Canvio: Toshiba's first 1TB portable hard drive

Editor's note: This article was updated at 8 p.m. March 29th with the statement about the Cavino being the first 1TB portable hard drive on the market removed.

You can easily find a full-size single volume external hard drive that offers 2TB of storage. For portable solutions, however, the top capacity still remains at 1TB and you'll have another option starting today as Toshiba introduced its own.

The company announced Monday the new Canvio Portable Hard Drive, which has a capacity up to 1TB. Despite the large amount of storage, the new drive remains compact and portable, measuring just 3.1 inches wide by 4.7 inches long by 0.65 inch deep and weighing only 6.3 ounces.

The Canvio comes with only one USB 2.0 port that works both for the data and power connection. Unfortunately, the drive doesn't support USB 3.0, which offers significantly higher throughput speeds than USB 2.0.

Toshiba says that the new drive is designed to help PC users back up their data conveniently. The drive comes with NTI BackupNow EZ backup software that offers "set-it-and-forget-it" operation. The software also has search capabilities and simple step-by-step restore functionality to retrieve lost files.

For advanced users, the Canvio drive's software offers customization features, including extensive backup options, advanced restore functionality, and the capability to overwrite specific original files. The Canvio also provides an option for complete system backup, enabling users to restore the entire computer in case the system is unable to start.

The new Canvio external hard drive comes with a three-year warranty and is available in five colors: Raven Black, Satin Silver, Liquid Blue, Rocket Red, and Komodo Green.

The drive is available for purchase now in four capacities: 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, and 1TB. The 1TB version costs around $200, which seems like a very good deal in terms of cost per gigabyte.