Buffalo Technology MiniStation DataVault Portable 320GB Hard Drive USB 2.0 with Full Disk Encryption HDS-PH320U2(Black)

by Buffalo Technology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 5.2 x 3.3 inches ; 9.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001BDWOOU
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: HDS-PH320U2
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 22, 2003

Product Description

320GB FULL DISK ENCRYPTION USB

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet little drive, February 10, 2009

By 

Kaleberg "one_kaleberg" (Port Angeles, WA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Buffalo Technology MiniStation DataVault Portable 320GB Hard Drive USB 2.0 with Full Disk Encryption HDS-PH320U2(Black) (Personal Computers)

This is a sweet little USB powered, data encrypted 320GB hard drive. I have no idea of how long it is going to last, but so far I have been impressed. It works nicely with my MacBook Pro. I plugged in the drive, opened up the virtual CD that appeared on my desktop, and installed the secure driver software. I set up a password, and now I have a Time Machine backup for my computer in a small package, and with no fussing about with a power cable. The USB cable even wraps around the drive for storage. Even better, the drive is encrypted, so that is one less thing I have to worry about. This seems to be a great backup solution.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Disappointed - Hassle to work with., July 3, 2009

By 

Jesse Baynard (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Buffalo Technology MiniStation DataVault Portable 160GB Hard Drive with Full Disk Encryption HDS-PH160U2 (Black) (Personal Computers)

When you plug this drive in, it appears as a CD. If you are using XP or later (which is everyone), you have to figure out what to click on (the documentation is online or on the drive, but not in the box). If you click on the obvious looking "menu" program you will get a lot of utilities that you don't need and won't open the drive up. If you get lucky enough to click "login.exe" and read the fine print that was included in the box to know the default password is 12345... then you can use the drive! Until you reboot, logoff, replugin the drive, or any other number of reasons. Then it's back to the beginning... My Computer... Some CD drive... login... 12345... and presto. So easy... right? Um, no.

If you want to have this as a full time drive it sure isn't easy. You can't remove this feature (or even have a password less that 4 characters) on a PC (for some reason you can on a Mac) either. You have to live with it... Or return it like I did.

Okay... so there is the business case where you want you data hardware encrypted in case you lose it... But surely there's a better way than this convoluted process (like remember this PC... since you already authenticated onto it), or at least an option for no encryption.

4.0 out of 5 stars Simple, small, and does the job., May 20, 2010

By 

Tariq Ahmed "DopeJam.com | CFlex.net | FlexIn... (Tracy, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buffalo Technology MiniStation DataVault Portable 320GB Hard Drive USB 2.0 with Full Disk Encryption HDS-PH320U2(Black) (Personal Computers)

I'm currently using this to back up my work PC, which is a 6 year old computer running Windows 7 64 bit.

When you initially plug it in for the first time, what you'll see is a CD drive called Utility. On it is documentation and stuff, but in particular a Password.exe and a Menu.exe. Password is the one that let's you set the password to unlock the device, you'll want to set it to something that isn't the default.

Once you set the password, the drive then shows up as another drive letter and you use it like any other USB drive, and what's nice is that it's automatically encrypting all the data.

So I agree with other reviewers, that the first 10 minutes of getting the password steps sorted out isn't very intuitive. But once you're past that, it is smooth sailing after that. The device is very light and quiet, and the USB cord conveniently wraps around and snaps into place when you want to transport it.

Haven't had any problems since (been using it for about 8 months now) - and I use the Windows Scheduler to synchronize a bunch of folders and files once a day to it (via DOS batch file with a bunch of robocopy commands).

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