All Hard disk drives (HDD) Feeds

LaCie Little Disk

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Sporting a design by Sam Hecht, whose award-winning genius was able to come up with... a black oblong that looks almost exactly like one of those £5 laptop drive cases from eBay.

Nice one, Sam. It's pleasant enough, plus it has an integrated USB cable. It tucks discreetly inside the case, a real boon to portability, but if the cable breaks you're screwed.

Still, file transfer times were quite speedy.

Fujitsu HandyDrive III

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Chunkier than most rivals, and slower in file transfer tests (by a small margin), it's subtle, glossy surface makes it an executive-friendly unit.

Unfortunately, just glancing at it will maim the shiny top with scratches.

If you want truly pocket-sized, look to the WD, Seagate or Simpletech drives, but as a faithful file-transporter, there's nowt to hate here.

Apple Time Capsule 500GB

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We're going to say this up front: buy one of these now.

We don't care if you've never backed up a byte of data, or already have an existing backup regime; Time Capsule's transparent, zero-intervention, newbie-friendly system is the best we have ever used.

Once the Time Capsule is set up, all the Macs on a network will back up automatically every hour, in the background and, assuming your Macs are connected wirelessly, without having to plug anything in. Plus, you can step back in time in hour-long increments to find and restore earlier versions of your files, or files that you might have deleted.

This is powered by Leopard's Time Machine engine, so you need to have Mac OS X 10.5 to get the best out of Time Capsule. (You can, of course, use it as a vanilla network disk with any modern operating system, including Windows.)

Setting up Time Capsule

Setup is easy, but there is a catch. Just plug the Time Capsule into a power socket and fire up the AirPort Utility installed from the CD. It will scan for Time Capsule and, when it's found it, temporarily join its wireless network - switching from any existing wireless network you have just until you get set up - then take you through configuration.

You're given three choices: add the Time Capsule to an existing wireless network; use it to create a wireless network; or connect it to your network or computer using Ethernet.

If you already have an 802.11n base station from any manufacturer, you'll probably just choose to have the Time Capsule join its existing network as a client device.

If your base station is an Apple one or supports WDS, you can choose to use the Time Capsule to boost and extend your wireless network.

If you have a router that uses 802.11g, 802.11b or even doesn't have any wireless abilities at all, you can plug the Time Capsule into it using Ethernet to create an 802.11n network that's fast, robust and wide-ranging.

You're unlikely to be able to dump your broadband router: while it's rare to find router/modems which don't do the 'modem' bit, Apple's own base stations have sadly never included broadband modems.

Connecting over Ethernet

The final option is to connect the Time Capsule over Ethernet.

This does seem a bit retrograde but it's essential that the option exists: it lets you tether the Time Capsule to a more secure wired network - though, of course, it supports WEP, WPA and WPA2; and it's much faster.

This shouldn't matter much after the initial backup - you'll only be trickling in the data you've added in the last hour - but the initial backup can take a long time over WiFi.

This is particularly true if you're backing up from an older Mac with 802.11g connectivity; it doesn't matter that the Time Capsule can create an N network; if the client devices are G it'll be slow.

Sluggish backup

We found it impractical to do an initial backup over WiFi; you can easily set it up as an Ethernet device first, then switch to wireless, but there's no mention of this in the manual. You can also attach a printer or a hard disk and share them to a mix of Macs and PCs.

Restoring files from a backup is easy but potentially sluggish. Time Machine even lets you restore an entire disk, and there's provision on the Leopard installer disk from which you'd boot to allow you to connect to a network and restore from a Time Capsule.

Not perfect

The system isn't flawless.

If you encrypt your home folder using FileVault, Time Machine will only back it up when you're logged out of your account, and if you don't then your data is readable by any shared users to whom you have given access to the Time Capsule.

It's also slow to do the initial backup - and there's no help guiding you through the process of doing the initial backup over Ethernet and then switching to wireless.

Plus, the fact that Apple refuses to include a modem means that you still need another device on your network.

A phenomenal product

We'd have liked to have seen some location awareness so that laptop users - who may have a hard disk tethered as a Time Machine volume at work, but a Time Capsule at home - can switch automatically; at present, that requires a delve into System Preferences each time you move.

We're annoyed, too, that Apple is prevaricating over the same Time Machine-over-WiFi functionality for USB disks connected to AirPort Extreme base stations, but in spite of all of this, Time Capsule is still a phenomenal product.

It's the epitome of set-it-and-forget-it ease, and for that, Apple deserves a medal.

Seagate FreeAgent Go

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An interesting design - it looks like a tiny wireless router, and sports a funky orange glow all along one side when plugged in.

The case looks metal but is plastic, so scratching risk is minimal. Our test unit was very fussy about USB ports - it wasn't recognised by Windows when on the same socket used for other drives, but was fine on others.

A bit slowish, plus only minimal capacities for now.

Buffalo MiniStation 500GB

James Rivington — 1207656328

Thirteen years ago, new PCs came with bulky, heavy 500MB hard drives inside. They were state of the art, and you could install the likes of Doom II and Duke Nukem 3D many times over.

In 2008, things have moved on substantially. And we are now faced with a portable, external 2.5-inch hard drive from Buffalo, which has a capacity of half a terabyte. That’s 500GB, 1000 times more than the internal drives of 13 years past.

The £207 Buffalo HD-PS500U2 is actually the first 500GB portable hard drive on the market, making it somewhat of a desirable storage gizmo for those people who like to take their data wherever they go.

First 500GB portable drive

In the box you get the drive itself, which is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket or a ladies handbag. As well as a manual, installation CD and two USB cables – one for power and one for data transfer.

The HD-PS500U2 uses Buffalo’s patented Turbo USB plug-in which the company claims makes transfer speeds up to 20 per cent faster. The box claims that the drive can read and write at speeds of up to 25.2MB/s. However, on our powerful test machine we were able to read and write to and from the device at 38.7MB/s, which is fairly impressive.

But despite the fantastic capacity and the satisfying transfer speeds, things didn’t actually start off very well.

To test speeds, we used files ranging from small 50KB word documents up to large 10GB HD movie files. But out of the box, the drive gave an error message when we tried to transfer the larger files. The problem was that, like most external storage products these days, it was formatted using the FAT32 filing system, instead of the superior NTFS. Most external drives are formatted like this to make them fully compatible with Macs as well as PCs.

A quick re-format later, and NTFS was applied to the device, and we were soon copying across those large HD video files. It was an inconvenience, but shouldn’t trouble most people too much as long as they have a basic understanding of how to format a storage drive.

Fast Buffalo TurboUSB transfer speeds

That speed of 38MB/s was a great relief, given the sheer amount of data we were attempting to copy. Imagine trying to copy over 500GB of data if transfer speeds were as slow as a no-legged dog trying to swim through a gloopy sheep dip. It would be painful.

We managed to transfer 40GB worth of HD movie footage onto the device in less than 17 minutes, which is pretty speedy for a USB device.

This is a fantastic product - possibly the best portable hard drive on the market. However, the price will be enough to put off all but the most needy of computer-users. After all, £207 is a lot of money.

Iomega eGo

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Housing a standard 2.5-inch hard drive, the casing of the Iomega eGo has been designed to look like a rather stylish hip flask.

Available in silver or red, the drive holds 250GB of data, which is roughly the equivalent of 62,500 MP3s, or 19 hours of DV video.

Stylish small HDD

With a 5400rpm rotational speed, the Iomega eGo is as quick a drive as you'll currently find in a mobile form factor. We carried out a 1GB transfer test and it wrote to the disk in 83 seconds.

There are a variety of versions on offer, with either USB or Firewire connections, making the drive compatible with Windows and Mac OS laptops. Just plug it in and the device will be recognised.

Sadly, there's no software installed, but you do get a licence to download Secure EMC Retrospect for file backup.

As high-capacity drives go, the Iomega eGo is stylish and fast, but is let down by the lack of installed software.

Buffalo LinkStation Live 500GB

tech.co.uk staff — 1204625966

Standing proud on the desktop, the new Live version of Buffalo's LinkStation is immaculately styled and finished. In our tests, it also proved whisper-quiet in operation most of the time; the case fan only kicked in during periods of peak activity.

Whereas some earlier versions of the LiveStation tended to be tricky to set up and lacked a little in terms of features and outright speed, this model is simplicity itself to install on a network thanks to a straightforward, wizard-based set-up procedure.

Data transfer speed is excellent thanks to Gigabit Ethernet now being featured on the new drive, so you can expect the same level of performance as with a USB2 connected drive if your network adapter is Gigabit compliant.

As well as outright transfer speed, data is quick and easy to get at thanks to a simple, FTP-based system with the option of putting access shortcut icons on all your networked PCs. Equally, you can protect data by assigning your own levels of group and user level security, based on password-protected administrator settings.

Two USB ports around the back of the drive offer more than the usual benefits of being able to back up your data to a separate external hard drive.

In this case, you can attach a printer for shared access as well as using Buffalo's Direct Copy feature, for copying photos direct from a digital camera to the LinkStation Live. Getting back to the subject of backup, the drive comes with Memeo AutoBackup software, for scheduled "zero touch" archiving of your data.

To complete its modern range of features, the LinkStation Live is also a certified DLNA Media Server, so you can stream multimedia direct to a compatible TV system. It's a superb all-round solution.

Packard Bell Store and Save 3500

tech.co.uk staff — 1204461607

Backing up your personal data is an often overlooked aspect of laptop maintenance. Although high-capacity external hard drives tend to be expensive, the Packard Bell Store and Save 3500 (£130 inc. VAT) is a valuable and usable choice.

With its 500GB capacity, there's more than enough storage space to back up the contents of more than three of the largest laptop drives. Connect the included power supply and USB cable, and you're instantly ready to start backing up your files.

For automating data back-up tasks, Packard Bell Data Secure software is included. By selecting the files and folders you want to back up, the software runs in the background and saves your data at predefined dates.

The 3500 is both usable and dependable, so why wait for a disaster to remind you of the benefits of backing up your files?

ATMT Scart Drive

tech.co.uk staff — 1204458420

A note to ATMT: it's always a good sign when your reviewer expects your product to cost more than it does.

The first thing we thought when we peeled this out of its protective packaging was "this'll probably be worth about £200." A pleasant surprise, then, when we found that you could nab one of these nifty media-enabled 320GB drives for just under £130.

Obviously if you're just looking for an external drive you'll find them cheaper without the media gubbins, but if you've just expanded to hold a host of legitimately downloaded DivX movies (ahem) then you might find the combination of space and AV wizardry a real boon.

There are a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out of what is an otherwise clean sheet though. While MP4 support is in attendance, there's no tip of the hat for the widely used AVC version of the codec and, bizarrely, you'll have to rename MP4 files to MPG for the system to see them.

WMV playback is also notable by its absence, so despite the component connectors you're not going to be playing either H.264 or Windows Media HD video on this device. The whine of the fans can also be a touch annoying during the quieter moments in your favourite movies, too.

Still, the ability to run ripped DVD VOB files with all their subtitle, angle and soundtrack options intact, and the fully featured remote control to complement it, shows that genuine thought has been put into making the Scart Drive suitable for living room use. It's just a shame the UI isn't as slick as the hardware itself.

Overall the Scart Drive is a neat bit of kit and as far as we're concerned the price is about right. A slightly broader range of codecs would have made this an essential purchase (and this could be solved by a mere software update from ATMT).

As it stands, if you're a mediavore looking for extra hard drive space then this is certainly a contender...

Fujitsu HandyDrive

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Storage prices are falling through the floor and capacities are reaching right up into the infinite.

Well, not quite, but with a 300GB external 2.5-inch drive your on-the-road storage needs are pretty much catered for.

Small and speedy

The HandyDrive is a sleek looking device whose shiny finish is going to be smeared with human grease the instant you lift the protective wrapping from its surface.

But we're not that bothered about the visuals, we just want to be able to access reams of data on the move. And with this USB-powered drive jammed into your laptop, you'll be laughing.

The transfer speeds are pretty decent, only falling five seconds behind the high-speed OCZ ATV Turbo with a 1GB folder transit.

The random access times are slower, but chances are you won't be running HD-intensive programs from the drive anyway.

It's a solid, storage-stuffed drive that'll be a happy accompaniment to your laptop.