Holiday Gear Guide: Great Gear Under $50

Part one of Macworld's 2009 Holiday Gear Guide looks at affordable gifts under $50.

Best Black Friday storage dealsAmong this year's Black Friday bargains, PC World has found 1TB external models for $80, and a wave of 500GB portable drives for between $60 and $80.
Buffalo ships USB 3.0 hard driveIn spite of rumors that the first USB 3.0 products wouldn't surface until the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Buffalo Technology has now shipped an external hard drive with USB 3.0 support.

Review: iStoragePro Pocket portable hard drive Ci Design's iStoragePro Pocket is one of the fastest portable hard drives we’ve ever looked at.
Review: Raidon Stardom DeckRAID DR4 The DeckRAID DR4 has a solid premise: offer a flat, stylish, easy-to-use RAID 5 solution for Mac users, particularly the oft-forgotten iMac and Mac Mini crowd.
Review LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive LaCie’s Starck Mobile Hard Drive is a stylish USB drive that features a sturdy aluminum exterior and a wealth of enticing features that should excite hardware enthusiasts.
Review: Synology Disk Station DS409slim network-attached storage device Synology's Disk Station DS409slim is a good idea, but it is a long way from being a consumer-friendly network-attached storage unit.
Review: LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive The LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive is a creatively-designed USB drive that features an unconventional aluminum case design and some equally distinct features.

Four ways to access files from afar If you work in lots of locations, you may find yourself wishing you could access your files from everywhere. Here are four ways to do just that.
Upgrading a MacBook Pro's hard drive Laptop in one hand, replacement raw drive in the other. No, you needn't reinstall everything when you install the new hard drive.
Build your own photo booth Liven up your parties and weddings with an easy DIY photo set-up that won't break the bank.
Recover from digital photo disasters Got a little too enthusiastic about pressing the Delete button on your camera? With a little know-how you can quickly recover lost photos and protect your digital memories.
Put spare hard drives to work What to do with that stack of old hard drives gathering dust? Here are three suggestions.

Spring cleaning—but how? What happens when you find a bunch of old floppy disks and you haven't had a drive in years? Jackie Dove found out when she uncovered some old fonts stored on floppy disk.