What Are They?

The Freecom ToughDrive 2.5″ is a mobile 2.5″ hard drive from Freecom with Anti-Shock mechanism contained in a durable, soft silicon cover. It has an integral USB 2.0 cable and plug and is USB 2.0, buspowered so you don’t need an additional power supply. It works with Win & Mac as well as other digital products with a suitable USB interface.

Why Would You Want One?

I could have written something here but the Freecom site has some text that I think covers what I would say anyway:

The toughest drive there is!
In today’s world mobility has become a key factor. People who are on the road carry their whole office with them. Notebook, mobile phone, PDA, external hard drive… Imagine what can happen when you’re late for a flight, running to the gate, and your external hard drive accidentally falls from your notebook case or out of your jacket pocket onto the floor… it breaks. Hundreds of hours of work, gigabytes of spreadsheets, documents, photo’s… all gone. Not anymore! Freecom introduces the ToughDrive. The ideal external storage solution for people on the move. Fitted with an internal anti-shock frame and a unique soft silicon cover, it can withstand bumps and drops so your drive is still fully functional after it has dropped. The ToughDrive ensures you can still access your valuable files.

What Are The Essentials?

Specification:

Product Short Spec – 250GB:
Compatibility: PC, Mac
Hard drive size: 250 GB
Interface type: Hi-Speed USB
Form factor: 2.5″
Buffer size: 8 MB
Average seek time: 12 ms
Spindle speed: 5400 rpm

View datasheet (PDF)

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Durable, soft silicon cover
• Internal anti-shock mechanism – Withstand falling from 2 meters
• Integrated USB 2.0 cable
• Buspowered
• High quality, slimline design
• Fanless design thus no noise
• Including award-winning NTI Shadow backup software for PC and Mac,automatically & continuously protects your photo, music, video and other data files
• 2 years warranty

Cons:What’s Not So Good?

• Short integrated USB cable

(An extension is provided but it is one more thing to have to carry around)

Why Do I Use Them and

What is the ProReviewer Experience?

I have used 3 different Toughdrives over the past 2 years. an 80GB, a 160GB and my most recent purchase a 250GB. I bought the first one because I needed some lightweight portable storage as my Laptop only had a 30GB internal drive. I wanted something I could take on overseas trips and holidays with confidence that it was unlikely to fail due to being bumped about in the laptop bag or rucksack. The later purchases were to be able to carry more data and take some multimedia files for entertainment on my travels. The first drives also came with Acronis Backup software which is excellent. The latest drives come with NTI Shadow backup software which I haven’t tried.

The first two drives (80GB & 160GB) were called ToughDrive Pro but Freecom have now used this for a newer model which has both USB and FireWire connections. However you will see that both reviews in the “Useful Links” section below refer to the original model and describe them as the ToughDrive Pro so watch out for this inconsistency if you intend to purchase and don’t need the extra FireWire connection.

I have not been disappointed. Not a single problem with any of them which is more than I can say for 2 other drives I have used from other manufacturers. Acknowledging just 3 drives is a small sample to comment on overall reliability I have been very pleased with them and would recommend them to anyone. While a little more expensive the extra security and confidence you can get to your data when you need it is well worth it. The soft cases have not scuffed or marked with use despite being regularly carried in the front pocket of a rucksack with several items. Needless to say I keep a full copy of all my portable applications on all of them

Useful Links

Freecom

250 GB Drive – More info

View datasheet

PC Pro Review – Freecom ToughDrive Pro

Amazon.com – Freecom ToughDrive Pro – Hard drive – 250 GB

ZDNet Freecom ToughDrive Pro hard drive – 250 GB – Hi-Speed USB … (see Spec Tab)

What Other Posts are Relevant?

TIP – Format a USB Flash Drive for Speed or File Size – What’s Best and How to Overcome Some Problems

Data Rescue Tip – Use MS Utilities to Repair Outlook Files

Backup – Identify Where the Data Is – Find the Location of Your Information on a Windows Based PC?

Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications

Why I decided to Write This Blog

What are the Tags?

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The first part of this article ( Save Time, Effort & Maybe Money – Use Web Reviews Before you Install or Purchase – Part 1 ) dealt with a bad experience I had in purchasing some external hard drive units. In particular it points out the sort traps that are easy to fall into when you don’t do research before you purchase or there isn’t sufficient good information available. While this post is using hardware as an example the same can be said for software. Even with Freeware the time invested and the potential for damage to your system or inadvertently installing malware still means time on research and reading reviews is time well spent.

How to Stack the Odds to Get a Good Experience

Having used the purchase of the external hard drives as an example of where I had a bad experience I will use their replacement to demonstrate how to try to avoid some of the pitfalls.

As I said in the first part of this article my preference was for Network Attached Storage for this particular purpose. The reason for my previous purchase of FireWire/USB was that this option was considerably cheaper than any NAS devices I could buy at the time. Therefore I let the savings weigh too heavily against the lack of available information or reviews on my purchase. This time I was more determined to go for NAS rather than external hard drives but price still had a big part to play. The main requirements were preferably 2TB, NAS, secondary preferences were RAID configuration and user security/login options. Other facilities such as print server and Internet file access/server were not important.

Over time I have built a short list of reputable Internet companies that I start of by using to see what is available whether I am looking for the best deal on a particular item or I am looking for a product in a particular class as in this case. This list remains fairly stable as a core list of trustworthy companies with competitive prices as well as excellent “terms & conditions” for support and returns. This forms a starting point for my “research” but is not an exclusive list as far as any decision is concerned as I will explain later.

Using my core list I quickly narrowed things down to a short list of NAS devices that met the requirements of storage size, price and overall specification. It was clear that NAS devices still seem to command a premium price when compared to “External Hard Drives” which is surprising as in terms of hardware and production costs they must be almost identical. In fact when you see NAS boxes with “TB of storage selling for substantially more than a Windows Home Server PC plus some additional hard disks to make it up to 2TB you have to wonder what’s going on .

Having narrowed my options down I found that the best value money, by some way, was the Western Digital My Book 1.5TB NAS which also offered remote access and sharing. I then set about looking for reviews and information on it at various locations. The main sources | normally use and would recommend are :

• The Internet sales sites for specification, user manuals, policy on guarantees and customer reviews (for positive and negative feedback)
• The manufacturer for detailed check on specifications, support area FAQ’s, firmware or software updates, Forums
• Major Technology sites and PC magazine Internet sites for reviews and reports
• Blogs for Reviews and Comments on products
• Groups and Forums for reviews, comments and particularly negative feedback

In going through this process I keep an eye out for alternative products that may appear in the reviews or comments. I also watch out for similar products by the same manufacturer as this may be a further guide to quality and service.

The most important thing is to take a balanced view of what you read. Reviews by the manufacturer will of course set everything in the best possible light but if they also point to independent reviews and awards then these should be followed up. (Make sure that you believe the authenticity of any independent review, you should have no problem with reputable magazines and tech sources but it is not unknown for some smaller operators to be up to no good)

When I was looking at the 1.5TB reviews and comments there were quite a lot of very negative comments from customers on a couple of the major Internet sellers websites. At first I was rather disappointed as I thought this would mean I needed to find an alternative which would be far more expensive. However looking at some of the reviews in detail and making comparisons with other comments and the product specification revealed a lot more. What became clear was that many comments resulted form unrealistic expectations or understanding of the product followed by a somewhat prejudiced reaction. In this case two things were clear, the bundled software for connection and sharing appeared to not work properly and secondly the Western Digital approach to DRM and sharing over the Internet was being attacked. So a little more delving showed that the bundled software was not necessary except for Internet sharing and that if the device was uses as a straight NAS device and configured through the internal Web Interface then there were no problems.

The final part of the decision making process is where to purchase from. For me this is very dependent on the type of product I am purchasing. If it is electronic or mechanical (or a combination of both as with disk drives) I consider this quite high risk in terms of possible early failure through bad luck or manufacturing problems. I will already have considered this in selecting the manufacturer but I like to know that the online retailer is likely to provide a good returns and support policy and I am prepared to pay a little more for this. If I am buying low cost or low risk goods such as software or consumables then I will look for the best price option. In making these decisions remember that you need to take into account postage costs, delivery times and additional security or rights you may get through the method of purchase. (e.g. In the UK using a credit card provides additional rights and even insurance for certain purchases).

In Summary I suggest that the following process is advisable:

1. Select possible products
2. Gather “Research”
3. Review research for validity and weight accordingly
4. Decide Yes/No to purchase
5. Find prices including postage costs
6. Decide level of cost v “terms and conditions” that is appropriate
7. Check delivery times etc. meet your requirements
8. Use most appropriate payment method

Good luck in all your future purchases

Technorati Tags: Electronics, External Hard Drive, Free Reviews, NAS Device, Network Attached Storage, Pro Reviewer, ProReviewer, Reviews, Windows, Windows Home Server

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Well that’s pretty obvious but I bet we all have made poor decisions to install software or buy a new bit of kit before carrying out a proper review of information available on the web. I would also add to this that being an “Early Adopter” can be fun and all very cutting edge but this is often referred to as the “Bleeding Edge” with good reason. I will detail two of my recent experiences bad and good and the value of doing some good research.

A Bad Experience

About 9 months ago I bought a 2TB external storage device. My preference was to go for a NAS (Network Attached Storage) unit as I already had a couple of these and liked the fact that they were universally available over the home network. A bit of searching around on the Internet showed that there was a 2TB FireWire/USB interfaced unit for about 60% of the price I would be paying for a NAS device. The 2TB unit was new on the market but came from what I understood to be a large, reputable company with plenty of other external storage products which had a good track record. This was quite a sizeable purchase at over £400 ($800) so I did not commit to this lightly, but I decided the saving was to good to pass and ordered it (over the Internet). The device duly arrived, I plugged it in and everything was up and running quickly with no problems. In fact I was so pleased that I decided to buy a second unit a couple of weeks later and daisy chain them together.

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