Cost effective portable storage
 

What's the most efficient portable (external, USB-connected) data storage available? I've got a 128Mb USB 'pen drive', but sometimes this isn't big enough. So, what's the best way to store more?

• A card reader and compactflash cards?
• An IDE HDD with IDE/USB convertor cable? (large capacity but heavy and without a 'nice' enclosure)
• Another 'pen drive'?
• something else that I've not thought of?

With regards to capacity, I'm thinking of something up to 1Gb (ish).

External USB hard drives are quite cheap, size may be a problem though but for pound-per-meg you can't beat it.

You could use an iPod :)

...except I don't have an iPod. It uses a 2.5" (laptop) HDD. Such HDDs are an option, I suppose, but I haven't found any nice enclosures/adapters. Well, I did... I found one for 45 USD from a US vendor, except they wanted another 45 USD for shipping to the UK!

Additional size isn't too much of a problem, as long as it's good value. What device(s) were you thinking about?

For work I sometimes need to transfer about 60Gigs worth of data between machines that aren't connected, so I have a Lacie 120Gig external USB2.0 7200rpm drive which does the job just fine.

My phone uses secure digital cards.. I use that to transfer stuff between work and home... they get a bit pricey over 256mb though...