New hard drives claim speed boost

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September 4, 2007 (TechWorld.com) -- Buffalo Technology has announced a range of portable hard drives using a new technology claimed to significantly boost performance compared to ordinary USB 2.0 products.

Aimed at small businesses, the new MiniStation product uses the company's proprietary TurboUSB technology to reduce file transfer overhead, thus improving speed. The technology, which works using an optimized driver and controller chip combination, is in the process of being rolled out across all the company's portable and stand-alone drives.

In every other respect, the MiniStation is just another well-designed and fairly cheap USB drive based around a standard 2.5-in. disk drive. Coming in several capacities of 80GB up to 300GB, the unit features a clever wraparound USB cable and a shock-resistant case. Prices range from $100, including VAT, for the 80GB drive, and up to $235 for the 300GB version.

"We have developed the TurboUSB feature in response to consumer demand for faster and better performance from storage devices. The enhanced speed and functionality of the new MiniStation and DriveStation ranges enable users to back up and retrieve photos, videos and files faster than ever before," said Gerardine Lynch, product marketing manager at Buffalo.

There are no independent benchmarks of the TurboUSB feature, and the company has quoted performance improvements ranging from 16% up to 37% for the 3.5-in. DriveStation drives, and the headlined 64% for the 2.5-in. MiniStation. The actual performance will probably depend on the types of the size of the files being transferred and the drive formatting.

The company also announced the same technology in its DriveStation range, external 3.5-in. drives for desk-side applications. These include a power conservation feature that can power the drive on and off with the PC, and a basic backup utility with file encryption for security. Capacities run from 240GB, which costs $91, including VAT, up to the new ceiling for everyday storage, 1 TB, costing $413.

Reprinted with permission from

For more enterprise technology news from the U.K., please visit TechWorld.com. Copyright 2006 IDG, all rights reserved.

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