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Verbatim Executive Portable Hard Drive 500GB review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £79
inc VAT

Encryption will be useful for some, but it’s an unnecessary expense for most

The Executive is, just as its name suggests, aimed at professionals who need to keep their data safe at all times. It comes with built-in 256-bit AES hardware encryption that can protect your files instantly, in case you lose it or it gets stolen. You can enable it via Windows using the bundled software Suite, but the circular touch-sensitive button on the disk itself is much more convenient.

Verbatim Executive Portable Hard Drive 500GB

With a single tap, you can encrypt the whole external hard drive, or just the portion where you keep sensitive data. Using the configuration tool, you can also change the button’s function to start an automatic backup, sync between folders or (less usefully) launch a specific website.

The disk also comes with a free copy of Nero BackItUp & Burn Essentials, which is considerably well-equipped for a piece of free software. As well as full, automated system backups, you can create extra copies on CD, DVD or Blu-ray if you have a compatible optical drive. Its only limitation is that you can’t open your backed-up files without running the program first, but that’s a relatively minor problem that’s worth the peace of mind of having regular backups.

Verbatim Executive Portable Hard Drive 500GB

With 97.5MB/s read and 90.5MB/s write speeds when handling large files, as well as 37.3MB/s read and 17.1MB/s write speeds for small files, it’s fairly middle-of-the-road in terms of performance. If you want security over performance, it’s a good choice, but you could add software encryption to the faster, cheaper Seagate Backup Plus Portable 500GB instead.

Basic Specifications

Rating ****

Storage

Hard disk Samsung HN-M500MBB
Capacity 500GB
Formatted capacity 465GB
Price per gigabyte £0.15
Disk size 2.5in
Interface USB3
Power connector USB3 from host
Spindle speed 5400rpm
Cache 8MB
Seek time 12.0ms
Weight 154g
Size 18x123x82mm
Power consumption idle N/A
Power consumption active N/A

Buying Information

Backup software included Nero BackItUp & Burn
Price £79
Warranty two years RTB
Supplier http://www.very.co.uk
Details www.verbatim-europe.co.uk

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