Freecom 29409 250GB Toughdrive 2.5 Inch USB 2.0 Hard Drive
Posted by Notcot on Aug 29, 2010 in Handhelds & PDAs |
- Mobile 2.5″ hard drive with integrated anti-shock mechanism.
- Shock absorber made of silicone Internal anti-shock mechanism Integrated USB 2.0-cable Bus-powered – no power supply required High-quality slim line design
- Dimensions: (L x W x H) 140 x 80 x 19 mm
- Weight: 175 g
- Connection: USB 2.0
works well connected to a battery powered laptop (even with the provided extension lead). it is so nice to have 250GB in such a small package.
data transfers
- to toughdrive: I got up to 10 MB/s with big files, 5MB files go at ~8MB/s
- from toughdrive: well above 10MB/s and even up to 19MB/s for larger files.
the drive is silent, and the internal USB cable is just enough to plug it to most desktops.
it has a Hitachi drive inside.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve had a 250 Gb Toughdrive for 3 months now (bought from Amazon). It’s been with me everywhere; including a 3 week trip in May to a hot and dusty warzone (no prizes for guessing who I work for). It’s worked faultlessly throughout, despite the extreme temperatures, sand and more than just a few knocks. I did reformat it as soon as I got it to NTFS so that I could store DVD image files on it (they are over 4 Gb so won’t work on FAT 32).
Data security wise, I use a combination of Truecrypt (www.trucrypt.org) and NTI Shadow to ensure my personal data was continuously backed up from my laptop to an encrypted volume on the toughdrive. Again this all worked faultlessly.
I particularly like the fixed short USB lead and that you can confidently chuck the drive into your backpack without surrounding it in neoprene or bubble wrap. This all means there’s only one thing to remember (nothing worse than having the drive with the data you need, but you’ve forgotten to pack the cable).
In summary the toughdrive has proven itself as an amazingly rugged bit of kit for the price, and deserves the 5 stars. I would pay more for guaranteed water-resistance (the toughdrive does not claim to be water-resistant although some reviews suggest it might be), but perhaps that’s asking a bit too much.
Rating: 5 / 5
Large enough for back ups, an integral usb lead so you don’t have to rummage to find one, superb. It’s quick, easy to use,great for transfering files. Oh, and the day after I started to use it my 3 year old droppped it down the stairs, thought it would fly I suppose, IT STILL WORKS! Use it to beat off muggers and you’ll be charged with using an offensive weapon, BUT IT WILL STILL WORK!
Excellent kit.
Rating: 5 / 5
I purchased this drive approximately 6 months ago as I needed a rugged and shock proof drive to store a large amount of data.
On arrival the drive was much smaller than expected and the integrated USB connector is exceptional. The use of a magnet to hold the connector in place when not in use is an example of the attention to detail and thought behind this product – it wont break like a clip would, neither will the drive. I have kept this drive in my pocket and gone about my daily business numerous times and have not really noticed it’s there the size is so small.
Everything about this drive is impressive. It operates nearly silently (by which I mean you need to be in a quiet room with no other sound and place your ear close to it to hear anything) and with no discernable heat output.
The device connected to my 3 year old laptop within 30 seconds and was transfering between my upgraded SolidState internal harddisk at blistering speeds. It works only a little slower on my 2nd computer with a traditional hard drive but still manages to copy 14gb of photos in 9 minutes.
I have dropped this drive 4 times from a height worth mentioning, including one time whilst running. There was no impact on performance or function at all and the drive really does stand up to the claims of a high G-shock tolerance.
I have spilt water on the drive and the external rubber casing simply wiped dry. The drive has also been carried with me daily in the hot and dusty conditions of Afghanistan and has survived all thrown at it. I have even opened the drive to use it as a caddy for other damaged drives in order to repair them and after putting the device back together have had no problems at all; impressive given that two of the drops came after I had done this.
Overall I am extremely impressed with this device. For anyone caught in two minds whether it is worth it and whether to believe the marketing hype about it’s toughness can rest assured that I have fully tested this product in some very harsh conditions and it has laughed off all challenges and continues to work without fault.
This is an excellent product at an excellent price.
Rating: 5 / 5
After years of fiddling around with unreliable external drives, power cords, failing drives … The Freecom 250 Toughdrive is definitely a tool that does not turn in your hand. It is more than that though – I think it is the best external hard drive product I have used, hands down.
Why? – five simple reasons:
* it powers off your PC – no messy power cables and adapters
* 250GB is big enough for most things you would want to do
* it is a great size – fits in the coat pocket
* it is tough and reliable
* you can run music and movies off it directly
This is not my be all and end all storage, but it is the one I carry with me everywhere. These five features above really make the difference between running your storage and file management smoothly and it being a nightmare you will never get right.
Rating: 5 / 5