Toshiba has been a long-time leader in hard drive storage, but they aren’t a huge name in portable hard drives aimed at consumers. Now the company is looking to change that with its new Canvio line of pocket-sized hard drives that run from power off a USB 2.0 port and offer capacities up to 1 TB. And if you think you don’t need a drive, Toshiba wants to strike a little fear into you to spur a purchase, citing a survey they commissioned from Impulse Research that found nearly half of Americans are worried about computer crashes and losing data. The message: back up your data! To Toshiba drives!
“As the survey shows, home computers hold very personal and valuable assets, and yet the majority of people aren’t doing enough to help protect that precious data,” said Toshiba Storage Device Division product manager Manuel Camarena, in a statement. “For consumers who know backup is important and want an easy path to peace of mind, the Canvio is a no-brainer. It simply acts like an insurance policy against the loss of crucial data and precious digital memories.”
The Canvio drives—available from ToshibaDirect in 750 GB and 1 TB capacities—sport 5,400 rpm rotational speeds, 12 ms seek times, and USB 2.0 connectivity with theoretical transfer rates up to 480Mb/s. There’s no separate power adapter to cart around—the drives spin off power from the USB 2.0 port—and feature an internal shock sensor and ramp loading technology to help protect data from bumps and shocks. The drives are formatted for use with Windows XP/Vista/7 and ship with Windows-based NTI BackupNow EZ backup software for users who don’t already have a backup solution. The drives can be reformatted for use on Macs, but Toshiba isn’t saying whether they work with the Time Machine backup software built into Mac OS X 10.5 and newer.
The new Canvio drives are available now, with the 750 GB model carrying a suggested price of $159.99, and the 1 TB version going for $199.99.
