Lenovo Secure Hard Drive-160gb Review
Today we're going to talk about protection...no don't worry. Not the uncomfortable health class lesson but a lesson on mobile protection, and what it might mean to you. Being that you are a mobile user, and you take your work with you – just having a password to log onto your OS may not be enough. Sure, that offers one simple (albeit lackluster) security measure, sometimes, your work deserves better. It's all your legal documents and binding contracts, it's your precious diagrams and spy photos of the latest whatever. It could even just be a backup of your latest novel or your employees records on file – or maybe your own banking information? There are plenty of reasons why a mobile user would want his/her information stored, and stored securely. The other problem however is, how to go about it?
Well, Lenovo has come up with a pretty basic (although great) option for the items you need to have secure, and keep secure from all those prying eyes and ears that would want to steal this information with their portable USB 2.0 Secure HDD. This option is also compatible with Rescue and Recovery on ThinkPad and ThinkCentre systems. Optimized for safeguarding essential data while on-the-go, the ThinkPad USB Portable Secure Hard Drive offers high-level 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) security within a slim, lightweight, self-powered, easy-to-use design
Design
The design of the enclosure is simple, but to the point. It looks like a number pad with circle keys and a USB cord out the side. The casing however, is covered in the same ThinkPad rubber-like material, making it feel much more substantial. This model does come with a special adapter cable that utilizes a second USB port and the slot for this is near the front of the hard drive. I would rate the design 3/5 – I'm not sure what they could have done to spruce things up, but it keeps it very business like and would match any ThinkPad like a good tie clip does for a tie. It looks smart.
Size and Weight:
The unit is pretty light. It doesn't feel heavy in your hand and the size is roughly the same as a Motorola Q9C (see pic). Below are the actual dimensions of the unit: Height: 0.85 in Width: 3.45 in Weight: .69 lbs
It's roughly the same size as a normal HDD enclosure, and the weight is perfect for those on the go. No complaints here, it fits the scale (and the storage compartment) quite well.
Setup and Installation
The Secure HDD needs to USB power sources to power the unit, which isn't a big deal but is important to note. Once you plug both of them in, the harddrive will initially spin up, but then will require to you to enter you password. This password can be between 6-24 digits, but comes initially with a 123456 password to begin the initial setup.
Setting up your user password is relatively quite simple – and the harddrive has an included PDF to show you how to go about that. One other neat trick it has, is it can segement 10 different users, and one administrator level password – meaning 10 different people can have their access codes stored on it (business rentals for the office?) and when they bring it back, you the boss can see everything and anything – but also protecting the data from one master code (if need be).
Once everything is plugged in, your password entered, you press the green “lock” key and the LED should turn from RED to GREEN – allowing you access to your 128-bit AES secured files.
Features and Benefits:
- High-speed USB 2.0 Interface
- Driverless operation under Microsoft Windows XP and Vista
- All stored data is fully encrypted using the high level AES 128-bit security encryption.
- Shock-mounted 160GB 5400 rpm hard drive
- Built-in USB cable with an integral storage slot
- USB extension cable for more flexible distance configurations
If any of those make you intruiged, it should be that this is a 128-bit secure HDD, and that the drive is shock mounted – again, tailored to the mobile user.
Performance:
When it comes to security – you are pretty well protected (in most regards) with this unit, but how well does it perform? We ran some basic testing with the program HDTune to see what sort of numbers we get for speed, and did some simple file transfer timing. Granted, we're not worried about this as we know it's a 5400rpm drive in there (it's not marketed for blazing speed) and it's a 160gb drive. We're just curious to see the throughput and share those numbers with you. You probably aren't purchasing it for these reasons,
Device | Min Transfer (mb/s) | Max Transfer (mb/s) | Average (mb/s) | Access Time | CPU Usage |
Lenovo Secure HD (160gb, 5400rpm) | 24.1 | 27.3 | 25.8 | 17.7MS | 16.30% |
Internal SATA | 26.4 | 66 | 51 | 16.8 | 5.40% |
Now, clearly this wasn't a direct comparison test as an internal SATA drive will obviously outperform a USB drive – but it was good to note the throughput and performance was pretty spot on with a 5400rpm drive. And with only a slightly larger access time, completely acceptable.
As far as that table relates to transfer times – the following was recorded:
124 seconds for a 2.6 GB file
27 seconds for 560mb (65 picture files - 6 movie files)
Nope, not a speed demon, but again – not what it's marketed for. I do wish it was a bit faster, but with this setup, it's probably as good as it will get.
If I had to make any recommendations, it would be that if you have a lot of secure documents that you travel with, the Lenovo SecureHDD makes a lot of sense. If you're looking for a fast external drive that doesn't need that much security under the belt from the get-go, you have a lot of different options. But for what it's worth, once you know you have the security in your hands, it's hard to go back to just letting your data be available to anyone who wants to plug in your hard drive and see whats there. In all fairness, it's not the “would you need the security” it's “can you afford to not have it?” as the price tag is a little steeper than your average drive. Only you can decide that, but I do recommend picking it up if you feel it IS worth it for your needs.
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