I don't know anything about portable drives per se, but i have been very impressed and happy with my VST products and i know that they make portables. on the other hand i wouldn't recommend maxtor, iomega, or archos products. maxtor has terrible support if you do get in a jam and the other two just tend to make unreliable products. (i went thru 5 or 6 zip drives before vst started making them)