April 20, 2010 at 20:59Practical hard drive
For people who are tormented with the choice of a portable drive, I offer a small overview of one of the devices, which can be safely included in the candidate list.
Last year, I wrote about an external hard drive from Verbatim - it was an array of two 1TB disks, which together gave good scope for storing files. Everything would be fine, but not compact - you cannot drag such a brick with you. In the meantime, the need to carry a bunch of files with me did not go away - all of a sudden for myself, I switched to a portable hard drive, because space on flash drives was simply not enough. In some kind of competition there won the 500 GB Seagate FreeAgent Go , on which there is practically no free space now, because of which he found peace on the backup shelf.
He was replaced by a new hard drive that you can carry with you and not be afraid that it will get scratched - this is Verbatim SureFire . Why did I choose him? There are several reasons for this: the previous devices of the company (a flash drive and the disk mentioned above) worked well; Bribed the practical properties of the device; it is quite rare - at least it was interesting why it is better or worse than other discs that I don’t even want to write about (almost everyone has the same agent).
A small box inside which everything is in perfect order:
- A 320GB Verbatim SureFire hard drive.
- Two USB-cables (for connecting and for power);
- Cable FireWire 800-400;
- FireWire 800-800 cable;
- User's manual;
- Protective case.
All connectors are located on one of the ends of the drive - miniUSB (2.0), FireWire 800 and a USB connector for power. The latter is needed in case one USB port for powering the drive is not enough (a USB power cable is included), which is rare, but is found. So the advantages of the IEEE 1394 bus include full-fledged power supply of the device - the specification says about 1.5A and voltage from 8 to 40 volts.
Unlike the “soft” coating of FriAgent (which is scratched almost with a fingernail), the SureFire case is more practical - it is made mainly of brushed aluminum (fingerprints do not remain) and only at the ends there are small inserts (also matte) of plastic. Moreover, the case, it seems, is part of the device’s heat exchange system - I can’t explain anything about the strong heating of luminium (with active work). There is a dull LED on top, and 4 rubber legs on the bottom, which almost completely damp out already insignificant spurious vibrations. The dimensions of the device are the most typical - 81x128x15 (mm) with a weight of 186 grams.
Inside the armor, a 2.5 '' hard drive is sharpened, with a working capacity of 298GB. The cache is 8MB, the model is unknown (it wasn’t parsed, but in the system it was just like Ext Hard Disk), but judging by the firmware version it’s Samsung.
High-speed measurements in the HD Tune Pro program .
Despite the theoretical 480Mbit / s in USB2.0 versus 400Mbit / c in FireWire 400, the latter wins in practice, and with a good margin - in everyday use this will only be a plus. Unfortunately, I could not do the most interesting - due to the lack of a FireWire 800 (1394b) connector on my computer. I suspect that in this case the speed would be even higher - in the region of 50 Mb / s.
During idle time, the disk temperature was about 40 degrees, with active work - all 50. Within the acceptable, but, of course, a little high.
By the way, this is the first 2.5 '' format disc (which I met) that supports AAM (Automatic Acoustic Management) technology , which I once wrote a short note about . A trifle, but nice.
The protective cover from the kit is a separate spoon of honey. It does not need to be constantly opened and closed - the hard drive is simply inserted inside. But to scratch the device "in a peel" will already be much more difficult. The only thing that is not provided for in the design is a clip or a slot for attaching to a belt. On the other hand, wearing a hard drive on a belt ... well, what, someone wears in their pockets.
At the first start on the disk you can find 29 instruction files in different languages (including Russian).
Another bonus - initially on the disk the role of the file system is played by HFS +, which makes the disk suitable for work on MacOS, including the Time Machine program.
Case included;
Rubber feet against vibration;
Ability to work via USB and FireWire;
Strong metal (opaque) case;
Initially compatible with Time Machine; AAM support
There is no software on the disk *;
Heats up quite a lot at work;
The price is slightly higher than other drives.
* There is apparently no software on the disk because the disk is more focused on users of Apple systems, i.e. where Time Machine is installed initially. But ... after all, the drive works fine also in Windows-systems ...)
In nature, there are three versions of the drive - 250, 320 and 500 GB. They cost 3200, 4000 and 5200 rubles, respectively.
Undoubtedly, the leader in terms of prevalence for such devices is the USB interface. Everyone is good and comfortable, but not as fast as we would like - however, the new version (3.0) is already slowly pecking at the store shelves. In the meantime, the time has not yet come for new technologies, you can use the good old FireWire.
The Verbatim drive left only positive impressions - such a device is suitable for any user, but, as I said, it is somewhat more expensive. Therefore, it makes sense to overpay only in three cases - if there is FireWire support / need or if you need a practical case. Actually, it is precisely these two points that distinguish SureFire from the hordes of other devices of this class ... otherwise it is just another hard drive, albeit a really good one. A month has passed - the flight is normal.
Do not forget that all people are divided into those who make backups and those who DO NOT STILL.
During the test, no bytes were harmed.
Good luck!
Last year, I wrote about an external hard drive from Verbatim - it was an array of two 1TB disks, which together gave good scope for storing files. Everything would be fine, but not compact - you cannot drag such a brick with you. In the meantime, the need to carry a bunch of files with me did not go away - all of a sudden for myself, I switched to a portable hard drive, because space on flash drives was simply not enough. In some kind of competition there won the 500 GB Seagate FreeAgent Go , on which there is practically no free space now, because of which he found peace on the backup shelf.
He was replaced by a new hard drive that you can carry with you and not be afraid that it will get scratched - this is Verbatim SureFire . Why did I choose him? There are several reasons for this: the previous devices of the company (a flash drive and the disk mentioned above) worked well; Bribed the practical properties of the device; it is quite rare - at least it was interesting why it is better or worse than other discs that I don’t even want to write about (almost everyone has the same agent).
Inbox
A small box inside which everything is in perfect order:
- A 320GB Verbatim SureFire hard drive.
- Two USB-cables (for connecting and for power);
- Cable FireWire 800-400;
- FireWire 800-800 cable;
- User's manual;
- Protective case.
All connectors are located on one of the ends of the drive - miniUSB (2.0), FireWire 800 and a USB connector for power. The latter is needed in case one USB port for powering the drive is not enough (a USB power cable is included), which is rare, but is found. So the advantages of the IEEE 1394 bus include full-fledged power supply of the device - the specification says about 1.5A and voltage from 8 to 40 volts.
Unlike the “soft” coating of FriAgent (which is scratched almost with a fingernail), the SureFire case is more practical - it is made mainly of brushed aluminum (fingerprints do not remain) and only at the ends there are small inserts (also matte) of plastic. Moreover, the case, it seems, is part of the device’s heat exchange system - I can’t explain anything about the strong heating of luminium (with active work). There is a dull LED on top, and 4 rubber legs on the bottom, which almost completely damp out already insignificant spurious vibrations. The dimensions of the device are the most typical - 81x128x15 (mm) with a weight of 186 grams.
Inside the armor, a 2.5 '' hard drive is sharpened, with a working capacity of 298GB. The cache is 8MB, the model is unknown (it wasn’t parsed, but in the system it was just like Ext Hard Disk), but judging by the firmware version it’s Samsung.
High-speed measurements in the HD Tune Pro program .
USB 2.0
Firewire 400
Despite the theoretical 480Mbit / s in USB2.0 versus 400Mbit / c in FireWire 400, the latter wins in practice, and with a good margin - in everyday use this will only be a plus. Unfortunately, I could not do the most interesting - due to the lack of a FireWire 800 (1394b) connector on my computer. I suspect that in this case the speed would be even higher - in the region of 50 Mb / s.
During idle time, the disk temperature was about 40 degrees, with active work - all 50. Within the acceptable, but, of course, a little high.
By the way, this is the first 2.5 '' format disc (which I met) that supports AAM (Automatic Acoustic Management) technology , which I once wrote a short note about . A trifle, but nice.
The protective cover from the kit is a separate spoon of honey. It does not need to be constantly opened and closed - the hard drive is simply inserted inside. But to scratch the device "in a peel" will already be much more difficult. The only thing that is not provided for in the design is a clip or a slot for attaching to a belt. On the other hand, wearing a hard drive on a belt ... well, what, someone wears in their pockets.
At the first start on the disk you can find 29 instruction files in different languages (including Russian).
Another bonus - initially on the disk the role of the file system is played by HFS +, which makes the disk suitable for work on MacOS, including the Time Machine program.
| By the way, various companies are promoting the IEEE 1394 standard under their trademarks: Apple - FireWire Sony - i.LINK Yamaha - mLAN TI - Lynx Creative - SB1394 |
Pros and cons
Case included; Rubber feet against vibration; Ability to work via USB and FireWire; Strong metal (opaque) case; Initially compatible with Time Machine; AAM support There is no software on the disk *; Heats up quite a lot at work; The price is slightly higher than other drives. * There is apparently no software on the disk because the disk is more focused on users of Apple systems, i.e. where Time Machine is installed initially. But ... after all, the drive works fine also in Windows-systems ...)
In nature, there are three versions of the drive - 250, 320 and 500 GB. They cost 3200, 4000 and 5200 rubles, respectively.
The end
Undoubtedly, the leader in terms of prevalence for such devices is the USB interface. Everyone is good and comfortable, but not as fast as we would like - however, the new version (3.0) is already slowly pecking at the store shelves. In the meantime, the time has not yet come for new technologies, you can use the good old FireWire.
The Verbatim drive left only positive impressions - such a device is suitable for any user, but, as I said, it is somewhat more expensive. Therefore, it makes sense to overpay only in three cases - if there is FireWire support / need or if you need a practical case. Actually, it is precisely these two points that distinguish SureFire from the hordes of other devices of this class ... otherwise it is just another hard drive, albeit a really good one. A month has passed - the flight is normal.
Do not forget that all people are divided into those who make backups and those who DO NOT STILL.
During the test, no bytes were harmed.
Good luck!