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ATP EarthDrive 4GB USB Flash Drive


Date
: 02/15/09 – 08:18:49 PM

Author
:

Category
: Storage

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
ATP Electronics Inc.

ATP is a Taiwanese company that was founded in 1991. With over 17 years of experience, today they primarily produce DRAM modules and NAND flash storage products. We have seen their Pink Petito and ToughDrive Mini flash drives before.

With the recent emphasis on sustainability and the green movement, many electronics manufacturers have jumped on board. For example, RoHS compliance has become a major selling point for many products. This is where the world's first recyclable USB drive comes in, the
ATP EarthDrive
.

Page 2 : Package, Features & Specifications

I did not receive the EarthDrive in North American retail packaging. However, it did come in a cardboard box, which I suppose is better than plastic. The front shows off the main features of the drive and it is all presented against a green background to boot! The EarthDrive logo looks oddly similar to the ‘recyclable’ sign seen on many products. I have the 4GB version but it also comes in 2GB and 8GB versions.

The back has the system requirements, and the URL for ATP's website. The ‘green’ theme is made more apparent by the indication that everything has been printed on recyclable paper.

ATP has a dedicated site for the EarthDrive where I went to get the features and specifications.

Here is their description:

The specifications:

As you can tell, a lot of engineering went into making the EarthDrive. Most importantly, it is made of PLA, a biodegradable polymer. Also, it is waterproof thanks to ATP's SIP, or System-In-Packaging, technology which encapsulates all the exposed components and points of failure. We will be testing this feature for ourselves soon but before that, let's get our hands on the drive itself.

Page 3 : The Drive & Setup

Opening the cardboard box, we find the EarthDrive embedded in a depression in the cardboard. Beneath it, we find a lanyard which can be attached to the ring-like area on the top of the drive.

The front face of the drive has a glossy black finish and both the EarthDrive and ATP logos are written in green.

The other side is white and has ’4GB’ emblazoned on it as well as the model number, etc. There is a small bump that is used to slide the USB connector out. You basically press down on it and slide. There is a small LED right next to the slider. Sliding the USB connector out reveals the four traces on a plastic substrate.

Looking at the other side again, the USB connector is devoid of any pins or traces.

All in all, the drive is relatively compact and the sliding USB connector mechanism is easy to use and feels sturdy.

When it comes to installation, the EarthDrive is just like any other USB drive. Just plug it in to a USB port and it's good to go. The blue LED lights up solid when the drive is powered and blinks when it is being accessed.

This immediately brings up the AutoPlay window.

Going into the drive, there is a manual and a trial ware program called ‘Carry It Easy’ which we will not look at. There is another program, provided by ATP, that allows you to format the drive and create a security partition on it. The size of the security partition is set by using the slider. You can even create a password for the partition by going to the first tab, after creating the secure partition.

The drive shows up as having 3.72 GB of space.

Page 4 : Testing & Performance

Testing will involve both synthetic and ‘real-world’ benchmarks to analyze the performance of the ATP EarthDrive 4GB.

HD Tach

First up, the HD Tach RW tests (full test).

The results show an average read speed of 27.3 MB/s and a burst speed of 31.1 MB/s, which are very good. Random access time was 1.5 ms.

HD Tune

HD Tune shows an average transfer rate of 24.6 MB/s. For some reason, the burst rate was lower than the average transfer rate.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO shows maximum write speeds of around 10 MB/s and read speeds of around 27 MB/s.

DiskBench

Using DiskBench, I generated and used two files, one 100 MB and the other 500 MB, to measure copy, write, and read speeds.

Write speeds are extremely low for some reason but the read and copy speeds are similar to what we saw in ATTO Disk Benchmark.

SiSoft Sandra

The Sandra Removable Storage benchmark shows a combined index of 3343 operations/min and an endurance factor of 40.

The general drive index is 23.02 MB/s.

Page 5 : Conclusion

Often, when a product is marketed for a certain special feature, it suffers in other aspects. The ATP EarthDrive is not one of those products. In addition to being the world's first recyclable USB drive, it also performs well. With read speeds just shy of 30 MB/s and write speeds of 10 MB/s, the EarthDrive is similar to other USB drives we've reviewed in the past. Its small size also makes it easy to work with. Also, it's waterproof!

All things considered, the ATP EarthDrive is one USB flash drive you can use without sacrificing performance while being green and caring about the environment.

Advantages:

• Fully recyclable

• Good performance
• Small size
• Sturdy build quality, waterproof

Disadvantages:

• Low availability in North America

Overclockers Online would like to thank ATP for providing a review sample of the EarthDrive.