Seagate BlackArmor PS 110 (500GB)

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Bernard Yozwiak
Review Date: August 2009




ComputerShopper-We used to circulate paper memos and photocopy every important document. We used to worry that we might lose papers behind desks or that thieves with ultrasmall cameras might photograph corporate secrets. For today’s business professionals, though, technology creates new concerns: If a hard drive fails, if a PowerPoint disappears the night before a presentation, or if a thief downloads confidential files, a career could be on the line. They have to worry about the dual concerns of backup and security.

The Seagate BlackArmor PS 110 aims to address both. This external hard drive comes preloaded with software that encrypts your data and makes backing up as easy as getting a cup of coffee. It looks like it comes from a cyberpunk novel, packs 500GB of space, and costs, at the time of this writing, $150 to $160. The PS 110 is like an armored truck for your data, but you'll have to pay a premium for that protection.

You won’t find this drive in an artist’s studio. The BlackArmor PS 110 comes in one color—midnight black—and has steel-gray trim around the sides. The plastic has a smooth, matte finish. The top bears Seagate’s nautilus-swirl logo and contains a light that glows blue when the drive is plugged in. The body is 3 inches wide and 5 inches long, so it’s just a little bigger than a BlackBerry. At half an inch thick, it easily fits into your pocket or briefcase. The back has a single mini-USB port, to which you attach an included USB 2.0 cable.


The BlackArmor PS 110 is no thicker than a DVD keepcase.



With that corporate-black suit, the PS 110 is most at home in the boardroom or hotel room. It weighs only a third of a pound and doesn’t require an external power source, so it’s ideal for mobile professionals who need secure backup on the go. During our tests, the drive seemed fairly rugged. We dropped it from about five feet (accidentally, mind you), and it sustained only minor scratches. Most important, it still worked.

The BlackArmor PS 110 is not much larger than an iPod Touch or iPhone.



If you buy this drive, you’ll buy it for the software. The BlackArmor PS 110 is a lot like the Seagate FreeAgent Go, except that it offers a much more robust backup solution. The drive comes with Seagate’s BlackArmor Backup program preloaded, so installation is a snap. Be careful you don’t reformat the drive or erase the program, though—there’s no installation CD, and you’ll have to go through Seagate’s technical-support personnel to get another copy.


The BlackArmor Backup software has a variety of features to make backup effortless.

BlackArmor Backup has two powerful functions. The first is called SafetyDrill+, which is designed to make backups—and restoration after a crash—effortless. SafetyDrill+ saves not only your data, but your application settings, e-mail, and more, letting you return your computer to exactly the way it was an hour, a day, or even a week before. (This feature is a lot like OS X 10.5’s Time Machine.) We liked that the software was so configurable. We customized our backup schedule; we backed up our computer when it was idle; we backed up using minimal system resources. We even set the software to e-mail us each time a backup was complete.

BlackArmor Backup can also erect a Backup Secure Zone, a hidden partition to which you can back up sensitive data. A Backup Secure Zone is encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption that Seagate assures us is “government-grade.” A Secure Zone won’t show up in Windows Explorer, so you’ll only be able to access it through BlackArmor Backup. A Secure Zone is intended to be password-protected. The passwords are unrecoverable—if you forget yours, you’ll have to erase the partition—but you can set up a security question to jog your memory. Ironically, this may be the system’s flaw. Most of the security questions are biographical—“What was the name of your first school?” or, “What was your high school mascot?”—with answers that, potentially, could be Googled.

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Does your colleague know the answer to this question? If so, he could easily gain access to your data.

BlackArmor Backup has some other features you might find useful. The software is compatible with both Google Desktop and Windows Search, so you can quickly find files in your backups. Included utilities let you clone a partition or erase documents permanently—the electronic equivalent of paper shredding. You can even use the software to create a bootable recovery CD, just in case. There’s also a feature called Try and Decide that lets you set up a secure, isolated environment on your computer. You can use this environment to test new software or try out new settings; if you don’t like the results, simply return your computer to the way it was before.

The PS 110’s platters spin at 5,400rpm, putting it on par with most USB-interface external drives we’ve tested. It wrote our 10GB test folder in 8 minutes and 19 seconds, but it took a surprisingly long time—10 minutes and 13 seconds—to read the same folder back. In comparison, the Seagate FreeAgent Go wrote our test folder in almost exactly the same time (8 minutes and 24 seconds) and read it back in 7 minutes and 35 seconds. The Iomega eGo, one of the fastest external USB hard drives to come through our labs of late, performed the same tests in 7 minutes and 1 second and 5 minutes and 30 seconds, respectively.

A potentially nice side benefit: The BlackArmor PS 110 can be used with all FreeAgent accessories. Your secure data might not be a good match for Seagate’s FreeAgent Theater Media Player, but you may find that the FreeAgent docking stations look good on your desk and make backing up even easier. We also want to applaud Seagate for shipping the BlackArmor PS 110 with a generous five-year warranty.

Your business is only as secure as your data is—and your data is only as secure as your last backup. We think this drive does make a good companion for the corporate warrior who is constantly on the road with sensitive info in tow. The BlackArmor PS 110 may not be as conspicuous as its sister drive, the FreeAgent Go, and it may not be as speedy as the competing Iomega eGo, but it does come preloaded with superior software that makes backing up and locking down effortless. At the time of this writing, the drive cost $150 to $160 online, a significant premium over competing 500GB portable drives of the same spin rate, so the software and encryption features are primarily what you’re paying extra for. Opt for this drive only if you specifically need these functions.
Price (at time of review): $160 (mfr. est.)