Digital Home Thoughts: Verbatim's 4 GB Store 'n Go USB Hard Drive

Using Ceedo
So what's it like using Ceedo? I was impressed – this is the first software of this type I've used. There's a nicely designed start menu, and a copy of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express – but not much else. Given the security problems both of those programs have, it's not surprising that the top Ceedo downloads for add-on programs include Firefox (for browsing) and Thunderbird (for email). The Ceedo programs directory is slick – it's an online listing of programs designed to work with Ceedo, organized into logical groups (Browsers, Utilities, Email, etc.). You select a program to download, and it installs itself to the Store 'n Go drive. Once installed, it shows up under the listing of programs.


Figure 3: Before installing an application from the online directory, this warning prompt explains the basics of how the process will work.

You can also add programs that aren't listed – in fact, one of the things that makes Ceedo different from other competitors such as U3 is its ability to have almost any piece of software installed onto it. According to some online forum posts I read, Ceedo captures registry entry attempts on the desktop PC and re-routes them to the Ceedo drive to allow the programs to function properly off the drive. Since Outlook isn't yet supported, there are obviously limitations around what will work, and what won't, but this is still impressive. My geeky self gets quite excited when I think about being able to install all my favourite programs and have access to them on any PC that I sit down at.

"Profiled Microsoft Office functionality" is one of the listed features on the Ceedo website, but I can't quite figure out how this works. The drive doesn't come with Microsoft Office (obviously), but when I look on the Ceedo start menu, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Frontpage are listed. When I start them up, the Ceedo icon appears in the upper right, meaning the programs are running off the Store 'n Go drive. After digging around a bit on the drive, it seems that Ceedo creates a complete User profile directory, just like Windows XP does – which includes Office data, recently opened documents, etc. And all of it is only on the drive – not on the PC. That's some impressive programming!

There are other minor features, such as being able to hide the Ceedo toolbar, a storage space meter, a shortcut area, and pre-created music, photo, and video folders. The help features all require Internet access though, which is an unfortunate oversight – you won't always have Internet access at every computer (especially laptops). There also doesn’t seem to be an easy way to re-order the start menu, or remove Internet Explorer and Outlook Express as the default choices.


Figure 4: Ceedo going through the ejection process.

When you're finished with Ceedo, you need to click the eject option on the Ceedo toolbar. That kicks off a process that clears the temporary cache from the drive, writes any cached files back to the drive, and disengages it from Windows. How long this takes depends on what you were doing – it took 17 seconds for me when I had done almost nothing, and about 25 seconds in another session when I had several IE windows open and had been using it heavily. As mentioned earlier, the ejecting process steals window focus, and the final "Ejecting Ceedo" stays on top of any other program you have running while it's ejecting.

Conclusion
Ultimately I think the Ceedo software, after a bit of polish, could be fantastic. It would be even better when paired with a small USB Flash drive. The scenarios I envision people using a product like this in all involve going up to a PC and connecting it to a front USB port – and for that scenario the Verbatim Store 'n Go is poorly suited because of its size, shape, and weight. I tried connecting it to my PC and letting it dangle in the air from the front USB port, but I was concerned about hard drive damage as it swung to and fro. About the only physical scenario where this device works well is with a laptop sitting on a table. Yes, it does come with a USB extension cable so you can connect it to a USB port then place the drive on a flat surface, but who wants to have to carry an extra cable with them everywhere?

No matter how cool I think the concept of carrying programs and data on a portable drive is, the physical realities of using this drive make it a poor choice for anyone who wants to carry a single portable storage device that can easily connect to any PC. So what's the advantage of the Verbatim Store 'n Go? Price. Hard drives still offer a lower cost per MB ratio: the the 4 GB Store 'n Go sells for as low as $99 at the time of this writing, while the closest Flash competitor sells for $139 USD (the 4 GB Sandisk Cruzer Micro). Myself, I'm willing to pay a bit more, and sacrifice a bit of storage space, in order to get a drive that easily slips into my pocket and doesn't require any extra cables to use properly. If Verbatim, or any other vendor for that matter, comes out with a 4 GB USB Flash drive that has Ceedo on it, I'll snap one up. One advantage of Ceedo is that I don't actually have to wait for that: I could buy a copy of Ceedo, buy a 4 GB USB Flash drive, and create my own solution. Excuse me while I go shopping…

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, his sometimes obedient dog, and really hopes that USB Flash drive he lost recently shows up someday.