EasyHardDisk Portable 30GB Drive Review

 

External devices have been the mainstream for quite a while. They offer great possibilities and have one thing that sets it apart from internal devices. Portability, style and good performance. Large storage has never been portable to bring along when you need to copy files. Most of us will agree that files that they need to copy are not needed when they are finished with it. Some of us don’t have the motive of using a blank CD to copy a 10MB file. Also some of us need more than 700MB of space for other reasons. Also you cannot simply bring an internal hard drive with you, it just doesn't work. Well it does, but it is a hassle. So what’s an easier way?

Introducing the line of EasyDisk products. The 30GB EasyHardDisk.

Here pictured is the 30GB EasyHardDisk

The bottom

The EasyHardDisk is a portable USB 2.0 operated hard drive that is unique because of how EasyDisk have managed to fit large space in such a small enclosure. The unit measures in at approximately 5.3”x3” and is literally the size of your palm. The handy hard drive is useful when you travel and need easy access to storage. Big storage. With just a simply connection of the supplied USB cable into a USB 2.0/compatible port, you have a fast hard drive right in front of you to use. The unit is so small and compact that it fits into any good-sized pant pocket.

The package arrived to us in FedEx form and was safe from any damage.  The box was attractive and well written.

What is included in the package are the following:

The small manual was very clear and easy to follow to show you how to set up the unit.

The unit has two LED’s on top of the unit. A green one that displays when the unit is powered and the red LED to show when the hard drive is in use.

The back of the unit

High quality case

Installation

Installation was dead simple and you do the following.

1. Connect the USB 2.0 cable to the back of the unit. Now connect the PS/2 power connector to the back of the unit as well.

2. Now connect both USB cable and PS/2 power connector to it’s designated spot.

I’d like to mention that if you have PS/2 keyboards and mouse that you can simply connect that to the piggyback outlet of the PS/2 power connector of the 30GB EasyHardDisk. The reason for the PS/2 power connector was to not draw every ounce of power from the USB ports. The only downfall I can see to this is people with Abit’s first version of MAX motherboards, which were legacy free and did not have any PS/2 ports.

Testing

I will be testing the 30GB EasyHardDisk on our newly revised system setup, which includes a full speed USB 2.0 support.
I will test the data rate on Sisoft Sandra SP1 software. You can download Sisoft Sandra here. You may see our setup to refresh your memory over in our test system page.

Results

• Buffered Read: 28MB/S
• Buffered Write: 20MB/S
• Sequential Read: 11MB/S
• Sequential Write: 11MB/S
• Time to transfer 2.40GB worth of data into the 30GB EasyHardDisk (approximately) – 3 minutes, 24 seconds
• Time to copy 2.40GB of data from the EasyHardDisk to the Maxtor 40GB HDD (approximately) – 3 minutes, 11 seconds

Update: Here is the HDD Tach results with this drive.

Well nothing ground breaking but good results for USB 2.0 speed.  The drive uses 16.7% of CPU power when operational and the burst speed is 29.4mbps.

Observations – The 30GB EasyHardDisk preformed flawlessly without fault. During transfer it zipped right through quickly and easily. Throughout the review, I only had one main gripe, and that is that the 30GB EasyHardDisk can move and slide around in any surface, carpet or table. During testing, there was one time when it almost fell off my table because the USB cable shifted away. Luckily it did not fall. I would have liked rubber feet on the bottom of the drive to prevent any slippage. Rubber feet or suction cups will do wonders for it.

Conclusion

Comparison of size: Zip drive, EasyHardDisk, Floppy, and USB Drive.  Surprisingly, you don't need the biggest physical size for the biggest storage.

Overall I am very impressed with this product. It provides large amount of space and at a very fast connection rate due to USB 2.0’s maximum throughput of 480Mpbs.

Also the drive’s styling looks simply cute. I have no hesitation on recommending this product to anyone who needs a portable hard drive that is fast and reliable for any needs.

I give the EasyHardDisk Portable 30GB Drive a…

9/10!

Pros and cons

+ Fast
+ Small
+ Styling
+ USB 2.0
+ Carrying case
- Not all motherboards (Abit’s first MAX motherboards have a PS/2 Port)
- The 30GB EasyHardDisk needs rubber feet in bottom to prevent slippage

You can visit EasyDisk for more information on pricing, and their line of products.

 

Alternative Pricing:

• PriceWatch - $228.50 U.S. - 2nd last one
• PC Progress - $224 U.S. - 2nd last one
• Spartan Technologies - $219 - 2nd last one
• If you are Canadian like us, head over to www.vaela.com