Seagate USB2.0 5GB Pocket Hard Drive

Extremely Portable Mass Data Storage Device @ an Affordable Price

 That's the very simple marketing strategy behind this very clever device. They call it a Pocket Hard Drive. Now it does fit in your pocket, however, it's anything but hard to drive. In fact, this little gadget is about as easy to use as a 3.5" floppy disk. We are going to delve deep into this device and see just what it's capable of and if it's worth the bucks. So don't delay, let's plug in!

 Special thanks to Seagate for providing us with this awesome gadget so we can make your life a little better by keeping you informed on the latest products and gadgets.

   
Fresh from the package.

• What's Included?:
• 1 USB 2.0 Pocket Hard Drive
• Quick Connect Guide
• Utilities CD

 Standard molded plastic package is easy to open and rigid in design so your product shouldn't get damaged in shipment.

Design and Features

  Love at first sight. That's how I felt when I first opened the package to this sweet gadget. One thing that makes the Seagate Pocket Drive really stand out amongst the other portable data transfer devices on the market is that  it doesn't have one of those stupid caps that can be so easily lost like the other USB drives. Being a Hard Disk Drive instead of Flash Memory it also holds far more information than the competition. Plus it's got a cool retractable cord. If you transfer files from home to work or from work to home, this Pocket Hard Drive from Seagate looks perfect for the job. Let's find out of it really is!

Size and Shape:

      
Very intelligent physical design on this device.

• The small sleek shape of this device perfect for fitting into your pocket.
• It is also designed to absorb impact to protect your files and the precious electronics that run it.
• The black area of the Hard Drive turns inside of the silver area to provide storage for the cord. i.e. Retractable Cord
• The clear area on top of the Pocket Hard Drive lights up as an indicator for activity.

• Physical Dimensions:
• 3/4" thick
• 2 7/8" in diameter
• 6" Cord Length

USB 2.0:

 The Hot-pluggable USB 2.0 interface is capable of up to 480 Mbps data transfer (That's 8571 times faster than a 56K Modem!). Keep in mind, if you don't have USB 2.0 your only going to get around 11 Mbps data transfer. It's retractable, and it's powered by your computer so you don't have to lug around a power supply.

Hard Drive:

 Now this is an actual miniature Hard Drive running at 3600-RPM's with 2-MB of cache. You can get this product in a 2.5GB version or a 5GB version (5GB is the equivalent of 3,742 - 3.5" Floppy Disks, or 7 CD's, or 1 DVD). For our test purposes we used the 5GB version.

 Most of the competition in this market uses Flash Memory instead of an actual Hard Drive to store your data. There are a few differences between the two types of storage medium.

Hard Drive Pros & Cons

• Currently available Hard Drives have a higher capacity than Flash Memory
• Price per MegaByte is much cheaper than Flash Memory
• Typical modern hard drives can have a service life of 5 years or greater

Flash Memory\Drives Pros & Cons

• Is physically smaller than a Hard Drive
• Flash memory has no moving parts inside, so the chance of damaging it by impact is lower than with a Hard Drive
• Flash memory , depending on the brand, can have a service life of 50 - 100+ years

 The best benefit is the cost. This seagate 5GB portable drive will save you anywhere from %60 to %80 more with price compared to an equivalent portable Flash Drive. ( If you have seen the similar 5GB Sony MicroVault Pro, it is NOT a Flash drive even though many merchants advertise it as one. It uses a similar internal Hard Drive to the Seagate Pocket Drive. Though we think the Seagate is a better choice because of the longer retractable cord.)

Software:

 The Seagate Pocket Hard Drive comes with some proprietary software called "Seagate Toolkit." The software is automatically installed from the Pocket Drive the first time you plug the drive into your computer ( If your running Windows 2000/XP). If you have Windows 98 or earlier you will have to break out the CD to get this software.

 The software interface is user friendly and graphically pleasing to the eye. It is fairly efficient, using just under 4.5MB of memory when idle and only about 50KB more when active. It sits in your system tray until you need it (you can close it at anytime though).

Here's a list of the features the software offers:

Screenshot of the Software GUI
Click to see a larger image..

• Main Menu
  • View Files
  • Eject the device
  • Or change to another device (if you have more than one pocket hard drive connected)
• Status
  • Write Enable
  • Free Space
  • Used Space
  • Drive Letter
• Tools
  • Create a Boot Disk
  • Manage your Partitions
  • Format the Drive
  • Restore Factory Defaults
• Security
  • Login
  • Change Password
  • Write Protect
• Help
  • User Manual
  • Toolkit Updates
  • Seagate Web site

 Most of the options are self-explanatory and very easy to use, so we won't go into too many details with the software. Many portable Hard Drives now include similar software, this particular package doesn't do much different, though it is a little easier to use than the competition's.

 Though I will mention that the option to write protect the drive with a password is very nice. If you lose your drive with precious business files on it, (or those pictures you REALLY don't want anyone to see) then you'll be much safer using the write protect option.

Performance and Testing

 In all of my tests this device performed exactly as expected, fast and reliable. The USB 2.0 interface made for fast data transfer. But it also works well with a non USB 2.0 port.

Data Transfer Rate: Upload/Download USB 2.0

• 8,126KBs - that equates to transferring a 700MB file in 1 Minute and 35 Seconds in our real world test.

Review Summary

  If you need a small, portable device capable of transferring or storing files; this is the gadget for you! With a real world data transfer rate of over 8MB per second it's blazing fast. Measuring in at .75" by 2.875" it's small enough to store in your pocket or virtually anywhere. With no need to install drivers, you can just plug this device up without carrying a driver disk with you (except on Win98). And best of all, you can buy this beast for under $100.00. 

• PROS 
• Small and Portable - .75" x 2.875"
• Price - Available for Under $99.00
• Price per MB of data is much cheaper than Flash Memory
• Ease of Use - No Drivers necessary (except on Win98)
• Speed - 8.2MBps in our real world test
• Retractable Cord, stored neatly inside the device itself
  
  CONS
• Moving parts inside the device(Hard Disk Drive) make it slightly more delicate than Flash Memory
• Physical size is a bit bigger than most portable Flash Drives

RATINGS

1- Bad
2- Poor
3- Standard
4- Great
5- Exceptional

Product Available at: Seagate

We would like to thank Seagate for providing us with a sample of this product for our testing purposes.