of the finder. I did have to connect using the account name / password that I created via the setup process though. From there, I could access all the files with no problems.

The drive has Gigabit Ethernet, but the speed of copying files to and from the drive will depend on how strong your WiFi signal is and what other traffic you have on network at the time you’re accessing the drive. That said, it didn’t feel overly speedy or sluggish copying files to and from my computer to the drive. The drive speed seems middle of the road on my system. It’s important to note that my router is only 802.11G.

File copy tests

3.4GB folder of video files copied from iMac to GoFlex Home = 6 minutes 7 seconds.
3.4GB folder of video files copied from GoFlex Home to iMac  = 5 minutes 32 seconds.

I tested this drive with my Popcorn Hour C-200 media player and was very happy to see the GoFlex listed under the networked drives list. It didn’t require me to login with the user name and password which I found really cool. I tested streaming some video files from the GoFlex Home to the Popcorn Hour via WiFi (dlna) and am sorry to report that it had problems with pausing and stuttering on a couple different video files that I tried. I’ve not had problems like this when sharing files wirelessly from the internal hard drive on my iMac with the Popcorn hour (via Samba), so I’m not going to completely blame it on the fact that I don’t have an 802.11n wireless router. I had the same issue watching videos on other computers on my network via WiFi too – but the stuttering was very subtle.

If you’re looking for networked drive capable of streaming video, I’d pass on this drive. That said, I’ve enjoyed testing this drive. I found setup to be very fast and painless and I’ve had no issues copying files to and from multiple computers on my home network and through the internet. I think it would be useful in a multi-computer household for file backups and file sharing.

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-Portable USB 3.0 Drives

If you’re looking for extra storage that you can easily take with you, these ultra-portable drives should do the trick nicely.

Package Contents

GoFlex Ultra-Portable Drive
GoFlex USB 3.0 Interface Adapter
18 inch USB 3.0 cable
Quick Start Guide

The two FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-Portable drives that Seagate sent me look the same except that one is 22mm thick and the other is 14.5mm. They are available in capacities from 320GB to 1.5TBs and in Black, Blue, Red and Silver shell colors. I was sent a 1.5TB 22mm thick drive and a 14.5mm 1TB drive. Both in Black.

Here they are stacked on top of each other.

If you take a look at the adapter that is connected to the back of the drive, you’ll see that it looks different than the good old mini and micro USB connectors that we’ve been used to seeing all these years. That’s because these drives are USB 3.0, which is up to 10x faster than 2.0. Don’t have a computer that supports 3.0 yet? Me neither… It’s ok though, these drives also work with 2.0.

Wish you could use an interface different than USB? You’re in luck. These drives are unique because you can use the same drive with USB 2.0, 3.0, Firewire 800 or eSATA. All you have to do is replace the adapter. There’s also a networked desktop dock that can hold two of the ultra-portable drives. The sample drives ship with the USB 3.0 cable, but I also have a Firewire 800 cable to test with.

File copy tests

3.4GB folder of video files copied from iMac to GoFlex via USB 2.0 (using 3.0 cable) = 3 minutes 25 seconds.
3.4GB folder of video files copied from GoFlex to iMac via USB 2.0 (using 3.0 cable) = 2 minutes 41 seconds.

3.4GB folder of video files copied from iMac to GoFlex via Firewire 800 = 1 minute 1 second.
3.4GB folder of video files copied from GoFlex to iMac via Firewire 800 = 1 minute 16 seconds.

Both drives performed about the same as far as file copying speed.

My favorite feature of the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-Portable hard drives is the ability to customize how you connect it to your computer. The interchangeable interface adapter cable allows you to switch from USB 2.0, 3.0, Firewire 800 and eSATA. You can even turn them into networked drives with the Net Media Device dock. Performance and pricing aren’t bad either.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Hard Drive, Network, USB 3.0

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Hard Drives Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 15, 2010 at 9:11 pm.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I rarely use the CD drive in my iMac or Macbook Pro. 99.9% of the time, I download software instead of buying CDs. And I don’t watch DVDs on my devices either. OWC has a cool product that will let you ditch your optical drive for something that you might use more often – more disk space. With their $79.99 do-it-yourself Data Doubler kit for the Mac mini (2009) and iMac (2009/2010), you can replace the internal optical drive with a second hard drive or Solid State Drive for up to 750GB additional internal capacity or a RAID array. Check their site for compatibility info.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Do-It-Yourself, News

Tagged: DIY, Hard Drive, mac, Spotlight Gadgets

Add a 2nd internal HD to your Mac mini or iMac originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 31, 2010 at 8:00 am.

Seagate introduces the world’s first 1.5TB ultra portable external drive. The new FreeAgent GoFlex drive offers USB 3.0 connectivity that has the ability to transfer a 25GB file in under five minutes versus the 14 minutes it would take using a traditional USB 2.0 drive. 1.5TB can comfortably hold up to 60 HD movies, 750 video games, thousands of photos or tens of thousands hours of digital music. It even comes pre-loaded with a blockbuster Paramount film (I’m not sure what the film is though…). The drive is available now for $229.99.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Hard Drive, Spotlight Gadgets, USB

Seagate puts 1TB in your Pocket originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 21, 2010 at 7:30 pm.

OWC just started shipping their new SSDs with the SandForce SF1232 processor. It comes in two versions. One designed for “prosumers” carrying a 3-year warranty, and another for high-performance RAID arrays with a 5-year warranty. The prosumer version comes in 60 GB to a whopping 480 GB capacity. Of course that 480 GB capacity also comes with a whopping $1,599.99 price tag.

The new processor offers high-capacity and up to 285 MB/s data rates. What does this mean? Fast. I like the video sample of side-by-side boot and application launch. I imagine there will come a day soon when we think of the physical hard drive the same way we think of the Floppy Disk drive. The price still needs to drop for me, though this demo is very tempting.

Filed in categories: Miscellaneous, News

Tagged: Hard Drive, ssd

OWC Ships Extreme Pro SSD originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 15, 2010 at 5:15 pm.

If you’ve been worried that your portable hard drive isn’t fashionable enough, then Iomega has come to your rescue with their new Skin line of USB drives. They are offering three unique designs and 500GB capacity. These drives offer Drop Guard protection feature that helps protect the drive when dropped from up to 51″. The drives also include Protection Suite software that offers backup and anti-virus software. All three Skin Hard Drive models retail for $119.99 each. Full press release after the jump.

Iomega Shows Some Skin with Exciting New Portable Hard Drives

***

Three Hip, Unique Designs for Expressing Your Own Style And Storing All Your Videos, Photos and Music

Make Colorful New Drives More than Just Your Parents Portable Storage

SAN DIEGO, June 21, 2010 – Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the launch of the exciting new line of Iomega® Skin™ branded Hard Drives, three different 500GB* portable hard drives that pop with unique designs and colors that scream, “Who says portable storage has to be boring?”

In conjunction with the popular Skin Industries, one of the leading alternative “Sports Fashion” brands in America today, Iomega’s new Skin Hard Drives feature three compact personal storage models with custom Skin-branded graphics that stand out in a burst of hip culture compared to anything else in the hard drive market today.

“The new Iomega Skin Drives exude an alternative personality with eye-catching Skin Industries graphics that demand the attention of anyone who doesn’t accept the status quo, who zigs when others zag, especially when it comes to the look and design of their digital devices,” said Jonathan Huberman, President of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC.  “Iomega’s new Skin Drives deliver that kind of excitement in a lightweight, compact design with the quality features people expect from Iomega, including industry-leading ruggedness to protect your data and a top-tier software suite bundled free of charge with every Skin Hard Drive.  That’s an unbeatable personal storage combination for tech-savvy students and young professionals alike.”

Iomega Skin Hard Drives

There are three different models in the new Iomega Skin Hard Drive line.  All three models are USB 2.0-powered 500GB portable hard drives.

The “Radical” Skin Hard Drive model has a retro Skin-branded printed logo design on a black top with a vibrant yellow base, creating a look that stands apart from any other portable hard drive.

The “Red Hot” Skin Hard Drive model features a “Skin” Swipe logo printing on a red top with a black base, creating a definition of hip and hot for today’s young iconoclastic computer user.

The “Knock Out” Skin Hard Drive model has a dark, mysterious aura with a “Skin” Gothic logo design on a silver top with a black base.  One look at this portable hard drive beauty and envious friends and co-workers could be down for the count.

Al Borda, CEO of Skin Industries, said, “We continue to build on the lifestyle tradition of Skin Industries. As the CEO, I like to think ahead and focus on the future in everything we do for the company.  With the release of the exciting new Skin hard drives and joining with Iomega, this is another step forward for Skin to become more than just a clothing company.”

The new Iomega Skin Hard Drives will be featured in a July window display at J&R Music and Computer World’s flagship store on Park Row in New York City.

“Young people today are looking for something different in everything they buy and use,” said Rachelle Friedman, President and Co-CEO, J&R Music and Computer World, downtown New York City.  “At J&R, we’re always looking for unique and exciting products for our customers.  Iomega’s new Skin portable hard drives not only have personality and style compared to other hard drives in the market today, they also deliver on the functionality that’s required of a quality portable hard drive – plenty of space for music, photos and videos, as well as rugged, dependable and easy-to-use.  Put it all together and the new Iomega Skin Drives are a great new addition to J&R’s computer peripheral offerings.”

Self-Powered Drives with Plenty of Room for Lots of Multimedia Files

All three of the new Skin Hard Drives are perfect for slipping into a laptop bag or pocket to take anywhere your laptop goes.  Best of all, the USB interface on the Skin Hard Drives require no external power supply.  Just connect the included USB 2.0 cable to your Skin Hard Drive and your laptop, netbook or desktop and you are ready to store and share photos, music, videos and more.

To appreciate how much data can be stored on a new 500GB Iomega Skin Hard Drive, users have enough capacity to hold up to 200,000 photos, over 125,000 songs or more than 190 hours of video**.

As Rugged as You Wanna Be!

All three of the new Skin Hard Drives feature Iomega’s standard Drop Guard™ protection, which helps guard the drive from accidental drops of up to 51 inches on to industrial carpet – or 40% better than the industry average.

Iomega Protection Suite Software Included Free With New Skin Drives

Included free of charge with all three of Iomega’s new Skin Hard Drives is the Iomega Protection Suite, a one-stop portfolio of backup and anti-virus software giving users added protection for their photos, videos, music and other files.

The Iomega Protection Suite includes:

• A complementary 12 month subscription to Trend Micro™ Internet Security for the PC, or Trend Micro™ Smart Surfing software for Mac.
• Iomega QuikProtect: backup software for simple scheduled file-level backup of data to hard drives and network-attached storage devices (for Windows and Mac desktops and notebooks).
• Retrospect® Express software: backup all of your data plus applications and settings (for Windows and Mac desktops and notebooks).
• MozyHome™ Online Backup service: Convenient online backup service with 2GB of online capacity for free (unlimited online storage for $4.95/month).  MozyHome Online service allows you to restore your most important data from any computer with internet access, at any location in the world.

All of the software elements in the Iomega Protection Suite are accessible via easy download to Skin Drive owners.

Pricing, Availability and Warranty

The new Iomega Skin Hard Drives are available today in the U.S. at select retailers, etailers and at www.iomega.com.  All three Skin Hard Drive models retail for $119.99 each.  (Pricing is U.S. suggested retail.) Iomega’s new Skin Hard Drives also will be available next month in select European markets.

Iomega’s new Skin Hard Drives include a 3-year limited warranty (with registration).

For more information on the new Iomega Skin Drives as well as Iomega’s complete line of portable and desktop direct-attached hard drives, please go to www.iomega.com.  Be sure to learn more and discuss Iomega’s new products on our social media sites found at www.iomega.com/social.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world’s leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC’s products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

About Iomega

Iomega Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of EMC Corporation headquartered in San Diego, is a worldwide leader in innovative storage and network security solutions for small businesses, home offices, consumers and others. The Company has sold more than 425 million digital storage drives and disks since its inception in 1980. Today, Iomega’s product portfolio includes industry leading network attached storage products for the home and small business; one of the industry’s broadest selections of direct-attached portable and desktop external hard drives; and the ScreenPlay™ family of multimedia drives that makes it easy to move video, pictures and other files from the computer room to the livingroom. To learn about all of Iomega’s digital storage products and managed services solutions, please go to the Web at www.iomega.com. Resellers can visit Iomega at www.iomega.com/ipartner.

NOTE: This release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined under the Federal Securities Laws.  Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iii) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; (iv) risks associated with managing the growth of our business, including risks associated with acquisitions and investments and the challenges and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving anticipated synergies; (v) fluctuations in VMware, Inc.’s operating results and risks associated with trading of VMware stock; (vi) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures and new product introductions; (vii) the relative and varying rates of product price and component cost declines and the volume and mixture of product and services revenues; (viii) component and product quality and availability; (ix) the transition to new products, the uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and rapid technological and market change; (x) insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; (xi) war or acts of terrorism; (xii) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (xiii) fluctuating currency exchange rates; and (xiv) other one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in EMC’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  EMC disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

# # #

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Hard Drive, Spotlight Gadgets, USB

Iomega Shows Some Skin with Exciting New Portable Hard Drives originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 21, 2010 at 9:54 am.

Iomega recently announced the worldwide availability of a new generation of single-drive Iomega eGo portable and desktop hard drives, including a new smaller Compact model with up to 1TB in capacity, new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 portable and desktop models, and new high capacity FireWire® 800 Mac edition portable and desktop HDDs with up to 2TB of capacity. Bundled free of charge with all of Iomega’s new eGo drives is the Iomega Protection Suite, a one-stop portfolio of backup and anti-virus software giving users added protection for their photos, videos, music and other files.  Capacities, colors and prices vary, see the Iomega site for details.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, Miscellaneous

Tagged: Hard Drive

New Iomega eGo hard drive models originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 4, 2010 at 8:00 am.

I’ve been looking for a SATA drive docking station that’s both easy to use and reasonably inexpensive.  A while back I looked at the Startech unit, but it seemed more than necessary for a home application.  Today I have the Cirago docking station and it may be the answer to my requirements.

Highlights of the device:

• USB 2 interface
• USB hub with 2 USB 2.0 ports
• Supports 2.5″ and 3.5″ SATA I/II hard drives
• Memory Card Reader supports SD/MMC, Memory Stick/Compact flash and XD cards
• Windows, MAC and Linux support
• One-touch backup button with included software.

In the box are the device, USB cable, power brick and backup software plus a quick start guide.

Access to the ports is available at the front of the CDD1000.

In the back are the power and interface connectors.  A power switch can also be accessed in the back.

The CDD1000 accepts both 2.5 and 3.5″ drives which can easily be inserted from the top.  Then there is the totally superfluous red “backup” button.  I’ll get to it later in the review.

For the test drive I used both a Windows XP and Vista system with the results being the same.  Following the installation instructions, I connected the power adapter and plugged the USB cable into a port on the PC.  I then flipped the power switch and the CDD1000 showed up as a removable disk under My Computer.  This is the card reader and it should be noted that you can ONLY insert one memory card into the device at a time.  I did try both an SD card and memory stick, but with both inserted, nothing was recognized.

The next step was to insert a 500 GB 3.5″ Sata drive.  I did and nothing happened.  Apparently the device is not hot swappable, so I had to turn the power off and then back on.  Now the SATA drive was seen as a local disk.  This became rather annoying because every time I swapped the SATA disk I had to turn the device off, which meant anything I had plugged into the card reader or USB ports stopped working.   I used the convenience of the 2 USB ports to connect my scanner and printer which shutdown every time I swapped the drive.  Speaking of the USB ports, although there are 2 on the front of the CDD1000, you only gain one extra for your system, because you’ll have to use a port on the PC to plug in the device.

If the SATA drive you are accessing via the CD1000 is new and has no partitions, the included instructions are very helpful in stepping you through the process of performing a partition and format operation under the Windows operating system.  I already had partitioned drives so nothing further was necessary to access them.  To stress test the CDD1000, I copied multiple files back and forth between the SATA drive, SD card, drives plugged into the USB ports and the PC.  No problems.  I also ran a back up of my system using True Image 11 from the system disk to the external 3.5″ drive and again no issues.

Now for the big red button.  Its only function is to initiate an application that must be loaded into the system for backups.  After loading PCCLONE EX lite, which comes with the CDD1000, pushing the red button will begin the backup operation.  Without the software, the button does nothing.   I found this marginally useful, if at all, because I could get the same results using my already loaded backup software and even after pushing the button, I was required to use the mouse to begin the backup.

My take on the CDD1000 hard Drive Docking Station is it is useful, if you have internal SATA drives you need to access without having to open up your PC, and the card reader and USB ports are a plus, but is tempered by a couple of shortcomings.  One is the requirement to turn the device off to insert or remove a drive.  Secondly, I’ve looked around and if one looks hard enough you can find a combination price of a SATA drive and a docking station which makes the CDD1000 price seem a little high.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Hard Drive, USB

Cirago Hard Drive Docking Station with Card Reader CDD1000 Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 24, 2010 at 3:00 pm.

Have you ever wondered if there was a device that was both a dual external drive dock AND a stand a lone duplicator?  Yeah….neither have I, but I found the StarTech SATDOCK22R and will see how this niche product works and what it may do for the home computer user.

I really had to scratch my head to find a way to check this thing out.  What I came up with is that I needed to replace the main drive on my desktop with something larger.  At the moment I have a 250 MB drive and it’s pretty much full.  I purchased a 1 TB drive and normally would have used True Image to clone it in the desktop, but now I’ll attempt to use the Startech unit to make a copy.

What it will do:

• Hot Swap compatible, simple drive insertion and ejection

• LED progress indicator for cloning status

• Plug-and-play installation

• Sector by Sector copying

• Supports both SATA 2.5in and SATA 3.5in hard drives without any adapters

• Supports high-speed USB 2.0 transfer rates up to 480Mbps between dock and host computer

• Supports SATA I/II (SATA 150/300) HDDs up to 2.0 TB in capacity

Yes, it comes with mains adapters for US, UK and European standards.

There are two Sata drive slots- source and destination.  In addition we find the power, dock/duplicator mode and start buttons.  The led display indicates the percent completion for a cloning operation.

Power and USB receptacles are on the back plus 2 knock outs for what I presume are different versions of the device.  StartTech lists various docking solutions using what appears to be the same packaging as this one.

Before I was going to copy my system drive, I thought it best to attempt to duplicate the second internal drive I have.  This is a 500 MB Sata drive containing some backup files.  I put this drive in the source slot of the duplicator and the new 1 TB drive in the destination slot which, in one of the above stock photos reads “object” slot.

Remember, this is not connected to any computer and the only cable to the device is power.  I pressed the power button and after the drives had spun up ( as indicated by blue leds next to the slots), I held down the Dup/PC button for 3 seconds to put the device into duplicator mode.  Now that everything was set up, I pressed the start button and waited…..and waited…..and waited.  For 2 hours I stared at the led progress bar as it slooooowly moved up the scale.  It took 2 hours for the 500 MB drive to be copied to the 1 TB drive.

After plugging the 1 TB drive into the PC, I came up with the above configuration.  The StarTech duplicator did what it was supposed to.  It copied the 500 GB partition to the 1 TB drive and left half the drive unallocated.

To get some sort of comparison, I decided to copy/clone my system drive using the TrueImage application.  Now I would be copying a 250 GB drive to the 1 TB drive.  This took about 1 hour which is comparable to the hardware duplicator, because of the size difference.

However, as illustrated by the above screen shot, the software automatically resized the partitions proportionally.  It meant I didn’t have to fool around with a partitioning utility.

The StarTech device also acts as a Sata hard drive dock.  To convert from duplicator you just insure the mode is correct and then plug the supplied USB cable between the dock and the computer.

Drive F: in the above, is the original 500 GB drive and drive G: and H: are the partitions from my original 250 MB system drive.  I was able to access all the drive without problem.  The docking capability works as advertised.

Unless you’re an OEM, System Integrator, IT Tech or the like, this probably isn’t for you.  You can achieve the same results with some software and much cheaper drive dock.  If you are looking to increase the size of your system drive, look for a drive dock combo.  They’re available all the time from many online retailers.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Hard Drive, USB

StarTech SATDOCK22R USB to SATA Standalone Hard Drive Dock Duplicator Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 30, 2010 at 12:13 pm.

The Aegis Padlock is an external USB hard drive that is protected PIN number that you punch into the built in keypad. No software installs are required to setup your AES encrypted PIN numbers. Up to 10 different PINs and one admin PIN can be created and the drives are available in 250, 320 and 500GB capacities with either 128 or 256-bit encryption. The prices range from $99 – $159.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Hard Drive, Security, Spotlight Gadgets, USB

Keypad Protected USB Hard Drive originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 23, 2010 at 12:58 pm.

Seagate’s new 500GB BlackArmor PS 110 portable external hard drive with the performance kit which includes a USB 3.0 PC Card, will give you three times more speed over pokey USB 2.0. Faster is always better, so you know you want one. They are available now directly from Seagate for $179.99.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Hard Drive, Spotlight Gadgets, USB

Step up to USB 3.0 with a Seagate BlackArmor PS 110 External HD originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 5, 2010 at 9:03 pm.

Back in the day, I was in Military Intelligence (no need try, I have heard all the jokes…..). We used some very expensive computer drive technologies to securely store classified materials digitally. This was when storage was measured in kilobytes (maybe megabytes), Photoshop 3 was just released, and a powerpoint presentation fit on a floppy disc. Our computer system (COMPUSEC) regulations required the hard drives be stored in a safe each evening (physical security vs encryption or both). We used hardened removable drives that were clunky, unreliable, and very expensive. So, when I was asked if I would like to try out the DataPort SecureDock from CRU-DataPort the Intel-geek in me got all excited to try this removable hard drive with military-grade encryption.

The SecureDock includes a DataPort 10 Secure and the SecureDock housing. CRU-DataPort’s 10 secure caddy is meant to be installed in a desktop’s 5.25-inch bay. But for us laptop users, CRU-DataPort also has the accompanying SecureDock which enables the DataPort 10 secure caddy to act as a hardened, encrypted external hard drive. The DataPort 10 allows you to use any 3.5-inch hard drive; CRU-DataPort has engineered the enclosure to support any SATA drive. The overall build quality of both the caddy and dock are very good, the rugged all-aluminum construction provides great protection and cooling of the hard drive.

- 1 DataPort frame assembly (SecureDock)
- 1 DataPort carrier assembly (DataPort Secure)
- 1 Power supply
- 1 Metal cover
- 1 USB cable
- 1 Serial ATA cable
- 1 Nylon screw for carrier cover (extra)
- 5 #6-32 x 1/4 flat head screws for drive mounting
- 4 M3 x 5 pan head screws for frame installation
- 3 USB dongles
- 2 Keys for lock

The drive-housing is designed to slide easily into the dock. Both the housing and dock are constructed out of a thick, heavy duty aluminum. CRU-DataPort includes two keys for securing/locking the drive in the bay. The SecureDock is available with no drive, 500Mb, 1Tb, 1.5Tb, and 2Tb hard drives preinstalled.

The interconnect appears to be well engineered and is warranted for 30k insertions. You can see there is a fan in the rear of the enclosure and cutout in the back of the caddy; they are engineered to allow warm air surrounding the hard drive to be vented out of the back of the caddy. The only negative I have with the DataPort caddy/SecureDock system is how loud it is. It is the loudest drive/fan I have used in years. Much louder than any other piece of electronics I have in my office. When installed in the 5.25″ bay of a desktop, the DataPort 10 uses the computer’s fans to cool itself and would hopefully be much quieter (depending on how silent your box is).

As stated above, the DataPort use military-grade AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 128-bit encryption (AES 128 is Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) approved). To reduce bottlenecking, CRU-DataPort designed the system with a dedicated processor inside the caddy to take care of the encryption and decryption. Instead of managing accessibility within the drive itself or the host system; the DataPort uses a small mini USB dongle (three are included in the box) as the decryption key. The drive is useless unless one of the pre-programmed security keys (USB dongle) is inserted into the USB port on the front of the SecureDock. The system encrypts the entire hard drive, including boot sector, OS, temp and swap files.

The back of the DataPort looks like many other external hard drives; power, e-SATA (1.5 Gb/sec), USB (480Mb/sec) ports, and a power switch. Funny thing was, the power switch did cause me a bit of confusion. The confusing part was the fact that the switch did not turn off the drive. So, I called CRU-DataPort to find out if I was doing something wrong or received a defective drive. I come to find out, that my review unit was from CRU-DataPort’s first production release, follow on releases do not have the power switch on the back.

Power is controlled via the lock & key mechanism on the front of the DataPort frame. According to the person I talked with at CRU-DataPort, the logic behind this is that when you power down the drive, the drive should be removed and physically placed in a secure location (due to the fact either the enclosure or computer the DataPort caddy is in could be taken). So, if you went to the nth-degree, your data should incredibly protected….military-grade AES 128 encryption, removing and locking the drive, etc.

CRU-DataPort sell both blank USB keys and an AES Key Programmer which can copy the key from a master dongle to up to four new units.

In today’s day and time, a slow hard drive (encrypted or not) is more or less useless. Thankfully the DataPort has been tested for 3Gb/s full duplex operation, which (according to CRU-DataPort) delivers up to 600MB/s in certain applications. Even with constant encryption going on, the CRU-DataPort drive’s transfer speed is equal to the zippy external Buffalo DriveStation I reviewed last year.

The SecureDock is many times the cost of a typical external drive (ranging from $240 for just the enclosure and DataPort Secure (aka no hard drive) to over $600 for the 2tb SecureDock)….there are definitely less costly data storage options available if you do not need this high level of security. That factor aside, if you do have the need for a portable, secure, encrypted hard drive the CRU-DataPort SecureDock is definitely worth the cost.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear

Tagged: Hard Drive

CRU-DataPort’s SecureDock Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 9, 2009 at 7:25 am.

Earlier this year, we reviewed the Clickfree Portable Backup drive. Now they have an even smaller solution with more features. The new Clickfree C2 is a Windows and Mac OS X compatible drive. It is available in 250 or 500GB capacities and has a built in USB cable that snaps into the body when not being used. The C2 is able to automatically import music from iPods and iPhones, burn backed up files to CDs and DVDs, extract and organize all email attachments and protect files with encryption.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: Backup, Hard Drive, Spotlight Gadgets, USB

Lose your Sidekick data? Don’t let the same thing happen to your PC – Clickfree C2 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 13, 2009 at 10:29 am.

OWC has announced today its newest OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro model – the first FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 bus powered 2.5″ portable drive offering 1TB of storage capacity in a pocket-sized portable storage solution for Mac or PC users.  It features data transfer speeds up to 100MB/s and is bus powered so it can be used without an AC adapter. The OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro 1TB model can hold up to 1,000,000 JPEG photos, 500 DVD movies, 76 hours of digital video, or 350,000 MP3 songs in its stylish, impact resistant acrylic case. How much will it cost you to carry around 1TB? An equally whopping $359.99 if you want Firewire 400, 800 and USB. Just want USB, then you can grab one for $299.99.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear

Tagged: Hard Drive, Spotlight Gadgets, USB

Is that 1TB in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 1, 2009 at 9:56 pm.

The package from UPS weighed over 15 pounds! I don’t get to review a lot of things that go THUD when I put the box down, so I was excited from the start to review this drive that claims to keep your data safe in fires and floods. Plans for barbecuing the hard drive flitted through my mind as I plotted how to best destroy a nearly indestructible hard drive! I was sent the IoSafe Solo 500Gb USB Hard Drive with Disaster Protection to review.

The basic specs are:

• Quiet forced air cooling.
• Multi-platform compatibility: Windows, Mac and Linux
• USB 2.0, 7200 RPM, up to 480Mb/s
• Size: 5.0″W x 7.1″H x 11.0″L, weight: 15 lbs
• Fire protection — 1550° F, 1/2 hour per ASTM E119
• Tested per UL, FCC and CE Standards
• Flood / submersion protection — to 10 feet water depth, 3 days.
• Proven data protection and recovery. Tested to ASTM E119 standards for fire exposure.
• Physical theft protection
• Box includes: Drive, USB cable, power cable, instructions

System Requirements are:

• Intel Pentium II 350 Mhz-compatible or Mac G3 processor & greater
• Microsoft Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS 8.6 & greater
• USB equipped system
• For USB 2.0 speeds, the system must support USB 2.0 specifications

Front View- nice LEDs

Back View- Connections, power switch, and riveted serial number plaque

The claims are impressive- 3 feet of fresh or salt water for 10 days, a half an hour at 1,550 degrees F? Solid construction with a bolt hole to allow you to bolt or padlock the unit in place? That’s a lot of security for a $150 500Gb hard drive!

My dreams of baking this thing in an oven were squashed when I read the manual, though. It rightly points out that the IoSafe protects your data, but does not promise that you will instantly be able to recover it. We will talk about this aspect more later.

As a hard drive, the IoSafe works perfectly well. It does not come with back-up software, but back-up and sync software is available all over the place to fit your needs. The drive mounted flawlessly for me with XP quickly finding the needed drivers- a great example of ‘plug and play’. Backing up data goes quickly on the USB 2.0 cable, if your computer supports 2.0. For the purposes of this demo, I just copied the contents of the My Documents folder from my HP Mini 1000, but with 500Gb to play with, I could copy most of my computers to this thing! The Solo is also available in 1 and 1.5Tb versions.

Disaster protection and recovery- these are the big selling points. IoSafe products are designed to protect your data from physical theft, fire, floods, and similar disasters. While companies are a targeted customer, it makes sense for individuals to protect their data as well.

The plan here is that the IoSafe will protect the drive from many kinds of damage- but the user needs to understand that the data may not be immediately accessible. Cables and connectors can melt, some of the circuitry, like the fan, is outside of the ‘vault’ and can be damaged, etc.

If you can mount your drive after a disaster, great! If you cannot, IoSafe offers several Disaster Recovery Plans that give you the support you need with a toll-free number. The packages range from 1 year for free to 5 years for $100. They even offer $1,000 of insurance if they canot recover your data.

When you call, you will be assigned a point person to coordinate your recovery, and they will try to do everything possible over the phone first. If needed, you will be directed to ship your drive to the company so they can do their magic.

Is it better to store your data in a system like this, backed up on site, or to back it up elsewhere? Is this a good option for me or my business? How the heck would I know? But- their site has several good articles to help you design a plan for your company based on many variables, including things like how long you can be without key data.

Now for the fun! I backed up several megs of data to the IoSafe Solo. Let’s mess it up! Here at the Gadgeteer Test Labs and Lemonade Stand, we have lots of high-tech devices that we can bring to bear on this issue, like a deep sink.

After taping over the connectors to help make it easier to reconnect, I put the drive in 7″ of lukewarm water. I added a little hand soap so it will better infiltrate the drive’s guts and to simulate the sort of gunk that would be in flood water. It bubbled a lot! I let it soak for about 30 minutes and drain for a few hours.

Under water, still bubbling several minutes later!

I plugged it in with a little trepidation. The power cable provides 12v at 2A so I was not worried about shocks or anything, but I was a bit concerned that the more exposed circuits might be damaged. When I plugged in the USB cable, the lights on the drive came on and the little chime when you connect things rang, and an hourglass popped up- but nothing loaded for a few minutes.

I left it alone for about fifteen minutes and everything was fine when I returned- drive icon, proper files, everything opened- perfect! While this is not a great test, it does suggest that it will survive worse.

Now for the heat. I’m gonna try to fry an egg on the case! My recipe is to preheat the case with my shop heat gun for as long as I can tolerate the tedium. It goes slowly since the drive has a large mass to help it absorb and dissipate the heat. When the top is warming nicely, I spritzed it a bit with oil, added a couple home-made rings, and fried me some eggs!

Heat test- you can see them setting on the edges a bit already

Heat test- about as done as I am willing to wait!

In hindsight, I should have used a torch because the case kept sucking the heat in instead of letting it heat the eggs, but the basic premise worked- I got the case hot enough to fry up a couple sunny-side up eggs! Dang that was fun! And clean up was a breeze- the metal is polished enough that whatever dribbled onto non-lubed areas just wiped right up. (I’m beginning to sound like a pitchman, aren’t I?)

I let it cool enough to carry, then plugged it in and was not surprised to see that it just loaded right up.

This is not nearly the same thing as surviving a house fire or flood, but I got the sense that the drive was just laughing at my efforts to test it. Between the tests I ran, the promises on the website, and the specifications it is built to, I would have to say that the ioSafe Solo works exactly as advertised.

If you’re interested in buying this product, ioSafe has a rebate page for possible savings.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear

Tagged: Backup, disaster, Hard Drive, protection, recovery

IoSafe Solo USB Hard Drive with Disaster Protection Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 1, 2009 at 7:29 am.

Verbatim has just announced their upcoming line of InSight external USB hard drives, which are unique in that they continuously display their name and available capacity on an LCD display even without power.  As one would expect from a USB HDD, they are Windows and OS X compatible, but the included Nero BackItUp software is Windows-only.

The InSight drives should  be available now in 320GB and 500GB capacities for $119.99 and $149.99 respectively.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear

Tagged: Hard Drive, Spotlight Gadgets, USB

Verbatim announces InSight external HDD originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 17, 2009 at 12:45 pm.

Have you ever experienced a hard drive failure, losing critical data such as pictures and music?  As I begin this review, my main desktop computer is currently on life support and my data is in (little) jeopardy.  Fortunately, I have an external hard drive that I utilized for routine backup. So it is only fitting that I have the opportunity to review the Rebit 1 TB multi-PC backup USB hard drive.  Let’s see what it has to offer.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

• XP Service Pack 2 or Vista
• CD-ROM Disk Drive
• Available USB 2.0 port
• 200 MB available hard disk space

FEATURES:

• Plug and play
• Configuration free – no settings or buttons
• Backs up file versions and open files
• Use software (on supplied CD-ROM) to restore an entire PC hard drive
• Never have to worry about Rebit filling up.  Automatically deletes off oldest backup data if and when hard drive gets full.
• Recovers individual files and folders by drag-and-drop
• Ability to back up 6 different PC’s
• Can disconnect and reconnect, drive will pick up where it left off
• Dimensions:  9″ x 6.5″ x 2.25″
• Weight:  4 lbs.   7 oz.

IN THE BOX:

• Rebit 1 TB Multi-PC Backup USB Hard Drive
• PC Disk Recovery CD-ROM
• USB 2.0 Cable
• Power supply
• Quick Start Instructions
• 1 Year Limited Warranty

Opening the shipping container, I immediately notice the brightly green colored product box.  Rebit’s logo is a frog and the packaging plays nicely off that theme with the eye-catching color choice.  The product packaging provides a great amount of protection with form-fitting material in which the drive and accessories sit snug.  I would have very little concern with the Rebit drive being shipped.

At first glance, I am surprised by the size and the weight of the device.  It is much larger and heavier then the Toshiba and Western Digital portable hard drives that I utilize regularly.  Although I was initially disappointed, this drive is never described as “portable”.  In fact, Rebit markets this as a desktop backup solution and they do have a separate line of portable backup options.  All that said, the size, which is slightly smaller than a standard hardcover book, of the drive should not restrict easy transportation.

The product has a unique shape, with some rounded corners and recessed sections, and is black in color.  The recessed sections work nicely as handle when grabbing the drive.  The exterior shell of the drive provides a robust and sturdy feel, which is always nice when you are depending on the product.  The size and weight also contributes to the feel of dependability.

In terms of external features, there is not much to it.  One end has a power switch, a power adapter connector and a USB port.  That is it.

Speaking of that is it, the user manual is less like a manual and more of a pamphlet or over-sized postcard.  It nicely describes the 3 simple steps (Connect Your Rebit, Click Ok, That’s it) to use the device with easy to understand graphics.  I have honestly never encountered a more simplistic user guide.

So after my initial inspection of the contents in the product’s packaging, I am starting to believe that Rebit’s tag line of “Ridiculously Simple Backup” might actually be more then a clever way to hook potential buyers.  Could this be the backup drive that my mother could utilize?  It is time to check it out.

I connected the power adapter, the USB cable, and turn it on, my computer immediately recognized the device.  A pop-up dialog box presented me the option to “Start Rebit”.

Installation of the pre-loaded software completes and a simple welcome message pops up notifying you that you are ready to go, being protected by Rebit.  Pretty simple installation, just the way I like it.

There is no required step to set-up a backup job or select which directories you want to protect.  Rebit backs everything up.

The drive is recognized and appears under the Hard Disk Drives section of My Computer in Windows Explorer and an icon is placed on the desktop and the taskbar.

Again, notice the use of the frog icon to represent the Rebit drive.

The thing that sets this backup drive apart from others that I have utilized is the ability to use it on multiple computers.  Six being the maximum.  You just disconnect the USB cable from one and plug it into another.  Rebit recognizes the new computer and stores the information from each computer in separate locations accessible under the “My Rebit” menu.

You can also remove a PC from the drive through the “My Rebit” shortcut.

I was concerned with connecting and disconnecting the device from multiple units.  Would the device get confused?  Would I be able to find and restore files from a specific PC?  The Rebit drive’s software is  intelligent enough to know where it left off when it was last connected to a certain computer.

Another example of a benefit of this software is that you never have to worry about the Rebit drive filling up.  If you do have enough data to fill a drive, it will recognize the lack of space and remove the oldest version to make room for the newest version of the data.  No worries, just trust the Rebit drive to do it’s job.

In terms of retrieving data, users have the option to retrieve individual files or complete file folders.  Once the desired file or folder is located on the backup drive, it just a simple drag and drop from the Rebitdrive to the location on your computer.  Rebit does include a software CD that is designed to assist if a complete system restoration is required.

In conclusion, the Rebit 1 TB multi-PC backup USB hard drive is an impressive option to protect the valuable pictures, music and data on your computer.  The ability to use the single drive on multiple computers and for the built-in software to recognize the different computers and segment the data accordingly is nice.  The fact that the drive will delete off old file versions when space is necessary is another feature I have not found in other units.

The price tag is my biggest complaint against this gadget.  At $319.95, it is $150-$200 more than other units with a capacity of 1 TB.  That combined with the fact that the unit requires two connections, USB and an additional power supply, are the only things I can hold against the product.

Even though  the price would initially concern me if I was evaluating the Rebit against others in the market, after many weeks of use I am confident that device is worth the extra money.  It is far and away the easiest backup utility I have ever used.  I found the Rebit 1 TB multi-PC backup USB hard drive lived up to it’s tag line of a “Ridiculously Simple Backup”.  Yes, I even think my mom could set-up this product to use on her computer.  Although I might have to convince my dad to have faith in her and the simplicity of the product.

I now trust the Rebit hard drive to back up all five computers in my house.  Even my brand new desktop (Yes, my old desktop finally died).

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear

Tagged: Backup Drive, Hard Drive, PC, USB

Rebit 1 TB Multi-PC Backup USB Hard Drive Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 6, 2009 at 8:27 am.

We all know that to be healthy we should exercise every day and drink plenty of water. But how many of us actually take this advice instead of making excuses or saying something like “I’ll start at the first of the month…”? It’s the same thing with backing up the files on your computer. We all know we should do it, but how many of you shrug your shoulders and say “I’ll set something up next week…” or “I’ve never had a hard drive failure, so I’ll be fine…”? 

After my own laziness caused me to learn a painful lesson a couple years ago, I finally bought an external hard drive and software. Then using the software, I setup a schedule to automatically back up my files every night at a specific time. None of this was particularly difficult, but I know there are people out there who are even lazier than I am. For these people the solution has to be dirt simple, plug and play, fool proof. Mac users have enjoyed backup simplicity with Time Machine, and now Windows users have the Seagate Replica PC Backup Appliance.

There are two versions of the Seagate Replica. A 500GB multi-PC version that also comes with a dock and a 250GB single PC version. I was sent the multi-PC version to review.

Package Contents

Seagate Replica 500GB external USB hard drive
Desktop dock
Short USB cable
CD with restore software

The sleek looking drive has a smooth aluminum cover with the Seagate logo etched at the top.

The back is made of slightly rubberized feeling Black plastic.

There’s a mini USB connector recessed on the bottom along with two holes for the desktop dock.

The dock has a shiny Black base and a dual USB cable.

A nice touch is the ability to route the USB cable either out the side or back of the dock.

For some reason, this drive reminds me of a toaster. Yes, I’m warped…

A long thin Blue LED along the top seam of the drive lights up and blinks during data transfer. For all my testing, I used the single USB cable to connect the drive to my computers. I’m not quite sure why the desktop dock requires two USB cables instead of one.

To use this drive, all you need to do is plug it into your Windows XP or Vista machine. All the necessary software will install automatically after you answer the registration questions.

Once the software has installed, it will immediately begin backing up your files – all of your files. The entire operating system, your pictures, your music, everything. The back up will require no intervention from you and there are no special settings. You don’t have to tell it when to back up and what specific files to back up. It just does it automatically. Remember those one button backup systems that have been all the rage? Well, this is better because there are no buttons. You just plug it in and you’re done. You don’t even have to tell it to start backing things up, it just starts on its own.

The initial backup does take awhile. I didn’t actually time it on the two laptops that I tested, but it seemed to take a over 2hrs or so to backup 9GB on my HP mini 1000 netbook (running XP) and several hours to backup 40GB on the HP Touchsmart TX2 (running Vista).

The only indicator that something is happening can be found when you hover your cursor over the icon in the task tray.

If it is backing up files when you do this, you’ll see a status of how many files are remaining to be backed up. If it’s not backing up anything, it will tell you the date and time it was last backed up. Right clicking this icon will give you just a few basic options. You can open the Replica drive in a file manager, safely disconnect the drive, set a password, remove a PC, select drives to backup and check for updates to the backup software.

Opening the drive shows you all the files on the Replica drive. You can traverse the folders like you would any other drive and you can copy them back to your computer’s hard drive. You can not copy or delete files on the Replica drive though. It is nice that it’s protected so that you can’t inadvertently wipe something out.

If all the Replica drive did was keep a constant mirror of your hard drive, it would be great. But it does a lot more than that. It actually keeps multiple versions of files and system recovery points in case you need to restore the entire hard drive to rebuild your system.

Even if you delete a file on your PC’s hard drive, the file will still be there on the Replica, so that you can restore it if needed. Multiple versions of the same file will show a date and time stamp in the name. This drive uses something called Neverfull technology to make sure that it doesn’t run out of room from saving multiple versions of really old files. When it needs to make room for newer ones, it will delete older copies as needed.

I’m impressed with the Seagate Replica PC Backup Appliance. I love the plug it in and walk away setup routine that is so easy your grandma could do it. It’s whisper quiet, doesn’t get in the way of day to day tasks and is always in the background keeping copies of your data. With this product like this one, there’s no longer any excuses for not backing up your hard drive.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptops and Gear

Tagged: Backup, Hard Drive, USB

Seagate Replica PC Backup Appliance Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 30, 2009 at 1:00 am.

Bloated, but in a good way Western Digital’s My Book Studio Edition, My Book Mac Edition, My Book Home Edition and My Book Essential Edition models are all now available in 2 TB capacities. They aren’t using two 1 TB drives, they are using one 2 TB drive. Wowza. That’s a lot of bytes!

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear

Tagged: Firewire, Hard Drive, Spotlight Gadgets, USB

WD’s My Book External Drive Family Is Feeling Bloated originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 26, 2009 at 4:35 pm.