Product Description

In today's world mobility has become a key factor. People who are on the road carry their whole office with them. Notebook, mobile phone, PDA, external hard drive Imagine what can happen when you're late for a flight, running to the gate, and your external hard drive accidentally falls from your notebook case or out of your jacket pocket onto the floor it breaks. Hundreds of hours of work, gigabytes of spreadsheets, documents, photo's all gone. Not anymore! Freecom introduces the ToughDrive. The ideal exter...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37757 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Freecom
• Model: 25981
• Released on: 2005-10-26
• Dimensions: .75" h x 3.15" w x 5.51" l, .39 pounds
• Memory: 0MB DRAM
• Hard Disk: 120GB
• Processors: 1

Manufacturer's Description
In today's world mobility has become a key factor. People who are on the road carry their whole office with them. Notebook, mobile phone, PDA, external hard drive... Imagine what can happen when you're late for a flight, running to the gate, and your external hard drive accidentally falls from your notebook case or out of your jacket pocket onto the floor... it breaks. Hundreds if hours of work, gigabytes of spreadsheets, documents, photo's... all gone. Not anymore! Freecom introduces the ToughDrive. The ideal external storage solution for people on the move. Fitted with an internal anti-shock frame and a unique soft silicone cover, it can withstand bumps and drops so your drive is still fully functional after it has dropped. The ToughDrive ensures you can still access your valuable files. A safe feeling. Provided by Freecom

Customer Reviews

Reliable and tough
I bought this a few months ago as a backup device for my Mac. It has worked faultlessly so far. I then wanted to use it with a PC and initially had problems, so I rang the Freecom Tech Support. Would you believe it, they have English people working in England? Anyway, I got the right advice when I got through and the device is working well with the PC.

It's a funny-looking bit of kit (no silver!): the silicone case does feel strange. The integrated USB plug is attached to the device by a very short (2 or 3 cm) "cable" - actually, it's more silicone - so if you want to use it with a tower computer you will need a USB extension cable. I'm not wholly confident that the integrated USB cable would survive too much twisting but apart from that, it looks robust and the whole thing packs away so the USB plug is protected in transit.

It's very quiet in use and comes bundled with software, including a version of the very well-reviewed Acronis True Image.

I'm careful with my gear so I can't say it's survived any sort of significant damage. I suspect it will, though.

Addendum March 2009: it's still working without any problem.

Excellent
The company I work for has a set of 16 of these which we use for daily backup of servers. They replace our DLT tape backup system. They have proved excellent in use over several months, never missing a beat and have survived high temperatures in our server room which lesser drives balked at. They aren't the fastest way to perform a backup, but we manage to do it quicker than our tapes did with a trick or two and they don't suffer they problem that tapes have when full, i.e. you still have a mostly useful backup. And they are rather more portable than the tapes they replace too.

Tough, Stylish, Reliable and Easy to use
This is one of the best external drives I have seen and used, unlike a number of the external drives that break when slightly knocked! Freecom have made this a very tough drive that will withstand most drops and knocks. The software is very easy to install and within a couple of minutes I was using the drive to back-up my computer. I have had no problems with the drive and it has worked perfectly everytime and at a very good speed. I would highly recommend this drive if you are buying a mobile harddrive.

Quick note in addition to 'Stevies' review, my ToughDrive came with a USB extension cable which is handy when using the drive with a PC instead of a laptop where the small USB cable on the drive is fine.