» $249 »For more information, call Kaira Technologies, tel: 6494-4876.
Also available at Funan IT Mall & Sim Lim
AS SOON as I got this external hard drive out of the box, I dropped it - twice. Then, I stuffed about 8GB worth of files into it, and dropped it again.
All for professional reasons of course. I was putting to test the claim by the hard drive's maker, Freecom, that the Tough Drive can take the shock of being dropped from a maximum height of 2m onto a hard surface.
Despite the numerous freefalls and somersaults I subjected it to, the hard disk functioned perfectly and I still had access to all the data in it. For photographers and road warriors, this shock-resistant drive is a godsend. Its iMac-inspired design does not hurt your fashion sensibilities either.
Freecom designers have built this one like a tough truck. The hard drive is encased with an anti-shock frame while a soft but durable silicon cover provides that final outer-layer protection.
Getting the drive to work is easy because no software needs to be installed. Simply plug it in to your PC or notebook, wait a few seconds for the drive icon to appear, and you can start moving files.
If you are into facts and figures, the Tough Drive is pretty impressive. It has a huge capacity - 250GB worth of storage to be exact. Weighing just 200g, it is also light to boot. And it works on both Macs and PCs via a standard USB port or the attached FireWire 400 port.
You'll appreciate the fact that it's a silent worker too: A small blue blinking light indicates when data is being added to or removed from the drive.
As for transfer speeds, it took over seven minutes (7min 17secs) to copy 8GB worth of assorted files from my Lenovo desktop PC to the disk. This is about 60 seconds slower than my Seagate FreeAgent Go portable disk which took 6min 21sec.
Freecom ships the drive with NTI Shadow software. This tool allows you to perform automatic backups of your files in real time - running in the background without using up system resources. What I would really love is a feature that prevents anyone besides myself from accessing the drive. This would mean my data would still be secure even if I lose the drive.
