The digital domain impinges on our life from every angle; from digital photography to downloadable music, the need for data storage on the move is something that even the average technophobe appreciates. The new 4Gb Micro Hard Drive is one such solution and is a USB 2.0 device aimed purely for storage. It’s backwardly compatible with USB 1.1 so there shouldn’t be any problems connecting this to PCs and Macs, though if you are using a operating system that’s older than Windows XP, you will need to install some drivers (included or downloadable from the Imation website).
The unit itself is very solid and takes the shape of a padlock, the plastic loop unhooks and doubles as the USB connector. THe body of the drive is made of brush aluminium and there’s something quite satisfying just fiddling with this in your hand. When connected to a PC, it appears as a detachable hard drive and you can just drag and drop your files straight to it. If you are transporting sensitive data, free encryption software is available from the Imation site to protect your files.
Using it is is a synch, but I was alarmed to notice that after a few minutes of use, the outer casing became quite warm to the touch. This is the only technical fly in the ointment as the hard drive does exactly what it aims to do with aplomb. My reservations about it stems from the fact that you can buy solid state memory cards of a similar capacity more cheaply and they don’t have any moveable parts that might fail. It also takes up more space than your average memory card and could be considered as bulky. I can’t see this being a popular product, but instead being adopted by geeks and aesthetes who wants something mysterious to clip onto their bags as a talking point. I think in terms of portability and reliability, you’d be better off spending your money on solid state memory instead.

The Imation 4Gb Hard Drive has been designed to resemble a padlock

The rubberised loop unfurls to reveal a USB connector

This is the tiny hard drive that lurks beneath the brushed aluminium casing

Here’s an alternative view of that tiny drive
For more information, visit: http://www.imation.com/products/micro_hard_drive/index.html

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