The new generation of data storage devices pack a big punch into a small package. Mark Prigg tests them out.
Storage has become a big issue for people on the move, as the sheer amount of data we need to carry around has increased at a frightening rate. This, in turn, has created several headaches for both travellers and their IT departments.
As well as the problem of how to store all the data, backing it up has also become a major issue. The technology industry has risen to the challenge with a new range of products – from home servers that can save and back up all your data (including films, music and even TV shows) to pocket-sized hard drives and USB sticks. Choose the right one, or combination, and you should be able to ensure you never run out of space, and that your files are safe.
In general, a good rule is never to leave the office without backing up all your valuable data – after all, one accident can render your laptop hard drive useless. With the latest hard drives, both desktop and portable, the good news is that this is incredibly easy to do. Almost every drive comes with software that will allow you to back up automatically once you plug into the office or home network, and many will even allow you to do it wirelessly. It’s also worth spending a little time setting up an automatic backup system.
The humble USB stick has become the traveller’s best friend, allowing you to store information on the move – and in some cases to leave the laptop behind altogether, simply saving a presentation on a memory stick to use on another PC. But with USB sticks now having up to 64GB of memory, it is no longer clear whether a USB stick or a hard drive is best.
As a general rule, music and video files are best stored on an external drive. It’s also worth thinking about storage for the home and office as well – after all, you can never have too many backups of your company-critical data, or your holiday snaps.
Iomega Home Media Network hard drive
£135 for 500GB, £180 for 1TB
In recent months, the idea of network storage for the home has grown in popularity as more and more people start to use devices such as games consoles to watch downloaded films or listen to music. Iomega’s Home Media Network Hard Drive is aimed squarely at this market, and allows you to store all of your files centrally, so they can be accessed easily from any machine on your home network.
Simply plug it into your broadband router and it will become accessible from your machine. It’s reasonably straightforward to set up, and comes with automatic backup software, the same as the Iomega eGo (see overleaf). It’s a great little device, and perfect for home users – your Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 will be able to read music and films from it, along with all the other computers in your home or office.
Overall, this is a superb solution. It boasts some impressive features, such as its own iTunes server for music. Of all the drives tested here, this is the one that I found myself using most often – it’s so convenient to have all your data stored in one central location.
Pros Good design, simple to use
Cons Set-up can be a little fiddly
Kingston Data Traveller Mini slim
£8 for 2GB, £12 for 4GB, £22 for 8GB, £41 for 16GB
Kingston’s tiny device measures only 38.85mm x 16.40mm x 6.44mm. It’s an incredible feat of engineering, and shows just how small a USB drive can get. In fact, it is so small that it fills only half the connector plug of most USB devices, which means this does make inserting it into a computer for the first few times slightly confusing.
The beauty of the Mini Slim is that you really can take it anywhere. Since acquiring it, it has become a permanent fixture in my wallet and has saved me several times when I’ve been out and about without a laptop. I found that 4GB of storage was ample for even the biggest Powerpoint presentations, and it should be an essential part of any regular traveller’s kit.
Pros Amazing design and size
Cons Easy to lose
LaCie hard disk Max
£184 for 2TB
If you’re serious about backing up your data, the Lacie Hard Disk Max is a superb solution, and perfect for the office as well as home. The monolith-like case, with its slick black look and blue LED light bar, contains two separate hard drives. This allows the unit to keep two copies of your data automatically, so that when one drive fails, another perfect copy is always available. It may seem like overkill, but for critical data this is a useful technique for ensuring you never lose anything.
The drive is simple to use, using a high-speed USB-2 cable to talk to your machine (although it’s worth noting that you may be able to plug it into your wireless broadband router as well, turning it into a network drive). Supplied software lets you choose how it will work – you can specify using both drives as a single 2TB drive, or as “mirrors” of each other, depending on what you want to use it for.
This is definitely designed more for the serious business user, but for small offices it could be a godsend, and the large capacity and built-in backup mean it will help to safeguard data simply and quickly.
Pros Stunning looks and incredible interface
Cons Limited storage
Iomega eGo portable hard drive
£55 for 160GB, £72 for 250GB, £100 for 320GB, £135 for 500GB
As far as design goes, Iomega has hit the nail on the head with the eGo range. Available in several colours, its small, rounded shape makes it neat enough to slip into a briefcase. It contains both USB and FireWire ports, so will work on a range of machines. Available in ruby red, midnight blue, jet black, silver, camo, leather, alpine white and silver – all finished off with chrome – this is the best-looking drive out there.
It also includes some cool features, such as Drop Guard, which allows the drive to withstand knocks and falls without any loss of data. I accidentally managed to drop the drive twice while using it, and I had no problem with lost data – although it’s probably best not to test this feature too extensively, just in case. However, it should certainly be rugged enough to cope with most conditions. The eGo also includes a free licence for EMC’s Retrospect Express HD backup software (Windows only), which is excellent and simple to use.
Pros Great design and portability
Cons Limited storage space
Apple Time Capsule
£195 for 500GB, £322 for 1TB
For Apple users, this is by far the easiest and slickest way to back up files. Plugging the Time Capsule into your network allows you to wirelessly and automatically back up all of your data when you are in wireless range of it, or plugged into one of its network ports. The slick white box simply plugs into your broadband modem, and also doubles as a wireless router.
The drive is silent, although it does get very warm on top, so be sure not to cram it on to a shelf with no room for air to circulate. Once you’ve set the drive up, using either Mac or Windows software, any computer plugged into your home network will be able to read and write files to it exactly as if it were a normal external hard drive.
For users of Apple’s computers, however, there is much more to the device. It will automatically back up all of your files. The Time Machine software lets you find files you’ve deleted or lost easily, simply by scrolling back through previous versions of your machine’s files it stores and keeps. The downside is that the near constant backups do drain your network performance – it is constantly churning away in the background.
Overall, if you want to use the Apple Time Capsule to back up your Mac, and just that, it’s the perfect solution. But for anything else, I would advise looking elsewhere, as any other features – and any features at all for non-Mac users – are lacking.
Pros Slick design and operation
Cons High price, works best with Apple machines
Buffalo 32Gb Microstation portable silicon disk (SSD) drive
£69
Quicker than a hard drive, SSDs, or solid state drives, are in effect high-capacity memory chips rather than traditional drives. This means they have no moving parts, so can be used while moving around, and are also totally silent and lightweight. However, they are very expensive, and only in recent months have larger capacities been available. But they’re falling in price all the time, and this drive from Buffalo is one of the first external drives on the market to use the technology.
The small silver box has been well thought out, and has a built-in USB cable that wraps around the drive when not in use. It’s fast and easy to use with both PCs and Macs, but while laptops using SSDs instead of traditional hard drives are filtering on to the market, as an external drive it’s not quite there yet. For a technology demonstrator it’s impressive, but for everyday use the value for money isn’t there yet. Traditional drives, and even high-capacity USB sticks, offer a better deal. For the moment, it’s hard to recommend the Buffalo SSD, but wait six months, when capacities will start to rival traditional drives, and it may be a different story.
Pros SSD drives are the future of laptop storage
Cons Immature technology that’s not cost-effective
Kingston Data Traveler 150
£112 for 64GB
A 64GB USB stick was unheard of a few months ago, but Kingston’s top-of-the-range gadget means the line between USB sticks and traditional hard drives is becoming blurred.
Previously, you’d use a USB stick only for transferring files, but with 64GB, using this as your primary backup device suddenly becomes viable. There’s not much more to say about it – it’s small, fast, works perfectly, and is nice enough to look at (although it could be a little more stylish for everyday use). It’s also the perfect companion for the latest generation of tiny laptops, known as netbooks, which often have limited storage – with this in your briefcase, that is no longer a problem. For users without a huge music or video collection, this could be the only backup you’ll need.
Pros Tiny size, huge storage for a USB stick
Cons Design could be better
LaCie Rugged hard disk
£110 for 250GB, £120 for 320GB, £175 for 500GB
Slightly larger than you’d expect, the Lacie Rugged is an excellent everyday drive and good value for money, so long as you don’t mind how it looks. To give it “rugged” appeal, it has a rubber jacket that, supposedly, helps to protect it against damage should it be dropped. However, the orange sleeve is loose-fitting and seems little more than a marketing gimmick, giving the drive a bit of a military air.
That said, the casing itself certainly seems tough enough to cope with most things you could throw at it, but its look means it is not perhaps something you’d want to whip out in the boardroom. However, for home users or the kind of people who enjoy SAS adventure novels, it does the job perfectly.
Pros Solid design, affordable
Cons Rubber casing is ugly
Toshiba USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive
£58 for 250GB, £75 for 320GB, £81 for 400GB, £87 for 500GB
Toshiba has been selling laptops for a long time, so you’d expect it to have a pretty good grasp of what makes a good travel accessory. And it seems to have nailed it with one of the simplest, easiest-to-use drives here. It’s incredibly simple, with one small USB port on the back. And that’s it. The drive works well and is very fast.
In terms of looks, Toshiba also seems to have got it right. The shiny black exterior and distinctive white stripes give it a classy look you won’t be embarrassed to use in a meeting. However, one plea to Toshiba – change the hard plastic packaging. It is exceptionally annoying. Getting the drive out took five minutes using a pair of scissors, and resulted in several scratches to the unit.
Pros Great design and impact resistance
Cons Terrible packaging
ONLINE BACKUP SERVICES
Backing up on to a physical disc is all well and good, but even that doesn’t always guarantee safety. For ultimate peace of mind, it’s worth backing up your key files online as well – many internet service providers, such as BT, offer this feature as part of their broadband package.
BT’s package, for instance, costs £4.88 per month for 50GB of storage, while Apple’s Mobile Me service costs £58 per year for 20GB. There are dozens of smaller providers as well, but check their pricing carefully as some will change depending on how much you upload and download.
Although these services are relatively cheap for small amounts of data, it’s normally best to use them to back up your most important files, such as family pictures, contacts and documents, rather than the entire contents of your hard drive, otherwise you might be faced with a huge bill.
Mark Prigg is science and technology correspondent for London’s Evening Standard.
