Iomega Micro Mini

Iomega's 64MB Micro Mini, the smallest drive we tested, is about half the size of your thumb. Measuring just 1.5 inches long, 0.62 inches wide, and 0.38 inches thick, it won't obstruct any adjacent USB ports on your PC, although it's liable to disappear if you don't keep your eye on it. The Micro Mini comes with three interchangeable caps in a variety of colors (in our case, black, dark blue, and orange), plus a ball-chain necklace and a belt hook for those inclined toward accessorizing. The Iomega Micro Mini's cap swivels to expose the USB interface, and a blue LED blinks during file transfers.

The coolest thing about the Micro Mini is that it comes with Iomega's handy and unique Active Disk technology, which lets you use certain applications on any computer you plug into, even if the computer doesn't have those programs installed. A number of Active Disk-enabled programs are available for free on Iomega's Web site, including Preclick, a photo-editing app; PocoMail for e-mail; Musicmatch Jukebox, a digital-music player; and many more. Take note, however, that these programs use space on the already space-challenged 64MB Micro Mini. You don't need to install any software to use the Iomega Micro Mini. However, if you're using Windows 98 or an earlier version of the OS, you'll have to download drivers from &siteid=7&edid=&lop=txt&destcat=ex_1&destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eiomega%2Ecom%2Fsoftware%2F">Iomega's Web site. The same goes for Mac fans using OS 8.6 or older.

Iomega plans to release versions of the Micro Mini with higher capacities. The 64MB model costs about $50, or about 78 cents per megabyte, which is fairly expensive compared to the cost of other drives we looked at. However, Iomega's larger Mini drive is available in capacities ranging from 128MB to 1GB, and the 128MB model costs around $70, which is a better deal per megabyte than the Micro Mini.

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