Toshiba EasyGuard and EasyMedia: Big and clever hard drives

Toshiba has announced new ranges of hard drives at IFA that it believes are larger or cleverer than anything that came before them.

First up is EasyGuard, which is all about hoarding and protecting your data. The first product in the range is an external 2.5-inch laptop hard drive with a massive 320GB capacity and a 'freefall' sensor that protects the read/write heads in the event of shocks or drops.

The second EasyGuard product is a "ruggedised" (but not freefall-enabled) external hard drive with a fingerprint reader (pictured). The idea is that this'll keep your data secure, so long as you don't accidentally leave your fingers at home. Prices are unconfirmed, but you should be able to buy them any day now.

The other range is EasyMedia, which includes a 1.8-inch 100GB drive. Toshiba thinks this is the highest capacity small-footprint drive in the world. Expect it to show up in iPod-style devices and portable media players in the near future.

EasyMedia also includes a 1TB network-attached storage (NAS) device known as the Toshiba 1TB EasyMedia HardDisk. It's pretty sexy for a NAS drive -- we like the green front and rear panels, and the sleek overall design.

Again, pricing is unconfirmed, but expect them to hit a PC World near you soon. -Rory Reid.