Data protection and drive reliability are both areas where a lot of hard disk manufacturers are investing a lot of time and money, making sure that your data is safe from any accidents. Maxtor has MaxSafe, Quantum has its SPS, and the SpinPoint V9100 from Samsung features ImpactGuard and SSB (Shock Skin Bumper). ImpactGuard is similar in nature to Quantum's SPS and protects the read/write heads from colliding with the disk media if jolted, while SSB offers global shock protection by reducing the intensity of the shock.

The specification of the SpinPoint V9100 is fairly basic and features a standard 5,400rpm spindle speed and a 512Kb buffer although it does have support for the latest ATA/66 standard. The capacity is also the lowest of any drive on test at only 9.1Gb, or 8.4Gb formatted. Unfortunately performance is poor, especially in the PC Authority Benchmark, and the SpinPoint V9100 came in last overall in this Labs. All of this is offset only by the low price of the SpinPoint V9100, although given its performance and capacity, it does not represent good value.

Considering the competition in this Labs, such as with the Value Award winning Western Digital Caviar, which is only $39 more expensive than the V9100, has a larger capacity and is also considerably faster, the SpinPoint V9100 comes out looking decidedly unimpressive.