[re]drive External Hard Drive

The [re]drive external hard drive from SimpleTech stores and backs up data with simple backup software and works as a simple external hard drive to store extra data, movies and music.

Ease of Use, Performance: 24/25
Look & Feel: 22/25
Features 21/25
How much I enjoy 24/25

Total: 91/100

[re]drive

The [re]drive external hard drive from SimpleTech is a very nice external hard drive that features a great backup program, energy efficiency in a few ways and a nice package using recycled and natural materials. While the Bamboo sides do not make this a totally green product the recyclable aluminum and energy efficient enclosure and energy saving drive does.

The [re]drive does a great job as an external drive that comes as a 500 Gigabyte drive and uses the common mini-B USB connection and an external power adapter to run. The drive has an energy efficient enclosure and shuts off when your computer does so you save a little on energy.

The [re]drive does contain some programs when you first get it so you don’t have to format it, please don’t, the programs on it are really nice to use. The drive comes with a backup suite from ArcSoft called Total Media Backup and Record that has a backup and recording set of programs that handle a host of backup, burn and recover options.

The [re]drive is a regular 500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAVS Caviar GP hard drive that is connected to a SATA to USB adapter inside the aluminum and bamboo covered enclosure. The drive is actually a good one by itself and I did some comparison tests using SiSoftware Sandra Pro to test read performance of the drive against a Seagate 250 GB and a few other drives with good results.

The Western Digital did not beat the Seagate drive as an internal hard drive with both having the same Drive Index but the Seagate did beat the random access time of the Western Digital by only 3 ms. The Seagate Drive is reading a random access time of 17 ms while the Western Digital drive from the [re]drive enclosure is getting 14 ms.

Using the drive in an external enclosure testing environment I saw better results for a hard drive connected through a USB and a network connection. I tested the [re]drive hard drive enclosure fully set up against another a Seagate 2.5” 160GB and against my Western Digital 200GB C drive. 

I also tested the drive setup as a network drive and the Western Digital drive as part of the [re]drive enclosure performed slightly better than the other drives. I was surprised to see it actually performed the best as a network drive but in testing computers some things continue to surprise me while others do not. 

The [re]drive is easy to set up as a USB drive by simply plugging in the USB connection to your computer and then plugging in the power adapter but you can also set the drive up for network storage. Simply download the D-Link SharePort Network USB Utility to setup the drive on a network, you will need a router that has a USB connection or a Network USB adapter. Go to the D-Link website for further details about their network program and using a network drive but the [re]drive works great as a network drive as well as a standalone external hard drive.

Whats in the Box

The [re]drive may not be the most green product out there but it does have the nice bamboo cover plates that hide the more mechanical looking aluminum insides. The aluminum of the enclosure which makes up the enclosure itself and the two side plates with their distinct textures is made from recyclable aluminum.

If and or when the drive dies and the technology has surpassed this drive enclosure the drive can be dismantled and the aluminum enclosure recycled. The drive is also packaged in recycled materials like newspapers recycled into the cardboard box it comes in and the packaging materials are all made from recycled products, no plastics or non biodegradable packaging at all.

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