Kanguru e-Flash eSATA + USB Flash Drive
The Kanguru e-Flash USB and eSATA drive combines both connection types into a flash drive that also works as a regular hard drive when using the eSATA connection.
Ease of Use, Performance: 23/25
Look & Feel: 23/25
Features 23/25
How much I enjoy 20/25
Total: 89/100
The Kanguru e-Flash is a combination USB and eSATA drive that works as a removable flash drive or an internal hard drive depending on the connection in use. The e-Flash is a fast performer and works well as a large but portable storage device that combines the best features of both drive types.
The e-Flash comes with the drive itself, a powered eSATA adapter, an eSATA extension cable and drivers with software on a 8 cm disc that include the HotSwap! program. The e-Flash drive itself is about 3.5 inches long, an inch wide and a quarter inch thick with a USB connection on one end and an eSATA connection on the other.
When the drive is connected to a computer using the eSATA side the drive has a blue light that indicates power and flashes to show activity. The USB side also has an indicator light to show connectivity and activity so you have some indication that things are either working or not.
The Kanguru e-Flash when used as an eSATA device needs to be powered so a regular eSATA connection may not work with the device. You need to have a powered eSATA connection which not every computer may have but the device comes with a power cable and adapter to create one.
Simply install the adapter on the back of your case, plug the SATA connection to your motherboard and the SATA power cable to your PSU SATA power connection to create your powered eSATA connection. The e-Flash will work as a regular internal hard drive when using the eSATA connection so discovery of the drive will be just like an internal hard drive.
When using the included HotSwap! Program you can use the e-Flash as a regular plug and play device but this program may not work all the time. I did have a couple of times when connecting the drive during testing that I still had to go to device manager to get my computer to recognize and see the drive.
Using the powered eSATA was pretty easy with the included extension cable for eSATA so you don’t have to reach around to the back of your computer to get your drive plugged and unplugged. The USB function of the e-Flash works well with good speeds and it works just as well as any other USB drive with quick and easy connectivity of a true plug and play device.
I tested the Kanguru e-Flash drive using a couple of tests including x-Bit Labs FC-Test and ATTO Technology’s Disc Benchmark for read and write speeds. These were the best and easiest tests I could find that gave results I could understand and made sense when using a disc drive.
The e-Flash drive features read and write speeds up to 90 megabytes per second with the following specs:
Read eSATA up to 90MB/s
Read USB 2.0 up to 33 MB/s
Write eSATA up to 50 MB/s
Write USB up to 30 MB/s
The drive performed well and gave comparable results using both tests with average write speeds for the eSATA connection of 10.78 MB/s using X-Bit Labs FC-Test. The test was an average of a large number of smaller files and some large files written to the drive and the speeds recorded.
The USB connection showed results of 7.416 MB/s while writing using the USB interface but the ATTO tests showed slightly better results. I had 90 MB/s results for read speeds and 43 MB/s for write speeds for the eSATA connection using the ATTO benchmark test.
Benchmark tests showed 34 MB/s for read speeds and 25 MB/s for write speeds using the USB connection of the e-Flash drive which coincides with the features for the drive. The first tests may not be as accurate but are a bit more real world as I transferred a good assortment of files both lots of small ones and several large files.
Overall the testing did show some good speeds and as a comparison I tested both a Ridata USB flash drive and a Seagate Barricuda hard drive. I was receiving 113 MB/s for larger files during both read and write operations on the SATA interface of my new Seagate Barracuda hard drive.
Testing an older Ridata flash drive I still use for file transfers between computers I was getting 3.6 MB/s for write speeds and 12.7 MB/s for read speeds. The e-Flash drive does much better than my usual flash drives even on USB and the eSATA really does perform well for a quick and handy storage drive.
The e-Flash drive did perform well and checking on the internet I found other reviews with results very similar to mine using the same and similar tests. The Kanguru e-Flash drive does perform well and is available in both 32 gigabyte and 64 gigabyte sizes.
The e-Flash drive is a great fast drive for those larger files and is even large enough for use as a removable operating system drive. I found a few articles talking about using a removable drive with an operating system during troubleshooting so you can boot your computer and remove any valuable data when the regular boot drive does not work.
Using a secondary removable drive when your regular boot drive does not even boot you can still start your system and remove data or troubleshoot the computer. I tried this out and it worked like a champ to install Windows Vista on the Kanguru drive and use it as your boot device.
All you have to do is connect the drive and using Bios settings have the computer boot to the Kanguru drive and install from a disk to the e-Flash drive. Once the operating system is installed simply keep it handy and when needed boot from the e-Flash drive when your other boot device does not work.
This makes sense for systems that have important data and you want to make sure you have some way to get the data even if you regularly back it up or between backups. The use of a boot drive with a removable flash drive is just another use for the e-Flash along with transferring data.
The e-Flash drive is a great large size drive and performs much better than your usual flash drive as well as having the dual connections. I highly recommend the Kanguru e-Flash drive as a dual connection drive for large file sizes or as a bootable drive.