The LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra is less than the size of a Harry Potter book, yet crams in two 500GB 2.5in hard disks.

With unusual styling that looks like it came straight from a 1970s sci-fi series, Maxtor’s OneTouch Plus is a distinctive but not unattractive product.

Smart and easy to use, and can be positioned vertically or horizontally

Several manufacturers this month have sought to distinguish their products through design. None, however, has gone so far as Seagate to challenge our expectations of an external hard disk.

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

Plenty of features for such a small box. If you don’t already have a wireless router, this is a fantastic choice.

One of the cheapest 500GB drives here, but this is reflected in the lack of features and slow transfer speeds.

Packed with features, and with great performance, the only disadvantages are the price and the short warranty.

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

It's expensive, but the YES Box successfully marries high-end and consumer features in a flexible and scalable device.

A small, classy padlock-style portable drive that's the same size as a Zippo.

At first glance, the Seagate Pocket Hard Drive appears very similar to a yo-yo in both size and mechanics. No, you won't be able to perform tricks with it, but … the attached USB cable does wrap around the device in a stringy sort of way.

USB 2.0 hard disks are a convenient way of backing up your data, but if you want to share the files with other computers over a small office or home network they're not ideal. But Linksys has an alternative. The Network Storage Link (NSL) takes a USB 2.0 hard disk or flash drive and puts it on the network.

Devices that attach storage to the network aren't new, but until now they've been either very expensive or limited in ability. But this little marvel from Asus changes all that. The WL-HDD can put a hard disk on the network with no drivers or client software required, and it can do this wirelessly via 802.11g.