The Two-Ounce Hard Drive

I had the good fortune this week to check out Edge Technology's new portable hard drive called the DiskGO! Now there's normally nothing special about your typical external hard drive, but the DiskGO! is different. Or should I say DiffeRENT!?

Sorry.

The DiskGO! is so cool because it's incredibly small: less than two inches by two inches, and two-thirds of an inch thick. And that includes the USB cable, which slides out from a hinged corner. It weighs less than two ounces, making it competitive, size-wise, with a flash memory key.

But being a hard drive, it's substantially faster than a typical USB drive. Many times faster, in fact. It's also cheaper than 4GB of flash memory, which typically runs about $130 or so. The 4GB version of the DiskGO! costs $100, while 8GB costs $150. (And in fairness, other vendors offer tiny 4GB hard drives too, all for around the $100 mark.)

Of course, being a hard drive, you have to worry more about damage: Jostle any drive while it's connected and you run the risk of a crash, which isn't a problem with flash memory. But for quickie backups and occasional storage needs where you don't want to wait for the pokeyness of flash media, the DiskGO! is just about perfect.