LaCie 6Gb PocketDrive

If you're looking for 6Gb of mobile storage, the PocketDrive does the job.

LaCie's new PocketDrive looks curiously like one of those little hand warmers but, as its name suggests, the device is in fact a self-contained portable hard disk.

This isn't one for the gadget freak who likes to impress their friends with computer widgets festooned with knobs and buttons. The drive is a small, featureless grey brick encased in translucent blue rubber to provide shock protection.

Inside the £351 PocketDrive is a mobile hard disk - the type normally used in notebook PCs - which is smaller and more resistant to knocks and bumps than standard hard disks. The drive has a capacity of 6Gb, so you've got plenty of space to play with.

There are two ways of connecting the PocketDrive to your PC. First, and most familiar, is the USB connector. Second, and less well-known to most PC users, is the much faster FireWire port. New iMacs have FireWire as standard, but most PC users will have to go out and buy a specific expansion card to add FireWire to their computer. This rather eliminates the convenience of the drive, so we tested it using the USB connector. The FireWire option is a nice piece of future proofing, however, as FireWire will become increasingly commonplace in new PCs.

The paper manual supplied with the drive we received was aimed solely at iMac users, so we had to hunt through the installation CD to find the online manual. Setting up the drive isn't exactly challenging though - just stick the USB connector in your PC and guide Windows to the location of the drivers on the installation CD. As soon as that's done, the drive appears as a standard extra hard disk when you double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop.

USB isn't nearly as fast as the internal interface, called EIDE, that's used to connect hard disks inside your PC, so the PocketDrive can't compete on speed. Copying 95Mb of files across to the drive took a smidgen under three minutes, so to fill up the whole 6Gb you'd have to wait about three hours. Most users would be better off going for a cheaper option like Iomega's excellent USB Zip drive, but if you really need 6Gb of mobile storage, the PocketDrive does the job. And if that's not enough, the drive is also available in 12Gb and 18Gb versions.