October 12, 2015 Odnokrylov Vladimir 8
Our next review is dedicated to the Zalman ZM-VE350 external hard drive case. The box is designed for 2.5-inch SATA drives and supports high-speed USB 3.0 interface. The device is equipped with a virtual optical drive function, allowing you to connect ISO images on the fly. The write protection feature helps prevent damage to important files.
Arrived to us for testing external box for hard drives Zalman ZM-VE350 Supplied in a black cardboard box.
Packaging Zalman ZM-VE350Package Included:
The complete cable is 50 cm long including connectors.
USB 3.0 cableThe case is very dense, it is easy to remove the device from it. You can, of course, use the box directly in the case, but we do not recommend doing this, otherwise the inserted drive may overheat.
Zalman ZM-VE350 in caseWe have summarized the technical characteristics of the device in a single table.
| HDD interface | SATA, 2.5" form factor |
| Device interface | USB 3.0 (backwards compatible with USB 2.0) |
| Device interface baud rate | USB 2.0: up to 480 Mbps; USB 3.0: up to 5 Gbps |
| Working with ISO Images | Virtual optical drive |
| Indicator | Lights up when power is turned on, blinks when data is being exchanged |
| Nutrition | USB powered |
| Dimensions | 131x79x13mm (L x W x H) |
| Weight | 96 g (without drive) |
Frame Zalman ZM-VE350 for the most part made of painted aluminum with soft polymer inserts on the sides. On the front side there is an LCD display and an LED activity indicator.
External box for hard drive Zalman ZM-VE350At the top there is a Backup button and a USB 3.0 connector (Micro-B type, which also supplies power to the HDD) for connecting the bundled cable.
Upper end of Zalman ZM-VE350Glued on the opposite side Technical information about the model.
Bottom end on Zalman ZM-VE350On the left side there is a push lever for navigating the device menu, and the rest of the space is occupied by a soft insert.
Left sidewall Zalman ZM-VE350On the right side, except for the second such insert, there is nothing important.
Right sidewall Zalman ZM-VE350The build quality is decent - the buttons and body elements do not hang out. In general, the design gives the impression of a monolithic.
To install a drive into the box, you will first have to remove the module with the LCD screen, which contains, in fact, the entire stuffing of the device.
Base unit Zalman ZM-VE350For testing, we took solid state drive and connected it to the internal SATA port.
SSD connected to Zalman ZM-VE350 boardFor reliability, it is worth clamping the module with complete screws - the holes for them are hidden under the bent edges of the soft inserts.
Screw holes on Zalman ZM-VE350To do this, we used a complete screwdriver - fortunately, the effort required is small, so the miniature size of the screwdriver is not a hindrance. It is worth noting that the screws in the kit are twice as many as needed - four against the required two.
Zalman ZM-VE350 base unit is clamped with screwsAfter connecting to a PC, the display of our device turned blue and gave out a simple menu.
Display Zalman ZM-VE350At the same time, the operating system recognized two devices at once: the USB drive itself and the additional optical drive are completely virtual, which is indicated in its name.
Zalman ZM-VE350 in task managerThis is precisely the main "trick" of this case - you can mount any ISO images by placing them in the folder "_ISO" on the disc inserted in the case. For example, the Windows 7 image downloaded from MSDN was read without problems.
Windows Image 7 in Zalman ZM-VE350 virtual driveHowever, our copy was originally with erroneous firmware, and for the virtual drive function to work correctly, we had to update the device software to a more up-to-date version. We attach the archive with the firmware and the update instructions below. REMEMBER: This operation is carried out at your own peril and risk, and if you are not exactly sure what you are doing, it is better to contact technical support or a service center.
However, the drive function can be completely disabled - for this, you just need to select the appropriate mode, of which there are as many as three:
Another great feature Zalman ZM-VE350- Possibility to set write protection. This allows you to work even in a potentially or actually virus-infected system without the danger of catching an infection. All you have to do is select "Enable WP" from the menu. The lock icon closes on the start screen - and that's it, no problem.
Setting write protection in Zalman ZM-VE350Additionally, in the "Information" section, you can see the temperature of the media (we must say right away that for SSD it is determined incorrectly, do not be afraid), the state of S.M.A.R.T., serial number and controller firmware version.
Drive information in Zalman ZM-VE350Now let's check the performance when using USB interface. 3.0. IN HD Tune 5 the speed graph has an average read speed of 161.9 MB/s with a random access time of 0.169 ms. CPU usage was 9.8%.
Total contraction of the optical storage market under pressure external hard drives and flash drives due to quite objective reasons, but it also leads to some unpleasant side effects. In particular, the software is still actively sold on CD and DVD, so installing it on computers without drives is not always a trivial task. Of course, installation packages can often be simply copied to the same VZhD, but fiddling with a huge number of small files is simply inconvenient. the best way The solution to the problem is the use of images, since each disk turns into one file, and you can put a lot of them on one small drive. However, a convenient solution to the problem of later use is needed. When translating from stationery into Russian, a computer will require installed program to work with recorded images. But what if this is a "foreign" computer, where it is not? Or, even worse, there is no system at all that just needs to be installed? Microsoft, of course, offers a utility to transfer Windows 7 from disk to a flash drive (or other USB drive), but this operating system The range on the market is not limited. And there are also all sorts of special disks for diagnosing or restoring the system, and just a LiveCD for getting to know various operating systems, etc. In general, when all this was recorded on a CD, it was easier - put the disk into the drive, and that's it. If necessary, just boot from it. Moreover, from any already prepared disk, since all products do not depend on each other and you do not need to prepare a bootable flash drive every time (not to mention the fact that not all software correctly transfers migration from CD to USB drive).
Whether there is a convenient way solve all these problems? Now it is. It is even strange that he appeared so late, although the problem has become relevant for a long time. And it is doubly strange that not one of the old market participants took up the solution of the questions raised external drives, and the company Zalman, better known for its coolers and other related products (although in fact the original developer here is generally different, as often happens, but he is generally unknown to the general public). Now here's a breakthrough to a completely different market. Moreover, solving the problem using ISO images on any system is one of the main features of the ZM-VE200, but not its only advantage. Which makes you want to get to know the product better.
Even externally, the device is slightly different from most "typical" external modules, although it has the same design. The case, measuring 135.3 x 78.6 x 13.1 mm and weighing 98.5 grams, is mostly made of anodized aluminum and can be black or silver. Good, but not exclusive :)
But a small monochrome LCD display in the upper part of the front surface is an unusual element. But it is very useful, although its main task is just to select a “working” image (which is done using the jog-dial on the left side of the box), which will be mounted on a virtual optical drive. However, in addition to this, the screen allows you to get information about installed drive, its temperature (how many paranoid people lack this in "regular" boxes!), mode of operation, firmware version (it can be updated), etc.
All other active elements are traditionally concentrated on one of the short ends and include eSATA and USB mini-B connectors, as well as a write lock slider. An archival thing for a person involved in computer maintenance (and just often walking in suspicious places) - you can not worry about picking up and taking some kind of infection with you. In general, the last one plus support for two interfaces and, to a lesser extent, built-in diagnostic tools is already enough to make the product interesting for purchase. And we haven't gotten to that yet. main feature! For now, we only note that if support for ISO images and an eSATA interface are not required, you can save a lot by purchasing the ZM-HE100 model: it is also equipped with write protection.
In the box with the device, in addition to the device itself, you can also find a pair of interface cables (USB and eSATA), each 50 cm long, a couple of bolts for securely fixing the assembled drive, a miniature screwdriver for tightening/unscrewing them, and a protective leatherette case. The design of the latter allows the use of the hard drive without removing it from the case, although if long-term continuous work is planned, it is still worth taking it out of harm's way - it will be better to cool. And one more element of the kit - a transparent film, about the size of a hard drive - confuses, as it turned out, very many buyers who cannot find a scope for it, and this issue has not been worked out in the manual :) In fact, we have an example touching care of Zalman designers about the little things - it should be placed under the hard drive and placed. The rationale is simple: the box itself is made of aluminum, i.e. it conducts electric current, and on the “belly” of the hard drive there is an open printed circuit board, so theoretically something can fail to close, and it will fail.
And finally, we got to the most "delicious". A fly in the ointment, however, is that in the "high-speed" mode (that is, when connected to a computer using eSATA), the device does not have any functionality additional to simple copying and storing data. The display simply shows "eSATA Mode", and that's it. Even, by the way, the ability to find out the current temperature of the disk disappears.
So in order to fully enjoy the "features", you should connect the box to your computer when USB help. And it should also have a folder named “_ISO”, which should contain ISO images in an amount not exceeding 32 pieces (by the way, when using firmware earlier than 61F from April 29, you also need to use a file file on the disk NTFS systems- FAT32 and exFAT were added only in it).
If all this is observed, we get the opportunity to select one of three modes of operation, and the current one is shown on the display: HDD Mode for the VE-200 system, it looks like a USB CD / DVD / BD-ROM, in which one of the “discs” recorded in the folder is installed. Which particular ISO image will be mounted can be manually selected using the wheel on the left side, controlling the process by changing the file names on the display. Unfortunately, in addition to the above, they will have to be called short names and not use Cyrillic characters: long ones are cut off, and non-Latin characters are displayed as spaces. However, it is difficult to consider this as such a serious limitation. For particularly inquisitive tuning lovers, we will briefly hint that the problem of Russification, as well as expanding the list of supported types of disk images (in fairness, with any exotic), can be solved using firmware, but at your own peril and risk ... Yes, and flash it instead of "native" follows in a not too trivial way (and here's how - look on the Web yourself;)). Dual Mode Compilation of the two modes described above: an external module connected to the computer generates two devices - both VZhD and optics. Accordingly, we get access to all stored files (and, as mentioned above, it can be limited to reading only, which is very useful when working on someone else's potentially unsafe computer), as well as the ability to work with ISO images.
The latter is possible in two modes. The first and the simplest, namely mounting images while the operating system is loaded, always works great and does not cause problems. Thus, you can throw out all CDs and DVDs with distributions stored at home, having previously “rolled” them into images. The limitation on 32 files will not interfere much with this - after all, images can be stored in different folders(like "ISO_office_program", "ISO_linux", "ISO_windows_system", "ISO_games", etc.) by simply renaming the one you need to "_ISO" before using it. A more serious limitation, perhaps, is that this format is not very suitable (or not suitable at all) for storing some copy-protected toys. But here there are no complaints against Zalman - the company did not plan to encourage piracy. Yes, and such disks do not belong to the system, so it is quite possible to work with them in the old fashioned way - with the help of software virtual CDs.
For system disks (from different Linux distributions to all sorts of "resuscitators"), another usage scenario is most relevant, namely booting from a virtual CD drive! Here with her, to be honest, not everything is going smoothly. As practice has shown, such virtual drives are not supported by a considerable number of motherboards Intel (more precisely, the BIOS versions used by the company), and not only sold separately, but also found in laptops. This problem concerns not only the ZM-VE200 - we also encountered it, for example, when testing the Silicon Power Ultima 155, where the controller is clearly different. So the culprit should be sought among the programmers who worked on the load module (the problem only manifests itself at this stage), but this, of course, does not make it easier. However, most of the tested computers do not have such problems - booting from a virtual drive is exactly the same as from a regular one: you just need to select it in the BIOS or (which is available on most modern motherboards) use a special boot menu. Accordingly, you can install any operating system - not necessarily originally designed for such a use case (which is true for Windows 7) and without any traditional dances with a tambourine and fuss with third party programs(which are needed for a similar installation of Windows XP). At the same time, unlike flash drives, some of which support allocation of part disk space under a virtual CD, it is not necessary to be limited to just one system - there can be several “bootable” disks. You just need to choose the one you want - and it will be a special LiveCD for "repairing" the system or a bootable Windows disk 95, the drive (and the computer) doesn't care :)
The question arises - did not all this developed functionality affect how the VZhD received after installing the hard drive will cope with traditional tasks, such as storing and transferring information? That is why we subjected it to traditional testing. The technique is described in detail in a separate article. There you can get acquainted with the configuration of the test bench, and with the used software. The only change is that instead of the Seagate Momentus 5400.5 ST9320320AS hard drive traditionally used in tests, which is already too small and slow from the point of view of modernity, we decided to take the top model Seagate: Momentus XT ST95005620AS. It is clear that for external hard disk drive, this drive with a platter rotation speed of 7200 rpm and an additional flash buffer is redundant (especially since it costs somewhere twice as much as a “regular powder” of the same capacity, and you can buy 750 GB in the traditional version cheaper), but in this case you can be exactly sure that it will not become a bottleneck. Yes, and we will compare the subject with fast two-interface models.
As the latter, we took the recently tested Verbatim Store'n'Go (with Samsung HM500JI 500 GB inside) and Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex (inside Momentus 5400.6 ST9500325AS 500 GB) with a "regular" interface module (supporting USB 2.0) and Power eSATA Upgrade cable. Although GoFlex does not provide versatility the easy way(to go from USB 2.0 to eSATA and back, you need to change the interface module), it is one of the few (like the Verbatim drive) that supports powered eSATA modification, which is somewhat better than a pair of VE-200 cables, for which the latter can be blamed. But you can't complain :)
As for the speed of data transfer over the interface, Zalman has nothing to brag about - regardless of the interface, it lags behind competitors. Let's see how this will affect tests closer to practical use.
But in random operations, where the hard drive installed inside is decisive, the kit we assembled easily and without straining unconditionally takes first place.
A fast hard drive in conjunction with eSATA allows the VE-200 to fight for leadership, but once you switch to the more common USB 2.0, it immediately begins to lag behind competitors.
A similar state of affairs develops when recording data. However, is it really worth worrying about? Yes, of course, about 20% of the lag is a lot, but the external module supports not only USB 2.0. So it's enough just to use eSATA - this option is faster than USB at times. And regardless of the implementation;)
Unless, of course, you lean on the use of VZhD to transfer information, and not as a “working” drive, you can’t fix the situation with a fast interface. Alas, but such is the fee for a functionally complex controller.
The table shows devices in Moscow that are relevant at the time you read this article:
| Zalman ZM-VE200 |
| N/A(0) |
If you try hard, you can make a whole list of claims to the Zalman VE-200: no USB support 3.0, eSATA without power, performance is lower than it could be. All this is so...
However, the real and potential disadvantages are more than offset by truly unique functionality! In principle, as we have already said, initially this was not a Zalman development, however, since the company was able to discern a good idea and become the main global seller of its implementation, the award, it seems to us, will be quite at the right place :) Indeed, the need for something like this has been in the air for a long time in the air, since often the only task that an optical drive performs in modern computer, is the installation of the operating system. Or some kind of service. In general, for the sake of episodic loading, keeping such a device (despite its low price) on the farm becomes uninteresting. With the ZM-VE200, we get a very convenient and fast CD/DVD-ROM in addition to a capacious and productive external hard drive. Moreover, all the shortcomings of the second functional component are not critical - against the background of the still well-selling VZhD, equipped with only USB 2.0, it demonstrates a completely different level of performance in favorable conditions;) Which is only exacerbated by support for write protection, which, judging by our Conference , for many users of mobile external drives, who are forced to work with them on potentially unsafe computers, is very relevant. And there are no complaints about the first one at all, if we compare it with, for example, a USB drive. It's all in one here. Perhaps, of course, the price will scare away some potential individual buyers, however, in the household of a system administrator, a service engineer or a real enthusiast of computer technology, such a box, as it seems to us, will be an indispensable thing.
Pocket ZALMAN VE300. For those who don't know - this pocket is not just a SATA->USB 3.0 adapter, this pocket can also emulate an optical drive in hardware with any disk, the images of which can be uploaded to the HDD. Well, FINALLY, I myself got this pocket at my disposal! True, this is not quite ZALMAN, and not at all at the price that was two years ago. But I think it's worth it
(Price - $59 as of August 2018.)
Why didn't I buy the Zalman itself? And because the VE300 is no longer in stores, they may have stopped producing. Appeared more a new version VE350, but judging by the reviews, it works much worse than the 300th, and even the latest firmware did not solve all the problems.
There are not many differences between IODD and Zalman - a slightly different firmware, logos on the box and a different case. By the way, you can upload firmware from Zalman to IODD and vice versa.
Let's move on to my purchase.
The seller offers only black pockets (and also sells pockets 2541 (similar to Zalman VE400)).
Tracking number provided, working.
Item ordered March 29, received May 3.
Packing - a cardboard box in which there is already a factory box with a product.
Photos of parcels and boxes
The pocket itself is aluminum, the upper part with electronics is plastic (acrylic and polycarbonate). 
Of the controls, we have a lever that can be moved up / down and click on it, and a “backup” button. There is also a two-line monochrome display and an activity indicator (blinking white when connected via USB 2.0 and blue when connected via USB 3.0).
Size comparison with external HDD and 2.5 HDD. Dimensions 136x78x13. 
The pocket is quite large and, unfortunately, does not fit into.
The case from the kit is completely different from the chic one that comes with the zalmans. Soft, rag and small (the lever is constantly pressed). 
Soldering quality: 
Screw holes are hidden behind elastic bands on the sides. Screws connect together the upper and lower parts of the pocket. I do not recommend using the pocket without tightening the screws - upper part together with the hard drive, you can pull it out simply by pulling the cable in the connector or shaking your pocket - the hard drive will push out the top part. 
Without media, the pocket shows the inscription "iodd 2531". With the media, access to the menu appears. Current firmware: R1288N. The letter N indicates that the pocket is flashed with the NTFS version of the firmware. New ones, 1555 and 1558, are available on the manufacturer's website. I'm not going to reflash yet. 
The menu is called up by long pressing the lever. Moving the lever up / down, pressing the lever - menu item selection, "backup" - back.
On the menu mode pocket mode can be selected (HDD, ODD, Dual).
IN Settings- adjust the brightness of the screen backlight, the time after which the screen will darken and set the factory settings.
information- find out the status of the HDD, its model, serial number, temperature, pocket firmware version, USB mode and supply voltage (shows the current and the lowest).
IN USB Connect you can reboot the pocket (it will load new images if you have added them) and run a safe extraction (the pocket will turn off the hard drive and the screen will say "Plug Out").
On the menu Advanced you can "unmount" the hard drive, enable write protection on the hard drive. There is also a “Force USB 3.0” checkbox, but I can only guess what it does.
Some features that you won't learn about from the instructions
1. If you hold the backup button (BackUp) while connecting, the write protection will automatically turn on.
2. If you hold left button when connected, the protection will be automatically removed
3. If during operation the wheel is turned down and held, preparations will be made for the safe shutdown of the device. The same effect will be from pressing and holding the backup button (BackUp).
4. If during operation the wheel is turned up and held, the _ISO directory will be scanned. Convenient, after writing new images to the HDD.
5. If the BackUp button is pressed in the Menu, it moves 1 level up.
6. In addition to the Menu, the backup button is used for its original
data backup functions (if a backup program is installed and running).
As a medium, I will use a Hitachi hard drive, taken out of a tortured service centers netbook. 
We prepare the disk for work: delete the first hidden section manufacturer and create a primary NTFS partition. 
If you will be partitioning the disk, please note that IODD only looks for the _iso folder on the first partition.
After formatting on the disk, create a folder "_iso" and fill it with images. Declared support for ISO / VHD / VMDK / DSK /RMD /IMA.
I downloaded the images using utorrent directly to disk.
After the update, the images were not mounted and the pocket with the inscription "Defrag" hinted to me that it would be nice to run a defragmentation.
After defragmentation everything worked.
The image is selected by the lever up/down, mounted by pressing the lever.
Any images can be used. Operating systems, boot disks, utilities, but at least games. 
Despite the fact that the cable is long and soft, the drive pocket works fine when connected via USB 2.0 through the front panel. The maximum consumption that I saw is 600mA (of course this will still depend on the consumption of the disk itself). 
Measurements of the speed of the disk in your pocket and without it. 
As you can see, IODD pulled everything it could from this disk.
Let's compare the speed of the disk in the drive (the image of the Win7 HP x64 installation disk is recorded) and the speed of the IODD virtual disk (the image is the same).
The maximum reading speed of my drive is 16x, Verbatim DVD-R 4.7Gb 16x disc. 
Let me remind you that if you install a smarter hard drive or SSD in your pocket, and not an old Hitachi, the speeds will be even more pleasant. And with such a hard drive, the reading speed is on par with CDs (48-52x). Well, the access speed is much better than any optical disc.
UPD Feb 2020
Because got an extra SSD for experiments tried to install it. Naturally, the speed was limited by the SATA2-USB3.0 converter.
CrystalDiskMark 
And once again comparing the speed of a DVD and IODD disc with an installed hard drive and solid state drive. 
Well, what can I say, this pocket will be a great helper for those who work with computers, especially those that do not have an optical drive.
Personally, I'm already tired of dragging my drive back and forth and preparing an installation flash drive every time I need to install something.
The price, of course, bites a little, but only the dollar exchange rate is to blame - at the old rate, this pocket (like the zalman) cost 1800-2500 rubles.
Thank you for your attention, I hope the review was useful, good shopping, bye everyone!
And I congratulate all radio amateurs and radio professionals on the day of the radio)))
External HDD Today it has become one of the essentials for everyone whose activities are somehow related to PC maintenance. The choice of discs and containers is great - for every color, taste and budget. However, there are solutions that stand out noticeably in the general range, one of them can be called an external container. Zalman ZM-VE300 which, in addition to the function of an external disk, can act as an emulator of an optical disc drive.
This allows you to kill two birds with one stone, since an external ODD drive and a stack of disks for it is the same essential item for system administrators, service engineers, and just computer enthusiasts. Installation disks with the OS, various service and diagnostic Live-CDs - as a result, we get a rather impressive list of disks that you should always have with you, and there are more than one copy of important disks. Otherwise, it will be very unpleasant when, at the most crucial moment, a "hackneyed" disk refuses to be read.
But first things first. At first glance, the cost Zalman ZM-VE300 may seem very overpriced, paying about 2000 rubles for an external container without an HDD, albeit from a well-known manufacturer, this is somehow too much, for this money you can easily get a good external drive. But this is only at first glance, as we will see later, the device fully justifies its price.
The container is delivered in a medium-sized cardboard box, on which the manufacturer emphasized the main advantages of the device.
It's obvious that Zalman ZM-VE300 in virtual drive mode is far ahead of any existing optical drive today. Even in USB 2.0 mode, which is the main mode, when using this container as a boot disk, only Windows 8 can currently boot via USB 3.0, and this is not always successful, since USB 3.0 controllers from different manufacturers have their own characteristics.
To evaluate how a virtual drive works as a bootable drive, we compared Ubuntu 13.0 LiveCD startup time by burning it to a new DVD+R disc.
Optical drives showed quite expected results: the slowest is the external drive, the internal one is slightly faster. Zalman ZM-VE300 once again showed a significant lead - downloading the image in less than a minute. This is a really great result, which will be appreciated by those who often have to boot their PC from optical discs.
We have a really great product that fully justifies its price. Its main advantage is a virtual optical drive, which will allow you to abandon the use of optical discs and external drives. In addition, the virtual drive allows you to work with disk images much faster than any optical drive. All this makes Zalman ZM-VE300 an indispensable assistant to administrators, service engineers and just computer enthusiasts.
In today's world, there are a lot of stereotypes... for example, that Japanese cars are better than South Korean ones, or that money is best kept in Swiss banks. Sometimes it is interesting to see how the prevailing stereotypes actually justify themselves. Electronics produced by South Korean companies such as LG or Samsung have always been considered a good compromise between product quality and cost. The hero of our testing today is an external 2.5" hard drive box, Zalman ZM-VE200, also made by a South Korean manufacturer. Zalman has a really good reputation among computer cooling system manufacturers. But case HDDs are not cooling systems. Let's see how Zalman is doing well in the HDD pocket market.
The factory packaging turned out to be relatively small, however, like the product itself. On its front side there is an image of a black HDD pocket, on the sides of which two silvery devices are brought into the background. Apparently, the manufacturer has set himself the goal of presenting the external HDD box to the buyer at a glance, and in the same way helping him decide on a more desirable color for the product. The packaging is well balanced and not overloaded with secondary information; only basic names and designations external HDD pocket ZM-VE200. Despite the brevity of the packaging, one inscription still makes you pleasantly surprised: "External HDD Case + Virtual Drive". Wait a minute, virtual disk included? This is great, but let's talk about everything in order.
Let's first take a look at the main features and technical specifications external pocket for Zalman ZM-VE200 hard drives, which can be found both on the back of the package and on the official website of the manufacturer.
Key features of Zalman ZM-VE200:
Aluminium case
Pre-installed software for mounting CD/DVD images from ISO files: no additional software is required to mount any ISO image.
Built-in screen that displays information about state of hard disk
Protective case included
Mounting capability ISO images, a built-in screen on which information is displayed - yes, we have here, it seems, a case with its own operating system, not otherwise!
Specifications Zalman ZM-VE200:
Dimensions (LxWxH): 135.3x78.6x13.1mm
Weight: 98.5 g
Material: aluminum, acrylic, polycarbonate
Type: 2.5" SATA HDD
Interfaces: USB 2.0 (compatible with USB 1.1), eSATA Direct HDD Access
Transfer rate: USB up to 480Mbps, eSATA up to 3Gbps
Spindle speed: 5400 or 7200 rpm
Nutrition:USB
Color: black, silver
The factory packaging opens from the top, after which you can pull out another additional cardboard package (gray, already without beautiful pictures), in which, in addition to the HDD pocket itself, a protective cover is neatly packed, quick guide user, as well as a screwdriver with bolts. It's nice to note that USB and eSATA cables are also included as standard. Obviously, the device comes without a hard drive. The protective case is a very nice bonus that protects appearance Case HDD, especially when you consider that the ZM-VE200 can be in it even when it is connected to a computer without fear of overheating.
As mentioned above, the external case for the hard drive can be either black or silver. Came to us on USB testing the pocket is painted in silver, and as for me, it is more attractive than black, as it contrasts more with general view products.
Connecting and using the Zalman ZM-VE200 will not cause any trouble even to the most ordinary PC user. On the right, on the top side of the HDD case is located USB port, write protect switch, hard drive activity LED, factory reset button, and eSATA port. Unlike other 2.5" and 3.5" devices, this HDD box is powered only by USB or eSATA cable, which explains why there is no dedicated power connector. This fact is both a plus and a minus at the same time. The fact is that not all of today's eSATA ports support the function of powering devices connected to them, so it would be nice to leave a special connector for powering the hard drive if necessary, or at least emphasize the fact of incompatibility with the eSATA standard.
Installing a hard drive in the Zalman ZM-VE200 we tested today turned out to be even easier than I could have imagined. All you need to do to install your hard drive inside the pocket is to connect the HDD itself to a special controller through the appropriate connectors, and then insert the HDD together with the connected controller inside the pocket (HDD first, the controller remains at the top). Once you have connected and inserted the hard drive inside, all that remains is to securely fix it inside with a screwdriver and two bolts, which the South Korean manufacturer prudently included in the package. During installation, you need to slightly open the rubber band that hides the mounting holes. By the way, after installation, this tape will stick out a little because of the twisted bolts, and this, although a small, but still a flaw of Korean engineers.
After the installation is complete, it would be a sin not to test the strength and build quality of the body of our test subject today. Simply shaking and moving the device convinced me that the engineers designed the case well, it is strong enough and reliable. While most 3.5" drives aren't built for everyday carry, the ZM-VE200's 2.5" HDD Pocket - one of the smallest HDD cases I've ever owned - is purpose-built for maximum mobility and portability.
