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Seagate eSATA Drive: First Look

Rik Myslewski — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 20:42:50 -0500

Okay, so it's ugly - but it's fast, inexpensive, and easy to install.

For reasons unknown, Apple refused to jump on the external serial-ATA (eSATA) bandwagon when it updated its Mac Pros to their latest generation. (Bad dog, Apple, bad!) Most - if not all - major external drive manufacturers are now shipping eSATA drives, thus allowing normal folks like you and me to enjoy the performance benefits of this fast storage-connection scheme.

The problem is, if you want the benefits of eSATA, you need to equip your Mac Pro with an eSATA PCI Express card. Oh, and you iMac and Mac mini owners? Fugetaboutit - you can't install any PCI cards.

If, however, you're fortunate enough to not yet have upgraded to a Mac Pro, there's some good news: Seagate has come to the rescue with an eSATA drive line that includes a two-port eSATA PCI card that hooks up their drive to your Power Mac G5. If, however, you have a Mac Pro with a PCI Express bus, you're S.O.L. - the PCI card that's included with the company's eSTA Line only works with the previous generation of Power Macs - such as my dual 2.7GHz Power Mac G5.

Hang in there, Mac Pro afficianados - help (from somewhere, one assumes) should be on the way...

But back to the Seagate setup. For a measly $119.95 at my local CompUSA, I picked up a 300GB Seagate eSATA drive complete with an eSATA PCI card. Cheap, eh?

No, that PCI-port bracket isn't enormous - the card's just quite tiny.

Seagate includes a PCI two-port eSATA card from Promise Technology with its eSATA drives. This card is ludiucrously easy to install in your Power Mac G5 - just open 'er up, remove the port cover, and pop the card into the slot. Time required? About 90 seconds.

One cool lagniappe: You'll have an extra eSATA port ready for your next drive.

Seagate includes the requisite cabling for the drive, so all you need to do is hook it up, power it on, and you're ready to go - oh, yeah, first you need to install the drivers for the PCI card. They're on a supplied CD (there's a Mac section) - but don't wait for the installer to auto-launch as Seagate suggests (that didn't work in my experience); just click on the Welcome HTML file, and dig in.

So, how fast is this low-budget screamer? Pretty screaming. I ran a few cursory tests transferring both large and small files in four scenarios: 1) one internal SATA drive to another internal SATA drive, 2) an internal SATA drive to an external FireWire 800 drive, 3) an internal SATA drive to an external FireWire 400 drive, 4) and finally - the proof of the proverbial pudding - an internal SATA drive to the external Seagate eSATA drive over the supplied cable to the supplied PCI card.

The verdict: In transfers of both small and large files, the Seagate eSATA drive connected to the bundled eSATA PCI card handily smoked each and every other configuration - about twice as fast, by the way, as FireWire 400, and consistently faster than FireWire 800.

Damn. I'm liking this 21st century thang

Pro Sled

Zack Stern — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:47:57 -0500

These Pro Sleds don’t slide into your Mac Pro as smoothly as we’d like.

Ever since we got a Mac Pro, we’ve wanted to juggle more than four hard drives in its roomy case. Sure, four SATA drives are enough for nearly any person to use at a single time, but what we want to do is shuffle drives in and out. For example, we could use one drive for a specific video project and remove it when we’re not working on it. Or backup drives. Maybe even a boot drive dedicated to Windows or Linux.

The Mac Pro includes four sleds that slide in and out in seconds, but Apple doesn’t sell extras. Then there’s the Pro Sled, Transintl’s replacement Mac Pro hard drive chassis. However, the Pro Sled feels cheaper and requires much more force - as in am-I-going-to-break-my-Mac force - to insert and remove drives. Once seated, a Pro Sled-mounted drive works like an original, fitting into the power and data sockets in the Mac.

The bottom line. If you want to regularly swap drives - the main point of these sleds - wait for a revision that slides in more smoothly.

COMPANY: Transintl LLC
CONTACT: www.transintl.com
PRICE: $29 for one, $49 for two, $89 for four
REQUIREMENTS: Mac Pro, Serial ATA hard drives
Seats into Mac Pro to make connection.
Feels cheap. Requires excessive force.

Hard Drive Roundup: eSATA External, UltraMax Desktop, My Book Pro Edition II

Roman Loyola — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:45:00 -0500

You're looking at enough storage to hold 280,492 copies of the Dixie Chicks song "Wide Open Spaces."

Here's the problem with hard drives: They fill up. As remote as that concept might have seemed when you bought your Mac ("How can I possibly fill up 100GB?" you might have asked yourself), after a year or more of use, you could very well have run out of room. Your Mac is so packed with digital music, videos, photos, documents, and other files that you can't fit anything else - at least not without seriously compromising performance. You need an external hard drive, and if you don't see yourself cutting down on media files, it's time to consider a 500GB or larger hard drive. You're in luck. These days, you can get a ton of storage for an attractive price.

Iomega UltraMax Desktop. Inside the Mac Pro-esque UltraMax case is a pair of hard drives formatted for the Mac with HFS+ configured as a RAID 0 (a "striped" set, which essentially gives you faster data rates). The UltraMax is ready to go right out of the box, unless you want to reconfigure the UltraMax as a RAID 1 (a "mirrored" set, which allows one drive to mirror the other to protect your data from drive failure). You can also use the two drives without RAID, and they'll appear on your desktop as two 500GB drives.

You can connect to your Mac via USB 2.0, FireWire 400, or FireWire 800, and Iomega was nice enough to include cables. We especially like the three-port USB hub built into the rear of the UltraMax, so if you do decide to connect via USB, you don't lose a port, but actually gain three more. The case measures 9.63 by 4.82 by 3.07 inches.

The drives comes bundled with EMC Retrospect Express backup software. Retrospect works fine, but its interface lacks sophistication.

Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II. The 1TB My Book has the size to match its massive storage capacity - the case measures 6.9 by 6.27 by 4.1 inches. Like the UltraMax, the My Book has a pair of 500GB hard drives formatted for the Mac with HFS+ as a RAID 0. If you want to reconfigure the My Book, Western Digital's RAID Manager software does it easily with a few clicks. Just select the drive in the software, select the file format and RAID configuration you want (RAID 0 or 1), and click the Configure button. The drive also comes with EMC Retrospect Express backup software.

The My Book includes USB, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 ports, as well as cables for each connector. The pair of LED rings that grace the front of the My Book are helpful status indicators. The inner LED circle is a capacity gauge, while the outer LED ring indicates drive activity. Serious geeks will love the My Book's vent holes, which are actually Morse code marketing speak—the code spells out personal, reliable, innovative, design, and simple, repeating over and over again.

Seagate eSATA External. A couple of things make the eSATA External stand out in our trio. The major difference is that the drive can only use an external Serial ATA connection. It comes bundled with an eSATA PCI card that you can plug into any Mac with a PCI slot, which means you can use it only with tower Macs and not with the iMac or Mac mini. Also, it's a 500GB drive and it uses a single hard drive instead of the pair of drives in the My Book and UltraMax.

We encountered only one small hiccup when installing the eSATA card in our Power Mac G5: The manual's instructions for installing the card's software drivers aren't correct. We had to fish though the included CD to find the drivers. The eSATA External comes formatted in FAT32, which is a Windows format that the Mac can read and write to. To reformat it, you use Apple's Disk Utility. The Seagate drive includes CMS's BounceBack Express backup software, which we prefer for its ease of use over EMC Retrospect Express.

The speed test. The My Book and UltraMax finished copying a 2GB file in the same time with three different connections: It took 210 seconds over USB, 64 seconds over FireWire 400, and 42 seconds over FireWire 800. Interestingly, the eSATA External took 48 seconds, slower than the My Book and UltraMax drives using FireWire 800 and RAID 0 configurations.

We also used the benchmarking utility Xbench (free, www.xbench.com) to gauge the speed of the drives using each drive's fastest connection. The UltraMax was the fastest, recording a speed of 62MB per second in Xbench's Sequential Uncached Write test over FireWire 800. Second place went to the My Book, which posted a speed of 51MB per second. The eSATA External was rated at 47MB per second. The drives followed the same order when we performed the Sequential Uncached Read test, with the UltraMax at 76MB per second, the My Book at 69MB per second, and the eSATA External at 58MB per second.

The My Book and UltraMax drives were tested using FireWire 800. The eSATA External uses only external Serial ATA.

The bottom line. Of the three drives, we like the UltraMax for its size and performance, though you might want to purchase a different backup application. Try CMS's BouceBack Professional ($39) or Prosoft Engineering's Data Backup 3 ($59).

eSATA EXTERNAL
COMPANY: Seagate
CONTACT: www.seagate.com
PRICE: $329.99 (500GB)
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.4 or later, Mac with an available PCI 2.2 or later slot
Decent speed improvement over USB and FireWire 400.
Can only be used with tower Macs. Manual's instructions for installing the eSATA card drivers are incorrect.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ULTRAMAX DESKTOP
COMPANY: Iomega
CONTACT: www.iomega.com
PRICE: $429.99 (1TB)
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.1.5 or later
Comes with USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 connectors.
Bundled Retrospect software isn't a favorite.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

MY BOOK PRO EDITION II
COMPANY: Western Digital
CONTACT: www.westerndigital.com
PRICE: $499.99 (1TB)
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3 or later, USB
Comes with USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 connectors. Nifty LED indicators.
Big, bulky case. We're not too thrilled with Retrospect.

ABSplus Desktop

Cheryl England — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:51:38 -0500

The ABSplus Desktop backup systems are available in capacities ranging from 80GB to 750GB.

When it comes to data backup, you fall into two camps. You're either one of the rare practitioners of regular, precatastrophe backups, or you're like most people - you only start backing up after you've lost data. If you're in the latter group, you should consider a package like the ABSplus Desktop, which combines a FireWire 400 hard drive in capacities ranging from 80GB to 750GB and the BounceBack Professional backup software.

The best part of the package is the easy-to-use BounceBack app. It offers all the features you'd expect (and require) in a single-user backup system. You can create custom sets of data and apps to back up, or create a bootable backup of everything on your Mac's hard drive. You can schedule backups on specific days and times, or back up manually (BounceBack can also remind you to back up at set intervals). A third option is to back up only when the right drive is connected. Regular backups are fast, and you can pull data from multiple sources. Restoring individual files or folders using the QuickRestore feature is a cinch.

BounceBack Professional is available on its own for $39 (download). While the ABSplus package includes everything you need to establish a solid backup system, you might opt to buy the BounceBack software and a hard drive separately - you might want to get a drive with a different case, or with USB, for example. You can also use BounceBack with an existing external hard drive.

The bottom line. ABSplus Desktop will have you backing up in no time.

COMPANY: CMS Products
CONTACT: www.cmsproducts.com
PRICE: $156 to $467
REQUIREMENTS: 450MHz G4 or later or Intel processor, Mac OS 10.2 or later, 256MB RAM, FireWire 400
Easy-to-use software. Solid set of backup features. Compact hard drive. Universal binary.
FireWire 400 only.

iDefrag 1.6.1

Stephan Somogyi — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:23:11 -0500

Scattered mosaics aren't good for your hard drive's health. iDefrag aims to straighten things out.

Your Mac runs slower every time you get an email or use Spotlight - these two everyday functions cause file fragmentation, slowing your hard drive's ability to access data. iDefrag can eliminate those file fragments so your hard drive acts like its old speedy self again.

Ideally, a file is saved to consecutive hard drive sectors for the fastest read times. More likely, a file is saved in scattered sectors, taking more time to read. Also, the more fragmented a file is, the harder it is to recover in the event of a drive disaster.

Mac OS X has built-in, automatic ways of keeping your files as unscattered as possible, but iDefrag takes things a few steps further. With a straightforward interface, iDefrag lets you choose how thorough a job it should do: It can completely rearrange files, make frequently used files easier to access, or just do the minimum amount of shuffling around needed to defrag every file. You select your drive (you must boot from another drive if you want to defrag your main startup drive), determine the defragmentation method, and you're set. iDefrag took 70 seconds to do a prescan of a 100GB hard drive - not superfast, but optimizing your drive is a task that's better done carefully than quickly.

The bottom line. While defragmentation is something you can live without, adding iDefrag to your regular maintenance toolkit is an inexpensive way to keep your hard drive running smoothly.

COMPANY: Coriolis Systems
CONTACT: www.coriolis-systems.com
PRICE: $30
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3.7 or later, 512MB RAM, secondary boot volume to defragment your startup drive
Straightforward, informative user interface. Universal binary.
Slow engine. Company recommends not using iDefrag with Western Digital drives in G5 Macs.

Fusion and NetDisk Portable

Roman Loyola — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 15:25:34 -0600

Both of these drives can store data on your network, but the brick on the right (the Fusion) also lets you tap into it from the Net.

If you think that network-attached storage devices are too extravagant, you're missing out on the convenience of having one central place on your home network to store your files. You don't have to be an IT expert to install the NetDisk Portable or the Fusion network storage devices. Both drives offer vastly different features; the NetDisk Portable is for basic file storage while the Fusion also lets you access your files remotely.

NetDisk Portable. This sturdy hard drive comes with a USB port that lets you use it as a desktop hard drive, and an Ethernet port that enables a network storage setup-you can't use both connections simultaneously. Either way, connecting the NetDisk Portable is a one-second process: You just plug it in. For this review, we focused on the NetDisk Portable's network storage capabilities.

To set it up, we first downloaded version 1.6.2 of the NetDisk software driver and the Mac manual from Ximeta's website. You can't mount the NetDisk Portable on your Desktop without the software (the drive doesn't use an IP address, so you can't connect via Go > Connect To Server). Once the NetDisk Portable is on the Desktop, you have to use Apple's Disk Utility to format it so it can work with your Mac. That's because, at the factory, Ximeta formats the drive in NTFS, a Windows file format that Macs can only read (not write).

Once it's formatted, dragging files to and from the drive is effortless, but a vague spinning wheel indicates the copy progress. We'd like a better time indicator. Ximeta warns that you can't have two or more computers accessing the disk at the same time or you'll get errors and possible bad file copies-and you will.

The software that came with our review unit wasn't Universal, and our Intel-based Macs couldn't see the NetDrive Portable on our network. Ximeta did send beta software that worked with Intel Macs. Hopefully, the updated software will be shipping to the public soon.

Fusion. The Fusion is made for dedicated network storage. It connects to your router via Ethernet, and you need to set up an IP address for it. You can also set up the Fusion for access over the Internet, so if you're at a client's office or at work and you need a file on the Fusion, you can get to it remotely. For Internet access, you need to set up a free Dynamic DNS account with No-IP.com or DynDNS.org. Setting up the Fusion for either network or Internet access isn't as pain-free as setting up the network-access-only NetDisk Portable, but Maxtor's installer software does a nice job of holding your hand through the process.

When the Fusion is established as a network drive, you can access it though a desktop icon and drag and drop files. To get to the Fusion over the Internet, you must use the Web-based Fabrik software and Mozilla Firefox (Safari won't work). Fabrik is truly fabulous-it has tagging and privacy tools to help make finding files over the Internet more efficient, and the interface is simple and no-nonsense.

A pair of USB ports can be used for connecting additional drives, which must be formatted in FAT32. The drive's fan noise is noticeable from within 20 feet but it won't keep you awake if your office is right next to your bedroom.

The bottom line. If router and Internet settings give you the chills and all you want is a simple file storage on your network, consider the NetDisk Portable; just check the software if you have an Intel Mac. The Fusion will need more attention as you set it up, but it's a more robust, and frankly better-designed, network and Internet storage device.

NetDisk Portable:
COMPANY: Ximeta
CONTACT: www.ximeta.com
PRICE: $149.99-$369.99; $79.99 for enclosure only
REQUIREMENTS: G4 or faster, Mac OS 10.2 or later, 128MB RAM, USB for direct Mac connection, Ethernet switch or router for network connection
Can be used as a network or desktop drive. No need to mess
with DHCP settings.
Software for Intel Macs is beta. Multiple users write at once. Manual needs updating.

Fusion:
COMPANY: Maxtor
CONTACT: www.maxtor.com
PRICE: $799.95
REQUIREMENTS: G3 or faster or 1.66MHz Intel Core Duo or faster, Mac OS 10.4 or later, 256MB RAM, Mozilla Firefox 1.5 or later, Ethernet router
Excellent Web-based access software. Expandable storage.
You'll need to fiddle with router and Dynamic DNS settings. Noisy.

My Book Pro

Roman Loyola — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:15:41 -0500

Yes, that's Morse code - but a decoder card is not included.

Western Digital's My Book Pro is an external hard drive - and nope, that's not a misprint. The company, known for its internal hard drive mechanisms, also makes drives in external enclosures. And it's put a lot of thought into the My Book Pro's friendly, booklike case design, instead of simply slapping together your generic, plain-Jane case.

Measuring 6.78 by 5.63 by 2.23 inches, the My Book Pro's silver plastic case has a pair of helpful LED rings gracing its face. The smaller, inner LED acts as a capacity indicator to give you a rough idea of how much space you have left. For example, if the ring is a quarter lit, the drive's a quarter full. When the drive is reading or writing, the outer LEDs appear to rotate clockwise to tell you the drive is active. Pushing the button in the middle of the LED rings powers the quiet, fanless drive on or off.

The drive has a USB 2.0 port, two FireWire 800 ports, and a FireWire 400 port. Using Xbench (free, www.xbench.com) to gauge the speed of the drive on a Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5, we found that the My Book Pro posted a speed of 32MB per second during the Sequential Uncached Write test when using FireWire 400 or 800. For comparison, the internal 160GB SATA drive in the Power Mac was rated at 37MB per second on the same test. On the Sequential Uncached Read test, the My Book Pro (using either FireWire 400 or 800) and the internal drive both were rated at 36MB per second. Using USB, the My Book Pro was rated at 10MB per second in both tests.

The My Book Pro comes with Retrospect Express 6.1 backup software. Its interface isn't elegant, but once you figure it out, Retrospect Express is a capable backup app.

The bottom line. Where else can you find a case that uses a marketing message in Morse code for its cooling vents? The My Book Pro is a great external hard drive.

COMPANY: Western Digital
CONTACT: 949-672-7000, www.westerndigital.com
PRICE: $349.99 (500GB, tested), $219.99 (250GB)
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.2.8 or later; FireWire 400, FireWire 800, or USB port
At-a-glance capacity indicator. Triple interface.
Bundled Retrospect software lacks interface elegance.

miniStack V2

Roman Loyola — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:01:13 -0500

Like Godfather II, it's better than the original.

Like the first miniStack, the miniStack V2 has three FireWire ports and four USB ports, but Newer Technology took one of each port and relocated it to the side of the drive. Now it's much easier to connect and disconnect peripherals. Nice touch.

Performance of the miniStack V2 is comparable to that of the older miniStack. Using Xbench (free, www.xbench.com) to test for speed, we found that in the Sequential Uncached Write test, both posted speeds of about 36MB per second when we used the FireWire 400 connection. In the Sequential Uncached Read test, the drives both posted speeds of about 37MB per second. Port tweak, yup; performance jump, nope.

The bottom line. The miniStack V2 is a worthy follow-up to a great drive.

COMPANY: Newer Technology
CONTACT: 800-275-4576, www.newertech.com
PRICE: $129 (80GB) to $599.99 (750GB); 320GB tested
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.2 or later
FireWire and USB hub. Connects using FireWire or USB.
Nothing, really.