Page 3: The Verbatim InSight 320gb Portable Hard Drive, Plugging it in
The Verbatim InSight 320gb Portable Hard Drive
When we first took the drive out of the protective sleeve that it was wrapped in, we found a nice sticky protective plastic film covering the top of the drive. This helps protect the shinny piano black finish that is on the top side of the drive. We're sure that Verbatim figured one could not have too much protection from unwanted scratches.
Once we removed the clear plastic covering, we were instantly impressed by the high gloss piano black finish. We also notice that the "Always On" LCD was in fact displaying some information without the drive even being plugged into a computer. It simply gave the generic volume name "Verbatim" and the amount of free space (297gb) on the drive itself. Verbatim is likely using an e-Ink display. This type of display only uses power when changing the information and doesn't use any power when the information is static.
The sides and bottom of the drive are coated in a flat black, almost rubber, type of finish. When we sat the drive on the lab bench and attempted to slide it, it has a good grip. The coating on the bottom of the drive is some form of a non-slip type of material. This is a very nice addition.
Plugging it in
When reading the included user manual, it states the drive will go through a "scanning" period when it is first plugged in, and anytime that the user plugs the drive into a computer. Here at ASE Labs, we strive to at least keep up with the times, so we have upgraded this test system with Windows 7. We plugged the drive in and, sure enough, it started doing the "scanning" that the user manual claimed it would.
Waiting and waiting, it took about 3 minutes before Windows 7 would recognize the drive and allow us to check it out. This isn't a long time, but it did take enough time that people may get frustrated. Figuring that this may have been due to Windows 7 needing to load drivers for the unit, we shut it down, unplugged it, and plugged it back in. There was no change. It was pretty much the same 3 minute waiting period as the first time it was plugged in.
What Verbatim says about this scanning is that the drive is calculating the drives free space to show on the LCD. One of the main reasons for the "Always On" LCD display is to show the user how much free space is left on the drive when one disconnects the unit. Unfortunately, this only works on Windows XP. When using Windows Vista or Windows 7, it will not display the drives free space until the user plugs the drive back in and it completes the "scanning" period. Unfortunately, we did not have a system running Windows XP or a MAC at our disposal at the time of this review. The unit may be using the lax security of XP to run a program in the background upon insertion of the drive to do a fast calculation of space that Vista and 7 won't allow. This is speculation.
Once we have gotten past the "scanning" period, we moved on to the drive itself. There was a folder on the partition for Nero BackItUp as expected. We installed Nero BackItUp and launched the application. Not being proficient with the included software, and wanting to attempt a back-up of our system, we opted to use the Windows 7 image software to get a feel of the drives performance. What it claimed that it could not back up to the drive due to the drives file format. We checked, and sure enough, the drive is factory formatted to FAT32. To maintain easy cross OS ability of use, Verbatim uses the de facto filesystem for removable storage. Since the software needed NTFS, we opted to reformat the drive. We proceeded to do a full system back-up image using the standard Windows 7 back-up utility. Went without a hitch. Backing up on the InSight drive only seemed to take about 5 minutes longer than our backup drive that is internally installed in the test system.
Now lets take a look at a performance benchmark and give some final thoughts on this very unique storage solution.
When we first took the drive out of the protective sleeve that it was wrapped in, we found a nice sticky protective plastic film covering the top of the drive. This helps protect the shinny piano black finish that is on the top side of the drive. We're sure that Verbatim figured one could not have too much protection from unwanted scratches.
Once we removed the clear plastic covering, we were instantly impressed by the high gloss piano black finish. We also notice that the "Always On" LCD was in fact displaying some information without the drive even being plugged into a computer. It simply gave the generic volume name "Verbatim" and the amount of free space (297gb) on the drive itself. Verbatim is likely using an e-Ink display. This type of display only uses power when changing the information and doesn't use any power when the information is static.
The sides and bottom of the drive are coated in a flat black, almost rubber, type of finish. When we sat the drive on the lab bench and attempted to slide it, it has a good grip. The coating on the bottom of the drive is some form of a non-slip type of material. This is a very nice addition.
Plugging it in
When reading the included user manual, it states the drive will go through a "scanning" period when it is first plugged in, and anytime that the user plugs the drive into a computer. Here at ASE Labs, we strive to at least keep up with the times, so we have upgraded this test system with Windows 7. We plugged the drive in and, sure enough, it started doing the "scanning" that the user manual claimed it would.
Waiting and waiting, it took about 3 minutes before Windows 7 would recognize the drive and allow us to check it out. This isn't a long time, but it did take enough time that people may get frustrated. Figuring that this may have been due to Windows 7 needing to load drivers for the unit, we shut it down, unplugged it, and plugged it back in. There was no change. It was pretty much the same 3 minute waiting period as the first time it was plugged in.
What Verbatim says about this scanning is that the drive is calculating the drives free space to show on the LCD. One of the main reasons for the "Always On" LCD display is to show the user how much free space is left on the drive when one disconnects the unit. Unfortunately, this only works on Windows XP. When using Windows Vista or Windows 7, it will not display the drives free space until the user plugs the drive back in and it completes the "scanning" period. Unfortunately, we did not have a system running Windows XP or a MAC at our disposal at the time of this review. The unit may be using the lax security of XP to run a program in the background upon insertion of the drive to do a fast calculation of space that Vista and 7 won't allow. This is speculation.
Once we have gotten past the "scanning" period, we moved on to the drive itself. There was a folder on the partition for Nero BackItUp as expected. We installed Nero BackItUp and launched the application. Not being proficient with the included software, and wanting to attempt a back-up of our system, we opted to use the Windows 7 image software to get a feel of the drives performance. What it claimed that it could not back up to the drive due to the drives file format. We checked, and sure enough, the drive is factory formatted to FAT32. To maintain easy cross OS ability of use, Verbatim uses the de facto filesystem for removable storage. Since the software needed NTFS, we opted to reformat the drive. We proceeded to do a full system back-up image using the standard Windows 7 back-up utility. Went without a hitch. Backing up on the InSight drive only seemed to take about 5 minutes longer than our backup drive that is internally installed in the test system.
Now lets take a look at a performance benchmark and give some final thoughts on this very unique storage solution.