There are many audio recordings of important and historical events stored at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.  However, many of these recording are becoming damaged and lost due to being stored on deteriorating formats and in conditions not suited for the fragile medium in which they are recorded.  As a result, the Library has announced the National Recording Preservation Plan, in an attempt to preserve these recordings for generations to come.

Among the plans, is a recommendation to create an archive of the recordings that will be accessible to everyone.  As the plan sits now, you will still have to take a trip to the Library of Congress to actually hear these recordings, but there are future plans to hopefully work out the necessary licensing agreements to allow the recordings to be streamed online for all.

In total, there are 32 recommendations in the plan, which also includes a university degree program for audio archiving, to prevent these problems from happening in the future.  It is very important that this work is finally being recognized as necessary because once these files are lost, they will never be recovered.

[ source ]

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how cool it is to have dependable storage for everything from contact lists to music files to photographs. In that post I think I also mentioned that a longer review was on its way. This is that longer review.

Once you get it out of its package, the Seagate FreeAgent Go is a dream. But Seagate is still using some of those crazy, form-fitting plastic packages that threaten to slice off your limbs if you slip while pulling them apart. It might look sleek on the shelves of the Apple Store or local Best Buy, but I’d rather Seagate start using a less hazardous type of packing.

Aside from the danger zone of unwrapping the drive, the rest of my experience with the drive was superb.

While many gadgets tout their ‘plug and play’ capabilities, Seagate’s drive delivers. In mere moments – really – I was moving files via USB from my Macbook to the 500GB drive.

In mere minutes I had changed the setting on SuperDuper to recognize the FreeAgent Go as my backup drive. And that was seamless as well.

In fact, in the months I’ve been putting the drive though the rigors of daily life – including regularly shuffling info on and off of my laptop to make room for podcasting, photos and client work – I have yet to have a snag.

Sure, drives are warranted against failure for years but the resolution to a drive failure is just a replacement drive from the manufacturer. It’s better to not have a drive fail in the first place and the Seagate looks to be up to the task.

Here’s where it’s been…

Eight plane flights including X-ray machines and banging around in my laptop bag
A car ride from Detroit to Austin, ending at South by Southwest (SXSW) with three other guys who relied on me to process audio files in a moving vehicle
Multiple scooter rides into Boston where I set up my remote office in various coffee shops
and making regular trips from a desk drawer to the countertop at my house for my twice weekly backups

Here’s what I’ve used it for…

Moved 65GB of music to and from the drive three times to keep space clear on my laptop
Copied audio files for iRoadTrip to the drive for sharing among the group during that car ride from Detroit to Austin
Used it to backup articles, interviews and sound and video files during SXSW and other conferences
Organized my iPhoto and regular photo library by moving 40GB to and fro
and as mentioned above, twice-weekly backups of my 235GB of data on my Macbook’s 250GB internal drive

What’s the next step?

For me, I think I’m going to see if I can get a Seagate 500GB to install into my laptop. I think I’m going to replace the other large externals I have around the office for these pocket-size dream devices. And I think I’m going to finally start using the dock that comes as a FreeAgent Go accessory.

That’s correct, in the five months I’ve been using the drive, the dock has sat in that same plastic packaging. Mostly because I work in lots of places and the dock is a great device if you have one work space where you can just drop your drive when you arrive and work.

But a friend I spoke to has the Seagate FreeAgent Go 320 with 400/800 Firewire and USB, and he uses the dock every day. It defaults to the highest speeed he said. And he loves that he can use the drive on the road and at his office.

The Bad…

• Silly packaging
• USB cord is fairly short so if you’re really using a laptop on your lap, you might need to balance the drive on your thigh

The Good

• Tiny size – really is about the size of your passport in width and about the thickness of a Tic-Tac box (for the USB version), the Firewire drives are a little thicker
• Grippy surface on the bottom of the drive keeps it from skipping off your desk
• Plug and play is the way all drives should behave
• Price – for the size and the capacity, you can’t get much better than $199 list and $149 actual for 500GB – including the dock

Bottom Line

Storage is a moving target. It will ALWAYS be cheaper tomorrow than it is today. But your memories and your data are always worth more than you can imagine, so spend the money now. The FreeAgent Go is a great solution for anyone who wants to keep their data safe and backed up. It’s small enough to fit in a safe deposit box if you so choose. It fits in your shirt pocket. It holds 500GB (comes in 250GB and 320GB and 640GB too). It also comes in USB 2.0 or Triple Firewire 800/400 and USB 2.0. I say get it, you won’t be disappointed.

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If you work with digital content – be they photos, music or even documents – you’re going to need a storage solution.

CDs and DVDs have a limited shelf life and are unwieldy if the data you’re storing is larger than 4GB. That’s where portable hard drives come in.

External drives, at least those that are portable, are typically between 160GB and 500GB (and increasing every day). They are often plug-and-play, so moving your data is as easy as plugging in a USB cord and dragging your data to the drive to back it up. And now they’re even coming in secure, standalone models.

Maxtor’s BlackArmor Always encrypted Government-grade Hard Drive – $169.99 MSRP for 320GB – $119.99 MSRP for 160GB. However these were marked down on Maxtor’s web site the day I wrote this article to $134.99 and $59.99 respectively.

The BlackArmor’s claim to fame is that it has government-grade AES encryption certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It also comes with the “Maxtor Manager” software suite and the “BlackArmor Manager” software suite. These software suites can be installed and used to automatically back up files, synchronize folders on multiple computers, update passwords, and test the drive.

Any time the drive is disconnected it automatically locks, and without a password, one cannot access any of the backed up files on the drive. But how does it work? Let’s go from box to backup…

In the box are the BlackArmor drive, a USB cable to connect it to your computer, a carrying pouch, and a Quick Start Guide. In less than a minute I had it hooked up to my desktop and the BlackArmor Manager Configure screen auto launched. The first steps are to enter the drive’s 25-character Security ID (SID) that is printed on the back of the drive, and then create a password. Once this is done, you can now click Unlock and unlock the drive. When this is done the autoplay window will open and the guide instructs you to select Install Maxtor Manager from this window. This is just a straight forward install with a EULA screen and then install. Took all of about 90 seconds and then a re-start is needed.

One nice thing I noticed right away about this drive is that it has two soft blue lights on the side. One is a large light that will only light up once the correct password has been entered. The other is a smaller light that comes on as soon as the drive is plugged in to your computer, but will blink and then go out when you use the “Safely Remove Hardware” tool to remove the drive.

My 320GB drive showed a capacity of 298GB. The drive comes loaded with the above mentioned software along with a PDF user’s guide. The guide is quite comprehensive and goes over all the features of the drive and goes very in depth on the functionality of the Maxtor Manager and BlackArmor Manager software. It tells you how to enter different modes, change passwords, change hint questions and answers, and all the different features of the automatic backup software. The manual is 126 pages, but a big reason it is so long is because of the extensive use of screen shots that make it much easier to learn how to use all the features of the software.

One major limitation to this drive is that the software only work on PCs and will not work on a Mac, so the testing done on this drive was performed by my friend Henry DuLaurence. I expect to leverage his PC farm for other devices that aren’t Mac friendly. But back to the test…

Moving files, deleting, copying and saving data was easy. I was able to read and copy the data on my PC and when locked down, the drive protected the files perfectly.

Unplugging/disconnecting the drive puts it back into locked mode, so whenever you’re done using it your files remain safe.

Things I like…

It is USB powered which means no clunky power adaptor to carry around.

The size and the feel of this drive are great. It feels heavy, solid, and well made in your hand. It fits into a pocket or laptop bag easily. The rubbery exterior ensures you won’t fumble it.

The password screen launches quickly when the drive is connected so you can enter your password and get to your files fast. I like the clean black and brushed aluminum design, and that your stuff is completely protected by passwords you choose. I like the ease of changing your password when needed.

Automated backup software included. Makes it easy to plug and play and start backing up in minutes and restore if and when needed.

Things I don’t like…

The BlackArmor drive will not run on a Mac. The BlackArmor will only work on a PC running Windows XP or Vista. It will not work with any other operating systems as an unlocking utility is required that only runs on these operating systems.

Initial setup and configuration is somewhat tedious, but needed in order to set the encryption key. But once it is done, you won’t need to do it again unless you forget your password and need to erase your drive to reset it. This could be a little intimidating for the basic consumer or the user who misplaces his manual.

Cords are way too short, which seems to be the norm for most of the portable drives I see. I understand that portable is important, but portable doesn’t mean minimal.

Only has USB support. All external drives should come with an ESATA port. Considering the amount of data that can be stored, you would think these companies would give you an option to move it quickly if you wanted, and if you haven’t tried an external drive connected with ESATA, which is must faster than FireWire, you would be amazed at how fast it is.

Finally, it gets dirty and smudgy WAY EASILY. The gloss surface holds fingerprints better than the FBI and the black case shows every speck of dust. In some photos you’ll almost be able to see my camera in the reflection. Sure, it looks striking and gorgeous in reflective black, but it gets dusty and dirty quick.

The verdict…

Unless you have a Mac, I think the Maxtor BlackArmor Drive makes the cut. It is priced similarly to other secure drives and the backup software is easy to use and very intuitive. Once it is configured it is easy to use on any PC. And if you shop around you can probably find a 320GB BlackArmor for around $90 which is a pretty good deal for someone who wants to securely transport their data.

Company URL: http://www.maxtor.com

(A good portion of this Cut-List piece was made possible with the help of Henry DuLaurence)

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