USB2.0/eSATA 1.5TB Disk Drive
If you need masses of data storage, you need look not further than the Stardom SR3610, a tiny 2 bay external hard disk unit packing 1.5TB of disk storage. With its tiny footprint, it sits comfortably next to you PC, Mac or laptop, the SR3610 offers a variety of options to store and backup your vital data.
Secure your data, or go for speed
1. Using the RAID 0 feature, you can ‘stripe’ your data across two disks. This allows for very fast performance, as data is written to two disks at the same time. Suitable for video editing, data backup, and instances where performance is critical.
2. Using the RAID 1 feature, you can mirror (duplicate) your data from one disk onto the other. This is perfect for critical data storage; if one disk fails, you simply remove it, insert a new one, and the data will be copied from the existing disk. Data duplication is instant. If you cannot afford to loose your data, this is an excellent option.
3. Scheduled backup: an interesting feature. It allows you to set up a backup (from the console on the SR3610 unit) copying data from one disk to the other. The advantage of a scheduled backup over a disk duplication system like RAID 1 is that if you get a virus on your computer or the backup disk, you can restore data from the backup disk, without it being infected. Or, you may have an instance where you have overwritten the data on the primary disk, so you can simply restore files from the backup disk. In some cases this may be advantageous, over an automatic disk mirror.
Capacity decisions
The capacity of the SR3610 will be determined by how the unit is set up. Simply, using RAID 0, you get the combined capacity of both drives (for example 2 x 500GB drives will give 1TB of data). Using RAID 1 or the Backup Option you will get the single drive capacity (500GB), but your data is safer than with RAID 0.
The internal hard drives are high speed SATA disks, providing very fast performance. Connecting to your computer is via USB2.0 or SATA.
The SR3610 has an alarm (via Raid Management software, Windows 2000, XP and NT) in case of hard drive, fan or system failure.
Finally, some useful extras
The caddy used in the SR3610 can also be used in the iTank, a single hard drive with a removable bay. This may be useful if, for example, you need to take a disk home with you to work on. The SR3610 would need to be set up in the Backup option. You could take the ‘primary’ disk out of the unit, use it in the iTank, and take it back to the SR3610. You could then run the backup, to protect your new data. Neat hey?