HD-337-U2 External USB Drive Box
Reviewed - May 14th 2003
 

HD-337-U2 EXTERNAL DRIVE ENCLOSURE

The guys from H&SC have been back in touch with us again to let us see the new USB2 external drive enclosures they have just received in stock. If you read our previous review on their USB1 external box, you will see that we where impressed with that unit, so how would we react to this one? Read on and see!

The unit arrived in a large box, with an image of the external drive enclosure. In this box we had an 80GB Maxtor drive fitted for testing purposes, but the guys are selling the cases empty so you can use your own drive in it. They can supply a drive in the case if you wish, formatted in any way you require, just let them know before you place an order.

CONTENTS

As you can see below, you have the enclosure, power adaptor, a caddy to hold the unit if you don't want it flat on your desk, USB cable and a CD with drivers on it for MAC and Windows operating systems. The case itself really looks stylish and above all else, has that "I WANT ONE" feel to it!

As you can see, the unit itself is sleek looking, but you may also notice that it does not have an on/off switch, nor does it have any ventilation slots or holes in the case. Initially this gave us cause for concern, but we left the drive running for a week here on our test bench and the casing was not even warm! If the truth be told, we left the unit running for a week without switching it off because it runs so quiet, we just forgot it was on!

We did read elsewhere that some people said their cases and drives where running hot, but we can only assume that this is down to the drives they are using in their case, as we just kept touching this case to feel some warmth and could feel nothing.

INSIDE THE CASE

We decided that we had to open the unit up to see what was inside, and as you can see the drive sits in snugly, with the cable and electrical parts at the back of the case. So, if you feel that in the future you want to use a larger drive in the case, it's a simple job of removing the old drive, and installing another. Pressing the side clips on the case pops it open and you have easy access. A simple 5 second job.

PERFORMANCE
The drive had been pre-formatted under NTFS, and Windows XP picked the unit up immediately and we soon started to copy data across to it! To difference in speed of the USB 2 unit over the USB 1.1 is simply unreal. We found the data transferring so quick we had to double check the data to make sure it was there and working, more so as we could not hear the drive!!!!

As we stated previously in our 1.1 review, one important thing to remember if you are removing the hard drive from the system is to make sure you click the icon highlighted above. You will find this at the bottom right hand side of your screen. This will remove the drive safely from the operating system and save your unit from having any corrupt data. And once again.... during the course of testing the unit we pulled the cord out to simulate a typical user... the data was fine, but you should always play safe!

RELIABILITY
We really did push this unit to the limits here! We did network transferring of data, large ISO file transfers, defragging, partitioning, and powering down in the middle of copy sessions and the drive reacted like nothing would phase it at all! To say we are impressed would be an understatement, this case and drive is excellent!

We also set up the drive as a shared device through the network and started to copy data to and from the unit at the same time. Our main pc was taking data from the drive, while our laptop was copying data to it. The unit handled this extreme activity with ease, unlike the USB 1.1 unit we last reviewed that just simply lost the connection.

At ￡55.00 + P&P  for this case, this is certainly a great way to go for quick and easy storage of your data, and also to have a cool looking "must have" device to sit on your desk!. We would like to thank the guys at the Glasgow "Hard & Soft Centre" once again, for allowing us to evaluate this unit. If you would like more information about the unit, and the various hard drive combinations on offer, please drop them an email at: H&SC

EVEN MORE AMAZING!!!! The guys at H&SC have decided to allow us to give this review model away as a prize in one of our competitions!!!! That's right - THE CASE AND THE DRIVE!!!! The competition ran up until the 30th June, so if your just reading this now... you missed out on the chance of a fantastic prize!!

UPDATED INFORMATION (10-02-04)
Many users have been emailing in asking about drivers for Windows 98, which is strange considering the unit does come with all the drivers, but maybe some people have mislaid them. Please take the time to READ THE MANUAL FIRST before you do anything else. Windows XP users, please note that by default the unit will be detected, but some systems may require that they have an updated service pack installed, more so they will require Service Pack 1 to be installed. If you require the service pack file you can get it from here.

CD LABEL - DRIVER FILE - HD-337 USB GUIDE FRONT - HD-337 USB GUIDE BACK