I am about to buy a portable hard drive so I can carry my work (and photos, music and movies) with me. Hard drives that are powered via USB (or Firewire) do not require mains electricity and a power adapter. All you have is a slim hard drive (in a case) and USB cable. Plug it in to any computer and it should recognise it. Fantastic.
If you are also looking for a portable hard drive, this list of external USB portable hard drives should save you some time. My personal requirement is for storage space of at least 120GB and preferably 320GB. Unfortunately, once you go beyond 160GB, the physical dimensions of the drives start to get a bit large and would not fit in a pocket easily. New technology will change this. To the list…
- Lacie 30GB, 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB, 160GB, 200GB, 320GB, (wide range to choose from)
- Freecom Toughdrive 40GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB
- Seagate Portable Hard Drive 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB, 160GB
- Western Digital WD Passport 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, 120GB
- Iomega Portable Hard Drive 60GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB
- Maxtor Onetouch III Mini Edition 60GB, 120GB
- Kanguru Portable 80GB, 160GB, 250GB (from the photo, it looks large)
- Edge DiskGO! 20GB, 40GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB
Be careful that the drive you are buying is truly powerless – there are many external drives available that require mains power. They are a lot cheaper but they are more cumbersome and not convenient. (I have just been travelling with one for 4 months!).
'Portable hard drives' seem also to be referred to as 'mobile drives' or 'pocket drives' and are often listed on electronics websites under 'external drives'.
I decided to buy the Seagate 160GB (I would have preferred a slimmer drive like the Iomega or Western Digital but 120GB was not quite large enough).
If you discover a portable hard drive not on the list above, please let me know and I will add it to the list.