THE BEST Hard Drives

Western Digital’s fat external hard drive maxes out at a whopping 6TB. Has FireWire 800/400, eSATA and USB 2.0 interfaces. The enclosure can easily be opened if you need to replace the drives.

André Silva’s concept design integrates a storage device (in HD or SSD versions), along with LED under-body lighting and a top that doubles as a multi-touch trackpad. LaCie, please take a look.

Go Back to the Future and back up your data with Flash Rods’ 1/18th scale DeLorean external hard drive. It comes with a 500GB Seagate USB drive, and works great with Time Machine. Get it?

A dead simple home network and storage solution, the My Book Live has a built-in media server and backup software. Stream to any network-connected Mac or PC, DLNA device and even iOS devices.

LaCie is all about small storage devices these days. Alongside the MosKeyto comes the Minimus. Small in both size and prize, it’s a 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive in an aluminum case.

Designed by Sylvain Willenz, the Mobile Drive CLS is an homage to VHS and cassette tapes – the label in front makes it easier to organize and identify your drives. Time to make a massive mixtape.

LaCie’s follow-up to the Rikiki portable hard drive retains the sleek look of its predecessor and adds practicality with an integrated USB cable and holder. Available in 500GB and 1TB.

The GoFlex Desk external hard drives have a maximum capacity of 3TB. The GoFlex interfaces (USB 2.0 included; USB 3.0 & FW 800 sold separately) add versatility to the drives.

These handmade wooden external hard drives are crafted from repurposed materials by 2 furniture makers in Seattle. Each one comes with 500GB of storage and a USB 2.0 connection.

Western Digital brings its always-on e-label display to its My Passport Studio external drive; available with 320GB, 500GB, or 640GB, it’s made for Macs but can be reformatted for PCs.

Western Digital gets up to speed with its My Book 3.0; it’s the first available external hard drive with a speedy 4.8 Gb/s USB 3.0 interface and comes in 1 TB and 2 TB sizes.

It may not be the smallest portable hard drive, but LaCie’s Rikiki is one of the sleekest; it sports a brushed aluminum housing with up to 640 GB, weighs 5.6 oz, and measures 1/2″ thick.

Designed for both staring and storing, LaCie’s Starck external hard drives (available in Mobile or Desktop flavors) sport a curvy millimeters-thick aluminum shell with up to 2 TB of space.

Iomega’s eGo Helium is a portable 2.5″ hard drive for MacBook Air owners; it sports a sleek, 1″ thick anodized aluminum case that weighs only 7 oz, yet can withstand falls of up to 51″.