 The
USB Hard Drive ($189 street) by BUSlink
is basically a 2.5" notebook hard
drive housed in an external case with an
IDE to USB bridge. The USB Hard
Drive is available in three capacities:
3.2 GB (the version tested), 6.0 GB, and
10.0 GB. The package is pretty much
no-frills. You get the drive, an USB
cable, the power supply, driver diskette,
and a 2-page
"manual." The drive
is relatively small- about 2/3 the size of
an external Zip drive. There are two
LED indicator lights at the front of the
casing to indicate drive access and
power. The USB and AC power
connections, along with a little black
ON/OFF switch, are located at the rear of
the drive. The AC adaptor power
supply block that plugs into the back is a
clunky 35 watter, and takes up plenty of
real estate on the power strip. On
the other hand, the aluminum and plastic
casing is actually quite compact and feels
pretty rugged, and the design is somewhat reminiscent
of a miniature Catepillar machine.
Below are the
specifications for the USB Hard Drive:
| Capacity
|
3.2GB |
| Average
access time |
13 ms |
| Data
transfer rate |
Up to
8Mb/sec. |
| Spindle
speed |
5400
RPM |
| Interface |
USB
port |
| Dimensions
|
3"
x 2" x 1.5" |
| Weight
|
2 lbs. |
| Power
|
120V
(AC adapter included) |
| Linking
apparatus |
USB
cable included |
| Software
|
BUSLink(TM)
setup |
| Mac
|
Mac OS
8.5, free USB port |
| PC |
Windows
95B Windows 98, 2000 |
| Warranty |
One-year
limited |
Installation was
very easy on the test machine, which uses
Windows 98 Second Edition. A simple
setup program on a floppy disk installed
the USB-to-IDE bridge driver, and without
a reboot the USB Hard Drive can be plugged in
and be detected by the OS. A new removable
drive icon then appeared under My Computer, and
a prompt to format the drive appears after
double-clicking on it. During drive
access, the drive makes a light chirping-like
noises which were not any louder than a
typical hard drive.
|
