BetaONE will rise again!


 
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #1  
Old 18th Jul 06, 01:50 PM
Alpine's Avatar
Alpine Alpine is offline
Retired Crew
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Run Forest, RUN!!
Posts: 3,601
Alpine is on a distinguished road
Send a message via ICQ to Alpine Send a message via AIM to Alpine
LaCie Safe 250GB biometric hard drive
World Exclusive Review You don't have to have filled you hard drive with scandalous shots of your holiday to the fleshpots of the Far East to want to keep your files safe from prying eyes. Depending on your operating system, you can use built-in tools or third-party apps to protect the information on your computer, but what about back-ups and live data on external media? What if some crafty Herbert makes off with that 120GB hard drive all your business plans are on?


LaCie's answer is simple: buy a biometric drive. The storage specialist has been offering a pair of mobile products with integrated fingerprint scanners for a while now. One of them even automatically encrypts the data stored on it. But today it has begun shipping a desktop version - minus the encryption feature, alas - for buyers who need the speed and capacity mobile drives can't yet offer.

Dubbed simply the Safe, the hard drive is available in a range of capacities up to 500GB. I tested the 250GB model.

Installation is straightforward: connect the drive to a spare USB port and run the bundled software. First time round, LaCie's Hard Drive Configuration code will ask you to create an administrator account and register two fingerprints for identification. With that done, you can add up to four further users: extra administrators, people who can read and write data to and from the drive, and others who can only read files. Administrators have the ability to add and remove users, but any user with write rights can reformat and/or repartition the drive. Every extra user has to register two fingerprint scans.


Each account is stored on the drive itself, allowing you to carry the unit to another machine and, after installing the configuration software, access the Safe's contents. All it lacks is a read-only partition to save you having to carry the CD around. I hooked the drive up to my MacBook Pro first then established three user accounts, one of each type. You can eject the drive in the usual way. Alternatively, tapping the fingerprint sensor locks the drive after a five-second cooling off period - a dialogue box pops up with a Cancel button - and automatically unmounts the drive.


Reconnecting the drive or touching the sensor pops up a second dialogue that first prompts you to swipe your fingerprint then takes you either to the user configuration window or just unlocks the drive for use. If you choose the former, you'll have to re-scan your fingerprint to unlock the drive afterwards - the drive doesn't mount while you're modifying or viewing the configuration information.

1 / 2
Reply With Quote
 


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Xbox 360 games are cunning hard drive money spinners Alpine BetaONE News 0 22nd Aug 05 11:47 PM
MS to developers: don't count on a hard drive for the 360 Alpine BetaONE News 0 15th Aug 05 04:41 PM
Hard drive gets all flashy NewsBot NeoWin News 0 26th Apr 05 11:30 AM
Neowin Review: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB Hard Drive NewsBot NeoWin News 0 28th Mar 05 05:30 PM
Seagate ships 400GB hard disk drive NewsBot ieXbeta News 0 17th Nov 04 09:30 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:54 PM.


Design by Vjacheslav Trushkin for phpBBStyles.com.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.5
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.