Memorex Ultra TravelDrive portable hard drive review

Will this offer you storage on the go?

2 November 2007 13:00 GMT / By Stephen Patrick

Notebook external hard drives are small and compact and make a great device for backing up your computer's hard drive. The price of disks has dropped of late so such things are now suprisingly cheaper than ever.

This new drive from Memorex has a neat and compact design and hooks up to your notebook using USB 2.0, which it uses to power the drive. It also comes with a power cable, so if you attach it to older devices, it will still work.

It has a rubberised grip so feels comfortable in the hand and feels solid enough to leave in the bottom of your travel bag. However, the best feature is the Quick Backup button that once pressed activates the installed backup software.

To try and differentiate itself from other such drives, Memorex has added a couple of coloured sleeves to replace the standard silver ones that come with the drive.

This is something of a gimmick and is a little fiddly to actually achieve but if you have a couple of these drives then you can easily see the point in colour coding them.

The 80GB version comes with orange and white, the 120GB has blue and black, while the largest capacity 160GB uses green and white. Owning more than one is an option, as the pricing is more than aggressive. The 80GB version we looked at was a mere £60, with the 160GB version on sale for £100 (inc. VAT).

Verdict

There are smaller portable hard drives on the market and while the faceplates aren’t incentive enough to buy this drive, the usability and speed of the UltraDrive more than makes up for that.

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Review Recap

Made by: Memorex
Price as reviewed: £60
The good: Fast, reliable
The bad: Faceplates are gimmicky and not easy to change
Quick verdict: A notebook hard drive in a protective case is nothing new but it’s a cost-effective and attractive option
Score