Review: Amacom EZSecure hard disk

This small portable hard disk has one clear distinguishing feature: a touch-sensitive LCD screen. This allows the user to set and enter a PIN to access data on the device. Without the PIN, the data is locked down and can’t be seen.

The device is available without a disk (it takes 2.5in Sata drives), but the one we reviewed came with a 160GB disk fitted. On first plugging it into the computer, it fired up the screen and prompted us to enter a passkey.

Once that was done and confirmed the device quickly introduced itself to Windows, which recognised it as a standard external hard disk.

Transfer speeds were slightly slower than we’d normally expect from an unencrypted disk, but the encryption doesn’t add too much time to the process ­ it took around 80 seconds to copy 1GB of our mixed test data, compared with around 60 seconds from a non-encrypted hard disk.

The device can be powered using an external adapter (not supplied) or by USB ­ the included USB cable will hook up to two ports if required.

Since the encryption is carried out in hardware, the device can be used with non-Windows environments ­ it was perfectly happy to work with a Mac, and the encryption worked in exactly the same way as in Windows, being transparent to the computer.

The boxy design of the disk won’t win any awards, but the gunmetal grey finish has some style at least. It doesn’t add a huge amount to the footprint of the internal disk, meaning it’s easily portable too.

The only problem is the price ­ it’s over double what you’d normally pay for a disk of this capacity, but if you want secure data this is a very easy way to get it.