Hitachi SimpleTech SimpleDRIVE Mini

The Hitachi SimpleTech SimpleDRIVE Mini is an external USB 2.0 hard drive that comes in three different colors/capacities: Red Wine(250GB), Blue Dusk(320GB) and Carbon Fiber(500GB). The first two have a velvet-soft matte finish and easy grip sides while the Carbon Fiber model has a smooth semi-gloss coating.

All models have the same operation LED lights on the underside which provide an ambient glow when in use. These were introduced by Hitachi(owner of SimpleTech since February 2009) in early 2009 along with the SimpleNET network adapter and the SimpleTOUGH external hard drive. They come formatted with the NTFS file system for Windows XP and Vista computers but are fully compatible with Mac OS X via a quick format before use. Hitachi Local Backup(formerly called Fabrik Local Backup) is included, which is a user-configurable program that can be set to automatically backup any file type from any location on the computer. An online backup option available to SimpleTech drive owners is called Hitachi Ultimate Backup(formerly Fabrik Ultimate Backup). This gives you a free 2GB account which is upgradeable to unlimited storage for about five dollars a month. These drives are about the same size as the Signature Mini series which is quite compact considering those could fit in a coat pocket with ease. They do have a much different incongruent shape that is more rugged in it's design.