Portable Hard Drives

Portable drives can be powered through your computer

Portable external hard drives come in smaller capacities than desktop models and are powered through the USB port. This makes them a good choice for laptop users, or anyone who needs more portable storage.

The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini is the portable version of the OneTouch 4 desktop drive. It's the clear favorite in recent reviews, but there is still very little user feedback regarding reliability. That said, the manufacturer includes a five-year limited warranty and disaster recovery software. Though that won't cover your data, it is a radical improvement over the previous generation Maxtor OneTouch III Mini, which had a one-year warranty.

The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini is available with several storage capacities, including 80 GB (*Est. $70), 120 GB (*Est. $85), 160 GB (*Est. $95), 250 GB (*Est. $120) and 320 GB (*Est. $150). Reviewers say it is small and light, quiet, and satisfactorily fast and cool. Most like the software. One common criticism is that you can't synchronize between Windows XP and Vista.

The portable Seagate FreeAgent Go is offered in three capacities: 250 GB (250 GB *Est. $135), 320 GB (*Est. $150) and 500 GB (*Est. $225). Portability, versatility, capacity and reliability are the most often mentioned benefits of this portable drive, and many reviewers say that it is a good value. At 6.4 ounces, the drive is small and light, and Seagate backs the FreeAgent Go with a five-year limited warranty.

The FreeAgent Go is powered by the connected computer through a USB 2.0 port (cable included). Preloaded FreeAgent and Ceedo software can automate backups. It also allows you to use your settings on any computer, and you can run many programs from the drive. A separate Mac version is available with both USB 2.0 and FireWire ports.

All professional reviews of the Seagate FreeAgent Go are favorable, but most are also older. The flip side of that is that the FreeAgent Go has been around long enough to accumulate lots of user reviews, and the overall average is high for a portable external drive. Very few owners complain about drive failure -- which is obviously a very big plus.

The Western Digital My Passport portable external drive comes in three lines. The basic My Passport Essential line My Passport Essential line (*Est. $170 for 320 GB) comes with a three-year warranty and a choice of eleven colors. The step-up My Passport Elite line (*Est. $170 for 320 GB) has a five-year limited warranty, additional software (including automatic backup software) and a soft-touch finish. The My Passport Studio line is formatted for the Mac and has a FireWire input and a five-year warranty.

Among reviewers, Digital Trends finds much to like about the Passport, but cites enough relatively minor flaws to express a preference for the Maxtor portable hard drive. On the other hand, PC Magazine selects it as an Editor's Choice. MaximumPC mentions speed as a key virtue, but Laptop magazine thinks speed is a weakness for large data transfers. In more than 100 user reviews at Newegg.com and Amazon.com, the Passport fares just as well as the Seagate FreeAgent Go. Drive failure appears to be rare. Of the few dissatisfied buyers, most own old Macintosh laptops.

Judging from reviews, the Iomega eGo (*Est. $200 for 250 GB) is not a serious contender for Windows users, but it is for Mac users. Color choices such as cherry red and midnight blue don't match any Macs, but make a statement that matches the eGo name. Register Hardware rates it the best choice for Mac owners. It is fast and survived modest abuse tests. Macworld disagrees about speed, finding that it is much slower than a LaCie portable drive. Other reviews span the spectrum in that regard. The eGo earns higher ratings from reviewers who tested it with the Mac OS than those who tested it with Windows.

User reviews for the eGo are mostly favorable. As with other mobile drives -- and countering the reviews -- Mac users have the most problems.