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Hot deal: Western Digital Passport 160GB external hard drive for $88

We've seen this compact portable hard drive listed at up to twice the price. Today Dell Home offers it for 88 bucks, shipping included, when you pay with PayPal. Easy setup, light weight, compact size and great speed make this a convenient solution for non-Mac users.

To quote CNET Reviews:

The good: Compact; bus-powered; quick at reading and writing; includes sync and encryption software; comes with a zippered, hard carrying case.

The bad: Sync software works with only Windows XP and 2000; phone support may eventually become expensive.

The bottom line: Western Digital's Passport Portable External Hard Drive … Read more

Buffalo hits the turbo button on its hard drives

Buffalo Technologies announced today enhanced versions of its MiniStation and DriveStation product lines that allow for faster data transfers over USB. The proprietary Turbo USB feature operates at the controller level to increase data throughput between 30 percent and 60 percent, according to Buffalo. Because the Turbo USB utility resides on the drive itself, you should be able to benefit from the speed increase while plugged into any PC.

The MiniStation comes in 80GB, 120GB, 160GB, and 250GB capacities. It has built-in shock-resistant technology, which can be crucial for portable drives that are likely to be dropped. The USB cable … Read more

WD My Book II now available in 2TB capacities

Western Digital announced today that all of its dual-drive My Book lineups are now available in 2-terabyte capacities. Products include My Book World Edition II, My Book Pro Edition II, and My Book Premium Edition II. All of these dual-disc external drives offer RAID mirroring and RAID striping, for data protection and speed improvements. The Premium and Pro Editions have three connector options: USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800. The World Edition offers Gigabit Ethernet.

The 2TB versions are available immediately, ranging from $749 to $799.

LaCie takes big to the extreme

LaCie announced yesterday its new Big Disk Extreme+ desktop hard drive, a fairly standard external drive whose standout feature is the massive capacity. It's available in 1-terabyte, 1.5-terabyte, and 2-terabyte capacities, starting at $350 ($850 for the 2TB drive). The design is LaCie's classic Neil Poulton d2 look: brushed gray body with a blue programmable one-touch button mounted on the front. Connection options include two FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port, and one USB 2.0 port. It comes bundled with LaCie's 1-Click Backup software, Silverkeeper (backup software for Macs), and two versions of EMC … Read more

Park a Ferrari on your desk

Fabrik announced today a new family of sleek desktop hard drives that incorporates 2GB of free online storage through the company's MyFabrik Web service: SimpleDrive. The new drives (designed by Pininfarina, longtime designer of the Ferrari) come in several capacities, which are color-coded: 160GB (red); 250GB (white); 320GB (blue); 500GB (black); 750GB (charcoal); and 1TB (charcoal). All feature a single, 3.5-inch hard drive from Hitachi, including the 1TB version. This is the first single-disk, 1TB external hard drive on the market.

Initially, all versions will ship with USB 2.0 interfaces, but in May, Fabrik plans to ship … Read more

Need backup? Call in the Cavalry: Cavalry CAUE 500GB External HD

I've been meaning to back up all my CDs in MP3 format on an external hard drive in case my house ever goes up in flames, but I've never really gotten around to it. It might be because I could never decide on an external hard drive, but Buy.com may have changed all that with this great deal on the Cavalry CAUE 500GB External HD. At only $144.95 with free shipping, I can sleep soundly knowing my music is in safe place.

Make room for the Media Tank

Do you suffer from peripheral overload? If your desk is a mess of wires, the Media Tank can help. ThinkGeek is selling this external enclosure for $90. It supplies a 6-in-1 card reader (CF I/II, MD, SD, MMC, and MS/MS Pro) and room for an IDE hard drive and optical drive of your choosing. Inside is a cooling fan and heat sink to keep your drives from overheating. Built-in surge protection helps keep your data safe. The Media Tank connects to your PC (or Mac) via USB 2.0 and also serves up a USB 2.0 port … Read more