The SAFE Hard Drive is competitively priced when compared to other external hard drives and there is the added bonus of biometric security.

Small, sturdily constructed and with large capacity– the PocketDrive is everything you could want in personal storage

A sturdy construction and stylish design make the Passport a good travel companion.

This is a neat little drive that lets you create a working environment, which can be used on any Windows XP or Vista-based machine. It's a little pricey, but the Ceedo software it's bundled with is useful.

A very useful drive for the tech-savvy and not so tech-savvy alike. If you like to share data, or simply need to access two computers regularly you'll find this very handy.

As an external hard drive the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus storage drive is solid, but add in the backup features of the OneTouch system and you have a first-class backup device.

A low-cost product that will look good on your desk while taking up minimum space. The LaCie Hard Disk 500GB design by Neil Poulton is not bursting with features, but it's all you need from an entry-level product. The LaCie Hard Disk 500GB design by Neil Poulton is USB only.

A feature-rich product with a good selection of software and excellent build quality, the Freecom Hard Drive Pro 500GB lacks the designer style or extreme ease of use of some competing products.

While it isn't the cheapest option, Western Digital's My Passport Elite is definitely a great way to fit a large amount of data into a small footprint.

It's quiet, it's energy efficient and it’s 2TB of space in an easily connectible box. The Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II may not be the fastest kid on the block, but it isn’t a slow coach and it is customisable enough to suit most situations.

Sometimes you just can't protect valuable files enough. Whether you use the primary drive of the Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition (and rely on RAID 1 to make a second copy on the hidden secondary drive) or use the included backup software to make an additional copy of files on your system's built-in hard drive (using RAID 0) or two copies (with RAID 1 enabled), the quiet, fast and easy-to-set-up Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition gives you the best and simplest data protection in a user-friendly drive we've seen.