Hard Drives > USB 2.0 Hard Drives > 120 GBP to 180 GBP

Advantages: Capacity, looks, decent manual, cheap
Disadvantages: A bit slow, a lot to lose in one go

...years ago. The LaCie (pronounced Lassie, like the dog) 1TB unit is a reasonably basic device that only has a USB2 (although USB1 is supported) interface and comes with a suitable lead, external power supply and software CD. It can work with both PCs and Macs although by default it's formatted for PC use so Mac users will need to reformat it first but that's no hardship really. On first opening the box, it looks really good with a great finish making ...
...drives suffer. The LaCie tries to be as quiet as possible with a case designed to cool passively but it does have a fan around the back that kicks in when needed. In my case, this was fairly often but then I only tend to switch the drive on to use it, it's rarely left idling. The front contains an on/off button that also doubles as a power and activity light. The combination of blue against the aluminium case is pretty nice so thumbs up there. A ... Read review

Advantages: 1 Terrabyte
Disadvantages: not portable - but who cares

This is a bargain that i couldn't pass up without buying. 1TB should keep me going for several years and more. I bought this hard drive for £101 and it has been a pleasure to use. It's a doddle to set up and install and the fast rate of transfer makes file sharing very efficient and easy. Design The portable hard drive comes in an attractive silver case that has USB2 and FireWire 400 ports. It is a desktop drive and cant really be moved around ...
...to follow and it installed by windows wizard as soon as i plugged it in, so within 20 minutes i was backing up my files. Performance Performance is good for a portable hard disk, and there was no real difference in speed between the two interfaces. T Features It doesn't ship with backup software, just file-synchronisation software, but this serves a similar purpose. A two-plug USB splitter cable and a six-pin FireWire cable are included so you ... Read review

Advantages: a good alternative product
Disadvantages: n/a

A better looking model from Iomega than the 500 GB model, this is a safe solid bet for a hard drive that won't let you down. In testing it performed well and did not overheat or become slow due to the rate of transfer. Design The portable hard drive comes in an attractive silver case that has USB2 and FireWire 400 ports. It's about 20 cms long and 10 in depth and weighs a fair bit. It is a desktop drive and can't really be moved around due to its ...
...and it installed by windows wizard as soon as i plugged it in, so within 20 minutes i was backing up my files. Performance Performance is good for a portable hard disk, and there was no real difference in speed between the two interfaces. T Features It doesn't ship with backup software, just file-synchronisation software, but this serves a similar purpose. A two-plug USB splitter cable and a six-pin FireWire cable are included so you shouldn't ... Read review

Advantages: Fast connection speed. Small and relatively lightweight. stylish.
Disadvantages: too many cables and short connection cable.

Well, whilst the 250GB version of the same has been slaughtered by critics for its unreliability. I see none of the same traits in this one. Currently, its main purpose for me is to store all of my itunes music as there is too much for my computer harddrive. This uses up about 40GB, and i still have tonnes of space left for films, games etc. Whilst this isn't the portable version (ie. it requires an AC power supply), it is small and light enough ...
...this i find to be the only flaw of the external drive. It has a cable, connecting to a power box, which then has a cable to connect it to the wall. This isn't such a problem, its just a bit messy. This power cable is really long (too long really), whilst alternatively, the connector cable (connecting the drive to the computer) is really short. This means the hard drive has to be literally on top of the computer or right next to it which is irritating ... Read review

Advantages: quite operation easy set up easy to format and partition just like pen drive
Disadvantages: 320 gig turned out to be only 300 thought that was a bit naughty

After buying this with my Birthday Money I wondered if I had made the right choice. There were higher capacity ones on the market for the same price. However I bought it because it doesn't need a bulky power adapter and to add extra storage for my pictures and music. To install it is a breeze. All you have to do is plug it in and windows detects the drive and assigns it a letter. You can then format it, partition it using the windows drivemanager ...
...is as its already formatted. I chose to format it as NTFS and then to partition it into 3 section for music, pics and data. This was easy to do and soon I was plugging it in and playing. The operation of the drive is very quiet and it has a 3 yr warranty you can't say fairer than that. Having had bulkier drives in the past I can honestly say this stands up to them no problems at all. The other hard drives in the past were so noisy I had to turn ... Read review