Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Secure Hard Drive

When it comes to external hard drives, secure and simple are too often contradictions in terms. That's why, back in 2009, we were delighted to discover the Lenovo ThinkPad USB Portable Secure Hard Drive, which offered built-in rather than operating-system- or software-dependent security?once unlocked via its onboard numeric keypad, it appeared to your computer as just another USB storage device, with no software utility to install and no overhead for its real-time, 128-bit hardware encryption.

Now Lenovo has brought that good idea into the 21st century with the Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Secure Hard Drive ($199.99 direct for 750GB, $169.99 for 500GB). Though clad in the soft-touch black finish of its predecessor (and ThinkPad laptops), the new drive updates the internals with 256-bit AES encryption. It flaunts a faster USB 3.0 connection. It even adds telephone-style letters to the numeric keypad, making it easier to remember your 8- to 16-digit password or PIN. These advantages, plus dead-simple security, earn it an Editors' Choice nod for secure hard drives.

Design and Features
The ThinkPad Secure Hard Drive is a shirt-pocket-sized (0.8 by 3.4 by 4.8 inches), 7-ounce block with a 12-key keypad?wear-resistant, to avoid tipping off prying eyes to commonly used keys?and a permanently connected if puny (3-inch) USB 3.0 cable that fits into a handy slot in the unit's side. It comes with a nifty travel pouch, which has a pocket on its back to hold the supplied Y cable that connects the drive to two USB 2.0 ports for adequate power if your PC doesn't have a USB 3.0 port.

In everyday operation, what Lenovo calls user mode couldn't be simpler: Connect the drive, enter your password, and press the unlock key. After a few seconds' delay (just long enough to make you wonder if you did it right), the device appears to the operating system as a single drive?no messing about with encrypted and unencrypted partitions?with 690GB of free space. It's formatted with NTFS for Windows, though you can reformat it for Mac or Linux.

As for prying eyes and would-be snoops, after five incorrect password attempts the drive shuts down and must be removed from and reconnected to the PC to try again. After 25, the drive locks and requires an elaborate reconnection process detailed in the user's manual (a PDF file on the drive); after 50, the drive bricks itself, requiring a reset and reformat. Even before then, its always-on encryption will thwart even a spy who removes the drive from its enclosure.

The device supports up to 10 user passwords plus an administrator password, so multiple users can pass the drive among themselves?to work together on a project, for instance. Users can change their passwords, and an administrator can add or delete passwords or reset the drive, by entering key combinations guided by an LED that glows and blinks red, green, and blue (as with many products with such LEDs, those with red/green color blindness will be stymied). As we said with the previous iteration, managing the drive is no more difficult than changing the combination of a briefcase or hotel safe, though you'll want to print out and keep the manual handy for difficult-to-memorize sequences.

When you're finished using the drive, relocking it is as easy as pressing a key. Alternatively, you can program the drive to lock itself after five, 10, or 20 minutes with no data transmission.

Performance
The step up to USB 3.0 makes a big difference in the drive's performance. In our drag-and-drop test, it transferred a 1.22GB folder in a speedy 18 seconds (compared with 43 seconds when connected to USB 2.0 ports or 52 seconds for its USB 2.0-equipped predecessor). That edges the 20-second time of the USB 3.0-equipped LaCie Rugged Mini ($114.99 list, 3.5 stars), which uses a 7,200-rpm drive versus the Lenovo's 5,400-rpm hardware, but trails the 13 seconds posted by the WiebeTech ToughTech Secure Mini-Q ($189 direct, 4 stars) and its eSATA interface. The Lenovo drive's score in PCMark 7's storage test was 1,459.

Of course, solid-state drives are faster still, as shown by our Editors' Choice Apricorn Aegis Padlock Pro SSD ($759 direct, 4.5 stars), another numeric-keypad-equipped secure external drive?the eSATA-based Aegis SSD finished our drag-and-drop test in just 8 seconds. SSDs are also more resistant to the bumps and jolts of travel than spinning hard drives; Lenovo boasts that the ThinkPad drive features a 16-point omnidirectional shock-mounting system, but it makes no pretense of being drop-proof or torture-testable like the Editors' Choice ioSafe Rugged Portable SSD ($499 list, 4.5 stars).

Against that, in turn, rotating hard drives are a lot more affordable than SSDs?the 750GB Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Secure Hard Drive comes to 26.7 cents per gigabyte, which can't compete with generic, insecure external drives but is a bargain compared with SSD storage. Add security that's arguably priceless, and the ThinkPad USB 3.0 Secure Hard Drive could be the best balance of performance and value for privacy-minded storage seekers. Just as the Apricorn Aegis does for secure SSDs, the ThinkPad USB 3.0 Secure Hard Drive earns an Editors' Choice for secure spinning hard drives.

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