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First of all, I’d like to thank the folks at iDrive for offering their Daily Twitter “IDrive Portable Giveaway” Contest (ended April 28, 2009). I was one of the very lucky winners who won this great prize. Thanks again, iDrive! Being a technology and gadget blogger, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a review of this drive.

(Update May 27 2009). Woohoo! They are offering a new Twitter contest: “IDrive Twitter Free Account DAILY” Contest! This is a similar styled twitter contest except the prize is now a FREE 1-Year 150GB IDrive Pro for Personal Use account! You may want to follow iDrive Online on Twitter and get in on this contest as well as staying updated on what’s happening with iDrive.

Most of us with computers already know we already have a hard drive on our computer so why do we need an external hard drive? Here are some reasons.

Benefits of an external hard drive

Although nowadays we are blessed with very decent hard drive storage space on our computers, sometimes there’s a need for an external hard drive.

First, it’s always a good idea to have a “backup” of the important documents and files we have. Think of it as either a peace of mind or an “insurance” for those “just in case” scenarios. What would you do if suddenly your hard drive failed and all those documents you have on the computer, your browser favorites or bookmarks, photos, etc can’t be accessed? Freak accidents happen and having a backup on any place other than on your computer’s hard drive can help ensure that you can get things back up quickly and easily with minimal hassles.

Second, sometimes, we may need to transfer files (especially large sized ones that can’t fit in a flash drive or flash memory card) from one computer to another. In the old days, we’d need to use floppy drives (remember those?), or even CDs or DVDs nowadays. But having an external drive can be a huge time saver. And having those very lightweight portable drives are even better because they’re lightweight and take up very little space. They should be in every computing traveler’s bag of accessories they take with them.

Third, as an external drive, they would be an excellent storage space for media files like mp3s, videos, photos, etc that we may not want to store on our computers. Whenever you need to view movies, or listen to music, etc, simply plug in your external drive and access it. This would be a great alternative rather than loading it on your work computer, for example.

Now that we have discussed the benefits of an external hard drive, let’s take a look a very lightweight external hard drive, the iDrive Portable external hard drive.

For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

What sets the iDrive Portable from many others you may see at your local computer store first of all, is its very slim form at only 10mm. I don’t own other similar slim hard drives so I can’t compare it with others but it does look very slim. Second, the drive is very lightweight at 0.3 pounds. This definitely makes the drive extremely portable, especially for traveling and for day to day business work related trips. Third, the drive does not require external power, much like other bigger capacity external hard drives. The iDrive Portable comes with a transfer cable that doubles as a power supply for the drive. At one end is a set of USB connectors which you must plug both in to fully power up the drive. The other end is the mini USB connector which you plug into your iDrive Portable hard drive. This eliminates the extra adapter power cable you’d normally need to bring along and plug into a wall and obviously also means less bulk and less weight, adding to the portability factor. I love it! Fourth, the drive runs about 24% faster at 5400 rpm compared to the typical 4200 rpm portable drives. Fifth, the brushed aluminum casing makes the drive look very nice with a matte finish to it. This finish also helps prevent scratches, keeping it look as beautiful as the day you got it.

Specs and Details

Here are more details on the iDrive Portable (taken from the iDrive Portable website):

General Specifications

USB 2.0 (Compatible USB 1.1)
Hard Drive Size: 2.5″ HDD
Capacity: 320 GB
Software: IDrive Portable Software

Product Dimensions

Height: 0.39 in. (10 mm) ± 0.10
Length: 4.72 in. (120 mm) ± 0.10
Width: 2.91 in. (74 mm) ± 0.10
Weight: 0.30 lb. (0.13 kg)

Performance Specifications

Data transfer rate: 480 MB/sec
Rotational speed: 5400 RPM
Read seek time: 12.0 ms (average)

Environmental Specifications

Operating temperature: 5°C to 55°C
Non-operating temperature: – 40°C to 65°C
Compatibiity Compatibility

Use with Windows® 2000 & above,
Mac OS X and Time-Machine*

$69.95 USD

Click on the thumbnail images for a bigger picture

Slideshow

Product Video

iDrive Portable video at YouTube

iDrive Portable backup software at Blip.tv

Here are my observations:

I am very impressed with the looks of the iDrive Portable external hard drive. Its color, the matte finished brushed aluminum casing plus its slim, light and portable features greatly appealed to me. I am also impressed that the drive runs at 5400 rpm as opposed to many other portable drives that run at 4200 rpm. I really like the drive being solely powered by the USB ports rather than requiring an additional power adapter, which not only adds additional bulk but a lot more weight. Not requiring the adapter makes a HUGE difference for portability. I simply take the slim drive and the connector cable and that’s it. The drive offers a very decent storage capacity of 320GB which is more than adequate to backup my entire laptop’s hard drive with room to spare. Also, the backup program can support any external hard drive, so you can use it to backup to other branded external drives.

On the other hand, this portable hard drive can benefit from some improvements. First of all, even though the brushed aluminum casing makes the drive look very nice, the downside is that it also makes the casing somewhat slippery. Especially since a lot of us will use it when traveling to and from work or travel on business trips or vacation, we certainly can’t afford to lose our grip on the drive and let it fall to the ground. In this respect, I would suggest that the casing be coated with some other material that is less slippery. Although the drive is designed to be simplistic and easy enough for anyone to use, I would have preferred if the backup program software were provided with some optional advanced settings for those who wish for more than what’s offered. Also, I think it could also be beneficial to allow the backup program to automatically start a backup upon detection of the connection of the portable drive. This could greatly make backups such a painless and easy process. Plug it in and it’s backed up. What could be simpler? Again, those are simply suggestions.

Review Summary

Don’t be fooled by looks of it. The iDrive Portable external hard drive packs a lot into such a small size. Although its sleek, slim looks may turn some heads, this drive offers a lot more than you’d expect. At 320GB capacity at 5400 rpm, this drive not only can store a great deal of data, it can certainly run fast enough to store it. With a double USB connector cable, there’s no need for external power via a bulky, heavy wall adapter. This cable will power up the drive just fine. The backup software is a breeze to use and you’ll get your backup scheduled in a flash. There really isn’t much to not like about this iDrive Portable external hard drive. At $69.95 USD, you can’t beat the price either. Not only will you get peace of mind but also a portable storage you can take with you anywhere. Check it out at the iDrive Portable website.

Enjoyed this review? Check out the many other Palm Discovery hardware product reviews and accessories reviews.

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