Unlike the mobile hard drives from Maxtor, Western Digital and WiebeTech, the Transcend model is based on a 2.5" hard drive. It achieves sound performance; it only brings up the rear in terms of seek time.

That said, this portable hard drive's lightness and very compact dimensions are invaluable benefits. Fujitsu's much larger HandyDrives can't really keep up in this area. Only the SPIO from ValuePlus plays in the same league.

One handicap in our opinion is the fact that it draws its power through a PS/2 cable. While you need the cable in order to run the portable hard drive, there are a disquieting number of notebooks that don't even have a PS/2 interface. On this point, Transcend disqualifies itself from the running.