9/11/06
It was only 11 years ago that Iomega came out with its Zip drive that revolutionized portable storage. The magnetic disc, which allowed graphic artists and others to move large files from one machine to another, was the beginning of the end of the floppy drive.
Now there are countless ways to transfer data and, with the exception of some of the inexpensive ``thumb'' flash drives, capacity is measured in gigabytes, not megabytes.
This week Western Digital will announce the newest entry in this market. The latest version of the WD Passport Portable hard drive is sleeker and smaller than its predecessor with more capacity.
Measuring 3-by-5 inches, half an inch thick, and weighing about 5 ounces, it's small enough to put in most pockets, though quite a bit larger than thumb drives and lower capacity portable hard drives like Seagate's 3-inch round USB 2.0 Pocket Drive that stores up to 8 gigabytes. While the Seagate drive has enough capacity for most large files that people would need to transport, the new Western Digital drive can store up to 160 gigabytes. That's more than an enough for an advertising company's entire multimedia campaign or, for most consumers, the entire contents of their PC hard drive.
The drive connects to a PC or Mac laptop or desktop and gets its power through a USB cable, so with most PCs there's no need for an external power supply or wall plug. Software supplied on the drive includes a program that will sync the contents of the drive with a PC and optionally encrypt your data for security if the drive is lost or stolen.
The 160 GB drive costs $199. The 120 GB version that I tested sells for $179.
If you're looking for a portable drive with even more security, LaCie (www.lacie.com) offers its SAFE Mobile Hard Drive with encryption options with a fin
