HP Pocket Media Drive PD0800: Cartridge-Style Portable Hard Drive

Posted by newbie Thursday, July 5, 2007 0 comments

USB-Powered portable hard drives are a new standard in convenience for people needing to back up and transport large amounts of data. Hp's Pocket Media Drives go one step further. If you have an HP Pavilion desktop with an HP Pocket Media Drive bay, you can pop the drive into the bay like a cassette into a deck. Owners of other PCs will have to connect the drive to the computer via a USB cable, which is easy enough, particularly as no external power source is required. Data transfer over the internal USB 2.0 interface tested slightly faster than average for an external drive.

The PD0800 comes with a nicely designed case and Sonic BackUp MyPC SE, a lightweight backup utility. HP sells only 80GB (which we tested) and 120GB versions of the hard drive. If you have a PC with a Pocket Media Drive bay, you just pop the drive in. You retrieve it by pressing the Eject button. PD0800 comes with a dual-headed USB cable for use with other computers. It's a little more work that way, but still very convenient.

Though it's pricier than its competition, if you have one of the supported HP Pavilion desktops, the Pocket Media Drive is worth the cost.
HP Pocket Media Drive PD0800: $130