Seagate Debuts Speedy USB 3.0 External Drive

Storage specialist Seagate is touting the performance benefits of its BlackArmor PS110 USB 3.0 portable external hard drive, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The solution packages a 500GB 7200RPM 2.5-inch portable hard drive, power cable and PC express card.

USB 3.0 speed has been specified at 4.8 GB/s (a 10 times improvement over USB 2.0), however Seagate points out this is theoretical performance, and said that in real world testing, the BlackArmor USB 3.0 portable drive achieves 3X performance over USB 2.0.

With the BlackArmor PS 110 USB 3.0 drive, Seagate claims a 25GB HD movie can be transferred in just four minutes, versus the 14 minutes it would take using a traditional USB 2.0 drive (based on an average transfer rate of 30MB for USB 2.0 and 100MB for USB 3.0).

Users simply plug the PC Adapter card into a notebook, connect one end of the included adapter cord to the PC card, the other end to the BlackArmor PS110 drive, and the device is ready for use. The BlackArmor PS 110 USB 3.0 Performance kit is backward-compatible with USB 2.0 and can be purchased from the company’s website for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $179.99 (£112).

“The growing presence of large multimedia files in the home means that connectivity and speed is a top concern for a satisfactory experience,” said Dave Mosley, Seagate executive VP of sales, marketing and product line management. “The delivery of USB 3.0 further underscores our commitment to giving people an efficient way to store, access and share their digital creations.”

Seagate’s USB 3.0 portable hard drive performance kit couples all the safety and security of the existing BlackArmor PS 110 portable hard drive, with the increased performance of USB 3.0 in a slim, 12.5mm form factor.

Each drive ships with the Acronis business-grade backup suite, automated full-system backup and SafetyDrill+ software, a bare metal recovery feature, is Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 compatible and covered by the a five-year limited warranty.

“As people continue to amass vast libraries of high-definition photos, movies and music, the storage needs of US households are forecast to grow more than 10 times between 2009 and 2013, and the average digital media storage requirements will exceed a terabyte by 2013,” said Kurt Scherf, VP and principle analyst of Parks Associates.