Buffalo Technology Releases MiniStation Cobalt USB 3.0

Buffalo Technology, a manufacturer of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, announced the release of the MiniStation Cobalt USB 3.0 portable hard drive, the latest generation of SuperSpeed external storage solutions which deliver interface speeds up to 5 Gigabits per second. Designed with mobility in mind and equipped with USB 3.0 technology for rapid transfer rates, MiniStation Cobalt USB 3.0 can store or back up high-resolution graphics, digital audio and video files, photos and other assets in a compact and lightweight form.

The MiniStation Cobalt HD-PEU3 will be available in a variety of capacities up to 640 GB and will begin shipping in April 2010. It is backed by a limited one-year warranty that includes toll-free, US-based 24/7 technical support. Additionally, the Cobalt USB 3.0, which the company claims is capable of delivering interface speeds 10 times faster than USB 2.0, is backward compatible with USB 2.0 and it works with PC and Mac, so users can access files from nearly any computer.

Included with the Cobalt USB 3.0 is Buffalo Tools, a suite of optional PC performance enhancement tools, including TurboPC, Backup Utility, ECO Manager, RamDisk and SecureLock. Utilizing a PC's high speed RAM, the company claimed TurboPC can increase file transfer rates by up to 25 percent over competing USB 3.0 portable hard drives. TurboPC also includes TurboCopy, which provides additional system adjustments to increase performance substantially.

Backup Utility is a user-friendly backup software for Windows PCs that can be used to back up one or multiple PCs with a single Buffalo external hard drive. ECO Manager is an energy efficiency tool designed to conserve energy and reduce laptop battery consumption by regulating the power usage of the Buffalo external hard drive, cutting power to the drive during extended periods of inactivity. RamDisk is a simple utility that allows users to create a RAM disk on your Windows PC. Lastly, SecureLock software provides control of the data encryption on the Buffalo external hard drive, providing security through password protection and software data encryption.

"Buffalo continues to deliver on the promise of producing high quality, high performance storage solutions that push the technological envelope," said Ralph Spagnola, vice president of sales at Buffalo Technology. "With the new MiniStation Cobalt USB 3.0, we are continuing a tradition of innovative, high-speed storage solutions that consumers have come to rely on year after year."

Earlier this month, Buffalo teamed up with data protection and backup software manufacturer NovaStor to provide cost-conscious businesses with backup software solutions. The alliance will bundle the company's NovaBackup data protection software with the entire portfolio of Buffalo's network attached storage solutions. NovaBackup will be offered on all TeraStation and LinkStation network storage solutions beginning in May.