Review Ever thought of climbing the Eiger with a USB hard drive dangling from your belt? Just in case you were, you might find the Freecom ToughDrive Sport is the missing link as you boulderly go. It even comes supplied with a carabiner hook and there’s a picture of some formidable peak on the packaging to tempt you.

Freecom's ToughDrive Sport: designed for outdoor types

A pity then, that the Samsung HM251JI 2.5in Sata drive within, is only designed to operate at temperatures above 5°C but don’t let that put you off, bungee jumping is still an option.

Indeed, Freecom claims that this 250GB device, roughly the size of a small paperback, can be dropped from a 2m height without the risk of data loss. Well, you've got to try it haven’t you? So far, so good.

What makes this new approach to crashing a disk drive possible is the hard rubberised plastic casing, featuring a large, aluminium mounting ring to poke the hook through. An integral 30cm USB cable wraps round the edge of the ToughDrive Sport, nestling into a red rubber groove and providing additional shock absorption. The cable itself is covered with a black and red rope fibre weave to stimulate sporty thoughts, but will remind some of the lead used on the old family toaster.

Mountaineer-friendly carabiner included

The USB connector is a bulky hard plastic affair with the cable entering it at a near right angle. The idea is that it becomes one of the corners of the ToughDrive Sport when it slots into the top housing that extends from the mounting ring. When packed away like this, the cable covers and protects the power/activity LED and the DC input for the optional power supply, should bus powering from the host device be insufficient.

Formatted to FAT32, this drive features software for Mac and PC. On either platform the ToughDrive Sport mounts two volumes: Password - which appears as a CD image - and Freecom HDD. When attached to a PC for the first time, it automatically prompts you to password protect the drive. On the Mac, you need to run the Password application from within the CD image.

Your data should be safe if the drive falls off

Both platforms feature Start applications that introduce the drive’s features, and offer easy ways to install and backup the supplied software – the latter being useful if you’re keen to reformat the drive, though the Password software is not backed up.

The Password volume actually exists on an additional chip and delivers 256-bit encryption to the main volume, regardless of format. Once set up with a password, when plugged in again, the PC immediately runs the Password application for you to unlock it.

On the Mac, plugging in the protected ToughDrive Sport produces an unreadable drive warning. The options of Initialise, Ignore or Eject may appear somewhat disturbing for the novice, but attempts to erase the drive do not succeed. Simply choose Ignore and run Password from its mounted volume and all is well.

Compact

Actually, that’s a lie. Tests with two Macs equipped with USB 1.1 ports failed to access the password protected drive. Each time, Password would report: "No Supported Freecom hard drive detected." Even a PowerBook with USB 2.0 PC card failed to get it mounted. Powering the drive separately was tried but to no avail. In short, if this drive is password protected it won’t work on a Mac with USB 1.1 ports. That’s not something you’re going to know about until it matters, and what a way to find out. For the record, a PC with USB 1.1 ports did mount the protected drive without a hitch.

PCs also benefit from Turbo USB 2.0, a software driver that improves transfer speeds. Our own tests confirmed the impressive claims of a 30 per cent speed increase, but only after a restart.

Not a cleverly designed connector
Nb. the right-hand port is Firewire not USB

An application called NTI Shadow is provided for Mac and PC backups. It provides quite an easy configuration walkthrough, with a comprehensive range of synchronising and scheduling features, and isn’t fussy about which drive it copies to either.

The ToughDrive Sport performs speedily as a storage device. It doesn’t get hot and merely expels a muted gasp to remind you it’s there. While it costs about 20 per cent more than rugged rivals from LaCie and Iomega, the real issue is the USB connector. Its fixed, angled shape really gets in the way of other peripheral connectors, so a bit of forward planning may be necessary, or even a USB extension cable in some instances, which rather defeats this compact concept.

But we like the wraparound cable

During testing, a PC laptop had to be stacked up on a book to use the rear, vertically aligned, USB port because the ToughDrive Sport’s L-shaped connector was pointing downwards when inserted. A MacBook Pro encountered similar difficulties, with this interface crowding adjacent USB connectors. Design getting in the way of practicality? You bet.

Verdict

As part of the Freecom’s Mobile range, the ToughDrive Sport has a number of shortcomings that throw into question its ability to function as a go-anywhere device. Sure, you can drop it, play Frisbee with it and even let it loose on a teenager, but when it comes to plugging it into things, then, it falls short. The Mac USB 1.1 issues will only affect a few, but possibly in a catastrophic way. More to the point, just about any computer that has a populated array of USB ports is going to find this bulky, stupidly inflexible connector will need to be accommodated somehow, rather than simply plugged in and forgotten about. It’s a tough drive all right, but sports a failure of form over function. ®

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