All My Music and Movies in the Palm of My Hand
Written: Sep 02 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Tiny, no power brick, easy to use
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for an external drive for a laptop, this one is a good choice.
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| amykhar's Full Review: SmartDisk 80GB FireLite USB Bus-Powered 80 GB Hard... |
My primary computer is a laptop, which means I have very limited hard drive space. So, a while back, I moved all of my music and movies and other similar things to a 250GB external USB hard drive. Because I really only used my laptop at home, this worked well for me. But recently, my boss conceded to allow me to use my laptop at work. So, the large, clunky 250GB external hard drive was no longer practical.
At first, I left my music at home. After all, I was supposed to be working, not listening to music. But, one of the good things about having my laptop along was that I could add fresh podcasts to my iPhone if I finished listening to the ones I had during my morning commute. Because of the quirks of iTunes, I can only sync the phone to one library unless I want to go through some contortions. With the way I have iTunes configured, it would work best if my podcasts could be downloaded to the same place I kept my music. So, I needed a smaller USB hard drive that would travel well.
At work, we had a few 80GB Firelite drives. I borrowed one to see if it would give me the portability I need. All in all, I am very happy with it. But, I intend to buy a larger one because 80GB is a bit too small for my multimedia collection.
The Firelite drive has two primary advantages. First, it is small - about the size of my hand and very light. Second, it does not require a power adapter. It is powered with the USB cable that connects it to my laptop.
Using it is cake. It doesn’t need drivers; so I can connect it to my Mac laptop or my husband’s PC with no problem. To use it, simply plug it in and wait for the computer to detect it. I use it just like any other drive on my computer. It has a USB 2 interface, which means it’s fast enough to copy files back and forth without making me wait forever. In fact, I am able to stream movies and video podcasts to my Apple TV from the Firelite with no noticeable drop in performance.
One thing to keep in mind with external USB drives is that they can fail. So, I do not rely on the drive as my sole backup. For now, I keep a copy of my media on my older 250GB drive as well. Eventually, I will probably pay for an online backup service through Amazon or some other company.
At work, we use Firelites to move large collections of files and disk images from one computer to another. We have also used them to run portable Windows applications that we did not wish to install locally on a computer. With the easy availability of web browsers, office suites, development tools and image editors designed to run on USB drives, it’s quite possible to use a Firelite drive to carry all of your software and data with you so that it’s available on whatever computer you choose to work on.
After spending the past week with the Firelite, I feel comfortable recommending it to you. I plan to buy my own slightly larger capacity version in the very near future.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
amykhar
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Member: Amy
Location: USA
Reviews written: 320
Trusted by: 480 members
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