Apricorn EZ Bus Mini 20GB

August 23rd, 2004

Pros: Compact; quiet operations; well documented; completely bus-powered; great software bundle; three years of warranty.
Cons: Relatively expensive; limited platform support.
Verdict: If you're always on the road with a laptop, Apricorn EZ Bus Mini will make an excellent safe harbor for your precious data.

Apricorn EZ Bus Mini is a Hi-Speed USB bus-powered hard drive housing a Hitachi 1.8" 20GB hard drive. While being just one among a plethora of similar products, it has everything a road warrior hopes to find on a mobile hard drive, including a disaster recovery CD, file/folder synchronization, encryption software and a generous three-year warranty.

Package Content
- Apricorn EZ Bus Mini 20GB
- Instructions
- 2 software CDs
- 1m USB extension cable

Same Size as Apple iPod
Measuring just 4" x 3" x 0.5" and weighing at 5 oz., the EZ Bus Mini is just about the size and weight as the fourth generation Apple iPod. Its rubberized surface is immune to scratches. A LED light blinks on the top right corner to indicate hard activities. On the back, there is a recessed compartment to conceal the 6-inch USB cable. A 1m extension cable is included if case you need it.

You Got Enough Power?
As with other portable hard drives, the EZ Bus Mini is hassle-free when it comes to installation. Our Windows 2000/XP and Panther recognized it immediately. Even though the EZ Bus Mini is touted as completely bus-powered and USB-IF compliant, some laptops, such as those ultra-compact ones, may not welcome such a high-powered hard drive. Make sure your USB ports provide 500mA of current. To check, go to the properties of the USB root hub in Windows' device manager, and a power rating should appear in front of you.

Strong Software Bundle
The EZ Bus Mini is accompanied by two CDs containing EZ Gig II Data Transfer Utility, Cyptainer Encryption and Second Copy 2000 Synchronization. None of the software titles work on the Macs and on systems prior to Windows 2000. The EZ Gig II composes of Clone EZ and Image EZ.



The first of which creates an exact bootable clone of your hard drive partitions. In the even of a hard drive failure, you can boot up your system straight from the EZ Bus Mini (USB boot support in BIOS is required). Or if you boot up the system with this CD, the same program will launch, allowing you to restore data and partition sizes.



What Image EZ does is taking a snapshot of your data and compressing it into a single or multiple files, depending on your choice of FAT32 or NTFS. It can also mount a virtual drive from an image so you can extract any files or folders in Windows Explorer.

Second Copy 2000 is data replication software that provides a variety of options for synchronizing data between the EZ Bus Mini and your laptop. You can set schedule for your backup and types of files/folders that need to be copied. Unfortunately, the software interface is unintuitive, unlike the EZ Gig II. Cryptainer LE can create a private partition of size up to 20MB. You can also create a file encrypted in a self-extracting file.

How Fast does it Clone
The EZ Bus Mini wasn't exactly a speed demon, but it completed the tests in reasonable time. It took about 7 minutes to clone a 80GB hard drive with 5.39GB data in EZ Gig II DOS interface. This translates into 0.77GB per minute. In Windows, EZ Image required 16 minutes to consolidate 4.63GB assorted files into a series of 4GB files on the FAT32 partition. As for typical copying process, the EZ Bus Mini scores are typical for a USB hard drive.

Benchmark Results
Combined Index : 12576 operation(s)/min
Endurance Factor : 5.3
512B Files Test : 18621 operation(s)/min
32kB Files Test : 11914 operation(s)/min
256kB Files Test : 3483 operation(s)/min
2MB Files Test : 485 operation(s)/min
64MB Files Test : 16 operation(s)/min

Buffered Read : 18 MB/s
Sequential Read : 18 MB/s
Random Read : 15 MB/s
Buffered Write : 14 MB/s
Sequential Write : 14 MB/s
Random Write : 14 MB/s
Average Access Time : 12 ms (estimated)

Wrap Up
No doubt the EZ Bus Mini is a solid product. Keep in mind though that for the price of the 40GB version, you can get a 200GB dual-interfaced external hard drive. So, the EZ Bus Mini may not be for everyone. However, if you're always on the road with a laptop, Apricorn EZ Bus Mini will make an excellent safe harbor for your precious data.

Where to buy Apricorn EZ Bus Mini 20GB?


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EZ Bus Mini 20GB Specs

Interface(s)	Hi-Speed USB
Released date	June 2004
Platforms	Windows 2000, Windows XP, MacOS 9.1, MacOS X
Capacity	20GB
Rotation speed	4200 rpm
Average transfer rate	--
Seek time	12ms
Buffer size	2MB
Software	Image EZ Compression, EZ Encryption, Clone EZ Backup
Internal drive type	Hitachi 1.8"
Integrated battery	No
Extra?	Travel pouch
Dimensions	3.9" x 2.8" x 0.6"
Weight	3.2 oz.
Power source	Bus-powered
Warranty	Three years

Extras
Lost a USB cable? Get a replacement USB cable.
Running out of USB ports? Get an extra USB hub.
You may need a new USB card to achieve Hi-Speed USB speeds.
Confirm with our USB 2.0 FAQ if you have Hi-Speed USB on your PC.