Ah, the pleasure of mobility. I used to carry around a handful of 3.5″ floppies in the 90’s. Weren’t those the days? Now I can transport much larger files and transfer them much faster using an external hard drive—or an internal one mounted in an enclosure.
Features
- Sleek and Slim design
- Portable, flexible and convenient for your storage needs
- Compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 standard
- Universal fitting for 2.5-inch HDD up to 120G
- Support for Plug and Play & Hot swappable
- LED light indicates working status
- USB powered device, no external power is required under low HDD power consumption
Specifications:
- Interface: 480Mbps USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 Compatible)
- HDD Type: 2.5 ” IDE Hard Disk Drive (NOT INCLUDED)
- Housing Material: Aluminum
- Safety requirements: FCC, CE, EMI, EMS
- Dimension: 127.5 (L) x 17.5(W) x 79(H) mm
The Shuttle enclosure from VIZO works well, but how long it will work is questionable. The Shuttle model is light, weighing a little over 3 ounces on its own. However, it does not come with some of the nicer features of other VIZO enclosures like one-touch backup or the ability to directly play media files. No, the Shuttle is essentially a large flash drive, for when you need to move files and you need to move them now.
It comes with a small screwdriver for the tiny screws and includes basic directions for installing a drive in the enclosure. They are not as detailed as they could be, and may not be enough if you have never done this sort of thing before. The main stumbling block for my inexperienced self was figuring out how to get electricity flowing.
The USB cable included has two USB ports at the computer end. No where in the directions does it indicated that one is for power and the other for data. Because I have never encountered this method before, I was bemused at the perceived redundancy. This proved especially confusing because the first computer I used it with was a Macintosh Dual G5. It worked fine with only one male end plugged in.
When I took the enclosed drive home from work, I tried it with my PC. Windows knew something was plugged into the USB bus but couldn’t tell what it was. Eventually a colleague filled me in on the secret of the dual cable. Plugging both in made all the difference: the status light blinked red and Windows was installing my new hardware like it was eager to unload some of its gigs.
Once I got the enclosure functioning it performed admirably, but I have concerns about its working life. First, some speed stats. I used an IBM Travelstar 10 gigabyte 4200 rpm laptop drive for my testing. It took 1 minute and 13 seconds to copy three files totaling one gigabyte to the drive over USB 2.0. To copy one gigabyte of MP3s took longer, as I expected: 1 minute and 50 seconds. The copying was smooth and I encountered no errors moving many files back and forth. Heat dissipated satisfactorily. I was happy.
However, after carrying around the enclosure for a couple days, something inside came loose enough and rattled when I tilted the drive. While lightweight, the case feels fragile, and it doesn’t provide much peace of mind when trusting your data to it. As long as you’re not playing catch with the Shuttle, it should be fine–I just know that accidents can happen. Also, after swapping out one drive for another the second day I used it, the glue holding the board to the faceplate came apart. Again, this does not inspire confidence in the components.
The VIZO Shuttle does its part in creating a portable storage solution. It installs quickly and works as simply and quickly as smaller capacity USB storage devices. However, what I’ve seen so far of its durability does not allow me to recommend this as anything more than a mover. If you need an enclosure that can take some jostling and keep ticking, the Shuttle may not be your best option.
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