Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Extremely durable, vast capacity, simple to use, reasonable price |
| Disadvantages: |
Not always plug & pay ; needs software installation on a few PC's |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
One thing about joining Ciao it encourages you to look objectively at the products you own or use regularly particularly if someone else may benefit.
A product I like very much, use regularly and have had no problems with whatsoever is the Freecom ToughDrive Pro Hard drive 120 GB. This was given to me as a present by the man in my life (who in truth could be described as an IT geek) I have had several memory sticks in the past as I frequently carry projects to and from home, work, meetings and conferences and they have become a real part of my life and one that I couldn’t manage without ( sad but true)
I’ve had problems in the past from loosing memory sticks ( not too bad if I can find them again !) because they are small or because the fiddly little clips
break away (I used to keep them clipped to my car keys for safety (ha), and I’ve had problems with breaking them (putting the laptop away in a hurry and consequently bending the prongs inside the stick)
So now I’ve shared my failings lets move to the solution the Freecom ToughDrive Pro Hard drive 120 GB. This is exactly what it says it is ; an extra hard drive but one that moves around with you , and rather than stuck inside your PC it can be attached to any PC you use (just like a memory stick)
Advantages of the Freecom:
Its shockproof, able to withstand being dropped from up to 7 ft according to manufacturers specifications. I’ve never had it fall that far in one go but it has survived a fall down the stairs and has been able to survive tumbles onto several surfaces, laminate, carpet, tarmac and concrete without a problem. It is covered in a soft silicon cover which obviously protects it extremely well . As an example take its fall down the stairs it just bounced happily from step to step. As these were marble hotel stairs I was expecting damage when I finally caught up with it but all it had were a couple of scuff marks which wiped off with a damp cloth. It has an internal anti-shock frame which insulates the hard drive and although I don’t know exactly what this is it definitely works. Its also survived being trodden on and being carried off by the dog although this did leave indents in the silicon from her teeth . As a side point the silicon cover does feel nice to the touch
Its small without being too small 3 in x5 in x ½ in (8 cm x 14 cm x 1.9 cm) so its not hard to locate in your bag and will fit in a pocket. Its not heavy either weighing about 6 oz (175 g)
There are no extra cables as it has an integrated USB cable. as its USB powered there’s no power adapter needed so no cable there either. it can connect via either a USB2.0 or USB 1.1 port. It doesn’t have a fan so its quiet to use.
Comes with software (Acronis True Image) which is fast and easy to install and the system doesn’t need rebooting after the installation although XP recognises it as an external drive straight away. The bundle does include software to compress and encrypt the files you store for space and security
It comes with a 2 years manufacturers warranty and unlimited helpdesk support although I have never needed to use this
On mine I have some programmes not already on the works laptop, loads of documents, an address book/diary and a collection of my favourite MP3’s so where ever I am I always have what I need .
A little bit of technical stuff
Works with :
PC: Pentium-II 233MHz or higher, 64MB RAM, CD-ROM drive, Windows 2000/XP,
MAC: Mac OS X v.10.1 or higher, available USB port (Bundled True Image software does not support MAC OS).
Interface Transfer Rate ; 480 Mbps
Seek Time ; 12 ms (average)
Track-to-Track Seek Time ; 2 ms
Average Latency ; 7.14
Spindle Speed ; 5400 rpm
The above information about speed doesn’t really mean anything to me but in my experience I have found it to be quick both to read from and to write to with no noticeable lag.
This retails from £50 - £100 so its definitely worth shopping around for
*We also have a 400GB
Freecom external hard drive which we use for our photo archive although its bigger and brushed aluminium rather than the funky silicon covering on its little brother
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
