Most of us have had the frustrating experience of witnessing the not-so-hard aspect of the external hard drive once it has had a fall. I did recently. As my little son tugged at the USB cable of the hard disk while it was connected to the PC and brought the disk down to the ground with a huge thud, it not only stopped my heart for what seemed like ages, but also corrupted the disk for good. Though I swore then to never use it while he was pottering around, promises like these are easier said than done and I can already see my next hard disk drive go down the same path soon.

But help seems to be at hand for people like us who like to court danger at our desks once too often - the ToughDrive Sport - a USB(2.0), shock-proof external hard drive that takes your abuse with a smile, all the while retaining your data intact.

The ToughDrive Sport is designed for rough terrain - it can withstand falling on a flat surface from upto a height of 2-metres and an applied force of upto 300G during operation and upto 1000G when not being used. Inspite of being ready to handle this kind of toughness, the design of the ToughDrive Sport is nothing but uber-sleek - it is small enough (2.5-inches) to fit into your pocket and comes with an integrated USB cable that has a trendy climbing rope texture, sans a noisy cooling fan. Additionally, it also has an MD5 encrypted secure 256-bit password protection which ensures that the data can be accessed only by the right hands, rough as they may be. You can get transfer speeds of upto 480Mbps. There is even backup software included on the drive to help you make hassle-free copies of your data.

Good enough to toss in with the rest of your camping gear on that next adventure trip. Available in 250GB ($144), 320GB ($170) and 500GB ($223) capacities and currently only in Europe.

Via The Red Ferret.