Western Digital

Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition Specs:

• Dimensions: 6.5 x 6.0 x 3.8 inches
• Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Capacity: 500 GB x 2
• Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM
• Read / Write Speed: 18.2 MBps / 13.1 MBps
• Connectivity: USB 2.0
• Price: $250

Review:

The Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition is a nicely styled device, and very closely resembles a gaming PC cabinet, just miniaturized. It is pretty compact at dimensions of just about 6.5 x 6.0 x 3.8 inches and weighing just 4.2 pounds. It is dressed in all black and is encased in a glossy plastic shell. When you power it on, the blue LED in the front lights up. The Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition has average read speeds of about 18.2 MBps but mediocre write speeds of just 13.1 MBps. It takes about 114 seconds to read a 2 GB file and about 158 seconds to write it back. While it lags behind in the read / write speeds, it also doesn’t offer additional connectivity options like Firewire etc.

The Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition 1 TB edition sports 2 500 GB drives in a RAID 1 configuration which mirrors your data on both drives giving you a double backup. This setup is very reliable because in case one drive fails, the other still holds your data. But it reduces the available space to just 500 GB. You can also switch to other RAID configurations using the RAID manager application to utilize the full 1 TB but lose the extra protection. It also comes with features like WD Anywhere Backup which lets you create automated backups and MioNet that lets you remotely access the data in another PC running the software. These two work only with Windows, but the Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition also comes bundled with Western Digital Backup software for Macs.

Pros:

• Dual Drive Backup
• Nice Design

Cons:

• No Firewire
• Slow Speeds

Our Rating: 3 / 5.

Lenovo ThinkPad USB Secure Specs:

• Dimensions: 4.7 x 3.4 x 0.8 inches
• Weight: 182 grams
• Capacity: 320 GB
• Speed: 5400 RPM
• Read / Write Speed (USB 2.0): 26 MBps / 15 MBps
• Ports: USB 2.0
• Price: $190 (Approx)

Review:

The Lenovo ThinkPad USB Secure has a very simple design and is dressed in black. It is a bit bulky compared to other external drives in its range. It has dimensions of 4.7 x 3.4 x 0.8 inches which is quite compact and should fit in your pockets. It weighs just about 182 grams which is very light. The build quality is pretty good and durable and should easily last for years. The design isn’t much to speak of with the 10 number buttons on top of it, making it look more like a ancient telephone. It also has the Lock / Unlock on the front. A USB cable comes bundled with the drive to connect it to hard drives.

The Lenovo ThinkPad USB Secure comes with 256 bit full disk AES encryption. You cannot access your files without the password. The default is 123456 which you can change if you wish to. You can create upto 10 user accounts to access the files on the drive. It has nice read / write speeds. When connected via USB, it offers read speeds of 26 MBps and write speeds of 15 MBps. It can write a 2 GB file in about 2 mins and 15 secs. The read speeds are better, it can read the same file from disk in about 80 secs. It is available in capacities of 160 GB, 320 GB and 400 GB.

Pros:

• Very Fast
• 256 bit FDE

Cons:

• Mediocre Design

Our Rating: 3.5 / 5.

Seagate FreeAgent XTreme Specs:

• Dimensions: 6.8 x 6.7 x 1.3 inches
• Weight: 910 grams
• Capacity: 1 TB
• Speed: 7200 RPM
• Read / Write Speed (USB 2.0): 28 MBps / 16 MBps
• Read / Write Speed (Firewire 400): 36 MBps / 18 MBps
• Read / Write Speed (eSATA): 40 MBps / 37 MBps
• Ports: USB 2.0, 2 FireWire 400, eSATA
• Price: $160 (Approx)

Review:

The Seagate FreeAgent XTreme sports a nice black design which is very stylish and can easily fit in all types of offices. When the drive is active, a series of white lights glow which give it a very cool look. It is pretty compact with dimensions of just 6.8 x 6.7 x 1.3 inches and weighs around 910 grams. It is available in capacities of 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB. It comes with a USB v2.0 port, 2 Firewire 400 ports and a eSATA port. The USB and Firewire cables are bundled with it. It also includes a vertical mount to place the drive in, and a power adapter.

The Seagate FreeAgent XTreme is one of the fastest backup drives in its range. It has excellent read / write speeds. When connected via USB, it offers read speeds of 28 MBps and write speeds of 16 MBps. In Firewire mode, it has speeds of 36 MBps and 18 MBps respectively, while in eSATA mode, it offers 40 MBps read and 37 MBps write speeds. The read / write speeds are spectacular, particularly in the Firewire 400 and eSATA modes.

It comes with the Seagate Manager which allows you to create scheduled backups at specified times. You can also encrypt files with a password with 256 bit AES encryption. You can also sync your files with whenever you connect it to different PCs.

Pros:

• Very Fast
• USB, eSATA and Firewire 400 port
• Seagate Manager

Cons:

• eSATA cable not bundled

Our Rating: 4 / 5.

Maxtor BlackArmor Specs:

• Dimensions: 5.2 x 3.3 x 0.7 inches
• Weight: 182 grams
• Capacity: 160 GB / 320 GB
• Speed: 5400 RPM
• Read / Write Speed: 22 MBps / 18 MBps
• Port(s): USB 2.0
• Price: $90 (320 GB)

Review:

The Maxtor Black Armor has a very sleek futuristic design; it looks straight out from a sci-fi movie. It should appeal to one and all – casual and business users. It has dimensions of 5.2 x 3.3 x 0.7 inches which is very compact. It can easily be inserted into your trouser pockets making it handy to carry anywhere you wish. It has a brushed metal finish which sport a black and silver-grayish look. The build quality is also pretty good. It should easily last for a couple of years if handled properly.

The drive works flawlessly with Windows PCs but not with Macs. On the first use, it asks you to create a password with which you can access the encrypted files later. The bundled Maxtor Manager software also allows you to sync files with different PCs and automatically backup selected files. It also comes with a power saving mode to conserve power – it stops drawing power after some predefined interval of inactivity.

The read speed of the Maxtor Black Armor is about 22 MBps; it was able to read a 2 GB file in about 1 min and 35 seconds. The write speed is about 18 MBps; it was able to write the same file back in about 1 min and 56 secs. The write speeds are pretty impressive compared to other drives in its range.

Pros:

• Nice Design
• Maxtor Manager
• Superb Encryption

Cons:

• Incompatible with Macs

Our Rating: 4 / 5.

Maxtor

Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus Specs:

• Dimensions: 6.8 x 6.0 x 2.5 inches
• Weight: 1.11 kg
• Capacity: 1 TB, 16 MB Buffer
• Speed (RPM): 7,200 RPM
• Read/Write Speed (USB) : 18 MBps / 13 MBps
• Read/Write Speed (FireWire) : 29 MBps / 23 MBps
• Ports: 1 USB 2.0, 2 FireWire 400 ports
• Price: $220.00

Review:

The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus sports a very stylish design. It has a body composed of brushed aluminium with the Maxtor logo etched on it. It is a bit on the heavier side – it weighs almost 1.2 kgs. It has dimensions of 6.8 x 6.0 x 2.5 inches. It is available in capacities of 1 TB, 750 GB and 500 GB. The build quality is very good. It should easily last for 3-4 years with moderate usage. It has 4 inputs – the AC adapter, 1 USB and 2 Firewire ports.

The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus has 1 USB 2.0 port and 2 Firewire 400 ports. It has decent read / write speeds of 18 MBps / 13 MBps when connected via USB. The Firewire 400 fares much better; it offers read and write speeds of about 29 MBps and 23 MBps respectively. It is compatible with both Macs and PCs. It comes bundled with Maxtor’s Safety Drill software which offers a reliable recovery and backup solution. It also comes with Drive Pass which lets you protect your drive with a password. Maxtor Manager allows you to encrypt your files and folders.

Pros:

• Stylish Design and Durable Build
• Nice Firewire Speeds
• Backup Software

Cons:

• No eSATA port

Our Rating: 3.5 / 5.

Synology Disk Station DS107+ specifications :

• Dimensions : 16 x 21.8 x 6.3 cm
• Weight : 810 g
• CPU : 266 Mhz
• RAM : 64 MB
• Hard Disk : Internal SATA 3.5″ X 1
  External : USB 2.0 interface
• Max. capacity internal : 1TB
• Max. supported IP camera : 2
• Other features : UPnP Support, iTunes Server support,
  Audio Station support, Photo Station 3 support
• Approx. price : $375

The design of the DS107+ is neat and attractive. It has an all white enclosure that houses the internal hard drive as well has all the ports.  The enclosure is made p of plastic that does not feel cheap. It has rounded corners which is always welcome. It has twice the RAM and faster processing speed of DS107 that was the previous iteration of the DS107+ for those of you who didn’t guess it already!

The device supports only one internal hard drive which is a shame considering its list of features that can really eat up the storage capacity pretty quickly. The DS107+ does not ship with a hard drive. The maximum size of the internal hard drive supported by the current firmware is 1TB. The ports on the DS107+ are three USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port and an eSATA port. The eSATA port and a USB port is located in the front and the rest are at the back.

One can connect external storage via the USB or eSATA ports and the minimum acceptable size is 1GB. Also the drive should be formatted in FAT32 format only. The features of the DS107+ can be set up easily via wizards designed specifically for the purpose making it very easy to set up even complex features. Having a USB port is especially useful when you want to quickly connect an external pen drive to share across the network. There is also a USB copy button that copies the content of the connected USB drive on to the internal hard drive, pretty neat feature. There are also few LED indicators that signify the status of the hard drive, network activity and the power status.

The hard drive can be connected by simply unscrewing the screws and placing the 3.5″ hard drive inside. Swapping the hard drives quickly is not possible and requires a couple of minutes. Setting up the DS107+ is as easy as it gets. Synology Assistant assists you in setting up the drive. It can identify the device on the network, map network drives to share folders or even add a printer to the network. It should however be noted that only one printer can be added to the network at a time along with two other USB devices. The Web interface is extremely easy to use that is intuitive and interactive and among the easiest to use you would find in the industry.

Another interesting feature is assigning privileges to created users so as to restrict their access to data on the network. This process is similar to Windows XP user account creation and you can also form groups. New users can be added to groups that automatically assigns them the privileges of the group. The drive is compatible with Windows SMB system letting you to share the network drive just like as if it was on a shared computer. This essentially means that client PCs do not need any additional software to access the drive.

The folders for various tasks have specific names and do not function with user defined folders. Some of these include Web, Music, Public that are created by default. Music folder is used for sharing your iTunes library online and folder with any other name would not suffice for the task. Each application be it Web Station, Photo Station or the Surveillance service, have their specific folder names. Although not a big thing but does take time to get used to.

The completely new feature to be seen on NAS drives is support for surveillance cameras. It supports up to 6 surveillance cameras but license for only one is included by default and additional licenses cost $50 each. Recording can be based on time intervals or motion detection. The recorded quality is great as is easily comparable to dedicated surveillance cameras. It supports a long list of cameras so that shouldn’t be a major but if you are buying one check if its supported or not.

Photo Station is another interesting feature that lets you create photo albums from folders that can be shared on the Internet too. User account needs to be created on DS107+ to use the feature. Users can then also rename, edit captions or even write introductions for the photos. The Web album generated is quite professional and is organised too.

The device can also download files from the Internet all by itself by specifying the URLs in its web interface. There is a utility called Download Redirector that aids in the task and can be installed on PC. Music can be played directly to USB speakers too! The performance of the drive is rock solid and has fast data transfer speeds that leaves other NAS drives behind.

Pros :

• Simple and attractive design
• Surveillance station
• Photo Station
• Download files automatically
• Restrict usage via accounts

Cons :

• Supports only one internal drive
• No bundled drive
• Only one camera license included

Final Thoughts

The Synology Disk Station DS107+ is an awesome NAS drive and much more beyond that. It brings new features to the table at a competitive price. The Surveillance and Photo Stations are innovative ideas well implemented. But it needs a leaf out of Drobo’s book by increasing support for multiple internal hard drives. Overall it is an excellent addition to the network and is worth every penny.

Rating : 4.5/5

Clickfree Portable Backup Drive specifications :

• Dimensions : 2.9″ x 4.5″ x 0.7
• Form factor : 2.5″ external hard drive
• Capacity : 320GB
• Buffer size : 8MB
• Interface : High-speed USB
• Max. transfer speed : 480 Mbps
• Spindle speed : 5400 rpm
• OS compatibility : Windows XP/2000/Vista
• Warranty : 1-year limited
• Approx. price : $150

The drive is available in capacities starting from 120GB and going upto 500GB. The dimensions of the drive are rather small and it almost feels like a feather at just 172 g. The drive is of 2.5″ form factor and does not require a external power supply to run. The spindle speed is standard 5400 rpm found in most external hard drives.

Backing up data with the drive is a piece of cake as the drive comes with preloaded software that automates the backup process. It can ‘watch’ folders for any new files or changes and immediately update them in its backup. Apart from that you can specify the file formats it should backup and it recognises a wide variety of formats. The drive launches the software each time the drive is connected to the computer. Transfering files from the drive is not possible when the backup process is going on.

Backing up the first time takes time and understandbly so but subsequent backups are fast. The drive maintains a copy of the deleted file incase you need it in future. It also supports 15 different backup profiles giving you lot of flexibility. During restore process, the resored data is dumped in to a single folder rather than its original location.

The Clickfree’s performance is great and it manages to write data at 24MBps and read it at 26MBps which will suffice for a external hard drive. The cost of the drive is at par with other portable external drives that come without the software preloaded. Overall the drive is almost a perfect backup solution without extra cost.

Pros :

• Automated backup
• Great performance
• Multiple profile support
• Inexpensive

Cons :

• 1-year warranty
• No Firewire support

Final Thoughts

The Clickfree Portable Backup Drive is a close to perfect solution to your backup hassles. It has great performance and handles backups effortlessly. The price is the deal clincher as its at par with other drives in its category that do not offer the automated backup feature.

Rating : 4.5/5

Seagate FreeAgent Go Specs:

• Product Dimensions: 0.49 inches x 3.15 inches x 5.12 inches
• Product Weight: 160 gms
• OS Compatibility: Windows XP / Vista
• Capacity: 250 GB, 320 GB, 500 GB
• Interface: USB 2.0
• Transfer Speeds: Up to 480 Mb/s
• Rotational Speed: 5400 RPM

Review:

The Seagate FreeAgent Go is a nice litte external drive with a clean, shiny design. It has dimensions of 0.49 inches x 3.15 inches x 5.12 inches – pretty portable and weighs around 160 gms which makes it very pocket friendly. The build quality is very nice and the casing sturdy and durable. It is available in ten colors – Titanium Silver, Tuxedo Black, Ruby Red, Royal Blue, Sky Blue, Solar Orange, Think Pink, Champagne Gold, Spring Green, Forest Green. All the colors look very nice but I would personally prefer Tuxedo Black. In case you have a Mac, you would rather get the Titanium Silver as it blends with the look of a Mac. The look is further enhanced with the lights under the front surface which blink and form patterns when the drive is in use.

The Seagate FreeAgent Go drive is quite good at what it is primarily supposed to do, read and write data. It offers pretty good data transfer speeds. It can write data at about 165 Mbps and read data at 174 Mbps which slightly outperforms the category average. It comes with the Seagate Manager software (Windows Only) preinstalled using which you can schedule backups automatically. You can also sync your data between different computers and encrypt and secure your private data using 256 bit AES encryption.

If you are ready to shell ou a few extra bucks, you can also get the optional FreeAgent Dock to safely keep your Seagate FreeAgent Go drive.

Pros:

• Nice Design and Build
• Fast Data Transfer
• Seagate Manager

Cons:

• No Firewire in Normal version

Our Rating: 4 / 5.

SimpleTech (Re) Drive Specs:

Review:

The Simpletech (Re) Drive is a new external hard drive with a refreshingly new simplistic design which is eco friendly as well- it sports a body made of renewable bamboo and recycled aluminium. The design looks very simple yet appealing. Atleast the environmentalists will definitely like this one. It has dimensions of 4.8 inch x 7.5 inch x 1.6 inches which are not exactly compact.

To use the drive, you just need to plug it into your computer and no additional setup is required. If you are using a Windows PC, you can install the Turbo USB 2.0 software for substantially faster speeds. To use it with a Mac, you need to format the drive to the HFS+ format. The drive also comes with Arcsoft Totalmedia backup software to backup all your data.

The Simpletech (Re) Drive is also very power efficient and automatically switches off when the PC goes in sleep mode. The data transfer speeds are also decent about 150 Mbps in the normal mode and jump by about 10 – 15 Mbps when Turbo USB 2.0 is used. They are more or less the same as other external hard drives. It doesn’t have Firewire or eSATA connectors which is quite a negative as most other drives do provide more connectivity options.

Pros:

Cons:

Our Rating: 3 / 5.

Iomega eGo Helium specifications :

• Dimensions : 3.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.6″
• Weight : 7.1 0z
• Capacity : 320 GB
• Drive speed : 5400 rpm
• Interface : High-speed USB 2.0
• Max. transfer rate : 480 mbps
• Compatibility : Apple OS X 10.1.5 or later, Windows XP, Vista
• Warranty : 1-year limited warranty
• Approx. price : $125

The design of the drive matches Apple products with its simple but elegant styling. The color used is silver which goes well with Apple Macbooks. The exterior is similar to the Macbooks and the curves are smooth and rounded. The dimensions of the drive are small making it easy to carry around in your pocket.

The drive comes pre-formatted with Apple HFS+ file system compatible with Mac OS X. The drive can be formatted in FAT32 or NTFS file system to be made compatible with Microsoft Windows. The drive is only USB 2.0 compatible but we would have loved to see Firewire or eSATA interfaces. The drive draws power from the USB port itself. The drive has a small LED that acts as activity meter.

The drive comes with Drop Guard technology that protects the drive from drop of 50 inches. The devices has been priced attractively that is its biggest attraction, leading to a low cost per GB ratio. The cost per GB comes out to 45 cents per GB, lower than most of its competitors. The performance of the drive is good too and it has a write speed of 20MB/sec. The read speed also clocked the same number. 1-year limited warranty for a product like portable hard disk is less.

Pros :

• Native OS X support
• Excellent design
• Good performance
• Low cost per gigabyte
• Drop Guard technology

Cons :

• No Firewire, eSATA support
• Short warranty

Final Thouughts

The Iomega eGo Helium is a perfect companion to a Macbook due to its elegant design and fast performance. The device is priced attractively and also has Drop Guard technology to protect it from drops. Firewire and eSATA support would have been awesome though. The warranty is something you should really consider before going in for this drive.

Rating : 4/5

Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive specifications :

• Dimensions : 3.5″ x 5.2″ x 0.7″
• Exterior color : Red, Silver
• Capacity : 160GB
• External data transfer rate : 480 Mbps
• Drive speed : 5400rpm
• Cache : 8MB
• OS Compatibility : Mac OS X, Windows 2000 or later
• Warranty : 1 year
• Approx. price : $110

The drive is extremely thin at just 0.7″ and the red color gives it a flashy look, although there is also a more subdued silver color. The build quality of the drive is impressive and feels solid and sturdy. The drive is made of anodized aluminum and polished steel which is mainly responsible for its looks. The drive is priced extremely competitively priced at just $110.

The hard drive is powered by a USB-port itself instead of those bulky adapters. Iomega has surprisingly placed the activity LED at the rear of the drive, which is quite inexplicable. The drive is light weight also making for a great companion. The drive has DropGuard feature which protects the drive from shocks when not in use as the drive has extra padding inside the case to protect it from shocks.

The drive comes preformatted with FAT32 partition which can be read by both Mac and Windows and for that matter even Linux. If you intend to use it with OS X primarily then format it with Disk Utility to HFS file format. The drive bundles the EMC’s Restrospect Express 6.1 software to carry out the various tasks. The updated version compatible with OS X Leopard is available on their site. The software can be used to make partial/full backups, duplicate images, create bootable recovery CD but sadly can’t do encryption of data.

The drive has impressive performance. Writing assorted data to drive yielded an average write speed of 20MBps, one of the best in its category.  The read speed from the drive is even better at 22Mbps. Surely, the Iomega eGO Portable Hard Drive manages to pull in good read/write speeds along with great looks!

Pros :

• Slim and small dimensions
• Attractive look
• USB Powered
• Good performance
• Backup software included

Cons :

• Backup software not Mac compatible
• No encryption of data utility

Final Thoughts

The Iomega eGO Portable Hard Drive is an excellent drive from Iomega and manages to put everything in place perfectly. The only flaws that you van find are with the bundled software. So, there is no doubt that if you are looking for a portable drive, grab this one.

My Rating : 4.25/5

Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB Specifications :

• Dimensions : 1.7″ x 6.8″ x 6.3″
• Processor installed : 400Mhz
• RAM installed : 64MB DRAM
• Capacity : 500GB
• Spindle speed : 7200 rpm
• Buffer size : 16GB
• OS Compatibility : Mac OS X 10.3 or later, Windows 2000,Xp,Vista
• Approx. price : $150

The device is very attractively priced which is one of its biggest attractions. The Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB can serve files to your PC, Xbox, your music system and of course your PC. And this all can be done without the need to power on your PC. If that was not enough, it can be configured to deliver files remotely ie. via Internet.

Talking about the build quality of the hard drive, the Disk Mini has a good strong build. Lacie has preferred to use metal for the external casing as against with other manufacturers using plastic for external hard drives. It has a big power button which gives you option to manually power off the drive. At the back, you will find the standard set of ports and also vents for heat to escape. It certainly looks quite a beauty sitting upright on your desk!

Lacie has bundled Hipserv software for categorizing your files in sets and also assign permissions for their access, always a handy feature to have. The best part about the software is its ease of use, it has lots of options but all can be easily accessed. But the backup software is just the opposite. It has fewer features, lots of restrictions and not very easy to use.

iTunes users have more reason to smile. They can use the hard disk as an iTunes server and hence make your favorite music files accessible. It also features uPnP support which makes it compatible with other music players such as Windows Media Player, nice way to keep Windows users interested.

Accessing files remotely can be a bit of pain due to slow speeds and also it can hang sometimes. Local access is smooth though with no hiccups whatsoever. The fast processor ensures that you have skip files without lag. The write speed is around 4.5 MB/s and read speed of 4MB/s. Those numbers are good enough for a NAS drive.

Pros :

• High capacity
• Good design and build
• Can be set up as iTunes server
• uPnP support
• Good performance
• Remotely accessible
• Great file sharing software

Cons :

• Unreliable remote accessibility
• Bit noisy
• Back software not upto mark

Final Thoughts

The Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB is the perfect solution for all your media streaming needs for your house. The attractive price makes it a much better buy. So if you want such a drive then go ahead and purchase it.

My Rating : 4/5

Apple Time Capsule specifications :

• Dimensions : 7.8″ x 7.8″ x 1.4″
• Storage Capacity : 500GB
• Hard disk type : 3.5″ SATA-300
• Connectivity : Gigabit Ethernet / 802.11a/b/g/n
• Bandwidth: 2.4GHz and 5GHz
• NAT support,DHCP support,RADIUS support
• Interfaces : Ethernet-USB
• OS Compatibility : Mac OSX 10.4 or later, Windows XP SP2,Vista
• Approx. Price : $300

The Time Capsule comes in a very sober and clean design without any added attractions.The router has an inbuilt antenna, so the Time Capsule resembles exactly like a external hard drive. There is only one LED at the front to give you company while working. The back is filled with all the ports ranging from power input to Ethernet ports. Surprisingly, Apple has not included a power button, so that leaves you with your main power supply switch for doing the ON/OFF task!

The Time Capsule combines a Airport Extreme Base Station with a hard drive. A big downside of the hard drive is that backing up and some other features are limited to Mac users which leaves Windows users in the dark. This will bring down its sales with Windows users by a huge margin. The router can connect wirelessly to a Mac or Windows machine. This enables you to wirelessly read/write from the hard drive although speeds will take a hit.

Connecting the Time Capsule to a Windows PC brings up the drive in the network folder. Mac users have many added advantages such as getting to use it for basic storage as well. Leopard users can use the Time Capsule with the Time Machine feature to set up automated backups.Simply put, the Time Capsule is a boon for Mac users while Windows users are offered with limited functionality.

USB port is an ultra-cool feature that lets you plug in any networkable USB device or a series of devices through a hub and share them across the network using the Time Capsule. USB port also accepts printers which is an added advantage, although that can also be done wirelessly if your printer is Wi-Fi capable.

The performance is not a top priority with the Time Capsule but you do get decent performance. You manage to get around 4.5 Mbps/5.1Mbps write/read through Gigabit Ethernet interface. The wireless performance is not impressive at about just 65 Mbps measure at a distance of 15 feet from router.The signal strength drops considerably at larger distances. The hard disk performance is good enough for most of your tasks though.

Pros :

• Neat and clean look
• Upto 1TB hard disk available
• Networking via USB port
• Great for Mac users
• Portable

Cons :

• Average performance
• Limited Windows functionality
• Not advanced storage features

Final Thoughts

The Apple Time Capsule is a great invention in itself and it sets the stone for further such interesting combinations that might crop up in future. Its a good buy for Mac users as they get to exploit the Time Capsule to the maximum. It will not go down too well with Windows users. Performance is a bit of concern especially with networking. If you want to save space, then you won’t get a better product that this!

My Rating : 3.25/5

The Thermaltake BlacX SE is a device that allows you to hot-swap SATA hard drives quickly and effortlessly, allowing you to increase the amount of storage. The BlacX SE basically allows you to plug in all of your internal SATA drives (either 2.5″ or 3.5″) and store information on them without having to put them into your computer case. The SE also gives you four extra USB 2.0 ports for you to plug other devices into it.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the Thermaltake BlacX SE:

• Street price: $49.99 approx.
• Supports All 2.5” & 3.5” SATA HDDs up to 1TB
• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• Windows & Mac OS Compatible
• Heat dissapation
• Works with Vista

Things I like
The BlacX SE is a great device if you need extra storage but have run out of room in your computer case. The average cost of an external hard drive enclosure is around $30, so if you have multiple drives it quickly becomes more expensive than buying a single BlacX SE device.

The four included USB 2.0 ports are a very nice addition as well because you get the added value of having a USB hub that generally costs $10+. This device works extremely well. I plugged it in via a free USB port, and then connected a free SATA drive to it. Windows recognized the drive and I was able to read and write to the drive. While the speeds are as quick as connecting it internally they are rather quick. I was getting 30-34MB/s read and write speeds.

Drives generally create a lot of heat when they run but the Thermaltake BlacX SE dissipates the heat rather well, preserving the drive and hopefully making it last longer.

Things I don’t like
The only problem with this is that you can easily destroy a drive by pulling it out two quickly. If you want to make sure your drives last for as long as possible wait until the drive stops spinning before pulling it out. If you don’t wait its possible to damage the platters inside the drive and render it useless. Other than ruining drives due to improper use, this is an excellent device.

Pros:

• Hot-swap hard drives
• Cheaper alternative to hard drive enclosures
• 4 USB ports
• Dissipates heat away from the hard drive

Cons:

• Improper use could lead to your hard drive being ruined

Final Thoughts
If you’re like me and constantly need more storage the Thermaltake BlacX SE is definitely for you. It provides a cheaper way of adding more space than buying external enclosures and it even comes with four USB 2.0 ports. Rating: 5/5

The Fantom Drives 1TB external hard drive will allow you to keep all of the extra things that you can’t fit onto your computer. The FD 1TB external has a very sleek and professional design to it; just looking at it makes me want to buy one. Under the nice case is a fairly fast hard drive that will store your information at a rate of 75mb/s.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the FD 1TB external hard drive:

• Street price: $339.95
• Firewire 800/400, USB 2.0
• Data Buffer Cache : 32MB minimum
• Access Time : 8.9 ms
• Connectors : 2x FireWire 800, 1x FireWire 400, 1 x USB 2.0
• OS Support : Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Mac OS X v10.2 & greater

Things I like
1Terabyte (1,000 Gigabytes) stores a lot of information. On this external hard drive you could store up to 400 two-hour DVD-quality movies, or 880 days of around-the-clock MP3 audio, or 370,500 vivid digital photos. Unless you’re storing raw video footage it’ll be very hard to fill this thing up.

A great thing about the Fantom Drive is that you don’t need to install anything to get it to work. A lot of external hard drives require you to put some sort of software on your system. With this external hard drive all you have to do is plug it in and start using it, it really couldn’t be simpler.

Things I don’t like
The thing I don’t like about this product is that it uses two drives. I know that may seem a little pick but if one of the drives fails you’re in a lot of trouble. Because Fantom uses their own unique algorithm to store the information between two disk if one of them goes you might not be able to access whatever you put onto the disk. This shouldn’t be a problem because hard drives now a days are lasting a lot longer than they used to but it still scares me.

This external gives you a lot of space but it comes at a premium. If you’re willing to pay over $300 for this external hard drive than its a great buy.

Pros:

• Very nice design.
• Large capacity.
• Fast transfer rate.
• Don’t need to install anything.

Cons:

• Costly.
• Two separate drives.

Final Thoughts
The Fantom Drives 1 Terabyte external hard drive is a sizable investment. While it does cost over $300 it does store a lot of information. I personally wouldn’t want to trust all of my information to one external but if you don’t have a lot of space than this drive is for you. If you don’t have a lot of money you could pick up two 500GB external hard drives for cheaper.

Lacie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive 120GB specifications:

• Dimensions: 3.5″ x 5.7″ x  1″
• Interface: USB 2.0/Firewire 400/Firewire 800
• Spindle speed: 5400 rpm
• Transfer rate: 800 mbps
• Buffer size: 8 MB
• OS compatibility : OS X , Windows , Linux
• Warranty: 3 Years

The drive has a layer of orange color rubber covering on it which gives it extra protection.The drive covering has been made from scratch proof aluminum.The design on the drive is simple yet elegant.Lacie claims that the drive will not sustain any damage if it falls from a height less than 35 inches which comes out approximately to about 3 feet which is roughly the height of a table.The drive comes in two versions.One which has only USB 2.0 interface and other which has additonal triple interface along with Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 interfaces.

Triple interface is  handy if you have a firewire port on your PC and it can help you extract the maximum out of the hard disk.The drive is USB powered and does not need any AC adapter to go about doing its task.Also if the drive is not able to draw enough power from one USB port you can connect another cable to the power port provided on the hard drive.This is a boon for old PC users which have limited USB power.

The performance is very good and among some of the best in its category.The drive managed to give an average speed on 16 MB/second while writing data on the disk using the firewire 400 interface.The drive’s write speed managed to climb to 20MB/second when tested using the Firewire 800 interface, an improvement of a neat 25 per cent! The read tests slated the read speeds at 19MB/second and 22MB/second using Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 interfaces respectively. Hence Lacie hard drive managed to pass the tests with flying colors.

Pros:

• Ruggedly built
• Shock proof
• Slim
• Triple interface
• Good performance

 Cons:

•  Expensive

Final Thoughts

The Lacie rugged all-terrain hard drive is perfect at the job that has been assigned to it! The drive is shock-proof,its body is scratch proof which makes sure it will survive rough handling.The drive is slim with its height measuring only an inch.The inclusion of triple interface makes sure that the drive performs fast and it surely does. All in all the Lacie hard drive has just about everything going about it and is a perfect buy if you need a rugged portable hard drive and have the cash to spend.

When you want to share your drive between multiple computers at once (or even over the internet), the easiest way to do so is to put your drives into a Network Attached Storage device. The Linksys NAS-200 is a great little device that does just the job.

Connecting the Storage System to your network is simple – just plug it directly into an available 10/100 Ethernet port on your router or switch, and the storage is instantly accessible by your whole network.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the NAS-200:

• Street Price: $179.99
• Two drive bays and two USB ports
• Automatic Backup software included
• More USB ports to add additional external drives
• 10/100 Ethernet port
• Ability to share your files on the internet through FTP or HTTP

Things I like
The thing I like most about the NAS-200 is how easy it is to set it up. The install utility works well with all versions of Windows including Windows Vista, sets up the drives, and automatically maps a network drive. After this you can do everything you need either through the software provided or online so you have total control over the device. The final thing I like is the price. Coming in at just under $200 the NAS-200 is one of the cheapest network attached storage systems available. If you’re on a low budget this is definitely for you. Unfortunately, other than the easy setup and the low price there isn’t that I like about the NAS-200.

Things I don’t like
The thing I like the least about the NAS-200 is its transfer speeds, they are absolutely terrible. Moving 5 files for a total of 5.30GB, from the PC to the NAS-200 took just under 40 minutes with an average transfer speed of less than 3.60MB/sec. Since it has a 10/100 interface, the theoretical maximum transfer speed was 12.5MB/sec and I was hoping to get somewhere around 8-10MB/sec on writes and reads. The NAS-200 also uses proprietary software to format the drives so you can’t swap them into a computer without formatting them before hand. This is really annoying and in my opinion rather stupid, but what can you do.

Pros:

• Easy to set up, all web driven menus.
• Two hard drive storage
• Can be set for multiple users.
• Cheapest Network Storage available

Cons:

• Priprietary disk format
• Slow transfer speeds

Final Thoughts
If you’re in dire need of a NAS and you don’t have a lot of money to spend than the Linksys NAS-200 is a good deal for you. If you have a little more money or aren’t in need of a NAS right away I would hold up. The proprietary disk format and the low speeds just don’t make the NAS-200 worth the money. I don’t recommend this product and I think Linksys could have done a lot better.

Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500GB specifications:

• Dimensions : 1.4″ x  6.3″ x 7.5″
• Form factor : 3.5″
• Interface: FireWire/Hi-Speed USB/eSATA
• Spindle Speed: 7200 rpm
• AC powered

Seagate FreeAgent Pro features almost all the modern connection interfaces that you likely to encounter.The provision of eSATA interface makes the drive future proof and makes sure maximum juice is extracted out of the 7200 rpm drives that is hidden behind the enclosure.

The drive is enclosed within an black case with is slick and has a smooth surface.The drive cannot be used as a portable drive as it weighs a heavy 2 pounds.The drive is powered on a touch sensitive button.The base of the drive can be removed as different types of connection interfaces are available on the two bases provided by Seagate.Its good that Seagate has included a full manual rather than just providing one on the drive.

The FreeAgent and Memeo Backup software are the ones that come bundled with the drive with their setups on the hard drive itself.The Memeo backup software as the name suggests is used to take backups and can be configured to manage multiple backup tasks.The backup can also be stored on Seagate’s Memeo Internet Drive which is basically storage space on Seagate managed servers.You get a cool 500MB trial space for 6 months free with the drive.The monthly and yearly subscription charges are costly though.The lights on the drive,sleep interval times,diagnostics and other stuff can be managed from the FreeAgent Tools software.

Coming to the performance of this drive, the driveg fares rather good in assorted files tests with a write speed of 18 MBps and a read speed of around 20 MBps. The continuous write speed test gave an impressive 25MBps as the write speed.This puts the drive in the league of high performing drives.If you have an eSATA compatible PC you can even further stretch the speeds.

Pros:

•  Sleek
• Good software bundle
• Fast transfer speeds
• 5 year warranty

Cons:

• Bundled software not Mac compatible
• Only trial space on Internet Drive included

Final Thoughts

The Seagate FreeAgent Pro is a no nonsense drive that does the job perfectly.Seagate has packaged a good software bundled which further enhances the capabilities of the drive.Fast transfer speeds add to the high capacity that this drive supports.I would highly recommend getting this drive if you want to take large backups without spending too much time on them.This drive is a best bang for its current price of around 225$.

Western Digital’s My Book is a sleek 1 TeraByte (1000 GB’s) external hard drive. Its curves seem a bit softer and there is a blue activity light. The old model had two circles: one for activity, and one circle that filled up as the drive was loaded with files. This new version has just a single LED strip that bounces back and forth during activity and then lights up as you fill the drive up.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the WD My Book:

• Street Price: $349.99
• eSATA, Firewire 400, USB 2.0
• Automatic Backup software included
• Small size

Things I like
The fact that this drive allows for eSATA, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connections. This means you’ll be able to use the fastest connection possible to move your data. This drive is meant to be a backup drive for your laptop or desktop. WD realized this and included a great set of software tools to do the backup job. This software works flawlessly and is really easy to use. I’ve had backup software where it would take me 30 minutes just to understand what to press but this isn’t the case. I also like the look of the My Book. It is so sleek and just looks really nice. The final thing I like about this hard drive is the fact that it stays cool even during prolonged usage. Normally external hard drives heat up but the My Book keeps cool.

Things I don’t like
The My Book is fairly expensive and there are a number of cheaper 1TB hard drives. Other than its high price there isn’t anything I don’t like about this drive.

Pros:

• Triple interface
• Great software
• Quiet operation

Cons:

• Pricey
• No eSATA cable included

Final Thoughts
If you’re in need of a large backup external hard drive the Western Digital My Book is definitely the hard drive for you. It looks amazing, has a number of different connection possibilities and stays cool even during prolonged use. I highly recommend this drive to any one

Here are the specs:

• Serial Bus Transfer Rate (USB 2.0) : 480 Mbits/s (Max)
• Capacity: 250GB
• Dimensions: 129.78 X 79.78 X 15 mm
• Weight : 104 gms

The 250GB Passport Hard Disks just weighs a measly 104 gms and also has small dimensions making it a perfect pocket drive. It is a 2.5″ Hard disks and hence does not require any external power supply and is a bus-powered drive.This drive is known to have problems with older laptops like Apple G4 due to their limited bus-power but that is not the case with new laptops.

The packaging bundle is not anything to boast about as it does not even bundle a manual nor a carry case which are absolute necessities. But you can find the software manual on the hard disk.The outer surface is shiny glossy black but develops fingerprints and scratches easily.

Setting up the drive is a piece of cake as it is a plug-n-play drive and gets detected by Windows,OS X,Linux as it comes pre-formatted in FAT32 partition which is recognized by all the above mentioned operating systems.The formatted capacity of the drive is 232 GB.

Coming to the performance aspect of the drive.It is one of the fastest drives available in the USB 2.0 External hard disks category.It manages an impressive 20MB/s with FAT32 formatted and 22MB/s with NTFS formatted.The read speed is around 22MB/s. It may not be comparable to some of the external Firewire/eSATA hard disks available in the market but it does not need an AC adapter either!

Pros:

• Light Weight
• Small Dimensions
• USB Powered
• Fast Performance

Cons:

• Surface prone to fingerprints
• Surface gets scratched easily
• No manual bundled
• No carry case
• Pricey compared to 3.5″ external drives

Final Thoughts

I would recommend this drive to anyone looking for high storage on the move. Its price is 200$ which is not much as cost/per GB comes out pretty low. All in all it is a perfect pocket drive and a must buy!