Hard Disk Drives (External)

Western Digital has revamped its My Passport line of portable notebook hard drives with the My Passport Elite range. Available in 250GB and 320GB options, the new range offers users a sleeker, smaller design. At 79c/GB for the 250GB and 93c/GB for the 320GB, they are substantially more expensive than Western Digital's My Book range. However, given the portability of a bus-powered drive, the My Passport Elite range is definitely worth the cost.

With its versatile triple interface (USB 2.0, FireWire and e-SATA), avant-garde design and massive 1000GB capacity, the LaCie Hard Disk Design by Neil Poulton (1TB) is one of better external hard drives on the market. Fast, quiet and attractively swish, it should tick every box on the average hipster's wish list.

Western Digital's MyBook Office Edition range is an inexpensive business-focused external storage option. Though lacking a range of interface options such as FireWire or eSATA, the range's software bundle allows for increased connectivity options.

Western Digital's 500GB (7200rpm) MyBook Home Edition with USB 2.0, FireWire and e-SATA is a smart looking and compact external storage device that offers more than plain old storage, it also offers peace of mind. There's little to this drive, except its variety of connection options, but it does all that you'll need it to do and won't put a stain on the aesthetic of your workspace.

There isn't much to this My Book Essential Edition drive. In fact, it's aptly named as you won't get any unnecessary features or connections. It's small, button-less and, apart from a distinct blue LED, inconspicuous.

LaCie products are well-known for their stylish looks, and this LaCie Hard Disk 500GB designer model is no exception

A conventional-looking USB drive, Freecom's Hard Drive Pro eschews quirky angular shapes and calming mood lighting in favour of a functional yet smart design in a reassuringly rugged case.

Western Digital's My Book Studio caters primarily to Mac users, but it can be used on PCs, too. It's a versatile drive, which can be plugged into any computer thanks to the inclusion of four different types of interface connections.

While the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus can be used simply as an external storage device connected to a PC via USB, the true benefit comes from its software and OneTouch system to create a well-configured backup device.

Maxtor's OneTouch 4 Mini is a simple device that's made quite useful with some basic but helpful software. This small, dare we say, funky looking portable hard drive is a great option and a must have for regular users of multiple PCs or those wishing to share their data wealth with friends and colleagues. The OneTouch name comes from a single button on the enclosure, which instantly performs a task you've allocated, such as a backup or synchronisation, but more on that later.

External or portable hard drive solutions are hardly worth a second glance, and certainly don't entice high levels of excitement. However, what you can achieve with them can definitely bring a smile to your face.

The FreeAgent Pro is a 750GB external hard drive that has a style all its own. It's perfect as a backup drive for a PC, but it can also act as a vast dumping ground for media files.

Seagate's FreeAgent Go is more than just a portable 160GB hard drive, it's a portable work environment. It ships with software called Ceedo, which gives you a Windows XP Start menu-style interface that runs directly off the portable drive when launched. Using this menu you can run programs that have been installed on the hard drive and you can easily organise your data in My Documents-style folders.

Standing tall with four 3.5in SATA hard drives installed, LaCie's Biggest FW800 is a 1TB tower of storage that offers excellent functionality for home and small business use. It's a direct attached storage device, which means that it needs to be plugged directly into to a computer. It also has both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 interfaces, can also work with a regular FireWire connection.

The My Book World Edition II is a 1TB network attached storage device. It comes with software from MioNet that allows files stored on the drive to be accessed remotely. While Western Digital is pitching this hard drive at the home market, we think it's a product that many business users will also want to hear about. Business users who need to share large files with clients in a secure way (such as designers or users who work in public relations, for example), but who may not be too tech-savvy, will make good use of this drive. Likewise, travellers will find the My Book to be a useful online repository for digital photos, and will even be able to access music and video files if their available Internet connection is fast enough.