Seagate busts out 3TB external hard drive for $250

[andy]

Yeah, you heard that right. As of today, those among us who value quantity over speed in our storage can buy a whole trifecta of terabytes in one solitary package. Seagate has just unveiled the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk (did they have the teenage intern name this thing?), which is the first 3.5-inch drive to store quite so much data. It also comes with a USB 2.0 adapter that can be upgraded to USB 3.0 or Firewire 800, depending on your preference (and cash reserves). Priced at $250, this record-busting storage hub is available to buy today direct from Seagate.

Engadget


Nice price - unless you're one of the several billion people who doesn't live in North America.

I'm becoming less and less enthused with storing so much data on one disk. Maybe it's becoming jaded from seeing so many 2TB disks fail in the last year at work - but I just don't trust it any more.

RAID FTW.

[maestro]

Yep, we had a bad batch of 750GB drives and have had 7 out of the 8 fail in the two years I have worked here. RAID has saved me huge headaches and I wouldn't store 3TB of data on a single external drive that is just stupid. I am waiting for 3TB internal drives that could be added to a RAID array.

We keep running out of space on one of our file servers, so an upgrade might be happening soon. I am eyeing some 2TB drives. They are Western Digital and it was Western Digital that we have had issues with but cheap drives in a RAID array you can expect the occasional failure.

[andy]

Over the last year I've thrown out a lot of 2TB WD drives.

We had 14 fail in one 24 bay FC RAID chassis. That put me off them.

I had a meeting with a supplier today and he completely seriously offered me a 100TB RAID to test for a few months. At home. I'm soooo tempted, but couldn't afford the power bills.

[maestro]

Over the last year I've thrown out a lot of 2TB WD drives.

We had 14 fail in one 24 bay FC RAID chassis. That put me off them.

I had a meeting with a supplier today and he completely seriously offered me a 100TB RAID to test for a few months. At home. I'm soooo tempted, but couldn't afford the power bills.

What is your preferred brand? I am just curious we have a mixture of Seagate and Western Digital Drives and like I said the 7 drives that failed since I have been here in this single media server have all been western digital drives.

[firestarter]

Nice. I'll be buying some 3TB drives when they reach here at a good price. MacPro already packed with 2TB drives (and a Raptor boot disk).

I don't believe in RAID at home. RAID is great at ensuring uptime (especially if you create a lot of data very quickly) - but at home the top priority is cost effective data integrity. I'd rather spend my money on better/more backup copies (including some offsite) than an expensive controller or integrated RAID system which itself introduces another point of failure.