You generally have two choices in operating hard drives outside the actual computer: USB or Firewire. In each case, you have to first buy an external housing with the required connections. Or, you can pick up a ready-made product such as the ones being offered by hard-drive makers Fujitsu, Maxtor, Western Digital for the last few years.

Other manufacturers are starting to sniff the potential of this segment and have begun to flood the market with these devices, pushing down prices in the process.

Although USB 2.0 is the most widespread, it is frequently outperformed by Firewire - notwithstanding the theoretical values of 480 and 400 mbps, respectively.

While the handling differences are slight, some of the designs have been intelligently refined. For example, several devices operating on Firewire are connected serially. With USB, you need star-type distributors called hubs.

Highpoint's e.SATA takes advantage of the fact that, according to its specifications, the connecting cable for Serial ATA 150 can be up to one meter in length. If you use USB 2.0 and Firewire in real-world conditions, on the other hand, you'll discover that serial buses can bridge far greater distances than that.