A SVELTE SPARE HARD DRIVE FOR THE ROAD THE HARD DRIVES IN many laptop computers are a lot like suitcases: They quickly fill up with stuff, and you can't squeeze in everything you want to take with you on the road. What's more, unlike hard drives in desktop computers, replacing or upgrading the main storage device in a portable computer is neither easy nor cheap. Avatar Peripherals in Milpitas, Calif., a supplier of hard drives to laptop computer makers such as Acer and Texas Instruments, has come up with a low-cost solution. Its Shark 250 is a $299 portable hard drive that users can easily attach to laptops via the printer port. The device, which weighs less than 10 ounces, shares the same components and performance as standard built-in hard drives. But because the unit stores 250 megabytes of data on removable $39 cartridges, owners have more storage for the road. While its storage capacity is one-sixth that offered by similar devices, such as SyQuest's $499 SyJet removable 1.5-gigabyte hard drive introduced last month, the Shark 250 has other advantages. The unit is much smaller because it uses 2.5-inch hard disks and doesn't need a separate power supply--unlike other removable storage devices--since it can draw power from the laptop computer's battery. By Paul Eng EDITED BY IRA SAGER RELATED ITEMS PHOTO: Shark 250 Return to top of story

Updated June 15, 1997 by bwwebmaster
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