The Outsiders: Disks That Do More

Back Me Up, Scotty

An external drive provides a key safety feature by keeping backup data separate from your system. Losing a laptop is a hassle because of the expense; but it's a tragedy if you also lose your only copy of key business files or archived e-mail.

Photograph: Marc SimonFive of the six desktop models include software that lets you schedule backups. Maxtor and Western Digital bundle Dantz Retrospect Express; once you configure it, backups happen automatically at the times you schedule, or you can run them on demand. Maxtor's OneTouch drive takes its name from a single button on the front that launches the Retrospect backup job. Western Digital uses the same trick, but it adds a second button that launches Retrospect so that you can configure or alter a backup set. With only cryptic, faintly stamped labels, though, the two buttons are hard to distinguish.

The button on Seagate's 160GB External Drive launches the BounceBack Express utility from CMS Products. CMS Products' own Velocity drive, meanwhile, lacks the launch button but comes with BounceBack Professional, which can make the external drive bootable in case a hardware or software glitch trashes the PC's internal disk. Ximeta provides its own basic software, called NetDisk SureSaver. No backup software comes with AcomData's RocketPod DrivePod desktop drive or with the ultraportable drives from IOGear, LaCie, and Sony.

Decked-Out Disks

Many of the desktop drives have amenities you'll never see on an internal model. Best-equipped honors go to Western Digital's Dual-Option Media Center, which has a two-port USB 2.0 hub and an eight-in-one media card reader. (You can buy a version without the card reader for about $40 less.)

When you stack two of AcomData's RocketPod DrivePods, the unit above snaps into a socket on top of the drive below that provides both power and data connections. Each bundled RocketPod power supply can handle two stacked disks, and a separate DockPod module powers up to five. Either way, you need only one USB connection to accommodate up to five disks.

Besides attaching to a single PC via its USB port, Ximeta's NetDisk can connect to a single PC or to a network hub via its ethernet port. Software installed on each networked PC allows the system to mount the NetDisk and retrieve data. At press time, Ximeta was working on software to permit more than one PC to write to the NetDisk, as well.

Three for the Road

We tried out three 40GB ultraportable drives that sport travel-friendly design innovations. IOGear's Combo 2.5-Inch Ion Drive has a durable, lightweight aluminum case. Additionally, regardless of whether you use its USB 2.0 or FireWire data connection, you can plug in a Y-cable that draws power from either a USB 2.0 or PS/2 (mouse or keyboard) port. According to IOGear, the Ion Drive gets enough juice from most laptops to allow you to leave the drive's standard power supply at home. You can also forgo the power supply for a while with Sony's Giga Vault. Sony says that the built-in battery can power the drive for 1.5 hours. Our unit had a snap-on USB 2.0 interface module; FireWire modules are also available.

The 40GB, 1.8-inch hard drive in LaCie's Data Bank can get all the power it needs from its USB 2.0 or FireWire connection. Resembling a small block of silver bullion, the Data Bank is the only drive in this review that can easily fit in a shirt pocket.