Seagate 160GB 2.5" Portable Hard Disk

Large File Copy:

For our large file copy tests, we zipped up a Call of Duty 2 install folder, which came to just over 3.4GB compressed. First, we copied the zip file from our OS drive to the test drive to measure write performance, and then deleted the file from the OS drive before copying the data back to that drive to measure the read performance.

The portable 160GB disk shows its speed limitations when compared to the 3.5" 400GB Seagate USB 2.0 drive with its faster spindle speed and larger buffer. The 500GB eSATA drive was clearly the fastest of the external drives, with thanks going to its massively superior bandwidth.

Small File Copy:

For our small file copy tests, we used 649 6.2MP photographs from a Canon 10D camera, which came to almost exactly 1GB. First, we copied the folder from our OS drive to the test drive to measure write performance, and then deleted the folder from the OS drive before copying the data back to that drive to measure the read performance.

Small file copying is similar, although the differences are not as pronounced. The difference between the 400GB External USB 2.0 drive and Seagate's portable 160GB drive is less prominent than the performance differences between the portable disk and our 60GB Hitachi enclosure.