Sure this isn’t the most attractive or exciting device ever, but in terms of practicality, it’s pretty cool. Aleratec’s 1:1 HDD PortaCruiser Lightweight and Portable Hard Disk Drive Duplicator lets you easily clone 2.5″ and 3.5″ hard drives for backing up your data.

It also functions as a Dual Disk RAID Controller so you can attach two hard drives to it, connect it to a USB 2.0 port and use it as external storage. The 2-line LCD display makes things even easier. And it weighs only 8 ounces, so you can carry it with you.

If your computer is vital to your business or pleasure, you may want to seriously consider something a bit more substantial than just backing up your data. Even if you have a recent back up, getting the OS installed and the software back on a new HDD can take hours.

What you need is a HDD clone device like the new 1:1 HDD Copy Cruiser Mini from Alereatec. The device makes an exact clone of your HDD down to the MBR and all partitions. That means in the event of a failure you just change the drive and keep working.

Aleratec, a developer of devices for mass duplication of data onto different media formats, announced today a new USB flash drive duplicator which can work without a computer. It is called the Aleratec 1:11 USB Copy Tower SA and pricing is set at around $1,575.

The Aleratec 1:11 USB Copy Tower SA lets you copy, compare, or erase up to 11 flash drives simultaneously. Controls are handled via a simplistic front panel interface with backlit LCD display. This display “indicates the function selected and also monitors progress and status of each operation and displays the results.”