AXIOMTEK ExBoot 80GB External Storage
by Purav Sanghani on November 10, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Real World Tests – File System Performance
For our Real World File System Performance tests, we have taken the original tests and tailored them for external drives. More specifically, instead of just measuring the time that it takes to copy, zip, and unzip within the same drive, we measure the time that it takes to perform these tasks from a SATA drive to the external device.
File Copy Operations
The E5 has no competition just yet with its FireWire interface when copying files within the drive. And though the ExBoot shows lower file copy times to the drive, the others are not far behind. Two seconds make very little difference here, but the advantage is still given to the ExBoot here.
The file copy time for three hundred 1MB files are extremely close, which tells us that the USB interface is the major bottleneck, as we would expect it to be.
File Zip Operations
File UnZip Operations
For our Real World File System Performance tests, we have taken the original tests and tailored them for external drives. More specifically, instead of just measuring the time that it takes to copy, zip, and unzip within the same drive, we measure the time that it takes to perform these tasks from a SATA drive to the external device.
File Copy Operations
| File Copy – One 300MB File, seconds, lower is better | ||
| Within Drive | To Drive (From SATA) | |
| AcomData E5 320GB (USB) | 32.072 | 11.191 |
| AcomData E5 320GB (FireWire 400) | 20.573 | 11.334 |
| ExBoot 80GB USB | 30.495 | 9.828 |
| Seagate 120GB USB | 28.539 | 11.750 |
The E5 has no competition just yet with its FireWire interface when copying files within the drive. And though the ExBoot shows lower file copy times to the drive, the others are not far behind. Two seconds make very little difference here, but the advantage is still given to the ExBoot here.
| File Copy – Three Hundred 1MB Files, seconds, lower is better | ||
| Within Drive | To Drive (From SATA) | |
| AcomData E5 320GB (USB) | 13.298 | 13.219 |
| AcomData E5 320GB (FireWire 400) | 12.962 | 12.813 |
| ExBoot 80GB USB | 14.526 | 14.727 |
| Seagate 120GB USB | 13.516 | 13.711 |
The file copy time for three hundred 1MB files are extremely close, which tells us that the USB interface is the major bottleneck, as we would expect it to be.
File Zip Operations
| File Zip – One 300MB File, seconds, lower is better | ||
| Within Drive | To Drive (From SATA) | |
| AcomData E5 320GB (USB) | 69.195 | 70.734 |
| AcomData E5 320GB (FireWire 400) | 67.219 | 67.586 |
| ExBoot 80GB USB | 66.885 | 67.406 |
| Seagate 120GB USB | 67.688 | 67.443 |
| File Zip – Three Hundred 1MB Files, seconds, lower is better | ||
| Within Drive | To Drive (From SATA) | |
| AcomData E5 320GB (USB) | 71.775 | 71.621 |
| AcomData E5 320GB (FireWire 400) | 70.583 | 70.620 |
| ExBoot 80GB USB | 67.344 | 67.667 |
| Seagate 120GB USB | 68.906 | 70.805 |
File UnZip Operations
| File Unzip – One 300MB File, seconds, lower is better | ||
| Within Drive | To Drive (From SATA) | |
| AcomData E5 320GB (USB) | 15.761 | 15.699 |
| AcomData E5 320GB (FireWire 400) | 14.427 | 14.401 |
| ExBoot 80GB USB | 15.229 | 15.647 |
| Seagate 120GB USB | 15.476 | 15.485 |
| File Unzip – Three Hundred 1MB Files, seconds, lower is better | ||
| Within Drive | To Drive (From SATA) | |
| AcomData E5 320GB (USB) | 16.196 | 16.008 |
| AcomData E5 320GB (FireWire 400) | 14.901 | 14.995 |
| ExBoot 80GB USB | 16.021 | 16.679 |
| Seagate 120GB USB | 15.664 | 15.618 |
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ktchowkt - Tuesday, February 13, 2007 - link
I was able to backup my notebook's SATA hard disk without any problem but when it comes to restoration, it is a different ball game. As my notebook does not support boot up from USB, I used the Recovery CD from exboot to boot up. Unfortunately, the restoration cannot be done because the recovery software does not detect the hard disk in my notebook. Is it because the software cannot support SATA hard disk?LoneWolf15 - Thursday, November 10, 2005 - link
External USB/Firewire drives are commonplace these days. I can choose from a dozen manufacturers based on price, quality of construction (I prefer metal-cased drives and rubber antishock mounts for the HDD itself), etc., or I can even buy an enclosure and choose my own drive, which I've already done, since a USB 2.0/Firewire case was about $40 on sale a year ago, which lets me choose the performance I want by choosing a hard disk to fit my needsWhat makes or breaks a pre-made drive then, is the software and features like the pushbutton backup, which the company didn't even bother to include software support for (or so it sounds like from the wording of the review). Does the backup software offer data compression so I could perhaps fit 100-140GB of data on that 80GB drive? Didn't sound like it, but it wasn't made clear. How well did the backup software work? You didn't tell me how a backup/restore of a boot drive worked. And of course, it was mentioned that the user couldn't choose which files to back up. The ExBoot says on the side of the case "Backup and Instant Recovery". For any drive that bears that logo, a review ought to exhaustively test that claim.
I agree this is a less-than-average product. Most uber-geeks don't buy an external HDD for ultimate performance; for that, we'd get an internal SATA or PATA drive. Performance testing is good up to a point, but most enthusiasts buy an external disk for transfer between multiple computers, or for backup. If ExBoot wants to sell me a drive, I want all the features working, and your top quality software, no matter which capacity drive I choose. Otherwise I can buy a five-year warranty Seagate IDE disk (note: very few external HDD manufacturers offer more than a 1-year warranty) and put it in an enclosure of my choosing, and then purchase Symantec Ghost or even use Windows Backup for free.
g33k - Saturday, November 12, 2005 - link
Does this thing boot to windows externally? I don't think win xp can boot from an external hdd. When XP initially loads, all the USB devices reset. Therefore I don't think you can boot to windows with this?PuravSanghani - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - link
The system will actually boot off this USB device if a successful backup is made with the software. It is also one of the main features of the drive.Purav
TallCoolOne - Thursday, November 10, 2005 - link
This would be good for someone booting from a 74GB Raptor drive. As mentioned, the spartan software is not a problem if backing up an entire volume.ElFenix - Thursday, November 10, 2005 - link
i doubt you'd find many volumes to back up that were larger than that.Pete84 - Thursday, November 10, 2005 - link
I have a 120Gb external that I use for backups of DVD images and the like, and that is too small. 80Gb? wow