Introduction



Hitachi does have a new product lineup composed from 2.5'' portable drives, in different colored enclosures, depending on the drive sizes. The drive performance is limited by the USB 2.0 interface but it is enough for data archiving or moving information from one computer to another. The enclosure has white activity LEDs, which light up and blink depending on the drives' status.

I would like to thank Hitachi for providing making this review possible.



About the Hitachi Company

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was founded in 2003 and was formed as a result of the strategic combination of IBM and Hitachi’s storage technology businesses. Storage is one of Hitachi’s five core businesses; substantial technology and financial resources have been committed to ensure a successful and profitable business. The company’s vision is to enable users to fully engage in the digital lifestyle by providing access to large amounts of storage capacity in formats suitable for the office, on the road and in the home. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is positioned to immediately advance the role of hard disk drives beyond traditional computing environments to consumer electronics and other emerging applications.

The company will extend the world-renowned R&D heritage of its founders and build on their combined 80 years of hard disk drive expertise. With substantial and dedicated research and development investments, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is positioned to inspire and lead the future of storage technologies.

Hitachi brings a customer-focused and full-service approach to solutions for the hard disk drive marketplace. The company defines the standard for product and service excellence with world-class operations, substantial technical knowledge and a comprehensive customer support infrastructure.

Features, Specifications

Sleek pocket-sized design

Velvety smooth texture for a secure grip (Red Wine, Blue Dusk)

Durable and made for travel

Simple, automatic backups with Hitachi Local Backup

Express yourself with multiple colors and capacities

All-in-one high speed USB 2.0 ‘Y’ cable (included) also provides power

Cool underside LEDs for extra glow

Free technical support

3 Year warranty



Capacities Available:

In the box

The little portable drive from Hitachi comes in a transparent plastic package; on the frontal part we can see the total capacity of the drive, in this case 500GB, a large Hitachi logo, the name of the product and some product features; also on this side we can see how many songs, photos or movie hours we can fit on such a drive:



On the back side of the package, we can see the bottom of the product, the product features in 6 more different languages and we also get the information that the drive is compatible with most Windows OSes, but also MacOS; both USB 1.1, 2.0 are supported:



Along with the actual product, we do receive some bundle, which is packed together inside a sealed plastic bag:



The 500GB version of the PortableDrive comes with a top Carbon Fibre texture:



On the upper part we can see a black Hitachi logo:



The lateral design is made in such a way that we won’t drop the HDD accidentally when we are holding it in our hands:



Also on top of the drive we can see the mini USB header and a power connector header, if we want to connect the HDD to an external power source, without using the special cable:



On the bottom part of the HDD enclosure we can see the Hitachi logo again, the size of the drive, a serial number and 2 parallel transparent plastic lines:



On each parallel line, we can find a SMD LED, white color, which lights up and blinks, depending on the HDD activity:



Also, on the bottom of the drive we can find 4 rubber little feet which help the device not to glide or scratch the surface we will put it on:



The special cable that comes with the enclosure has on one side the mini USB connector and on the other 2 USB connectors; there are 2 connectors because, in some cases, the USB hub might not have enough power for the drive to start and the second connector should be inserted too; we will know for sure the USB does not have enough power when we will hear a clicking sound from the HDD (it is not recommended to leave the HDD in the clicking state for too long):

Test Setup

Stefan's Test Setup
CPU	Core i7 920 @ 3.2Ghz
Cooling	Cogage True Spirit
Mainboard	Asrock X58 Extreme
Memory	G.Skill F3-12800CL8T-6GBPI PI Series
VGA	ATI Radeon HD 5830
Other	Power Supply : Antec True Power New 750W HDD : Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10

Hitachi Included Software

The HDD comes preloaded with a Hitachi intro guide; here we can learn about how to format the drive for different OSes:


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In the backup section, we get to install a bundled application and to read some advices regarding it:


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Some more information we will obtain by navigating to the FAQ section:


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The backup application is made by ArcSoft and we can save up our entire system only with a couple of clicks:


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To avoid any slowdowns, I have used an i7 test machine. To extract more information regarding the HDD, the Everest Ultimate Edition was used:




The drive comes formatted FAT32 and the software bundled takes up about 133MB from its total free space:

Performance Tests

CrystalMark

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Everest Disk Benchmark

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HD Tach

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HD Tune

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PCMark2005

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PCMark Vantage

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Conclusive Thoughts

What we have here is a decent performance 2.5'' HDD from Hitachi, placed in a nice looking enclosure, with USB 2.0 interface. Looking at the test results we can clearly see that the HDD maxes out the USB 2.0 transfer rate.

This drive from Hitachi is not meant to be used as an external drive for everyday usage, but for occasional data archiving or for moving large quantities of data from one computer to another.

The PortableDrive tends to become a little hot if it is used intensively, when sitting on the table, because it does not have any ventilation; there are solutions for that, like placing it on computer cases that have large fans on top ( see Cooler Master HAF922, ATCS 840 ). But overall these smaller laptop HDDs won’t easily overheat, even when placed in a small enclosure.

The integrated backup software is really easy to use and even inexperienced people can use it.

Priced at ~$75 the 500Gb Portable Drive from lands in the middle of the pack among external storage solutions from competitors like Lacie, Seagate, Western Digital and others, so price/size wise it’s certainly a valid option if you’re looking for a compact external HDD.