Netgear’s Storage Central - Model SC101 (£79.98 inc VAT) is a hard disk enclosure with built-in disc controllers and networking features. This device emulates one or more logical drives using one or two physical IDE or PATA hard disks and provides a shareable storage facility accessible by all windows computers on a DHCP enabled network. A Storage Area Network (SAN) is a collection of storage devices linked to the local area network which are accessed and administered as one central pool, such storage does not require a specific computer to be running for file.

The wizard accompanying the friendly, easy-to-use Storage Central Manager software assigned an IP address to each drive in the device. We could then make up a name for the selected drive and set aside part of that physical drive’s capacity for storage. For example, you can effectively split a single 300GB drive into two 150GB volumes, each of which receives its own drive letter.

Once you’re through assigning volumes, you’ll see those parts of the SC101’s storage that are visible to each machine as a normal drive letter, not a mapped network drive, as with many Web administrated NAS boxes. The SC101 also has a feature normally found only in storage-area networks (SANs): the ability to create volumes that span multiple SC101s. If you add another SC101 Storage Central unit, you can access them separately or allocate space from both units as if they were a single volume. Alas, though Netgear told us that it’s developing Mac and Linux drivers, for now, the SC101 is for Windows XP, 2000, and 2003 Server machines only. For backup for users who don’t already have a favorite backup program, Netgear bundles the box with Storage Sync Pro.

After you attach the power cord and run an Ethernet cable to your router, you’ll need to install the Storage Central Management Utility software from the included CD on each computer you wish to have access to the SC101. The Netgear SC101 isn’t accessed via an IP address like many NAS boxes, but the software is easy to use and guides you nicely through the drive configuration process. However, less technically inclined readers should go over the manual first, and everyone should have a plan for how to divvy up the storage space. The SC101 allows you to divide the storage space, as well as share it among individual users. For example, you can assign part of the SC101’s total storage capacity to your upstairs computer for private use, assign another part to the computer in the home office, then share part of it across all of the machines in the house for multimedia use, file transfer, and so on. There’s no power switch on the mini-toaster-size unit, so home users might want to hook it up to a power strip or another switchable power source for shutdown during nonaccess hours.

Netgear calls it a NAS device and touts block-level transfer as a performance feature. However, this is a network-connected device, so speeds are not going to be out of this world. Don’t expect to be able to use the drive for video editing, for example. A better bet for speed-critical storage might be an external SATA enclosure.

Mimoco has been releasing a number of custom Mimobots from professional artists, but they recently took the USB drive world by storm when they announced a series of Stars Wars drives. The first Stars Wars series will feature drives in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB capacities featuring four iconic characters from the movies: Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, and R2-D2. The drives would not only look like a cute, cartoony version of the characters but come preloaded with bonus materials from the series, like wallpapers, avatars, icons, and trailers.

Darth Vader was the first character from the Star Wars mimobot Series released, and fittingly he was also the first one to reach sold out status! Only 3,500 of the dark Jedi (who is more machine than man) were available, and we’re sorry to say, they’re gone… and not coming back. Luckily, now there’s Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo, so while you can’t have a certified Sith Lord guard your data, you can leave those precious files in the capable hands of a certified Bounty Hunter, Jedi Apprentice, Princess of Alderaan or Spice Smuggler.

Star Wars mimobot Series comes preloaded with exclusive Star Wars content, ranging from all six full-length theatrical trailers to wallpapers, icons, and avatars, to the mimobot soundByte™ program. Now when you plug your Darth Vader into your computer, you can hear what the Dark Lord of the Sith has to say.

The drive comes preloaded with a zipped file holding all the software goodies. These include a Flash-based video player, teaser trailers for all six Star Wars, launch trailers for all six, wallpapers (largest sizes are 1600×1200 and 1680×1050), icons, and avatars. The software is compatible with both Macs and PCs.

Fujitsu today unveiled the world’s highest-capacity 2.5″ drive yet at 300GB. They showed off the drive in a USB-powered external enclosure. It runs at 4,200RPM and has a 16-point shock absorber along with an array of security software. It is expected to hit retail in Q3 at $229. There is no word on when the bare drive will be available.

The 300GB MAW3300NC is an enterprise hard disk drive offering 10K RPM spindle speeds and features an 8MB data buffer for optimizing the overall drive performance. It utilizes Fujitsu’s Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) technology to assure remarkably quiet operation. Connecting via an Ultra320 SCSI interface, the MAW300NC provides accelerated performance, making it perfect for NAS, DAS, or SANs. It is also in compliance with the RoHS initiative, which calls for the elimination of hazardous substances from the manufacturing of electronic equipment.

It’s difficult to dispute the practicality of a 2.5in external hard disk, and the HandyDrive is a case in point. It weighs only 255g, and at 82 x 22 x 142mm (WDH) it’s small enough to fit into a pocket. Although it comes with an extra USB cable to plug in to draw power, in practice the three laptops we tested with all supplied enough juice to run the drive. It also supplies 300GB of storage, which is ample for use as a photographer’s friend, or simply for toting around very large documents. It’s fast, too: writing 100MB of files took only ten seconds, so getting large folders across is painless. Consider the exceptionally low price of £110 - just over 36p per gigabyte - and this is a must-have addition to any traveller’s bag.