This post was written by Carrie Smith
The Iomega StorCenter ix2 is a network-attached storage (NAS) drive with a unique feature set. It’s the first NAS drive tested by CNET that supports Bluetooth devices and it’s also the first that doesn’t offer remote, over-the-Internet access. The Iomega StorCenter ix2 is about as compact as a NAS server can get with two internal hard drives; it’s barely larger than two 3.5-inch hard drives put together. Iomega backs the StorCenter ix2 with only a one-year warranty, which is very short for a storage device.
Paragon’s Hard Disk Manager features improved support for solving problems with Master Boot Record (MBR) and Boot Configuration Data errors and much better support for Vista. The idea of one program which performs all your hard drive, partition and file management tasks is an appealing one. Hard Disk Manager 2009 Suite does most of this on most systems, though it can’t split an existing partition, nor work with partitions on Windows Dynamic disks. There are plenty of things it can do, though, and overall it’s good value at the price, though niggling errors remain.
Patriot’s Warp V.2 stands out among solid-state hard drives due to being inexpensive. The only test on which it showed a benefit was the transfer speed benchmark. The Patriot delivers on its promise to access data quicker than the standard 5,400rpm Fujitsu drive, but still can’t quite keep up with the 7,200rpm Seagate Momentus, even though the difference is far from severe. In the battery drain test, the Patriot drive lasted the least amount of time, shutting off at the 86-minute mark.