Portable USB hard drives are a way of life for backing up and/or transporting your data (and apps, music, etc.) But all such drives are certainly not created equal.

The extra features that the Aegis Bio drive from Apricorn, Inc. offers make it a GreatLakesGeek recommended product.

The word "Aegis" means to protect or shield and the Aegis Bio drive offers layers of protection. The large capacities of portable drives is certainly a good thing but it increases the magnitude of the calamity if/when the drive is lost or stolen.

You can easily have most or all of your data on a drive so you need to be extremely careful with it. A loss of your personal, sensitive data is, of course, a great concern for you in these days of identity theft. And if your drive holds company or customer information there may (should) be a company policy to protect that data. Legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley and others make the security of mobile devices part of the mandated compliance strategy.

The Aegis Bio helps protect your sensitive and important data. It includes a built-in biometric fingerprint scanner to insure that only authorized people can access the drive. Until a fingerprint scan succeeds, the drive is not accessible. You can register up to ten fingerprint profiles on the drive, so you can use a few fingers and colleagues who may need access can scan their fingers too.

Note that you do NOT need to install software on systems to recognize the drive. Once you register your prints, you can plug it into any system. Your fingerprint is not stored. The biometric sensor matches you to your specific fingerprint profile.

I've registered a few of my fingers and scanning them gives me access, while trying another unregistered finger generates a media not present" situation. Very nice and easy. And no passwords to remember! (Note - when you first register, you create and admin backup password that is stored away from the drive.)

I really like the form factor of the drive. It's about the size of a deck of cards (4.7" x 3.3" x 0.7" - 6.2 oz) and has a 16-point omni-directional shock mounting system to protect against drops. About a 5" USB 2 cable is built into the drive so you may not need any other cable. This short cable works better with a laptop or USB hub that is sitting on a table than a tower configuration with USB ports in the middle of the system.

It comes with a USB Y-cable to both extend the range of the cable if needed and to grab extra power from certain laptops that might not provide enough in a single USB port. Normally you won't need the Y-cable or any other cable to power the drive.

The drive gets formatted as FAT32 for maximum compatibility and it is not limited to a 32GB or other size partition. It comes in capacities up to 250GB.

If you need to re-set the system (lost admin password and fingerprints not available) there is a master reset tool. This completely wipes the entire device and returns it to a preformatted state. You don't need to use a wipedisk or scrubber tool first.

You can use the fingerprint scanner to login to forms and websites without remembering a password. Depending on your setup, you may be able to use it for your Windows logon as well. It works with Windows 2000, XP and Vista and Mac OS 9.2 and up.

The drive ships with the Y-cable, a padded travel pouch, a quick-start guide and the software CD.

The convenience (no power cable, no USB cable, small size) and the security features (biometric scanner, encryption, etc.) make this the best portable hard drive I've seen so far.