Enabled with RAID, My Book Studio Edition II 4TB is a Quad interface that has been formatted for Mac. It consumes 30% less power and is a high performing device. Equipped with FireWire 800, it has a Serial Bus Transfer Rate of 800 Mb/s. The Western Digital device gives the high speed needed for smooth video editing and saves huge blocks of data in record time. It runs quietly and does not need a fan. It is eco-friendly and is much cooler than standard systems. Its eSATA has a Serial Bus Transfer Rate of 3GB/sec while its USB has a Serial Bus Transfer Rate of 480MB/sec. Compatible with Apple’s Time Machine, it includes software and instructions for reformatting to Windows.

Flexible and convenient, it also includes FireWire 400 and USB 2.0. To upgrade the drive, one simply needs to open the case and replace the existing drive and no screwdriver is needed. Also, the user can easily back up important projects to multiple destinations including file servers, portable drives and My Book. Every time a change is saved, it is automatically backed up. So, you need not worry about losing vital information and data. Available with a 5-year limited warranty, the drive allows the user to see how much space is available on your storage system. The My Book Studio Edition II 4TB is equipped with intelligent drive management features that allows automatic power-up and safe shutdown. LED status and activity lights make this storage system especially easy to use. The complete package includes dual-drive storage system, FireWire 800 cable, FireWire 800 to 400 cable, USB cable, AC adapter, Software CD and Quick Install Guide.

The Acer Aspire One A150L (LU.SO50A.105) is an ultra portable laptop designed to deliver continuous access to the Internet with a simplified wireless experience. It is equipped with an Intel Atom processor, specially designed for netbooks and it weighs incredibly little… just 1.26 Kg! It has 120 GB hard drive that provides great storage capability and its external drives not only make good overflow storage, but also are ideal backup devices. The Acer netbook’s external devise keeps your treasured photographs and other files safe from the risk of hard drive failure or laptop theft. This external drive comes with Nero backitup2 to take the effort out of making backups. The whole thing is password protected to add that extra level of security. The powerful Intel Atom processor gives you fantastic performance in an incredibly small package and with addition of CrystalEye webcam you can easily keep in touch with your loved ones absolutely free.

Acer Aspire One A150L (LU.SO50A.105) offers 512 MB RAM which can be enhanced to 1.5 GB and uses the Linpus Linux Lite operating system, which minimizes start up and shut down times. It has external 3.5 inch hard disk High quality aluminium housing for optimum hard disk cooling and On/of switch External power supply (noiseless without fan), which results in low power consumption. The Acer Aspire One A150L (LU.SO50A.105) provides intuitive and specifically optimized software interface that helps users to have user friendly experience. Its screen is 8.9” TFT 1024 X 600 (WSVGA) with 18-bit colour, but it does not have Bluetooth. It has Intel GMA 950 graphics and a built-in WiFi connection and expandable memory up to 4 gigabytes. All these features establish the fact that the customers are going to get the maximum benefits out of minimum investment.

Looking for a reliable and speedy external hard drive solution to store Terabytes of data? If yes, then the Verbatim 2-Disk Raid External Hard Drive is a great choice. It’s a smart looking hard drive enclosure offering a gigantic 2TB of external data storage and data backup at blazing speed. The Verbatim hard drive unit actually consists of two 1TB hard disk drives that can be configured in three different ways for ensuring data security and stability.

The first mode is the normal mode in which both the drives function like any other external hard drive. The second mode configures the drives in accordance with RAID 0 standard in which the data is split between the two disks to bolster data read speed. In both the modes you will get full 2TB space to store the data. The last mode adheres to RAID 1 standards and writes the same data on both the disks to ensure duplication of data. This is very helpful because in case any one drive fails then the other one can be used for backup. However, in this mode the actual amount of storage space which you will get is 1TB. There’s a switch at the back of the Verbatim hard drive that can be used to choose the mode you want but once a mode is activated don’t change the switch until you want to reformat and reconfigure both the disks completely.

The Verbatim 2-Disk Raid External Hard Drive can be connected via USB, but if you have an eSATA port on your PC then you are benefited in a better way. The Verbatim 2-Disk RAID 2TB can copy a 1GB folder in 43 seconds via USB and the same amount of data can be copied in just 16 seconds through an eSATA socket.

External hard drives are the most convenient data storage solutions nowadays. One can store Terabytes of data in a pocket friendly form factor and carry it anywhere for instant access via USB. The new Samsung S1 Mini hard drive from the South Korean manufacturer is one of the cutest external hard drives. It’s sleek, slim and features astonishing style and design. The top lid has got a glossy finish with dotted texture in piano black colour. The back of the Samsung drive is made of matte plastic whose texture has been beautifully matched with the top lid.

S1 Mini hard drive lives up to its name and measures just 87 x 62 x 15.5mm. You can easily slip it in to your pocket and move around. The Samsung S1 Mini 120GB’s ultra-light weight body ensures that you don’t have to endure any kind of burden in your pockets. Within the S1’s stylish enclosure there is a 1.8in hard drive with 120GB storage capacity. You can connect it to the host PC via USB interface, which not only establishes link but also supplies power to the hard drive. It has got a mini USB plug too. The disk is pre-formatted using FAT32 file system by the company but it’s not restricted to that. You can re-format the drive using NTFS, HFS+ or EXT3 file system and use it on both Mac OS X and Windows operating systems.

Samsung also offers necessary software with the drive that can be used to format the drive and apply password protection to each partition. Apart from this the software also offers data encryption and virtual drive mounting functions. Moreover, you can also use the

The SanDisk company, a world leading developer of flash based devices and computer peripherals, has recently upgraded its ImageMate External USB Card Readers for achieving higher data transfer rates and great reliability. The newer version of ImageMate is sleeker and much more portable than ever before and now supports variety of formats. It can be connected to any PC via USB cable and instantly gets ready to offer unprecedented data transfer. The device has also got a detachable tripod base that gives it balanced and firm standing.

SanDisk claims that the new series of ImageMate Card Readers supports data transfer rate up to 34Mb/s. According to SanDisk senior marketing manager Jennifer Lee, “The new SanDisk ImageMate readers are two of the fastest and most reliable USB readers, capable of transferring one gigabyte of data in less than 35 seconds. The ImageMate readers’ space-saving vertical design makes them unobtrusive on your desk, but with such stylish looks they can’t help but stand out.”

Virtually, you can insert any memory card format into ImageMate External Card Reader. It is compliant with SD, SDHC, miniSDHC, microSDHC cards like the Sandisk microSDHC Card Class 2 16 GB, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro Duo, xD, CompactFlash, and other memory cards. The best feature of this device is its capability to accept multiple cards simultaneously. You can not only transfer data between PC and card but also do card to card data transfer in no time.

AMD, the leading maker of top notch computing peripherals, has recently made a significant move in the field of mobile computing by unveiling its external graphics booster at Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2009. This is a must have accessory for pro gamers. It is very useful in converting the typically light configurations of laptops, notebooks or netbooks into something capable of handling hardcore gaming and graphics processing

The external graphics booster acts as an external Plug n Play graphics card that can be plugged in to the laptop to play latest 3D games. When you are done, simply unplug it and the laptop will switch over to its built-in graphics chip flawlessly. The external graphics booster has an ample amount of processing power for rendering smooth and fluid effects during the game play. The best thing is that the gamers don’t have to replace their existing laptops to enjoy hi-fi gaming. They don’t have to install a new graphics card, like the GigaByte GeForce 9800GTX, in their laptop either. Instead they can instantly connect the external graphics booster and get all the necessary gear required to play high graphics games.

The issue with the external graphics booster is that it is based on Radeon Mobility 3870 platform which is comparatively an old product now a days. Another problem is that the graphic booster requires special hardware configuration on the laptop’s part. You cannot simply connect it to any portable computing machine. However if you got the right machine then the external graphic booster will offer you hassle free operation and mind blowing performance.

The USB to IDE adapter is a must have device for those who own a netbook that lacks a CD/DVD ROM or who want to take a data backup on external drives. It can convert any internal storage drive or optical drive into an external portable drive that can be plugged and unplugged any time. It simply adds value to the netbook, like the Samsung NC10 which does lack an optical drive. You can easily connect an external IDE hard disk drive and boot the PC on different operating systems.

The USB to IDE adapter has the following advantages:

• It can be used to backup data on to an external device and recover it whenever needed.
• It converts any internal HDD or CD/DVD ROM into a portable Plug n Play device instantly.
• Such adapters can be used to install different operating systems.

Newegg offers various USB to IDE adapters of different configuration and style. However, it’s important that you keep in mind certain factors while choosing a particular USB to IDE adapter for yourself. Make sure that the adapter’s ports are compatible with the interfaces available on your notebook. Make sure that you get the power supply and the necessary drivers. The USB does not require any external power source but the IDE needs an extra power adapter. Also check whether the USB to IDE adapter is compatible with your PC or not. Most of such adapters work with both Apple’s Mac and the PC.

Tags for this article: laptop, netbook, drive

The much awaited dual head portable storage device by Maxell is available now in the market. Maxell announced this device in October and has finally launched it for the end users. The main attraction of the device is that it supports both USB as well as eSATA data transfer. It has got a mirror finish and packs 32 GB of storage in its 16g, 770mm x 260mm x 5mm body. Both the eSATA, as well as USB 2.0, interfaces are shielded via a plastic cap and are resistant to dust and moisture.

When tested on a Toshiba Portégé A600-122 with a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of memory, the eSATA interface offered a read speed of 64MB/s and a write speed of 22.8MB/s, even when large sized files were used. The USB 2.0 interface offered a read speed of 35MB/s. As more and more notebooks and laptops come equipped with eSATa and USB interface now a days, the Maxell dual head portable storage is going to be an appealing device for most of the mobile computing enthusiasts next year. It is schedule to ship next year and the eSATA plug stands between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 (the SuperSpeed USB) which is still due for launch in the second half of 2009.

If you have got frustrated over your laptop’s low battery run time, or if your handheld battery quickly loses its charge, then it might be time to take a look a the new myPower(TM) ALL Plus MP3700. Developed by Tekkeon, the well known organisation which offers innovative products to simplify the everyday life, the myPower(TM) ALL Plus MP3700 is the company’s advanced external laptop battery which features automatic voltage detection.

The external battery can provide several hours of extra juice to keep your laptop running. It can also be used with a host of other mobile devices. It functions in much the same way as a docking station, like the IBM 40Y8116, for example. The myPower(TM) ALL Plus MP3700 is actually a 50 Watt-hour lithium polymer battery that can be connected to the power jack. This not only doubles the device’s running time, but the battery pack can also charge other portable devices via its built-in USB port.

The best part of the myPower(TM) ALL Plus MP3700 is that it is modular and can further accommodate one more battery (MP3450-10) to effectively offer a total laptop run time of up to 7 hours. Below is the table showing the number of extra working hours that can be achieved for a variety of devices by adding one and both of the external batteries: