Sunday 4 October 2015

Toshiba 1TB Canvio Basics USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive

A surprise written review again, but this one is something i might need before I even get the Goose Fair vlogs sorted which is still 2 weeks away. But with the Tesco in Tavi, there was an offer on these hard drives, a big offer that even suppliers could offer me, Normal ones are around £42 but if you are looking for this 1TB HDD.Amazon do it for just about that with FREE delivery which is not too bad in all honesty.There is no Video review of this yet again due to me feeling a litter better than last time but the flue is still in me which is a annoyance and the weather changes too.



The Packaging. 

Now this is quite a modern and clear package that does follow the Red and white which Toshiba use quite alot. With the Red at the top of the box along with a white Toshiba logo as well as a big "1TB/To"and icons to describe the features it has, like USB 3.0 Support and USB power (not powered for some reason). But there is a bit of smallish print which might not stand out unless its in your hand type text which is ok and its a multi language version from the translations into french and german below the english text. Canvio Basics is the model which gives an impression that is might be a needed thing. The bottom of the box has the serial and EAN codes and some locations as well as the Toshiba Storage website. 

The back is full of text, which none of it is in english except the top bit with the speed of transfer of usb 3.0 and 2.0. There was some small print related to the testing conditions and examples of photos and videos may vary, of course it will since a legit blue-ray rip will be a different file size to what was downloaded from a filehoster re encoded in x264 etc. 

The sides of the box are different each side which is a good thing. The left has the Toshiba logo, Canvio Basics and he 7 and 8 WHQL logos and the right has the english info that was on the back in different languages. Also "no software to install" is a new feature since HDDs like Touro Mobile put some backup software on there. But the pics should explain more.

The bottom of the box. Hiding the S/N but showing mostly how a bottom of a box usually looks

The front of the box, with the main features and the hard drive showing, you can see Toshibas colour scheme here very well

The left side of the box which does show the WHQL logos as well as Toshiba and Canvio Basics

The back of the box with the many translations for the product, which for the recent times of immigration for some, this is a useful feature for products to appeal to many. 

Opening the box

Well this is easily open from the top after peeling or slicing a sticker off which then its enclosed in 2 plastic shells and then the paperwork is here too. Now there was more documents than usual and it seems like it was imported since there were 2 eastern european documents which confuzzed me a bit and the manual and warranty was in many many languages too. Then a short usb cable and the HDD was shown which was in a Matt black as well as mini blue led near the connector piece for the HDD which i thought was cool. The weight of the drive was actually quite light for a HDD too, but i have this feeling that it was not one that could be taken out of the case and connect via sata due to the thinness of it, maybe if anything happens out of the 2 YEAR (yes 2 years normal warranty, check the booklet) warranty, I can take a peek inside. 

There was a advert for a wireless accessory  which technically i can do using the TP link W8968 which if i ever move out i might use more often. But the manual for english was a short page of just refer to the maunal on the hard drive itself, (i can upload if people require) and capacity and safety instructions, it was the same with the other languages too. 

The HDD Micro USB 3.0 connector

The bottom of the HDD with the info

A look at the micro usb 3.0 cable.


Time to Test.

Now this was simple to plug in, sure its usb 3.0 but it can still work in 2.0 (black usb ports) but this was testing and usb 3.0 makes life easier and faster for me. I plugged it in and saw the manual appear as a PDF on the root of the Canvio drive which i didn't really need to read since its a Hard drive, its not that complex to copy and paste to a degree.

But I ran the Crystal Disk Info and Disk Mark on the drive to give it a test, this is used in various reviews so its fair that i should do that same, it was around 113mbit/s. Which really when i copied 63GBs of Steam content over it never reached that point at any of it, but it took a 20 minute wait with chores and catching up with mum before just as she got out of the bath it was finished. The drive did feel a bit warm but then again the sshd in my laptop get past 50C at some stages which is really worrying.

The name of the drive and the PDF on the root of it

A crystal Disk Info check

The stats for reading and writing to the disk

The nice blue LED

The start of it and the speed was quite good

OK it then got a bit faster

Then the speed when down halfway

But then peaked at the last 25%. 



Well it was useful and fast so backing up before having to do a reinstall on my laptop before goose fair and managing files is going to be easier with this one, it actually backed up all of profile except the videos folder within 2 hours which is fast. With this in mind:

omracer's Rating: 8/10

The Good Points: 

  • Very good value 
  • Nice slim design for a Basics drive
  • USB 3.0 is useful 
  • 1TB is a decent backup size
  • No Backup software to make it easy to start copying and pasting

The Bad Points:

  • The languages inside might put off people. 
  • The cable might not be long enough (this can be sorted by ordering a longer cable)
  • No backup software (for people who are unsure how to copy and paste)

Now this really should be the last review before the Goose Fair tat is to be judged and reviewed on video by myself , See you then

omracer