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A High-performance Drive

The A-DATA PD7 4GB USB drive landed up in our test labs; we expected it to perform well, based on our experience with the last A-DATA USB drive we tested (a 512 MB).

The drive is pretty compact; it has a brushed metal look to it. It is made of plastic, but is still pretty solid. LEDs are placed towards the rear that shows any drive activity. The LED region has a small bridge where you can attach a strap. We're not sure if it's strong enough though. The cap has some smooth sliding mechanism but it seems pretty loose and looks like it'll fall off after some use.

Performance: it's good! It impressed us throughout all the tests we ran on it. Read speeds for 50 MB of data - a single file or separate files - hovered around the lovely 2-second mark. Write speeds for files of the same size were a fraction more.

We then copied the maximum amount of data that we could on the drive, which is 3.86 GB. A single file took 3:19 minutes to write; reading took 2:07 minutes. Writing assorted files of 3.86GB took around 5:01minutes and reading the same size took 2:20minutes.
In HD Tach, the average data read speed was recorded at 32.2MB/s and the average write speeds at 21.8MB/s . Random access times were a miniscule 0.8ms which was similar some of the best USB drives we've seen. HD Tach also reported the CPU Utilization was 0%.

The drive happens to have security features built into it, but only after you install their software - which isn't provided with the drive. You can download it for free, though, from A-DATA's site. The program lets you create a partition that can be accessed by using the software and a password.

The package mentioned a USB extension cable, but we found none. The software and the manual could have been provided along with the drive. There's a label that says it's enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost, which suggests it would go well with Vista - and it has the good performance to defend that. At $70, it is a bit costlier than most drives in its range, but definitely worth the money - if you value speed.

RATINGS
Performance  : 4.5
Features : 3.5
Build Quality : 3.5
Value for Money : 4
Overall : 4

Specifications
Size: 66 x 19 x 10 mm; weight: 15 gm; USB 2.0 and 1.1 compliant

Contact : Ingram Micro India (P) Ltd
Phone : 022-67960101
E-mail : NA
Web site : www.adata.com.tw
Price : $70 (Rs 3,200)