So let’s get down to details. First of all this enclosure is completely made out of plastic which probably helped keep the costs down during production. So, if you expect to be carrying this enclosure all over the place or exposing it to a rough and tumble area, you might want to look for an enclosure made out of aluminium. If you plan on keeping the enclosure right by your computer, then it doesn’t really matter. The Ultra Mini comes with the plastic shell, driver disk, a power adapter, a USB cable and a firewire cable. The hard drive is NOT included as is the case with most enclosures. This is not a big deal considering the fact that:
A) Hard drives are getting cheaper all the time.
B) This gives you the option to buy the brand of your choice. No need to rely on what the
manufacturer decides to put in.
C) You can buy the size you want for your backup needs.
Installation on the other hand is a bit of a frightening experience. Once you have your hard drive and the enclosure, you obviously need to put the two together. It seems simple enough. Take out the screws holding the unit together, put the hard drive inside, plug the ribbon into the hard drive and screw it back together. How hard can it be? It can be a lot harder than you would think. First of all, the instructions are not very clear on how you are supposed to go about separating the enclosure once you have gotten all the screws out. We tried gently pulling the sides apart...no good. So, we checked to make sure we had not missed any screws or hidden latches that separate the side. Nothing. So, we pulled harder....Corners would let go but not the sides. Remember, this unit is made out of plastic so we wanted to be careful.
At this point we started to get frustrated. Screwdrivers came out to try and pry the sides apart. Still nothing. For a device that is supposed to help relieve stress by providing convenient back-up storage, this device was really starting to get on our nerves. In the end (and with a lot of prying and pulling) the unit separated with a resounding CRACK! Sure we had broken the clips we checked the enclosure carefully. No damage. All this to say don’t be afraid to put a little muscle into opening this thing. It will make a scary noise when it separates but at least in our case it came out of the ordeal just fine.
After all that the rest was reasonably easy. I would suggest plugging the ribbon into the back of your hard drive BEFORE you mount it in the enclosure though. Space is at a premium in there (another reason the small fan is a real perk). Once the hard drive is securely in place you just close the enclosure back up and put the screws back in. In our case the reassembly was much simpler that the disassembly but for some reason (be it a case of the ribbon being a little out of place or any other number of small bugs) the enclosure would not seal properly when we put it back together. There was (and still is) a small gap at the seam in the back of the unit. This does not affect the performance of the unit in any way and to be quite honest, after the fight we had to get the unit apart, we were not going to test our luck a second time by reopening it!
So, now we had a fully setup hard drive enclosure all ready to go. Connecting it to the computer was the easiest part of the whole ordeal. Simply plug the power adapter into the enclosure and into an electrical outlet, plug the USB adapter into the unit and into a free USB port and turn the enclosure on. Your computer should recognize the enclosure as a separate drive which means that anything you need to back up is as simple as drag and drop.
We have been using the Ultra Mini for approximately a month now with absolutely no ill effects. The fact that you can turn the enclosure on only when you want to back things up helps keep temperatures down and the drag and drop method of backing up files has worked flawlessly. The lights in the front tell you when the power is on and there is hard drive activity and everything is nice and safe. As you can see, we have been using the Ultra Mini as a back up system. I’m sure you could use it as a portable hard drive to bring large files from point A to point B but honestly, l’d be a bit nervous doing that on a regular basis due to the plastic shell. While this device has been bumped and hit on a semi-regular basis due to traffic around our desks with no ill-effects, we have not thrown the unit into a bag and moved it around that much. It might survive but somehow l doubt it.
Overall, this is a nice budget priced enclosure. It looks much nicer than many other enclosures we have seen and it performs well. Installation was a bit of a hassle but once everything was put together, this device functioned just like it promised.
Pros:
• Not Expensive
• On/Off switch
• Lights to show power and hard drive activity
• Looks nice
• Accepts any standard 3.5 hard drive
Cons:
• Made of plastic
• Difficult to assemble
• Instructions are not very clear.
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