Portable Hard Disks: Faster, bigger and lighter

Although the disks available in portable computers have become larger over the years, so has the volume of data people want to carry around with them. Music and images and other necessities quickly overflow even a 60 GB laptop drive. Those gigabytes need to be backed up as well, and current optical media can’t cope. It’s up to magnetic media like portable disks to take up the slack.
Fortunately, interfaces have become faster, making it practical to resort to external drives for supplemental storage. USB 2.0, with its maximum throughput of 480 MB/second, is more than quick enough for most purposes.
Pocket-sized USB 2.0 portable hard drives with capacities from 20 GB up have been around for several years, gradually increasing in size as drive technology improved. Most of today’s drives draw so little power that they can run from a laptop’s USB port (at least, while the machine is plugged in), and their compact form factors make them easy to tuck into a pocket or computer bag.
We gathered a group of portable drives to see how current models perform. It’s a tribute to their popularity that one manufacturer couldn’t supply an evaluation unit because all of its stock was in the channel, not the warehouse. However, the six we looked at present a good picture of the product class.

How we tested
Our collection of drives was both attractive and functional. We tested the units with a batch of files totaling almost 2 GB, comprised of a mix of types ranging from plain text to executables. Formal benchmarking was conducted with PCMark04 software.
Each drive was immediately detected by Windows XP Professional on our test system. However, users of Windows 98 or earlier will have to install drivers, since the operating system does not natively support USB.
Most drives included the necessary software.
We tested on a 1.8 GHz Fujitsu LifeBook T-Series, a machine perky enough that it provided as much throughput as the drives could take, so we could ensure that any perform-ance differences could be attributed to the drives.
It supplied sufficient power through its USB port to run even the most demanding of the disks.
Our test system supported USB 2.0, so provided maximum throughput.
All of the drives are also capable of communing with systems with USB 1.1 ports, albeit at much slower speeds (12 MB/second).
If you want to use one of these drives on an older machine, it would be well worth it to spend a few dollars on a USB 2.0 upgrade for the machine.
Prices are list, stated in Canadian dollars.
If a U.S. price was quoted from the manufacturer, it was converted at the Bank of Canada rate of $1.24.
Pocketec DataStor Pro Series
Iomega Portable Hard Disk, Silver Series
Seagate Portable External Hard Drive
LaCie Mobile Hard Drive,
SimpleTech SimpleDrive
SmartDisk FireLitePocketec DataStor Pro Series

Subtle is not a good description of this drive – it’s an enthusiastic red that makes it stand out in the crowd of silver.
It stands out in a number of other ways, too. It’s the only unit to explicitly support Linux, and even explains how to set up the driver. It also comes with a zippered carrying case.
Physically, it is identical in size to the LaCie, but weighs almost an ounce less. All controls and indicators are on one end: the USB connection, a USB/EXT/Off switch identical to Iomega’s, a connector for external power and a blue activity light. Like the others in this roundup, it draws power from the USB port.
Dantz Retrospect Express backup software for PC and Mac comes in the box.
Performance-wise, although it was a tad slower than Iomega and SmartDisk in file transfers, it blew the socks off everything else in PCMark’s testing.
All this comes at a price. The drive cost more than $4 per gigabyte than the Iomega.

Iomega Portable Hard Disk, Silver Series

The second lightest of our collection, the Iomega drive is a plain silver box with black ends. It has a mini USB port on one end, along with a switch allowing the user to select whether power will come from an optional A/C adapter or the USB port. You can also choose the “Off” setting to power the drive down without disconnecting it. A blue light on top shows activity.
The drive is only half an inch thick, so tucks neatly into a pocket.
The software bundle includes backup and disaster recovery programs for the PC, and a Macintosh backup program.
It ties with SmartDisk as the top performer in file transfers, but fell to fifth spot in PCMark’s tests. It is the least expensive per gigabyte of all of our products.

Seagate Portable External Hard Drive

I was somewhat amused to open the box and find this drive was vacuum packed in a foil bag – Seagate definitely intend it to store well!
Once extracted, it proved to be the heaviest of the group, at just over 10 oz, and one of the thickest at one inch. It looks bulkier than it really is because it’s almost square. Grillework around the edges ensures proper cooling; a blue activity light peeks through the front.
The cable is rather unusual – it’s a Y cable, apparently with two standard USB connectors on the arms of the Y, and a mini-USB on the single end. Closer examination revealed that one arm of the Y is for power only, replacing the second cable that came with the other drives. The drive also has a connection for an A/C adapter.
Software consists of CMS BounceBack Express, a very basic PC or Mac program that can be upgraded online (for a price, of course).
In performance it was edged out as the fastest in file transfers by Iomega, but by a small margin. In PCMark tests, it finished second. It was the third most expensive per gigabyte, but only by a few cents.

LaCie Mobile Hard Drive,
Design by F.A. Porsche

LaCie’s sleek little silver box is virtually the same size as Iomega’s, but weighs half an ounce more, probably due to the larger hard drive. Its orange-ish activity indicator light can be seen from both the top and the front.
The second most expensive drive per gigabyte ($1.30 more than the cheapest), it is the fourth best performer in both file transfers and PCMark tests, thanks in part to a generous 8 MB cache. Like all drives in this roundup, it comes with both a USB cable and a separate cable that allows it to draw additional power from a second USB port if necessary. There’s no backup software supplied, just some utilities to reformat the drive if need be.

SimpleTech SimpleDrive

This drive is longer than most, at six inches, and is slightly sculpted to fit easily in the hand. It is basic grey, enclosed in a clear plastic sheath that bears the product name.
This is the only drive that includes an A/C adapter in the box, though, like the others, it happily will draw power from the USB port. At 7 oz, it is the fifth heaviest in the group, about two-thirds of an ounce heavier than LaCie, and it was the slowest in both file transfers and PCMark tests, taking up to 50 percent longer than our top performer to complete tests.
The USB cable is only 18 inches long, which can make placement of the drive awkward in some situations.
Although the drive will talk to either PC or Mac, it only includes PC backup software (StorageSync Professional).
SimpleTech’s three year warranty is the best in the roundup.

SmartDisk FireLite

SmartDisk’s magnesium alloy case helps ensure the drive’s durability. It tied with the top performer in file transfer performance, but came in third in PCMark’s tests. It is second only to Iomega in cost per gigabyte. There’s a switch on the back allowing you to choose to draw power from USB or A/C. SmartDisk does not include any software with the unit; it is compatible with both PC and Macintosh.

The Bottom LineAs laptop hard drives grow larger, the need for backup devices increases as well. That’s one advantage of a portable hard drive. They’re also handy for users who regularly move between computers but need to retain access to their data.
Because vendors sent drives of varying capacities, we looked at cost per gigabyte of each.
Although its list price is high, don’t discount the LaCie drive. It is an attractive unit that performed relatively well. It could profit from some bundled backup software, though.
The units from SimpleTech and Seagate tied in scoring. Seagate’s respectable performance and attractive price per gigabyte was offset by its weight – almost twice that of the lightest drive – and brief warranty, while SimpleTech’s so-so performance was countered by its excellent three- year warranty.
SmartDisk’s stellar performance and attractive cost per gigabyte moved it up in the ranking, despite its lack of software and one-year warranty.
Iomega has hit the jackpot with its drive. The combination of good performance, reasonable price, software and light weight make it a great choice for the budget-conscious and data hungry. My only complaint is the stingy one-year warranty.
Pocketec, however, blew away the competition despite its high price and one-year warranty with its great performance, light weight, software, and Linux support.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Lynn Greiner
Lynn Greiner
Lynn Greiner has been interpreting tech for businesses for over 20 years and has worked in the industry as well as writing about it, giving her a unique perspective into the issues companies face. She has both IT credentials and a business degree

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