Product Reviews

If you want a portable Time Machine drive, have some extraordinarily large files to carry around, or just like the idea of having 320GB of spare storage in your laptop bag, this MiniStation should grab your attention.

It's the first external 320GB 2.5in hard drive to hit the market, although it was recently joined by a 320GB version of Western Digital's Passport drive.

The MiniStation is a USB 2 drive and has neither FireWire nor eSata connectors. This may make it less attractive to Mac users, but unless you really value the additional speed provided by FireWire, you shouldn't discount the MiniStation on that basis

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alone. USB 2 is fine for backing up and irregular transfer of reasonably-sized files, and Buffalo ships its TurboUSB driver with this drive. TurboUSB is supposed to significantly increase the data transfer speed to and from the drive, though in our tests we found it made very little difference.

The other software included with the drive is the much more useful Memeo Life Agent. This backup utility may be superfluous to Leopard users already smitten with Time Machine, but if you don't already have a preferred backup application it's well worth a look.

On paper, the MiniStation 320GB has much to commend it: a good software bundle, 320GB capacity, bus power and reasonably good looks. The plastic case is described as 'tough' and 'impact resistant' but feels like it would crack under very little pressure; the wraparound cable, while an interesting idea, doesn't work well in practice; and the USB plug feels like it might snap off if you kept it attached as you carry the drive around in a bag.

High capacity alone won't sell this drive for very long, and by the time you read this there will be a number of other 320GB portable drives on the market, some of which will be a better bet than this one.