mySimon Hard Drives Shopping Picks

The 250GB Iomega eGo portable hard drive may look like a military flask, but it stores data, not hooch. A lot of data - up to a million photos, 4600 hours of music, or 375 hours of video. Not bad for $130. It has a USB 2.0 interface, so you just plug it into your computer, using software you download (free for PCs). It's less than an inch thick, and measures slightly smaller than 4" x 6", so you can take it anywhere. Best of all it has a Drop Guard so it can withstand a drop of 60 inches without losing data. See all Iomega eGo portable hard drives.

New from LaCie: The d2 Quadra Hard Drive, an all-in-one professional hard disk with 1TB of storage and 4 interfaces (eSATA 3Gbits, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0). Designed by Neil Poulton, an industrial designer who, according to Wikipedia, "specializes in the design of simple, mass-produced objects and has won numerous international design awards," the d2 works with PCs and Macs (and is compatible with Leopard's Time Machine feature), offers plug-and-play simplicity, and has a unique, fanless aluminum heat sink design that keeps it both cool and quiet.

One of the best resolutions you can make this year is to protect all your music, photos, home videos, and personal files. Back up all your data with this 500GB LaCie hard drive. Even with its sleek Porsche design, it's not much to look at, but hopefully it will blend in with the rest of your computer gear and you won't even notice it (it's less than 8" long). It's ready (and easy) to use right out of the box, works with Macs and PCs, and you can get it for a measly $105. More LaCie hard drives.

It's hard for us to get excited about things like external hard drives and backing up files (even though we know it's really important). But LaCie, the company who brought us the fun designs of the Skwarim portable hard drives and the LEGO-like Brick hard drives, just introduced the 500GB Golden Disk external hard drive. It looks like a big piece of chocolate in a shiny gold wrapper. And thanks to its hi-speed USB 2.0 interface, it offers plug-and-play, driver-free simplicity. Just plug it into your PC or Mac and it instantly stores all your music, photos, video, and other important files. More holiday gifts for computer geeks.

Check out these award-winning sport utility hard drives from LaCie. With shock-resistant rubber bumpers and scratch-protected aluminum shells, they can withstand all the abuse you want to hurl at them. They're small enough to fit in your laptop bag, so you can back up or exchange files anywhere, and their FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interfaces offer universal connectivity. Available in 80GB, 100GB, and 120GB.

Backing up your computer's data is like flossing: You know you should be doing it, but sigh, it's so tedious. LaCie has made backing up almost fun with its Brick hard drives. World-famous designer Ora-Ito's plug-n-play Bricks look like oversized LEGOs, have hi-speed USB interfaces, and come in several sizes and colors: 160GB (white), 250GB (red), 300GB (blue), 400GB (white), or 500GB (red). More hard drives.

Leave the laptop at home. You can put 60GB of photos, songs, files, and even video clips in your pocket with this LaCie Skwarim external hard drive. With a futuristic design and a 3.3-inch square soft-touch case, the Skwarim lets you back up and exchange thousands of files quickly and easily. Just plug the Skwarim into your PC or Mac laptop or desktop, back up and exchange files, and drop it in your pocket.

The 5GB Seagate hard drive was a big hit when it was first released last year, because of its pocket size and $99 price tag. Now there's something even better: LaCie's 30GB external hard drive. Designed by Karin Rashid, it's just 3.3 inches square, has an integrated USB cable, works with Macs and PCs, and you can get it for under $150. And it's hot pink, so you can carry your photos, music, and other files around in style.

Add fast, reliable music and data storage to your desktop or laptop with this compact 160GB hard drive from SimpleTech. Thanks to the USB 2.0 connections, you can transfer data (songs, photos, movies, documents) at up to 480MB per second. Best of all, the MusicVault comes with 5 songs and 2 months of the Napster To Go subscription service, giving you access to over 1 million songs. More gifts for music lovers.

This portable 40GB Sony photo storage unit lets you transfer images from a variety of flash media (Memory Sticks, CompactFlash I and II, and Microdrive) with just a click of a button. It comes with Photo Diary software to organize your digital photos in a calendar format. The unit also doubles as a backup for your PC's hard drive.