Model: Imation 1TB Apollo Expert D300 External Hard Drive
Manufacturer: Imation
Provided By: Imation

Imation is one of the most widely recognized and respected names in the storage industry. Originally known as 3M Data Storage, the company was formed in the early 1950s to develop storage media for IBM tape drives. As time went on, it expanded its product lineup to include audio and video tapes as well as floppy disks. In 1996, 3M spun off its data storage and imaging divisions to become Imation. More recently, Imation has made the shift from analog to digital and has established itself as one of the world's leading providers of recordable CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc media.

While best known for its data tapes and recordable media, Imation offers a wide range of storage products including hard drives, solid state drives (SSDs) and USB flash drives. This fall, the company announced its first USB 3.0 compatible hard drive, the Apollo Expert D300. Available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities, this external hard drive features a brushed silver, industrial design and a removable stand that lets you position it both horizontally and vertically. The Apollo Expert D300 also comes equipped with ArcSoft TotalMedia Backup software to schedule, automate and individualize backups as well as a 60-day trial of Norton Online Backup. To top it all off, the drive is compatible with both Windows XP/Vista/7 and Mac OS X and is backed by a two-year limited warranty.

  Imation Apollo Expert D300 External Hard Drive
General Specifications
Capacities 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
Form Factor 3.5-inch
Interface USB 3.0

Dimensions and Weight
Dimensions (L x W x H) 38.8 x 125.1 x 194.8 mm
Weight 930g

Other Features
Backwards compatible with USB 2.0
Removable stand
Includes ArcSoft TotalMedia Backup software for Mac and PC
2 year warranty

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what the Apollo Expert D300 has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect, we'll take a closer look at Imation's new external hard drive and then see how well it performs. Does the Apollo Expert D300 have what it takes? Keep reading as we find out.


Box Contents:

The Apollo Expert D300 that Imation sent us was an early sample and did not come in retail packaging or include any documentation. Along with drive, we received a stand, AC power adapter, two plug adapters and a USB 2.0 cable. The bundled software came on the drive itself.

Physical Features:

The Imation Apollo Expert D300 shares the same basic design as its USB 2.0 equipped sibling, the Apollo Expert D200. Measuring 38.8 x 125.1 x 194.8 mm and weighing in at 930g, the drive is about the size of your average hardcover book. At first glance, the body of the Apollo Expert D300 appears to be brushed aluminum. However, it's actually constructed out of silver plastic.

Aside from the power button, the front of the Apollo Expert D300 is nearly featureless. Behind the power button there is a white LED that lights up when the drive is turned on and flashes to show disk activity.

Along the back, you can see the Apollo Expert D300's USB 3.0 interface and power connector. There's also a large vent to let out hot air and help keep the hard drive cool.

I wasn't able to crack the Apollo Expert D300 open. However, using CrystalDiskInfo, I was able to see what hard drive was in the enclosure. Looking at the screenshot below, you can see that Imation is using Hitachi's 1TB Deskstar 7K1000.C (HDS721010CLA332) hard drive. This 3.5-inch drive features a SATA 3.0Gb/s interface, 32MB cache and a 7,200 RPM rotation speed.


Installation:

As with most USB drives, the Imation Apollo Expert D300 was very easy to install. Those running Windows XP, Vista or 7 can simply plug the drive into any available USB 2.0 or 3.0 port on their computer. If the computer is already turned on, plug and play will automatically detect the drive.

If installed correctly, the Apollo Expert D300 should show up in the Device Manager. Under Windows 7, the drive is identified as a "Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 USB Device".

The Apollo Expert D300 comes formatted with FAT32, giving the 1TB model about 931GB of usable space. Of that, about 70MB is taken up by the PC and Mac software that comes bundled with the drive.

Software:

As I mentioned earlier, the Apollo Expert D300 comes bundled with ArcSoft's TotalMedia Backup software. This easy to use software gives you the ability to perform full and incremental backups of your data.

As you can see, the main menu gives you a handful of backup options. From here you can choose to backup your photo, video and music files or your personal documents. In both cases, ArcSoft TotalMedia Backup will scan your system to find supported file types. Once it's done, you can select the destination for your backup, enter a name for it and add some comments to help you identify the contents later.

ArcSoft TotalMedia Backup also offers an advanced backup option where you can specify the files and folders for backup. A standard tree structure lets you browse and select the folders you want.

Restoring your data is pretty straight forward. ArcSoft TotalMedia Backup gives you the option to restore your files by type or by selecting the individual files and folders. The software also lets you restore the files back to the original location, or you can specify an alternate one.

I was a bit disappointed to see that ArcSoft TotalMedia Backup did not feature any sort of encryption. Without encryption, files backed up by the software can be read by anyone that has access to the hard drive that they are stored on.

The Apollo Expert D300 also includes a 60-day trial of Norton Online Backup. This automatic, easy to use online backup service can be used to protect your data on up to 5 computers from one account. Norton Online Backup's web-based interface also gives you the ability to change your settings, start a backup or access your files from any computer with an Internet connection. 

If you decide to stick with Norton Online Backup once the trial is over, you can purchase an annual subscription for a special price of $29.99 (normally $49.99) which includes 25GB of online storage.


The test system used in this review was an HP dc7900. The computer came equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz CPU, 2GB of DDR2 800MHz memory, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB SATA hard drive, NVIDIA Quadro FX570 256MB PCIe graphics card, Intel 82567LM-3 gigabit network card and Patriot SuperSpeed USB PCIe host card. For the operating system, I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Enterprise.

To test the performance of the Imation Apollo Expert D300, I ran a series of benchmarks using CrystalDiskMark 3.0, HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0, ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46 and HD Tune Pro 4.50. These benchmarks were first run with the included USB 2.0 adapter and then with the optional USB 3.0 adapter.

CrystalDiskMark 3.0:

First, I ran a few quick tests using CrystalDiskMark. This benchmark tool measures the performance of a storage device by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its random read and write speeds using blocks 512K and 4K in size.


Imation Apollo Expert D300 - USB 3.0

Imation Apollo Expert D300 - USB 2.0

The Apollo Expert D300 performed very well when connected to the computer's USB 3.0 port. In our tests, the drive reached speeds as high as 132 MB/s when reading and 98 MB/s when writing.

HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:

Next, I used HD Tach to test the Apollo Expert D300's read, write and burst speeds as well as its seek times and CPU usage.

When connected to the computer's USB 3.0 port, the Apollo Expert D300 had average read and write speeds of  112.8 MB/s and 94.3 MB/s, respectively, as well as a burst speed of 136.1 MB/s. The drive wasn't nearly as fast when using USB 2.0 though. Compared to what we saw with USB 3.0, the D300's read and write speeds dropped by two-thirds.

ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46:

I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the Apollo Expert D300's sequential read and write speeds. The test was run using blocks ranging in size from 0.5KB to 8192KB and the total length set to 256MB.


Imation Apollo Expert D300 - USB 3.0

Imation Apollo Expert D300 - USB 2.0

When tested with ATTO, the Apollo Expert D300's USB 3.0 read speeds topped out at about 133 MB/s and its write speeds at 95 MB/s.


HD Tune Pro 4.50:

Next, I ran a series of tests using HD Tune Pro. This hard disk utility measures a drive's performance by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its access time, burst rate and CPU usage. For this review, I used it to benchmark the Apollo Expert D300's random read and write speeds, random access times and the number of operations per second.


HD Tune Read Benchmark - USB 3.0

HD Tune Read Benchmark - USB 2.0


HD Tune Write Benchmark - USB 3.0

HD Tune Write Benchmark - USB 2.0

Once again, the Apollo Expert D300 performed very well when connected to the computer's USB 3.0 port. The drive had average read and write speeds of 106.3 MB/s and 84.3 MB/s, respectively, and a burst rate of about 123 MB/s.      


HD Tune Random Access Read - USB 3.0

HD Tune Random Access Read - USB 2.0


HD Tune Random Access Write - USB 3.0

HD Tune Random Access Write - USB 2.0

Using USB 3.0 didn't have nearly as big of an effect on the Apollo Expert D300's random read and write performance. Nevertheless, the IOPS, access times and speeds were better than when the drive was connected to a USB 2.0 port.


Final Thoughts:

The Apollo Expert D300 is a worthy addition to Imation's Apollo family of external hard drives. Their new flagship drive is well constructed and features a brushed silver case as well as a removable stand. While some may find the industrial design to be a bit boring, the drive should look right at home next to most Macs and PCs. When it came time to perform, the Apollo Expert D300 did not disappoint. Thanks to its USB 3.0 interface, the drive was able to read at speeds as high as 133 MB/s and write at 98 MB/s. The Apollo Expert D300 is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0. However, it's much slower when operating in this mode.

Aside from the two year warranty, my only real complaint is the software included with the Apollo Expert D300. While ArcSoft TotalMedia Backup does a pretty good job of backing up the data on your computer, it doesn't support security features like encryption. The special 60-day trial of Norton Online Backup also includes only 5GB of online storage, which won't get you far if you have a lot of data. Thankfully, Imation has cut a deal with Symantec so that you can purchase an annual subscription with 25GB of storage for $29.99 instead of the $49.99 it normally costs.

The Apollo Expert D300 should be hitting store shelves shortly after you read this. The drive is available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities with suggested retail prices ranging from $109.99 up to $219.99.

Highs:

  • Available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities
  • Includes backup software for Mac and PC
  • Fast transfer rates with USB 3.0
  • Removable stand

Lows:

  • Backup software does not support encryption
  • Only a 2 year warranty