Get a 1TB USB hard drive for $74.99 shipped

This shiny silver monolith houses a 1TB Hitachi hard drive, but costs just $75 (after rebate).

(Credit: Newegg)

Got storage? Got lots of storage? Newegg has a Hitachi 1TB USB external hard drive for $74.99 shipped. That's one terabyte for those not up on their techno-breviations.

Two caveats. First, there's a rebate involved (PDF). You'll have to pay $99.99 up front, then wait the prerequisite 8-10 weeks for a $25 bailout--er, rebate--check.

Second, the drive is formatted for Macs. That's obviously not a caveat for Mac users, but the Windows crowd will need to reformat the drive. It's an easy process (scan the user reviews for instructions), but it might take a couple hours.

The drive itself is a 7,200rpm Hitachi H31000US (read: faster than the 5,400rpm drives you typically find in USB enclosures) housed in a silver, monolith-looking tower. I know, I know, SATA drives are way faster, but how many desktops and notebooks have eSATA ports? Very few.

(Speaking of speed, if you end up using this drive with a Vista system, I recommend installing a utility like TeraCopy, which makes file copying go much faster.)

The rebate offer expires this Saturday, June 13, so if you're looking for a mountain of external storage for the lowest price I've seen to date, don't wait. Newegg tends to sell out of stuff like this.

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

Thanks Rick. Nice find. One rebate (unlike the previous 1TB you posted which had two very scary large rebates). Since $99 is about the best for an eSATA external this is a good find for those of us that WANT eSATA for speed AND a 7200 rpm. The rebate is a bonus!

"If you get what you paid for, then you paid too much"

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

Sorry its USB2. WAY WAY slower than the 3 GB/s eSATA I want....

[Georgia in MS]

What do yall think of the review that says it takes 8 hours to reformat for use on Windows? Is it worth the effort?

[techfortat]

Even if it does take that long, which is doubtful, if you need the drive and you like the price then it's probably worth it. You don't need to sit in front of it for the whole time, just start the reformatting process and check back every couple of hours until it's done. I usually start that type of task before going to bed so it will be ready in the morning.

[samhardin]

8 hours = 1 night's sleep

What's the big deal even if it's true?

[ktappe]

8 hours to reformat?!? I doubt that is true--a simple reformat should take just a minute or two. If it is, then Windows has more problems than I thought it did....

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

I'm extremely skeptical of this 8 hours format claim. I've never had a format for a drive take that long. Not even with a slow full reformat (as oppoesd to the few minutes for quickformat). Just go into windows disk manager, select the partition and format it. I've found gParted boot disk very handy to repartition and format drives (esp flash disks).

That said, even if it takes 8 hours I would still consider this drive worth it.

[spoondoggydog]

It could take hours to format if it's Mac formatted, for instance, as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". If you're reformatting it to a Windows PC as FAT32 or NTFS, then it'll need to rewrite the drive's entire file structure.

[alegr]

Nobody in the right mind would do the full format that involves scanning the whole drive for unreadable sectors. Yes, such format for a 1000000MB drive would take 8 hours if the linear read speed is 35 MB/s, which is about right for USB 2.0.

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

The is a eSata 3 GB/s drive

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

Darn! its USB2. Arggh how did I miss that. I thought Rick was complaining about it being eSata and most people don't have eSATA. Almost pulled the trigger... phew!

[skimike4]

I hate myself. Just yesterday I got a 1 TB drive for $100, after rebates. <sigh> And I thought that was an awesome deal!

[livingaudio]

bought 2! Thanks Rick (^_^)

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

Rick as far as eSATA goes: If you have SATA on your system (as most people have) and an open SATA port (which is often true) then you can just buy an adapter that adds an external port (a quick search ~$20, but my guess is you can get them for under $15).

3GB/s is in such a different league than USB2.

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

FOUND IT! $3 for an eSATA port http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104063

[t-rock42]

Hey Rick!
Check this one out! 1TB drive for 69.99 shipped, and no rebates! Just use the promotion code, EMCLTMM28

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152173&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL061109&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL061109-_-InternalHardDrives-_-L0C-_-22152173

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

Saw this one too...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145233

Its also an internal drive, add an enclosure for $15 and its still a deal. Buy a eSATA dock with hotswapping for $22 and its even better.

The seagate is 5400 the hitachi is 7200. The seagate has 32 MB cache the hitachi as 16 MB.

[MakaiOokami]

I was going to buy 1 for my PS3 for storing/backing up video files so that I can watch content on the PS3 easier (Even though I still have 100 of my 320GB laptop hard drive that I installed in my PS3 remaining)

But if I have to spend a lot of time, effort AND money, I might as well just let my computer encode the videos and use either streaming content or my extra external drive... I'm not neccessarily hurting for drive space (just deleted 75GBS of files I downloaded for no real reason than I was excited when i got my new computer and went on a downloading spree)