Products & Ideas...

Having lost more than my share of data over the years, I always make sure to have an extra hard drive hooked up to my computer. I use it for extra storage (those digital photos take up a lot of room) and to back up my files.

I'm not looking to replace my current external drive, but if I were, I'd start looking with Fabrik's new [re]Drive, which the company bills as the world's most energy-efficient external drive.

The [re]Drive is manufactured with bamboo (a sustainable resource) and recyclable aluminum, and is packaged in eco-friendly materials. The aluminum is a key eco feature of the drive -- it acts as a heat sink, cooling the drive without using additional energy, so the drive doesn't need a fan to keep it cool. The [re]Drive automatically powers on and off with your computer (I wish my current drive did that), and uses the Turbo USB 2.0 interface, which is up to 25% faster than regular USB 2.0 and is therefore more energy efficient. It includes an Energy Star® Level 4-qualified power adapter, which Fabrik says provides up to 30% greater power savings over non-Energy Star adapters.

All told, Fabrik says the [re]Drive uses up to 90% less power than traditional external drives. Not too shabby!

The [re]Drive is popping up on online retail sites now, with prices at $149.99 and less.