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Hard drive

Seagate has begun shipping its first external hard drive, a 160GB beast the company reckons is the most rugged in the consumer market.

The drive is encased in an acrylic/polycarbonate shell designed to be mounted vertically or horizontally. The case also features a locking mechanism to make multiple drives easy to stack. Plenty of ventilation grilles allow all that 7200rpm-generated heat to dissipate safely whichever way the drive is oriented. That makes it run much cooler than other external drives, says Seagate. It's quiet, too, the company claims.

The drive also hooks into the bundled back-up software, allowing users to copy over the contents of their PC's main drive at the push of a button on the external unit itself.

Seagate bundles USB 2.0 and 1394 cables for connection to a PC or a Mac. Available in the US, the drive retails for around $269. A $299 200GB model is due later in the year. ®