Advantages: Fast transfer speed, protection from knocks and drops
Disadvantages: Fairly high price

.... Now, leaving the memory capacity of the hard-drive and moving onto other areas of the LaCie hard-drive. This particular hard-drive has a USB 2.0 interface, which is basically the type of connection the hard-drive uses in order to connect to an external device, usually a desktop PC or laptop. A USB 2.0 interface means that the transfer of all files to and from the hard-drive will be fairly quick. Another factor, which speeds up the transfer of files is the buffer size. Buffer size put into simple terms is a region in the hard-drive where data is held temporarily, before permanently entering the hard-disk memory. The buffer size of the LaCie external hard-drive is 8 MB, this means that a maximum of 8 MB of data is temporarily held before being fully transferred into the hard-drive. The buffering process means that data is transferred... Read review

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Advantages: Fast USB 2.0 connection, accessories, Compact, Looks COOL
Disadvantages: Requires a driver for Win98, Need updated USB 2.0 driver to use advanced features or your computer crashes, not all computers have USB

...of like a portable hard drive. These things vary in colour, size, shape, material, etc. but the one I'm reviewing is the PQI (Power Quotient International) USB 2.0 Cool Drive Travelling Disk. It looks errr….'cool'. The exterior is metallic blue and you even see these metallic streaks, giving the drive a great metallic effect. Being a USB 2.0 version, it means that data can transferred more quickly to and from the disk. It transfers data at up to 480Mbits/s (60MBites/s), although this is rarely the case with USB products. When transferring data, an orangey LED at the bottom of the drive flashes to show you that there's activity. I think it would look so much cooler if the LED was blue but I'll let that slide. The drive itself is roughly the size of my thumb and fits in the palm of my hand easily, so it's pretty small. These pen drives... Read review

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Advantages: Fast USB 2.0 connection, accessories, Compact, Looks COOL
Disadvantages: Requires a driver for Win98, Need updated USB 2.0 driver to use advanced features or your computer crashes, not all computers have USB, gets hot.

...This is a review on the PQI's USB 2.0 1GB 'Cool Drive' Travelling Disk. This product is very similar to my PQI 128MB Cool Drive Traveling Disk, which I've also reviewed, but with one BIG difference. The 1GB version of this drive holds A LOT more information than the 128MB could ever. Now what does 1GB mean? It's short for 1 GigaByte, which is 1,000 MegaBytes. Actually, the space shows up as 999MB but that's close enough. Now, if you've read my 128MB Cool Drive review, or at least seen the title, you'll know that 128MB stores roughly the equivalent of 88 floppy disks. Now the 1GB Cool Drive stores the equivalent of 694 floppy disks! Impressive, in'it? Now, the 1GB Cool Drive is practically identical to the 128MB Cool Drive. The drive is roughly the size of my thumb, it's metallic blue in colour with clear bits at the bottom and tip... Read review

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Advantages: no cap, large sorage space, U3 software is useful
Disadvantages: U3 auto-installing may annoy some people

...Firstly this USB drive is quite small, it looks good and as soon as you plug it in a big orange light starts up, it doesn’t have a cap (so you won't lose the cap!) and comes with a neck strap. The USB data transfer is quite fast, there is not much lag and the computer immediately picks up that the USB stick is plugged in. However as soon as you plug in the stick then it starts to install the U3 software on the PC, this could annoy some people but the software is very useful. You can download many free portable ap’s and can synchronise the USB with the PC using this, its a useful feature and also includes some security features, preventing nosey people looking through your files. The U3 software also has an instruction manual/tour on it, preventing the need for there to be any paper manuals with the device. The 2GB... Read review

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Advantages: Portable, easy to use, never failed on me yet!
Disadvantages: Perhaps only the disc size, but it has taken me 2 years to fill it!

...Wester Digital, a respected brand name, and i agree! I have owned the unit now for around 2 years, and have 0 problems. My internal hard drive has died on me twice but my external one, never! This 80gb HDD is perfect for storing large files, home movies, photo albums, music etc. It's ideal when transfering data from one place to another, simply unplug it, plug it in elsehwre and hey presto! It supports drag & drop so moving files couldn't be easier. Standard power adpater with 3-pin plug, and USB 2.0 connection to your pc, mac, server etc. It is easily recognised by each operating system and i have yet to find one that doesn't support the unit. Plug it in, wait around 30secs and it's up and running. Can be stored horizontally, and if you have 3 like me, you can stack them perfectly, or store them vertically... Read review

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