Transcend 2.5" Portable Hard Drive
Transcend 2.5" Portable Hard Drive Casing
Site: Transcend
Price: 42 Euros RRP at time of writing
Uses: Allows you to connect a 2.5" HDD and turn it into a removable drive.
Date: May 2003
Firstly a big Thank you to Transcend for letting us review this unit.
If you havnt heard about Transcend before they were established back in 1988, Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend) is one of the world's leading memory, and peripherals manufacturers Products include: Graphic Cards, Motherboards and Flash Memory.
Introduction:
Portable hard drives are now starting to appear more regularly now, this in my view is the next logical step from smaller drives which have been so popular. Smaller USB drives currently still use the USB 1.1 standard and use Flash memory which can although is falling in price a 1GB size device will cost you serveral hundred pounds.
So because of this price factor and the known benifits and ease of use in everyday enviroments to even using them as dedicated backup units, people are looking for larger and faster speeds.
Some have started to look into the ways of connecting 3.5" hard drives into a portable caddy they can then either slot them into a system or depending on the casing connect directly through Firewire or USB 2.0.
This product from Transcend did appeal to me I am a big fan of using USB drives and have constantly been upgrading to larger sizes but still longing for a USB2.0 version with capacity of around a 800-1Gb.
This product we are revieing you dont get a hard drive or you can buy a version with a 30GB HDD at additional cost which is 2.5" in size which is the format used for Laptops so the size is a lot different to a conventional 3.5" drive. Or you can buy just the casing so that you can install a drive you already own. It is protected by a stylish silver plastic casing and comes complete with a Leather diary / file stlye case to store the drive and cables neatly and easily.
I will be looking at the unit which comes without a hard drive Part No: TS0MHDENC.
Features:
- Fully compatable with USB 2.0 specification
- Easy "Plug and Play" installation
- High Storage Capacity: Supports up to 160GB HDDs
- Fast Transfer Rate: Up to 480M bits 60MB per/sec at high speed.
What you get:
- 1 x 2.5" Casing, (Hard Drive not included with TS0MHDENC)
- Leather Case
- USB Cable
- PS/2 Power Cable
- Screws
- Driver CD
- Quick Install Guide
Specifications:
| Dimensions: | 145mm x 80mm x 17mm |
| Power Supply: | DC 5V from USB port or via USB and PS/2 ports |
| Operating Temperature: | 0° ~ 50°C |
| LED Indicators : | Green: Power on Red: Data traffic |
| Weight: | 105g (No HDD) |
The Unit:
Transcend have considered some points which other makers may of been inclined to leave out such as including a well designed case to transport the drive in. Also instead of just including a USB lead they have opted to include a seperate PS/2 lead rather than just shipping it without or including a USB - PS/2 adapter.
The unit itself looks great and is very thin and light, even with a drive installed it still remains light due to the lightness of 2.5" drives. The sides of the casing have pre-defined contured grooves which do allow you to keep a easier grip of the unit.
Two Points to keep in mind:
Testing:
Well as the unit supplied was just a case it would of been quite hard to test. Luckily i had a small disused 2.5" 2.1Gb drive. I set about connecting the drive to the unit. this was easy to do as the case allowed for easy internal access, once open you just needed to secure the drive to the connector and recover the unit. Then secure the casing with the screws provided.
Once this was installed the only thing left to do was to connect it to the PC via the cable and wait for my system to detect it. As with all other USB drives a driver is only needed for Win 98, more recent operating systems come with the drivers built in.
The speeds were disappointing although i did think they might be as the drive only has a speed of 4200rpm, compared to 5400/7200rpm 3.5" hard drives. The speed was definatly useable and allows for easy transportation.
Nice unit allows for quick data transfer,
users may prefer a 3.5" alternative as drives are cheaper.
