LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive (120GB, USB/FireWire/FireWire 800)

The good: The rubber bumper and the scratch-protected aluminum case keep your LaCie Rugged All-Terrain drive looking good and working hard. It's fast and quiet and comes with backup software.

The bad: LaCie's telephone support line is not toll-free.

The bottom line: LaCie's Rugged All-Terrain portable hard drive is an all-around winner: it's fast, it's durable, and it boasts multiple connection options. This belongs in your laptop bag.

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Description: The LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive is a 120GB, external hard disk drive. Compared to other external hard drives on the market, it is relatively inexpensive at around $105. Its burst transfer rate is 800 MBps. Can connect with both FireWire and USB 2.0 for increased portability. This is a 5400 rpm drive and has an 8MB cache.

Pros: Connects to your PC via high speed USB 2.0 or FireWire cables. This product can also connect to older USB ports, but the transfer rates will be fairly slow.

Cons: Spins at only 5400 rpm. This is not out of line with the product's price, but is slower than the average hard drive on the market today.

Suitability: Suited for those who don't want to take apart their computer to add another hard drive -- just plug it in.

Value: Given its relatively inexpensive price, this hard drive has great features for the money.