SimpleTech Simple ToughDrive USB Portable Drive

The SimpleTech SimpleTOUGH USB Portable Drive is a USB 2.0 external hard drive that comes in four capacities, 250GB, 320GB, 500GB and 640GB. The external casing is made from waterproof rubber and is drop resistant to about 9 feet and, as the company claims it will survive the weight of a one-ton truck. (Don't try it at home with a file you care about. The internal TravelStar drive is also shock resistant mounted. Another great feature is a built-in retractable USB cable also made from the same rubber material as the case. From a functional standpoint, it comes with the same features as the SimpleDrive Mini which was introduced in early 2009 along with this one, shortly after Hitachi acquired SimpleTech.

Backup software included called Hitachi Local Backup can be configured in several different ways to perform backup jobs in the background. For example you can designate certain file types for backup or down to the folder level. Hitachi also offers an online backup server with a free 2GB account with the option to upgrade to an unlimited storage account for about 5 dollars a month. This runs in sync with the included Hitachi Ultimate Backup software which can be set to run automatically in the background as well. The SimpleTech drives come preformatted for Windows XP and Vista systems and would require a reformat before being used with Macintosh computers.