Comments on: Return of the $99.99 1TB hard drive

Get all the storage you need and then some with this dirt-cheap external drive.

[Plano1]

My office purchased two Fantom 350G external drives a year ago. Both were used once a week for back ups only. They were turned off when not in use. Both failed after a little more than one year of use. I don't care how big or cheap this drive is. Don't waste your money.

[rufustel]

For those wanting a different drive: Fry's Electronics has a 1T Seagate FreeAgent at just a bit more, $109.99, online (outpost.com) and in the store. http://shop2.frys.com/product/5725242;jsessionid=fsyP3B+21NMoUrez18gH5g**.node1?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

[Nychocolips]

Not bad. The only thing it is missing is ESATA. If a person doesn't care about that... they're good to go.

[xZero2007x]

@ Nychocolips:

To be honest, the benefits of eSATA are hardly present with external [retail] HDDs unless there's already a heavy load on your USB2/Firewire buses. I doubt they're putting in higher performance/higher grade HDDs in those enclosures, and even so, most HDDs can't exceed the USB 2.0 specs on the reading or writing processes, even after taking into consideration the efficiency of USB 2.0.
There's a performance boost, but I don't think its a major hit or miss for a lot of people--or even for those who think they need it.

[MCVanOLinda]

I have owned a Fantom 1 TB USB Drive (two internal 500 GB JBOD) for a year and I have occasionally had a problem with read/write speeds, but I think it may have been related to other hardware related issues. I still bought this Fantom 1TB G-Force USB/eSATA a few weeks ago, but I honestly haven't used it enough to comment on it fully. For the price, it is worth it in my opinion.

[cabowabo]

I don't care to trust my data to a HDD that I don't know anything about. I'm sure Fantom is a great company, but it just seems to me that they would use the least expensive drive available.

My idea is to buy the best, most reliable drive (like the Western Digital WD1001FALS) which has a huge cache and a 5-year warranty and put your chosen drive into a superior enclosure. I like the Antec MX-1 Actively Cooled Hard Drive Enclosure. This enclosure is very well built, has a super quiet fan and works great. In my opinion, these drives need to be cooled by a fan as they get really hot.

Sure both of these components cost a little bit more, but hey, how much is your data and piece of mind really worth? Certainly an extra $40!

[macWooster]

Not sure how a 5-year warranty will make the drive the most reliable. It will sure give confidence that the drive is better-made, but at best, all you'll get is a replacement of the disk when it fails, but not the data.

[protagonistic]

I have to agree with you on the HW comment. But I want to add that I prefer a quad interface solution these days. You pay more, but you are ready to connect up to anything that way. And Time Machine works very nicely with a FW800 RAID setup. That backs up faster than even the drive in my Time Capsule does over the gigabit ethernet connection.

[sartor1]

You can use Carboncopycloner or Superduper to back up your data for free on a Macintosh...

[KBSimNL]

New Macs have a Time Machine backup utility included in the OS.

[artpease]

Hmm, backup software for Mac... I think it is called Time Machine!

[mhr512]

LOL

[rickbroida]

I knew that. Of course I knew that. It's so funny that you think I didn't know that. [Slinks away ashamedly]

[protagonistic]

Rick was just looking out for the half a dozen or so Mac users who don't run Leopard. :-)

[theAudax]

Two other $100 1TB drives with eSATA on Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822216041
- Most reviewers say the drive in this one is a Samsung
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204079
- This one's similar to the original post

[ibeetle]

Newegg also has this drive for a wee bit more than buy.com at $109.00; just in case one misses this $99.00 deal you are not completely screwed.

[ibeetle]

Here is a review from a bunch of losers ;0)

It is a predecessor of this drive when it cost a mere $250

http://reviews.cnet.com/hard-drives/fantom-g-force-megadisk/4505-3186_7-32107742.html

[Nychocolips]

Buy.com is doing something where they add a few days to your free shipping. If you are pressed for the drive just be aware of it.

[Peter N. Glaskowsky]

I bought a reconditioned 1TB drive from eCost for $88 plus tax and shipping last week.

At least, I paid for it last week, and eCost said it was in stock and would ship immediately.

This week, eCost says the drive is backordered.

Stupid eCost.

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[norvabear]

eCost is not the best company. I bought a 500 gig drive from them a few months ago and it was doa. never could get any response from them about returning it, so I just finally let it go. fortunately, it was cheap, so I wasn't out a lot of money.

[rickbroida]

I have to say, I'd probably steer clear of a refurbished/reconditioned hard drive -- especially considering that a new one costs only a few bucks more.

[Mr. Dee]

I use Windows Complete PC Backup in Vista Ultimate 64 bit.

[jpbartlett]

Bought a version of this drive recently for $89 (including rebate) that has esata and USB 2.0. Spent another $30 for eSATA interface and cable for Macbook Pro. Very happy so far. eSata is super fast, drive is small and quite. Drive in enclosure in Western Digital WDC WD10EAVS-00D7B1. Guessing not their most expensive drive. BTW, I've had excellent luck with Buy.com. I always go for free shipping and it always comes within a couple of days. With this drive ordered on Friday with free shipping, arrive on Monday. YMMV.