The lines are still separated by size, with the My Passports being portable 2.5-inch drives and the My Books taking the larger-capacity 3.5-inch size. My Passport now goes up to a 1TB capacity in a portable, USB-powered drive, and because of a few innovations they're remarkably small. Essentially, WD removed the USB-to-SATA-to-drive connection and made them direct to USB, which saves space—and WD promises there've been no compromises on speed.

Other changes: Security has been bumped up several notches. The security is now hardware-based, rather than merely software-encrypted, so WD actually has to warn users that if they forget their passwords, even WD can't access the drives. They also do incremental backups, so if for example you want to save a couple versions of a document and accidentally overwrite one of them, these drives will have saved all versions of your progress.

My favorite has to be that teeny 1TB 2.5" My Passport Essential SE. The triple platter drives (plus the direct-to-USB connection) make it much smaller than I expected. It'll cost $250 when it's released later this month (the 750GB version will cost $180). Others:

• My Passport Essential: 320/500/640GB ranging from $100 to $150, released this month with equivalent Mac version
• My Book Essential: 0.5/1/1.5/2TB from $99 to $250, with lighted capacity gauge and equivalent Mac version

We'll let you know when we have precise release dates, but you can expect all of these drives to be showing up in stores very soon. [WD]

The price isn't super-low, but these drives, which start at $85 for the 250GB model and top out with the 500GB, $135 dollar model, are decidedly accessible. They're all (in most cases) powered from a single USB port, and come with a decent suite of EMC backup software.

They're available in four colors (red, silver, blue and black) starting today. Press release below.

SAN DIEGO, May 18, 2009 – Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the worldwide availability of a new generation of the exciting Iomega® eGo™ Portable Hard Drive, featuring new look USB 2.0-powered models with superior ruggedness and the broadest suite of bundled data protection software in the industry, and all backed with a three-year limited warranty. Available in four different colors and up to 500GB* in capacity, the new Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive is the ultimate embodiment of style and function in portable drives today.

"The new Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drives are the perfect companions for home users and professionals that want to take their files anywhere with the assurance of a superior rugged portable drive that has style to spare and a compact form with flair," said Jonathan Huberman, President of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC. "After two very successful years with the previous model, the new eGo drive sports a compact, sleek new aluminum enclosure in eye-catching colors and comes complete with a suite of backup and anti-virus software to protect your data and your laptop, netbook or personal computer. Top it all off with the best drop spec in the industry and the new eGo drive is the portable hard drive this summer for dads and grads and everyone else."

A key element of the Iomega Protection Suite is McAfee® VirusScan Plus, the market-leading anti-virus, anti-spyware software.

"In today's world of increasing attacks on consumers' data by the bad guys, it's as important to protect your external hard drive data as it is to protect your PC's local data," said Todd Gebhart, President, Consumer Products, McAfee, Inc. "Iomega is the first to recognize this fact and we're pleased to be partnering with them in this fight."

Cool Hardware with Superior Functionality

The new USB 2.0-powered eGo Portable Hard Drive comes in variety of colors and capacities: the bright Ruby Red model is available in 250GB, 320GB and 500GB capacities; the sparkling Silver model comes in 320GB; and the deep Midnight Blue model is available in 320GB. (Color and capacity combinations vary in international markets.)

Inside an anodized aluminum shell little more than a half-inch thick (16 mm) and weighing less than 7 ounces (200 grams) is a state-of-the-art 2.5-inch portable hard drive. Iomega's Drop Guard™ feature protects data on the new eGo drive from drops of up to 51 inches, or 40% above the industry average! The new 500GB Iomega® eGo™ BlackBelt Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0, available in June, comes complete with a black eGo Power Grip Belt and Iomega's Drop Guard™ Xtreme, which provides unparalleled protection for the drive from drops of up to 7 feet (2.1 mm) – over twice the industry average!

All of the new USB 2.0 eGo Portable Hard Drives receive power from a laptop or computer's USB port so there's no power supply to carry around. And unlike other portable hard drives, the new USB 2.0 eGo Portable Hard Drives ship with a "Y" cable which gives users the flexibility to use two USB ports to power the drive, if needed. And with up to 500GB of capacity, the new eGo drive can store up to 2,000,000 photos, over 9,250 hours of music or 750 hours of video**.

Most Powerful Software Package Bundle with a Portable Hard Drive Today

Bundled free of charge with the new USB-powered eGo Portable Hard Drives is the new Iomega Protection Suite, a one-stop portfolio of backup and anti-virus software giving users added protection for their photos, videos, music and other files.

The Iomega Protection Suite includes:

* McAfee® VirusScan Plus: a free six-month subscription to this market-leading software that protects your PC with anti-virus, anti-spyware, 2-way firewall, and web security protection (PC only).
* Iomega QuikProtect: backup software for simple scheduled file-level backup of data to hard drives and network-attached storage devices (for Windows and Macintosh desktops and notebooks).
* EMC® Retrospect® Express or Express HD: backup all of your data plus applications and settings (for Windows and Macintosh desktops and notebooks).
* MozyHome™ Online Backup: Convenient online backup service with 2GB of online capacity for free (unlimited online storage for $4.95/month). MozyHome Online service allows you to restore your most important data from any computer with internet access, at any location in the world.

All of the software elements in the Iomega Protection Suite are accessible via easy download to new eGo Portable Hard Drive owners.

Compatibility

The new Iomega® eGo Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 models are compatible with Microsoft® Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP, and Windows Vista™, and Mac OS X 10.4 or above. MozyHome software is available for Windows XP and Windows Vista, along with Mac OS X 10.4 and above. EMC Retrospect software is available for both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

New eGo Portable Hard Drive Accessories

Available for purchase at www.iomega.com are two new accessories for the new USB-powered eGo Portable Hard Drive: a durable black carry case, and the Iomega Power Grip Belt (like the one on the eGo BlackBelt Drive), available in black and translucent colors.

Pricing, Availability and Warranty

The Iomega® eGo™ Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 family of drives are available today, except for the new Iomega® BlackBelt Portable Hard Drive 500GB USB 2.0, which will be available in June. The 250GB Ruby Red eGo model is priced at $84.99; the 320GB Ruby Red, Midnight Blue and Silver eGo models are $94.99; the 500GB Ruby Red is $134.99; and the 500GB BlackBelt eGo model is $139.99. (All pricing is U.S. suggested retail.) All of the new USB-powered eGo models include a 3-year limited warranty, and are available from online retailers, VARs, resellers and select retailers, as well as at www.iomega.com.

In June, Iomega will announce additional new eGo Portable Hard Drive models with multiple interface combinations.

Created out of some beautiful leather upholstery, this mod takes Western Digital's "MyBook" theme to its logical conclusion. The vents, for those who are wondering, are on the back side and are still left exposed. [DeviantArt (bonus news: DeviantArt still exists!) via Engadget]

The 8TB model joins the 4big Quadra series—a 4-bay RAID solution that features swappable disks and seven RAID modes—that boasts transfer speeds up to 700MB/s and capacities as big as 32TB. The hard drives with higher capacities, like the 8TB, are also just bundles of smaller drives placed together.

Available in the May and starting at $1,199, the 8TB LaCie 4big Quadra Bundle will include two 4TB 4big Quadras, an eSATA II PCI Express Card and 4 ports. The 16TB and 32TB—besides having higher capacities—come with everything the 8TB bundle contains, as well as LaCie Rescue Kits, which consists of spare hard disks and power supplies. [Lacie via Engadget]

"LaCie & Carbonite Partnership"
New One Year Unlimited Online Backup Offer

· Unlimited online backup for one full year at no additional cost
· Carbonite software available on LaCie drives after October 15th
· Automatic backups provide complete data security
· Data encryption ensures user privacy

PORTLAND, OR (October 2008) ­ LaCie announced today a new service package to
benefit hard drive consumers: LaCie One Year Online Backup. This unique
service provides unlimited online backup for one full year after
installation with the purchase of any LaCie external storage device.

Recognizing the importance of secure digital media for both consumers and
professional users, LaCie has partnered with Carbonite, Inc., an innovator
in online backup technology, to ensure that each LaCie drive purchased will
be bundled with their award-winning services.

For one year following software installation Carbonite will automatically
backup the LaCie drive by finding new and modified files, encrypting them
twice before leaving the original workstation, then transmitting them by
HTTPS (SSL) to a secure data center, where the information remains
encrypted, protecting the user¹s privacy. Additionally, backups are
completed only when the computer is idle, so the process never interferes
with computer performance.

³Taking into account the quality of information users place on our drives we
wanted to go beyond our expertise in hardware to provide the best options to
our customers,² said Philippe Spruch, LaCie Chief Executive Officer. ³LaCie
Online Backup provides one year of unlimited online storage to showcase the
importance of backup strategies that keep data safe, and our dedication to
helping users get there.²

LaCie is known for developing security technology products for Mac, PC, and
Linux users, and the creation of the LaCie One Year Online Backup package
aims to increase the overall value to consumers who choose to manage their
digital content through external hardware. LaCie One Year Online Backup will
be available in November for PC users, with a Mac version to be released at
a later date.

Availability
Unlimited LaCie Online Backup will be available at no extra charge for one
full year beginning November 2008 on LaCie consumer hard drives.

[LaCie and Carbonite]

The internal investigation by the contract manufacturer determined that the virus was accidentally transferred by one of its employees and not a malicious act.

Reuters reported that it was a Seagate disk discovered in Taiwan, but the truth is, the Maxtor Basics 3200 (aka PS 3200) is available all over the world, and the infected lot made its way to many regions including China, Russia and the Middle East. Our source confirmed that the problem was discovered internally almost two months ago, and only boiled over last week when the Taiwanese government got mad at China:

In late September, Seagate discovered that a virus had been introduced to one of our retail products from one contract manufacturer. Seagate put an immediate stop to the production line and quarantined the facility until we could confirm that all drives leaving the factory were free of the virus.

Maxtor explains that the extent of damage of the Chinese-made Trojan-horse was minor:

Investigation...showed it was a threat to gaming passwords only and that a virus scan...would rid the drive—and any system attached to it—of the virus. Also, there have been some references to the virus deleting MP3s. Although it is a minor inaccuracy, this is also incorrect. The original suspicion out of Kaspersky Labs was that MP3s were being deleted by the virus, but tests have since proved that it does not.

• Test software verifies that each PS 3200 unit contains no files in the root directory and no files are hidden in the system files. The PS 3200 product line does not ship with any software.
• The PS 3200 test procedure has been updated to run each unit through three separate anti-virus software applications (Norton, McAfee, and Kaspersky Labs). Previously testing was conducted with one anti-virus application.
• Seagate has strictly limited employees access to the test PCs; all employees must now pass through metal detectors.

Metal detectors sound pretty hardcore, but I for one am satisfied. Hopefully other companies with similar manufacturing vulnerabilities will learn from Seagate's little misadventure. [Maxtor Basics 3200]

Press Release

LaCie Ethernet Disk mini [ExtremeTech]

Options and pricing for LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini [Amazon]

The MSRP for the 600GB version is $549.95, while the 1TB will cost you $899.95. Both will be available by December this year.

Press Release [Maxtor]
Product Page [Maxtor]