DataTale creates a portable drive enclosure with optional RAID schemes for the traveling power user
Portable drives have been around for a while now, but it’s rare to find a portable drive that offers all the options of the new DataTale Pair 2-HDD RAID System. Add two 2-1/2” internal drives to the unit, pick your interface from one of three and pick your RAID selection from one of four. This unit shows great promise for traveling photographers and videographers.
This attractive and sturdy portable drive enclosure measures in at 6”x6”x1” and holds two internal 2-1/2” SATA drives. Installing them into the enclosure takes less than five minutes. Depending on your interface, you may or may not need the power brick that comes with the unit.
You have your choice of hooking up to the drive with either:
USB2.0
eSATA
1394b (Firewire 800)
When it comes to configuring the unit, again you have choices – this time there are four ways to configure the DataTale. Raid Master software enables you to make or change your selection from one of the following:
Raid 0
Raid 1
Span (two drives showing up as one drive letter)
JBOD (just a bunch of disks) (two drives show up as two drive letters)
Using the unit with all those options means each time you leave home, you could conceivably change the type raid to suit your project. Granted, all data would need to be removed, but consider the following; if you are taking a long trip and you want redundant backups of all your digital photos, having a Raid 1 system means you would have two copies of each file in addition to your original flash card. On another trip you might need the flexibility of video editing, so you might want to set up Raid 0 for maximum speed transferring the files to or from your editor.
The unit comes with a black storage bag to carry the unit and your associated hookup cables. Before that next big project, you might want to consider packing this along. Check it out at the Datawatch Technologies website.
Doug Bardwell, based in Cleveland, OH, writes about interesting new travel technology topics, across the country and around the world. Feel free to drop him a line at travel.dougbardwell@gmail.com with suggestions for future products to be reviewed. If you've ever used one of the products he's reviewed, please leave your thoughts in the comment box below. To get his stories delivered to your inbox, click the RSS feed or the "Subscribe" button above or follow him on Twitter @photodb.. To read Doug’s disclosure notice, click here.
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