After a quick exchange with Apricorn technical support, I learned that the enrollment script will be satisfied with two good fingerprints out of three, which explains why a third spurious reading was not always rejected. I also learned that those conditions don't mean the sensor isn't working properly, nor that false positives are possible. In fact, I didn't experience any false positives during my testing.

The Bottom Line Apricorn Aegis Bio Apricorn, apricorn.com Very Good  8.6 criteria score weight Performance 8 20% Reliability 9 20% Security 10 20% Capacity 8 15% Management 7 15% Value 9 10% Cost: Starts at $180 for 80GB capacity Platforms: Mac OS 9 and OS X; Windows 2000, XP, and Vista Bottom Line: The ease of use, reliability, and large capacity of the Apricorn Aegis Bio are a perfect complement to its 128-bit AES encryption, guarded by smooth fingerprint authentication that follows the drive on any machine with a USB port. The Aegis Bio speed is consistent with a 5,400-rpm, 2.5-inch SATA drive. With a price that is not too far from unprotected devices with similar capacity and performance, the only mar on this secure drive is a management suite that is not too friendly to large corporate deployments. About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology

When fingerprint enrollment was complete, the installation script asked permission to format the drive. After a few seconds, my Aegis Bio was ready to use, but a little LED on the device was lit red to show that data access was still locked. I swiped my finger on the sensor and the LED immediately turned green. Fast and easy.

Interestingly, before authentication, Windows Explorer didn't even see a drive where Aegis Bio was mounted. It actually asked me to insert one. After authenticating, Explorer was able to see the drive and display its content.

An unexpected boon of the Apricorn software is that it installs add-ons for Internet Explorer and Firefox, opening the opportunity to use your fingers to log in to Web sites. In fact, those add-ons can intercept and store your user IDs and passwords and automatically insert them in a Web form when you scan your fingerprint.

It works, but certainly is not the main reason to install Aegis Bio. I did not try this, but according to Apricorn, the Aegis fingerprint authentication can be used to switch users on a Windows XP box.

Testing the drive with SiSoftware Sandra's File System benchmark didn't reveal any significant speed differences between the Aegis and similar drives. Encryption obviously doesn't slow down the unit much, if at all.

I also liked that fingerprint authentication works on any machine, so there's no need to install the management software on each one. In fact, I was able to use the drive on Linux Ubuntu and on Windows XP Home machines. This means that you can, regardless of the OS available, take your work home or elsewhere in absolute privacy.

However, to unlock the drive using a password instead of fingerprints, you need to use the management software, which also gives the opportunity to enroll a new password or new fingerprints.

Aegis Bio doesn't come with centralized administrative software. To manage multiple users, Apricorn suggests setting a password before assigning the drive to each user. Users will still be able to scan their fingerprints independently, but you, as an admin, maintain the ability to unlock the content using the password and to reassign the drive to a different user when needed.

Appropriately, the password authentication screen automatically displays the serial number to make it easier to identify a device out of a large group. Not perfect, but it works, as long as your users don't know the password. However, it won't scale well to serve many users.

I enjoyed my evaluation of the Aegis Bio, but it's a pity that the drive doesn't come with a more sophisticated centralized management system. That shortcoming could hamper deployment in large corporate environments.

If this doesn't deter you, the Aegis Bio, with capacities ranging from 80GB to 250GB and a price starting around $180, could become your best ally in keeping corporate data safe on the road. But be warned that using the fingerprint reader can be addicting; your users may never want to go back to the old way after they try it.