Software:
The
Mapower MAP-OT21 2.5 Inch eSATA / USB Enclosure features a one touch backup button that works through software found on the included CD. The "PCClone EX Lite" software doesn't do anything fancy like some other backup software I have used, but the simplicity is a strong point. The whole thing occupies less than 11MB on disk, and it allows you to easily setup your profile of what you would like backed up.
The below left image shows the Quick Launch screen which lets you run a backup operation using your mouse instead of the button on the enclosure. The Setup screen is shown in the below right image, and here you can see the few options you have for creating a backup.
The below left image shows a built in file manager, which is more like a file system viewer. And finally, the below right image shows the Files Backup tab which lets you select the folders and files you would like to have backed up.
After running a preliminary backup and seeing the completion notice, I thought something was wrong. All I could see was a text file on the drive. Reading the instructions revealed that the backups are made into a hidden folder, which the software can find for future backups and/or restores, but are kept out of view from Windows Explorer. I don't really care for that feature, so I had to make hidden files viewable in order to access backup files without using the PCCLone EX Lite software.
Overall I like the software. It works wells, has a very intuitive interface, and just stays out of your way in the system tray until you want it.
Testing:
Two benchmarks were run on a
Western Digital Scorpio 320GB 2.5" SATA Hard Drive installed inside the MAP-OT21 in order to gauge its performance. The test were run with the drive connected directly to an internal SATA header, then on both eSATA and USB while using the enclosure.
SiSoft Sandra XI's Physical Disks benchmark was run first. Here we see that there is no difference between SATA and eSATA performance, and that USB performance is about par for the course.
The next test was HD Tach 3.0.1.0 RW, which shows that the average read speed may not be much different between SATA and eSATA, but the burst speed is. It seems that this Mapower enclosure limits this 3Gbps drive to 1.5Gbps transfer rates. Not a big deal in reality, as it is the average transfer rate that interests me more.
Even the USB results look rather good, making this enclosure rather appealing to those who don't have access to eSATA at this point.
