Scotts Valley (CA) - Seagate announced availability of its pocket harddrive drive for users who want to carry their digital data in a small form factor device. The company also has begun shipping a 2.5" portable harddrive with 100 GByte capacity.

Seagate's entry in the portable harddrive market now is official. The new pocket harddrive is encased in a sleek palm-sized round shell and offers 5 GByte capacity, the largest drive in this segment so far. About three inches in diameter, the 3600-rpm drive is an alternative to USB sticks to carry around data, pictures, audio or video files.

The 5 GByte pocket drive holds bout 80 hours of MP3 music, can store about 2000 high-resolution digital pictures (five megapixel) or 4.5 hours of digital video. It is connected via an included USB 2.0 cable, which can be rolled up into the casing of the drive. The drive is priced at $200. A 2.5 GByte version carries a suggested retail price of $150.

For users who need more data storage capacity, the company offers a new portable external 5400-rpm hard drive. The 2.5" device is slightly larger than an index card, weighs about one pound and is equipped with an USB 2.0 interface. The drive is priced at $280.