Buffalo MiniStation 320GB USB Hard Drive

Looks and Build Quality
The Buffalo MiniStation 320GB USB hard drive comes in a matte black, impact resistant plastic case. The top of the drive has an LED that indicates power and hard drive activity. Around the edges of the case is a groove for the wrap around USB cable to fit into when the drive isn't in use so that the drive and cable are conveniently kept together for storage and transportation. On the bottom lies the sticker with the serial and product numbers.

Just like the Transformers, there's more than meets the eye with the Buffalo MiniStation Turbo USB. On the inside of the case, the 2.5" hard drive is surrounded by shock absorbing material to protect it beyond what the exterior shell can provide. This translates into less vibration and shock being transferred to the drive which means survivability and increased longevity for the user, which is always a good thing.

Buffalo MiniStation Turbo USB with wraparound cable.

Internal Shock Absorption.

Being bus-powered means that the drive is quite small. The drive is about as thick as a nickel and is just about as tall as a 12 oz. pop can. On one end of the drive there are the openings for the USB mini-B cable and 5V auxiliary power connection for those that can't seem to get enough juice out of a single USB port to power the drive.

Turbo USB drive thickness compared to a nickel.

Performance
Buffalo touts the speed of the MiniStation Turbo USB 320GB hard drive quite a lot as it is all over their website and the box that the drive came in. Turbo USB works by what appears to be a driver update after examining the files on the provided CD, even though in the user manual they call it a utility. First the drive was ran through HDTach RW which yielded read and write speeds of 34.7 MB/s and 25.5 MB/s respectively which is quite quick for a USB hard drive.

HDTach RW without Turbo USB enabled.

After installing and enabling the Turbo USB utility, HDTach was ran again and the results were impressive with the read and write speeds increasing to 39.3 MB/s and 28.4 MB/s respectively. Perhaps what is even more impressive was that the CPU utilization dropped in half from 11% before Turbo USB and 5% after. This makes me wonder just how much performance we could get out of many other drives if only they would take the time to write better drivers for them.

HDTach RW with Turbo USB enabled.

Buffalo says that the Turbo USB feature improves data transfer speeds by as much as 64%. This is left open ended as they do not specify whether it is the read speed, write speed, or both that are improved on. They are also using a generalization comparing it to a 4200 RPM drive that comes in at 21 MB/s. As the write speeds aren't even close to being 64% faster than the 21 MB/s they specify we can only assume that they are talking about read speeds. If this is the case then our drive is performing extremely well as it is about 90% faster than their 4200 RPM drive at 21MB/s. If this isn't the case, then our drive is performing poorly with only about a 35% improvement. Either way you look at it, the MiniStation Turbo USB is still quite speedy for an external USB drive.

Buffalo's own speed comparison chart.

Real World File Copy
Using Microsoft's Robocopy and a 1GB dataset, the drive showed strong real world performance, albeit a little slower than the synthetic testing. Without the Turbo USB enabled, the drive managed very respectable 30.3 MB/s and 29.4 MB/s read and write speeds respectively. After enabling the Turbo USB, both read and write speeds improved to 34.5 MB/s and 33.3 MB/s. Again, if Buffalo is comparing the read speeds to say it is 64% faster, the drive is right on target against the 21 MB/s benchmark they are using to compare it to.

It is very important to note that there were some definite discrepancies with the drive's performance and Windows Vista. Performance in Vista SP1 was just absolutely horrid with read and write speeds coming in at 16.4 MB/s and 14.6 MB/s respectively. Turbo USB didn't change anything as the results were the exact same with it enabled. A wide variety of testing was done on Vista to try and isolate the issue, including two completely different systems, Vista x86 and x64, and with and without service pack 1. It seems that this is just one more issue with Vista that needs to be sorted out and since the drive performs excellent in XP, Vista is simply the only thing we can point the finger at.

HDTach RW Vista performance.

Memeo AutoBackup - Backing it Up
Another big feature of the MiniStation Turbo USB is the bundled Memeo backup software. The Memeo backup software offers an easy to use way for you to back your data up. Unlike most software that has you choose what you want to back up first; Memeo has you specify where you wish to back your data up to first. You aren't limited to just backing up to this drive though as you can use any location you wish such as another hard drive, a flash drive, your iPod, or even a network location. If you wish to keep previous versions of files, you can do that as well and if you are concerned about security you can also utilize 128-bit AES encryption so that only the Memeo software can be used to restore the data.

Memeo: Select backup destination.

After that is done you simply need to specify the files that you wish to be backed up. Files can be backed up either by folder or by the SmartPicks. SmartPicks are a common set of files that most users would choose to have backed up such as email, music, or you're My Documents folder. This helps make it easier for those that are less tech savvy, yet still gives some flexibility for those that wish to have a little more control over what is backed up and what isn't. Clicking done starts the process and Memeo sits in the background and backs up your files immediately. From then on out it monitors changes in the background and backs them up as changes are made.

Memeo: Choose what to backup.

Should you need to restore your files, it is a very painless process. Simply click restore from within Memeo and you are presented with what is available and an option of where to restore it to such as the original location, on your desktop, or some other folder. If you simply overwrote a file, you can restore a previous version of it if you need to. In case you are backing up large amounts of data, a search feature is included to find that one specific file that you need to restore. Simply click the restore button after selecting what you want and where to, and it restores the data.

Memeo: Choose what to restore.

SecureLockWare - Locking it Down

If you are worried about some data security and you should be, Buffalo covers you on that front too with the bundled SecureLockWare software. Installation of the software prompts you to set a password and an optional hint, and also tells you that the drive will have to be formatted. Unfortunately you have to do this manually, which is something that many people may not know how to do.

After formatting the drive you can lock it and unlock it as you need. Unfortunately there are some drawbacks with this software as it isn't entirely user friendly. First of all the drive requires that it be manually locked and unlocked for use. For user's on the go this can be a hassle, as well as for those in a hurry as it simply will be forgotten. This isn't such a big deal since the drive is encrypted and can't be accessed without the software.

However the second issue is that nothing automatically pops up to unlock the drive when it is plugged in. Shortcuts aren't even placed on the desktop so the user has to navigate through the start menu to lock and unlock the drive. What makes this so confusing and horrible is that there is one program for unlocking and another one for locking the drive. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal, but they are mislabeled. Yes, that's right; to unlock the drive you have to tell it to lock and to lock the drive you have to tell it to unlock. This is simply a sign of a rushed product that needs a little more polishing before it is handed off to the end user.

Recap
The Buffalo MiniStation Turbo USB 320GB hard drive performs excellent for a drive that only connects via USB. In fact it seems to be the fastest USB hard drive that we have ever tested. The bundled Memeo backup software delivers a streamlined, easy way for users to back up their data and performs flawlessly. However the included SecureLockWare software is somewhat of a nightmare to use, especially for those that are even slightly technologically challenged.