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Nuggets: Data to go with ultra mini hard drives

Justin Pearse ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 12 Jan 2000 13:29 GMT

Designed for highly mobile data-maniacs, LaCie have brought out three whopping new versions of its PocketDrive portable hard drive.

The new drive, measuring 3.5 x 5.75 inches and weighing less than a pound, comes in 6GB, 12GB and 18GB versions, priced at £299, £399 and £590 respectively.

LaCie reckons its new babies are the first peripherals to offer both USB and FireWire support -- for which LaCie has trademarked the description U&I. The drives feature both a FireWire controller and a USB controller. When connected to a FireWire interface, you get super speedy data transfer rates of 11Mb/s, which LaCie points out is fast enough to capture video from DV camcorders. With USB performance drops to a still reasonable 750Kb/s.

The PocketDrive is plug-and-play and can grab its juice directly from the bus power provided by Apple G3 and G4s. When using a USB connection or with notebooks, you'll need the included AC adapter.

Ideal for sharing stuff between computers, transferring it between a PC and a laptop or backing up your hard drive, the new PocketDrives are out towards the end of next month.

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