Use

Once plugged in, the aforementioned blue activity LED appears, usually hidden below the black plastic shell. It blinks whenever the drive is being accessed.

Transcend Elite Software

You will find the Transcend Elite software on the hard drive itself. It is a simple but effective application that allows you to backup, restore, encrypt, and sync bookmarked information as long as it includes the use of the hard drive itself. The program checks for the presence of the drive and will not start if the unit is not connected to the host system.


Except for the button, both the Backup and Restore areas of Transcend Elite look identical. You can backup files and folders in the Backup area and retrieve such archives in the Restore area. You can also set the OTB (one-touch backup) folder to save everything as specified by your settings when the physical backup button is pressed. Last but not least, there is the Backup Task Manager: It gives you a basic overview of each backup and allows you to delete those you do not want on your drive.


The Encryption windows hold both the en- and decryption functionality. You may pick a file or folder to encrypt. A status bar will keep you in the loop on the duration of each operation.



The Bookmark Sync functionality is quite simple. On a Mac, it selects Safari as the browser of choice to backup/restore such information. It would be really nice to see broader browser support as a number of people out there use alternative ones.

Performance

USB 3.0

When taking a look at ATTO, the StoreJet does extremely well, pushing past 110 MB/s in both read and write performance. Overall, however, the drive's performance declines slightly faster from the inner to outer areas of the platters. While it starts at an excellent 120 MB/s read on the inside, it drops to 40 MB/s on the outer edge, which could be an issue with 1TB 2.5" drives using more platters with lower densities than a 750GB drive, for example.

USB 2.0

Taking a quick look at USB 2.0 performance, the drive's read speed performance is just as quick as expected. Write performance, however, seems lacking, with room to spare. Other drives manage to saturate the USB 2.0 interface here.