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BUFFALO DriveStation HD-HB160U2 External Hard Drive 

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Buffalo DriveStation is the latest player to enter the

much-heated arena of external hard disk and backup storage devices. We tested

the HD-HB160U2 (the 160 GB version of the DriveStation) on Asus A8N-E

motherboard with AMD Athlon 64 FX 55 2.61 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM. The

DriveStation comes pre-formatted and the installation CD comes with drives,

Buffalo Easy backup software, Power Save utility and Disk Formatter utility.

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The drive has a spindle speed of 7200 rpm and comes with

USB 2.0/1.1 interfaces. It needs an external power supply and can be set up to

start automatically whenever the PC is started. The drive loaded the PC's CPU

by only 12.5% when transferring data during the test, which is far less than

other hard disks we reviewed earlier. The Start and End transfer rates were 30

and 29.8 Mbps, respectively. But its disk access time was 20.7 ms, which was

greater than the rated seek time of 11 ms.

Price:

Rs 10,800 (2 yrs warranty)

mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:

EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Key Specs: USB 2.0, 160 GB, 7200 rpm external hard drive
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:

EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Contact: Nexgen Networks,

Delhi.



Tel: 41528532.


E-mail: buffalo@nexgennetworks.co.in


RQS# E61 or SMS 130161 to 9811800601

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The Buffalo Easy backup s/w can be set to backup all

important and critical data at a pre-scheduled time. The s/w shuts down the

machine automatically after finishing its work. The Power Save utility can be

scheduled to shutdown the hard drive when it's not accessed for a long time

while remaining connected to the PC. It can also make the hard drive go into

sleep mode with a toggle button in its user-friendly interface. We can also use

the remove button to disconnect DriveStation from the PC, performing the same

function as running the Window's 'Safely Remove Hardware' Wizard. The Disk

Formatter utility can format the hard disk, using either the physical format or

a quick format. This also does a bad cluster check and fixes them.

Bottom Line: With its performance and price, it's

a useful backup device for users wanting to extend that capacity.

Abe Kurian

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