There’s no shortage of external hard disks around if you need a bit more storage space, but few that currently support the upcoming eSata standard for connecting external disks.

This type of super-fast connection works around six times faster than the current fastest (and most popular), USB2, and comes as standard with Freecom’s Hard Disk Pro range. If your computer doesn't work with eSata yet you’ll find either USB2 or Firewire included as well, depending on which model you buy.

The device itself is a fairly simple affair from the outside: a brushed aluminium case with black plastic on the back and front. It’s stylish enough as such things go. Aside from the connections on the back there are just two buttons on the front for power and for automatically synchronising it with the PC, using the supplied software.

There are two sets of software supplied in the box: Freecom’s media suite and backup tools, and Acronis TrueImage. The latter can create an image – an exact copy of an entire partition or hard drive – which can be copied to the external disk as a backup, and updated when files or folders change on the computer.

Alternatively Freecom Backup can be used to choose specific files, folders or file types, and Personal Media Suite offers encryption and the aforementioned auto synchronisation. This isn’t a particularly friendly program to use, though, as it doesn't give a lot of information on drive activity and the initial interface makes it a little awkward to set up and manage backups.

Anyone wanting to use the auto-sync button will have to battle through it, though. Once it's set up, it works when the user drags files or folders into the synchronisation folder on the backup disk. When these are modified on the computer's internal hard disk the auto-sync button updates the copy to reflect the changes.

These are all fairly standard features as far as external hard disks go, so it would have been nice if Freecom made them a little more accessible. This aside, we have no problems with the drive itself: it has a very solid feel, looks stylish and, provided you’ll take advantage of the eSata standard at some point, represents reasonable value for money. The device we looked at has a capacity of 500GB, but smaller disks are available for less.

Vista compatible: Yes