I have long transferred data by a four slot card reader and up till now it has always done what I needed. However when the ‘mini’ this and the ‘micro’ that come along they need an adapter so that they adapt to their full size cousins before they can fit in the reader. Here with six slots that is almost solved. It is 10x4.5x1.

I understand blue is now an acceptable colour (Smarties wise) as it now does not have harmful colourings if the TV ads are anything to go by. This is a small rubberised 2GB memory stick. It is 4cm long less than 2cm wide and only .5cm thick. It could look something like a sweet so do not leave it near a child.

With fashion in mind Toshiba are shipping their drive in four sizes, with each getting a distinctive dash of colour, that also denotes the size : ; ; ; and the latest member of the family - . My test unit is the 320GB grey version. As well as the colour you have a shiny black case measuring approximately 16x 81 x 127mm (DxWxH) and weighing a very slight 155g.

The issue of how to back up your data is not new but also has not been solved for the average user. Despite a huge number of software solutions I've yet to find anything that actually works and is practical. Want a solution that will save your data from the most common problem - hard disk failure? A solution that doesn't actually require you to remember to do anything? I thought so.

During one of my infrequent clear-outs of kit that was of little use other than being a repository for dust, I came across one of the hard disks that had formed part of an earlier computer long since consigned to the scrapheap.  I hate to think how much this item of equipment would have cost when I purchased it.

How much capacity was available on your first hard disk?  If you have been around personal computers as long as I have then I’m guessing it will be a low number.  There is a distinct correlation between available capacity and the length of time involved with computers.  Those who have been around the longest will respond with a low figure while more recent members of the computing community will quote a much higher capacity.

Verbatim has recently introduced a new range of Store'n'Go USB drives.  Decked out in the company's familiar blue livery, these drives will be available in capacities of 1, 2, 4 and 8GB.  I have been looking at the 4GB model which has been priced at £19.99. This new USB drive immediately solves one problem that many users of this type of device will be familiar with on a regular basis.

It is 19.5x16x5cm with cables connected and it is shiny black but as this will never pass the lounge police it could happily sit in a draw of cupboard with only a trailing wire to tell it was there. The front has an on/off button and a .5cm thin strip window that shows various LED through it. The left side base and top have nothing while the rear has four connections power input, A/V in and A/V out and a USB port.

. There are also two USB2 ports. The sides and base are bare with the back having an on/off switch, power input, USB socket and an ESATA socket. 3.5inch HDD Enclosure While the likely main use of this product will be to transfer data from a SATA hard drive (both 2.5 and 3.5inch accepted) to other media it can also be used as a station to transfer data from all sorts of other connected devices. It is 12.

Poker Mate USB Drive It is 4cm across and .5cm thick. It is red and white with 12 alternate sections the six white ones are plastic and the red ones rubber. This gives a distinct feel in the fingers. There are various capacities available, mine was 1GB and this is clearly written on both sides of the chip.

Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 7000 For anyone who dislikes trackpads then an external mouse with a notebook is the answer. Having a wireless mouse means that the limited space often associated with notebooks can be utilised better if the mouse does not have to operate in a specific place and not having a certain length of cable helps. This offering has a USB receiver that looks almost identical to a USB pen/stick drive.

As always first the dimensions, the Rev120 is an external USB2 unit but it will work on USB 1.1 drives. It is 19x10x2.5cm with the USB lead and power lead inserted. The actual cassette that pushes in the front of the unit is 1cm thick and 7.5x7.5cm. Like all drives the actual and stated space differ, it is stated as 120GB but the actual available space for files is 111GB.

Verbatim has been involved in the development of data storage technology for the best part of 40 years.  During this period Verbatim has been active in various areas such as floppy discs; Magneto Optical storage media; CD and DVD formats; plus High Definition media Blu-ray and HD DVD. To this impressive list, we can add portable USB devices; flash memory cards; external hard drives; and, more recently, computer mice.

The gigabyte is the modern day currency when considering storage capacity and even then three figures is often the norm rather than the exception.  Take, for instance, the latest mini offering to join the Maxtor brand stable.  This is the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini that is available in 80GB, 120GB or 160GB versions with the latter being the subject of this review.

This is the first chance I've had to take a look at a new external hard disk sporting the high performance 'eSATA' - or 'external SATA' interface as an alternative to the otherwise ubiquitous USB connection. This drive is from the Hypertec FireStorm range and comes with capacities from 80G byte to 1T byte. Here I'm reviewing the 80G byte model.

As a market leading manufacturer of various types of hard disk drives, you do tend to sit up and take particular notice when Fujitsu Europe announces the availability of the world's highest capacity 2.5-inch external hard disk drive.  This travel-ready device is appropriately named the HandyDrive.  I say appropriately not only because of its size (22 x 82 x 141.

Just after this review was published Emtec came back to us with answers to some of our concerns with this product in the form of a new software release.

Apart from the obvious problems with knowing which format you need for a particular product, you're also often left having to buy different card for each of your gadgets. Even ignoring competing formats, individual formats have now spawned whole families of related standards sharing confusingly similar names.

Verbatim USB Drive 4GB This looks like a conventional USB stick drive, just for a moment think that not long ago a 4GB hard disc would be large. It is quite able to do the job of speeding up Vista and indeed does carry the ReadyBoost name. However apart from part or all of the available space being allocated to Vista it comes with a £16.

Recently I have noticed a trend, already well established in the mobile phone and MP3 player arenas, that is beginning to make inroads into other types of mobile devices.  The trend in question involves the way that mobile devices are marketed as much for their style quota as for the functionality they offer to users.