External hard disks are a great way to add storage. We test 13, from sub-$130 portable drives to mighty terabyte desktop units.

Two external hard drives in lego-esque cases. One of them is worthy of our recommended stamp.

Your photos, music and data are just a virus or hard disk failure away from oblivion. Build a triple-layer defence using PC Authority's practical guide.

Why is this external hard drive different from all other external hard drives?

The 1TB box, also available in smaller, less tough sizes.

Our feature story covers best formats, backup options, and why you should reburn those photo CDs every two years.

Seagate's Freeagent series of external drives look stunning and perform admirably.

Superior real-world transfer performance makes it a winner this month.

This external drive has the kind of excesses and looks that made the 80s what they were.

One of the practical devices for large back up jobs are external hard drive drives, which not only offer competitive capacities, but are easily portable and perfect for offsite storage. Maxtor's OneTouch II is pitched squarely at this type of application and, as the name suggests, makes it easier with a single button for back up.

An external drive that despite being a decent performer is making Walter Gropius roll in his grave as we speak.

The Sony CRX85U external USB 2.0 is even smaller than the Plextor and the Iomega Predator models, and given its square shape and thin profile, as well as the top loading pop-up lid for the CD, you could be forgiven for thinking that this CD-RW drive was just a DiskMan.

World's highest capacity 2.5in portable external hard disk drive.

Think outside the case by putting drives to work.

The notebook winner this month was a close call. Two units stood out as being at the top of the multimedia field: the Pioneer D47K and the Acer Aspire 1802WSM. Feature-by-feature they were very closely matched, but we chose the Pioneer for several reasons, one of which was its advanced media capabilities.

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Microsoft’s radical redesign promises ‘better results, faster’. Be fully prepared for this world-leading productivity software.

Not the best value, but this desktop NAS appliance offers good backup and webserver facilities.

Iomega insist on doing things its own way, but usually hits the mark.

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