AcomData Enigma 500 GB USB 2.0 Rugged Portable External Hard Drive BIO500UE
Oct 02, 2009 in
Computers & Software
- Acomdata BIO500UE 500GB Enigma USB 2.0 BioMetric Ultra Drive is a ruggedized mobile external HDD with fingerprint security and data encryption
- Hi-speed USB 2.0 Ruggedized yet sleek compact design Fingerprint biometric security with optional password login using SHA-256 password encryption
- Powerful AES 128-bit data encryption – encrypt all, none or part of the drive No software to install on your PC
- Water resistant enclosure Bus-powered – no power cord needed Three-year warranty Free tech support
Acomdata BIO500UE 500GB Enigma USB 2.0 BioMetric Ultra Drive Is a Ruggedized Mobile External HDD With Fingerprint Security and Data Encryption… More >>
AcomData Enigma 500 GB USB 2.0 Rugged Portable External Hard Drive BIO500UE
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3 comments
T. Miller on October 2, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I purchased a couple of these and returned them.
First, I will say that the concept and construction are well done. It is a little bit heavy, but it sits nicely on the desk with the rubber border and the fingerprint reader is in a nice position. So as far as the concept goes, it is a nice unit. This is the reason it gets two stars instead of one. The fingerprint recoginition software was also nice from a simple user interface standpoint.
However, I am very suspicious of the software. I had quite a few problems on both drives. I contacted Acomdata, and they were helpful. They provided a software application to reconfigure/reset the device. I had two drives, so my problems were not likely due to a luck of the draw bad drive. They both behaved the same way with my system.
You can use this drive with the entire drive encrypted, none of it encrypted, or half and half. I tried it all ways. If you use an encrypted partition, you can not hard set the drive letter, so it always comes up as the next drive letter available. This is problematic if you would like to use the drive as an encrypted backup drive. Your backup software needs to know the drive letter it will be. If it comes up as a different drive letter, then you need to change your backup software each time to use the different drive letter. If you use it in non-encrypted mode, you can fix the drive letter.
I tried my first backup. I would get through about 50,000 files and it would crash. It would say my system (pretty good system) is out of resources. I would immediately try again. This time I might get 5000 more files, then the same message. I tried again, and I would get about 1000 more files before it failed. The resources on my system were to the point that many of my other programs would fail to operate. I would eventually have to restart the machine, and one time I couldn’t even restart it. It is almost as if the software from the drive, that is being used when moving files to the drive, had some sort of memory/resource leak. I’m not a software expert, but that is what if felt like. This happened with both encrypted and non-encrypted partitions. I tried another computer (top of the line). The problem seemed better, but slightly different. It still didn’t finish correctly. Through part of this, I even had an error that corrupted part of the backup and I could not recover the data. Both computers had XP SP2.
So there you go, I had a lot of random trouble. Could be my computer, or the other computer, or the fact that I was unlucky enough to get two bad drives. The design is nice enough that it may be worth trying out, but it would be nice to hear some reviews from other people who have had better luck first. It just got to the point where I couldn’t trust that my data was being handled safely, so I had to return it. If you have had good luck with this drive, please post.
VisualSmith on October 2, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Drive seems good but it does require you to install software. The software is only Windows compatible and requires administrator login. If you really didn’t have to install software I would not have a problem with this product. I returned this product and purchased Buffalo Technology HD-PF320U2 320GB MiniStation Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive with TurboUSB (Black)
Chemboy on October 2, 2009 at 3:34 pm
This portable drive is well made. The rubber siding helps protect it from getting scratched; would it withstand a big drop? who knows?!?!? I didn’t have an issue with the software being for windows only. My only problem is that the software wouldn’t recognize my index finger consistently with the biometric scanner….sometimes it would, other times it would not. If it did scan my finger correctly the software would hang up. I contacted acomdata and they emailed me an update to the software. That did not help as I still encountered the same problem. I think the portable drive needs some fixes before it will be purchase worthy. I would not recommend at this time.