Product Reviews & Quotes for Velocity Series Backup Systems

SATA backup system proves a good plan to protect hard drive
The Seattle Times - 6/24/2004

About two gigabytes of data from my hard drive took less than two minutes to transfer to the backup drive. A Firewire- connected drive took closer to six minutes. So this puppy is fast, fast, fast.

SATA backup system proves a good plan to protect hard drive

Kevin E. Washington
The Seattle Times
6/24/2004

Bad things happen. And for some of us with computers, they happen all the time. But now that CMS Products has come up with the 80-gigabyte Velocity SATA Automatic Backup System ($300), an external hard drive, those of us whose hard drives become victims of foul play or fate can have a reasonable backup plan. The Velocity SATA Automatic Backup System is a hard drive that you can boot from even if your regular hard disk drive has fallen and can't get up.

This is an external serial ATA drive that works faster than an external hard drive connected to your computer by a Firewire or Universal Serial Bus port 2.0 cable. If you don't have a SATA controller card installed, you'll need to open your computer case and slide the card that comes with the CMS into a place holder. That means it doesn't actually need a slot to fit into, just a cutout to fit it. Windows then recognizes it once you turn on your computer. Now, you could just use the Velocity as another drive.

For those of us doing digital video or photography, the 80-gigabyte drive may be helpful, but really isn't worth the expense. But if you install the BounceBack Professional software that comes with the drive, you can use the drive to back up things on your internal hard drive. And that makes it more than worth the price of the device. About two gigabytes of data from my hard drive took less than two minutes to transfer to the backup drive. A Firewire-connected drive took closer to six minutes. So this puppy is fast, fast, fast. The BounceBack Professional software partitioned and formatted the Velocity in much the way that my original hard drive had been formatted and partitioned. Once 1 backed up files on the drive ~ which stores them in their native file formats for easy use — it was no problem booting from the hard drive and working from there as if it had always been my hard drive. You’ll need a minimum of 128 megabytes of RAM and 15 megabytes of hard disk space. This only works with Windows 2000 and XP.

A Step Up in Backing Up Files
MorningstarAdvisor.com - 5/13/2004

The CMS Velocity, with its optional PCI card, good documentation, easy set-up, excellent software, and good tech support is a premium product, but it represents a good value.

A Step Up in Backing Up Files

Joel P. Bruckenstein
MorningstarAdvisor.com
5/13/2004

Article authored by: Joel P. Bruckenstein, CFP Sr. Technology Editor MorningstarAdvisor.com http://www.joelbruckenstein.com/

High-Speed External Backup
PC Magazine - 5/4/2004

On our test, the Velocity needed 3 minutes 5 seconds to copy 3.4GB of data (in 14,152 files) from the internal hard drive.

High-Speed External Backup

David Stone
PC Magazine
5/4/2004

Back in the twentieth century, the only alternative to SCSI for external hard drives was a parallel port, which was deadly slow. Then came USB and Fire Wire drives. Both are a vast improvement over parallel-port drives, but even a Fire Wire port can't move data as fast as a hard drive can read and write. The new CMS 80GB Velocity SATA Automatic Backup System ($299 direct) offers to solve that problem. This external Serial ATA (SATA) drive costs more than an equivalent FireWire drive, but the performance blows a FireWire drive away. Unless you already have a SATA controller installed, you first need to install one (available from CMS for $39). And even if you have a controller installed, you'll have to open the case to install the pass-through card that comes with the drive. The good news is that the card doesn't need a slot, just a cutout to fit in. Once the drive is plugged in, Windows will recognize it automatically. You can use the Velocity either simply as an additional drive or with the included backup program, CMS BounceBack Professional. BounceBack includes a disaster recovery option. If your PC's internal hard drive dies, you should be able to disconnect it and boot from the Velocity. On our test, the Velocity needed 3 minutes 5 seconds to copy 3.4GB of data (in 14,152 files) from the internal hard drive. We ran the same test with the USB 2.0 Maxtor OneTouch drive, which took 12:23—four times as long. This one statistic is enough to make clear why the Velocity is very much worth considering if you need an external drive, whether to back up your system or simply to add more capacity.

External Hard Drives for the Office and the Road
PC World - 5/1/2004

On average, the company's Velocity SATA Automatic Backup System drive completed our four file-copy tests in nearly 40 percent less time than the next-fastest drive (which used a USB 2.0 connection).

External Hard Drives for the Office and the Road

PC World
5/1/2004

YOU'LL HAVE TO give up some speed with most external drives, as those with a USB 2.0 or FireWire interface can't keep up wilh drives that use internal parallel or Serial ATA connections. But external SATA drives should match the performance of internal products. At press time, the SATA II Working Group was still polishing up the external standard, and compliant products will probably not appear until late this year at the earliest. But CMS Products issued a pre-standard kit that simply provides a pass-through for the PC's internal SATA interface to an external port you install in one of your system's slot covers. (If you own an older system without an internal SATA port, you can buy CMS's $39 SATA PCI Controller Card.) On average, the company's Velocity SATA Automatic Backup System drive completed our four file-copy tests in nearly 40 percent less time than the next-fastest drive (which used a USB 2.0 connection).