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.
Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, is the author of more than a dozen books. In addition to writing CNET's The Cheapskate blog, he oversees BNET's Business Hacks. Rick is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. Disclosure. Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers. Follow Rick on Twitter at cheapskateblog. 
"If you get what you paid for, then you paid too much"
What's the big deal even if it's true?
That said, even if it takes 8 hours I would still consider this drive worth it.
3GB/s is in such a different league than USB2.
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
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.
- by MakaiOokami June 12, 2009 1:30 AM PDT
- 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)
- Reply to this comment
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(18 Comments)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)