Print this article

ATP ToughDrive mini


Date
: 11/9/07 – 04:00:43 AM

Author
:

Category
: Storage

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: ATP Electronics Inc.

Price
: ToughDrive available @ shopzilla.com. ToughDrive mini 2GB MSRP $60.00 (Not yet available in North America)

ATP is a very new name here at Overclockers Online. As a matter of fact, I would even go as far as to say that many of you probably didn't know they made USB drives. To most, ATP has been known for providing affordable compact flash and secure digital units.

Today, we feature one of their smallest USB drives available – the
ToughDrive mini
. As the name implies, this is one tough drive. A brief look at their website and you see various quotes from the US military promoting the versatility of the unit!

Page 2 : Package & Contents

The packaging for every USB drive I have ever received has been remarkably simple. ATP does not strive to be different in this department. The ToughDrive mini is packaged inside a simple blaster pack that is not stapled or heat sealed making removal incredibly easy. The drive is located middle of the package.

ATP has reserved the top for its logo and product name. We get an impression of the tough feeling by seeing two ATV riders bounce around through the desert, presumably with the ToughDrive mini somewhere onboard. ATP has also indicated a few features and the software included. We'll go over all of this in detail on the next page.

On the backside of blister pack, ATP has made room for the keychain accessory.

On the backside of the insert we see more features listed by ATP: waterproof, plug and play, dependable storage and security protection.

Pulling everything out of the package we're left with the drive and the keychain. The rest can go into the recycling bin!

We can see the drive is pretty basic in design – a flat black rubber casing with a few slots to make gripping a little easier. ATP has included an LED in the middle of the drive so you can tell if the drive is undergoing any operations.

On the backside of the drive ATP has printed the model number, location of manufacture and appropriate certification symbols.

With the drive out of the casing, you can pretty much pop the cover off, plug it in and start using it like any other drive you can buy.

Page 3 : Specifications

ATP's website is light and easy to navigate. They provide sufficient information so you can decide if what they are offering is what you need. Here's a direct link to the ToughDrive mini.

This is what ATP has to say about the ToughDrive mini.

Here's a list of features:

Specifications:

You can see that ATP has created several models with varying capacities. I don't understand why anyone would want to buy a 512MB or smaller drive; the 1GB and 2GB ones are incredibly affordable.

The specifications list the drive as 57mm by 18mm by 8mm and it really is one of the smaller drives available on the market. The only competition I have is a promotional AMD thumbdrive, one I've nearly lost a dozen times.

Page 4 : Installation

As I mentioned earlier, there's really not much installation required for the ToughDrive mini. You pull off the cap and slide drive into your USB slot.

Before we proceed with powering up my PC to test the drive and go over the installation steps, it was clearly stated that the ToughDrive was waterproof. The name also implies durability. To test this fact, I tossed the drive onto the ground a few times and dunked it into some icy cold water.

By no means is this a rigorous test, but I thought it'd be a little fun before I started using the drive. After pulling the drive out of the icy mug, I let it dry off before plugging it into my USB drive.

I'm happy to report that the drive immediately detected and started reading and writing as if nothing happened.

After plugging in the drive, I went to Windows Explorer to see what type of software and files were already available. I found a PDF on the security program and an application called Carry-It-Easy.

Carry-It-Easy is actually a pretty handy program. It lets you sync files from your computer to your USB drive.

The other application on the USB drive was the security program. It's called DiskUtility and it manages the partitions on the ToughDrive mini.

After you partition the drive, you have the option selecting a new default password.

Once you log into the software, you can given access to the secure partition.

If you don't log in or decide to log out, you can only access the public partition. There are a few changes I'd like to see with this software. If you happen to lose your drive or forget your password, there is no reset option. However, you can wipe the partition clean by running the software and managing the partition as if it was your first time. If you lose your drive, you will be happy to know others can't get to the data, but if you forget the password then you're out of luck. The second feature I'd like to see with the software is the ability to browse both public and private partitions when you're logged in. At the moment, you can only view the private, but I see no reason why you can't few the public.

With the software details and installations out of the way, I formatted the drive and got ready for some benchmarking.

Page 5 : Performance

Performance is something you can't take lightly around here. I collected a few of the thumbdrives kicking around and executed a series of tests three times and averaged the results. The competition includes:

• 2GB ATP Inc ToughDrive mini

• 512MB Kingmax/AMD Promotional drive
• Corsair Flash Voyager
• OCZ Rally 2

The benchmarks will utilize:

• IOZone

• Sisoftware Sandra XII File System and Removable Storage
• HD Tach
• NodeSoft Diskbench w/ 933,000 KB Image

We'll start by looking at the IOZone results.

The bandwidth numbers put up by the ToughDrive mini fall short of the theoretical USB 2.0 maximum. We peak our transfer rate at about 22.5MB/s, just over a third of what the theoretical maximum is. That said, this isn't a terrible transfer rate for large files. All the results from 512KB upwards reached the drive's maximum speed, indicating that you'll get peak performance for just about any non-office related file.

Sisoftware Sandra XII gives us our first look of the ToughDrive mini compared to the other drives I have.

The results clearly show the ToughDrive mini as the champion in all categories. The sequential write performance noted in this benchmark is consistent with the IOZone results. Looking at our sequential read of 33MB/s, we're about half way to the maximum USB 2.0 transfer speed.

The Removable Storage results clearly show the ToughDrive mini ahead of the pack in both operations per minute and endurance.

HD Tach paints a very similar picture. The only drive that has an edge on the ToughDrive mini is the Kingmax promotional drive with a slightly lower CPU utilization.

The final test is more practical than the rest. Using NodeSoft Diskbench, it timed the transfer rate and transfer time of a 933,000 KB image.

Page 6 : Conclusion

There's no denying the fact that ATP Inc's ToughDrive mini is at the top of its class. Packaged in a small rubber casing, the look was simple but the performance packed a heavy punch. As the name implies, if you need a durable drive and want to tough it out through sand, snow and abuse, this drive won't let any of that get in its way. This tiny monster has certainly surpassed my expectations.

Unfortunately, performance isn't everything. The biggest drawback with the ToughDrive mini is availability. In speaking with ATP Inc, they are not able to offer it in North America because of legalities on SKUs. For now, Canadians and Americans will have to consider the original ToughDrive which ranges in capacity up to 8GB while the rest of the world gets to purchase the mini version.

Advantages

• Compact

• High performance
• Durable
• Simple, no-nonsense design

Disadvantages

• No availability in North America

• Partitioning software could use a little work
• Still not available in North America!

Overclockers Online would like to thank ATP Inc for making this review possible.
See other Overclockers Online storage related reviews here.