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Mini-hard drives that can store music, data and maybe a few hundred files from the office are in the parade of gadgetry at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week.

Creative introduced its new Zen Micro MP3 Players -- in 1GB, 4GB and 6GB models that boast having more song capacity and more features than the Apple iPod mini. The Flash memory-based models go for $199 for the 1GB and $229 for the 4GB model, according to the company.

"Since we first shipped the Zen Micro 5GB model in November, we have experienced tremendous demand and sold out in many locations," Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative, said in a statement.

Hoo said the 5GB model of the Zen Micro enjoyed such a successful retail launch that the company quickly rolled out the three new versions.

Meanwhile Memorex introduced the M-Flyer, the newest member of its TravelDrive USB 2.0 Flash drives. It features up to 2GB of storage and read speeds of up to 25MB per second and write speeds of up to 17MB per second, according to the company.

M-Flyer also has a retractable USB connector, software suite, scratch-resistant stainless steel casing and a number of convenient accessories. Memorex said the sleek M-Flyer is a response to a growing trend in the USB Flash drive category that has seen the digital storage device become fashionable, much like cell phone products.

More in Mini Storage at CES

Seagate will begin shipping a CompactFlash Photo Hard Drive with a massive 5GB capacity next month (see image). Unlike the 4GB CF flash card from TEAC, this CF card uses a tiny hard disk drive rather than static flash memory. It is the first 5GB CF storage card ever introduced.

There will also be a 2.5GB model. The new cards are for any device with a CF Type II slot, including PDAs and smartphones. Pricing isn't available.

Sony doubles the memory capacity of its Memory Stick flash memory line with the introduction a 4GB Memory Stick PRO. It is due in March for about $900.

Archos plans to ship a 4GB ARCDrive USB flash drive later this month for about $150. It weighs only 1.4 ounces.

Kingston will soon release two new digital media products for mobile handsets and other mobile digital device markets: Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC) cards and mini Secure Digital (miniSD) cards.

As Kingston's Digital Media Product Manager Mike Kuppinger acknowledges, "Currently there are a handful of devices that take advantage of RS-MMC and miniSD cards." He expects these types of cards to become widely used in the next 18 months, however.

The RS-MMC cards will come in 64MB ($20) and 128MB ($25) capacities. While the miniSD models will also sell in 64MB ($17) and 128MB ($28) sizes, there will be a 256MB ($42) card as well.

Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC) adds new high-capacity 4GB ($500) and 2GB ($300) high-speed Compact Flash (CF) cards to its flash memory lineup. The 4GB card lets you store, for example, more than 156 uncompressed frames at eight megapixels—the highest resolution currently offered by most digital cameras.

The high-speed card is targeted for very demanding applications in digital photography, digital video, high-resolution digital still cameras, PDAs, other high-end portable electronics devices. The new CF cards are currently sampling.

Pretec is demonstrating what it asserts is the fastest USB flash drive in the world, the iDisk Tiny 166X, with access speed up to 24.9MB/s. There is also another drive, called the iDisk II, with capacities up to 8GB.

The company is currently sampling its next generation iDisk Tiny 266X USB flash drive with read and write speeds of 39.9MB/s and 19.9MB/s, respectively. iDisk Tiny 266X is scheduled to debut by the second half of the year.