Got a new computer "toy" today

[disneysteve]

For the longest time, I've been wanting to get an external hard drive for my computer. I periodically back up certain files but I never back up everything that I really should be backing up. I got the MacMall catalog last week and they had a 1 Terabyte (1,000 GB) external drive for just $89.99 after rebate. I was shocked by the price and immediately went online to get all the details. It looked good so I ordered one. A terabyte of memory should keep me in shape for years.

The drive came today. It is quite small, only about 4.5 x 7.5 inches so it hardly takes up any space standing on it's side.

I'm just starting to use it so I don't know about performance yet. I'm sure it is slower than the more costly ones, but for that price, I'm not going to complain.

I'm not a gadget guy. I mean I like reading about them and checking them out, but I rarely buy any. I just thought this was a great deal.

[SnoopyCool]

Sounds good. We just had a crash and I lost everything because I was lazy and didn't back-up everything as I should have. Hopefully my computer friends can revive the old hard drive. Lesson learned.

[momof1in150]

Steve - I have had one for about 2 years and I love it. I am not a gadget person either but love the convenience of backing up to the external drive. I use Norton Ghost and back up "My Computer" and "My Documents" at least once a month. My DH would like to see me do it weekly but so far this has worked well.

[MoneyTrev]

A terrabyte for under $100! Wow, that's a steal! If its faster than technology 5 years ago, then its worth it as the majority of the people wouldn't mind the speed of technology 5 years ago. It can still run today's demand.

[kork13]

Wow, that's more than I can imagine needing for many years...

As to the rate of technology development, I believe there's some kind of "rule/law/theory/whatever" about it... that computing power capabilities double every 10 months, or something like that? That's why technology becomes out of date so quickly.

[Broken Arrow]

That's an awesome deal!

[arthurb999]

If you are just backing up once a week/month or so... the speed shouldn't be an issue.

[Inkstain82]

I still can't believe how fast computer technology changes.

I remember playing on a Commodore 64 as a kid. I remember buying a computer with an 8GB harddrive and thinking that would be enough drive space to last a lifetime.

I bought a laptop recently, and the specs for the cheapest ones would have been the top of the line just two years ago.

[disneysteve]

A terrabyte for under $100! Wow, that's a steal! If its faster than technology 5 years ago, then its worth it as the majority of the people wouldn't mind the speed of technology 5 years ago. It can still run today's demand.

If you are just backing up once a week/month or so... the speed shouldn't be an issue.

My thoughts exactly. I figured even if it was no faster than my current hard drive, it is 12 times the size and will be used mainly for storage. I don't care if I need to leave it running over night to do the back ups. Access speed isn't as big a concern for me.

I remember playing on a Commodore 64 as a kid. I remember buying a computer with an 8GB harddrive and thinking that would be enough drive space to last a lifetime.

I started with a VIC-20 and then upgraded a couple of years later to the Commodore 64. I loved that computer. Honestly, I think it was as much fun as anything around today. I don't miss the cassette drive that took 20-30 minutes to load a program, but I do miss the simplicity of everything. I had a lot of fun with that computer.

[tulsa_sr5]

I remember when hardrives hit $1/MB during my college years in the early 90's, $1/GB wasn't even that long ago.

At $1/mb that new drive would have cost $1,048,576

[GrimJack]

I still can't believe how fast computer technology changes.

I remember playing on a Commodore 64 as a kid. I remember buying a computer with an 8GB harddrive and thinking that would be enough drive space to last a lifetime.

I bought a laptop recently, and the specs for the cheapest ones would have been the top of the line just two years ago.

I bought a 20 megabyte hard drive for my Amiga in 1990 for $750 and did not think I would ever fill it, heh,heh!

I am jealous DS - we paid $300 for 500 gigs - I will always be on the trailing edge, sigh

[red92s]

I had a external HD crash on me and have since started using an online backup service (Carbonite). I'm hoping someone will make a small portable RAID setup with 2 redundant disks soon, or that the prices on solid state drives begin to drop more. With the amount I travel and move my drives around, I'm not sold on the reliability of a non-redundant drive with moving parts.

That being said . . . 1 TB for $90 sounds pretty incredible!

[Broken Arrow]

I bought a 20 megabyte hard drive for my Amiga in 1990 for $750 and did not think I would ever fill it, heh,heh!

Ooh, you were one of those elite geeks with the best toys back then weren'tcha?

I'll never forget the first time I ever laid my eyes on an Amiga 500. Having only seen the likes of IBM PS/2s and Apple IIs, I thought I saw Jesus himself when this buddy of mine brought in his Amiga and demoed Shadow of the Beast by Psygnosis. (It should say something that, after all these years, I STILL remember that video game off the top of my head.)

Oh man, and I was all kinds of jealous when I saw what the Video Toaster could do! Truly ahead of its time. Way ahead.

That being said . . . 1 TB for $90 sounds pretty incredible!

I still have a hard time finding ANYWHERE that would sell 1 TB for less than $100 right now.

[Investing First Steps]

I've found external USB hard drives to be very slow and I love them anyway. It's amazingly convenient to just be able to carry around your whole hard drive with you. I can live with the slowness for all the benefits you get.

Also, circa 1990 I ran a BBS and I had a 660 megabyte hard drive. When I told people this they called me a liar. I can now get a cheap keychain with more space than that.

[red92s]

I still have a hard time finding ANYWHERE that would sell 1 TB for less than $100 right now.

Newegg.com has a couple in the $120 range. Not "under $100" . . . but it won't be long.

I must be dating myself to say that my first computer (gift from my parents when I started college in 2001) had a 40 gig HD. My dad did say that the first computer he bought had a HD equivalent to 100 large floppy disks and thinking "how could anyone ever fill up 100 floppy disks".