Last year, 1TB external USB drives were selling for $59.00. This year, they're nearly double that?

Wonder what's going on? You'd think there would be a glut of good deals this Christmas but no such luck.

Yup; had a big discussion at DPR about this. Still think that fear is causing the price to be higher then just considering the availability. Why so many HDs are being manufactured in Taiwan is the question.

Didn't seem to affect other electronics, like TVs. Heck, most drives are made in China and Thailand these days.

But other disasters seem to likely be the cause: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/thailand- ... nths/61597

Have you tried scouting Ebay? You may be able to still find some there for a good price.

Sorry; meant Thailand. Get those oriental countries so confused (being part Korean isn't a help; lol).

Found one on buy.com for $80 + free shipping. Placed it in my cart, proceeded to checkout and a window pops up that says the item has been removed from your cart and is no longer available. I was stunned. Nothing like that has ever happened to me. Seems to me, once it's in my cart, it's mine, unless I abandon the order.

Needless to say, I fired off an angry email to their customer service, for all the good it will do.

Nothing worthwhile on fleabay.

Guess there will be no 1TB external drive in my stocking this year, just another lump of coal.

I would go for the internal drive myself. Faster than dealing with an external drive (unless of course you need it for storage or something).

If you insist on an external drive, you could always by a drive enclosure with USB interface and put your own drive in it. They are getting quite cheap now (USB enclosures that is).

Stand alone drives are just as expensive as ones with enclosures. All of my important data is backed up in multiple locations, albeit scattered across multiple smaller drives and DVDs.

What I really want is a stand alone raid controller that's networkable. I'm just gonna save my pennies and hold out for that.

Tux ..

Have you found an external yet? Tiger has a Seagate ST320005EXA101 2TB Expansion External Drive - 2TB, USB 2.0 for $119.99. Technically that spot on with the $59 for the 1TB except you're getting 2TB.

Here's the link for ya! Although I do recall you saying something about a NAS (Network Accessible Storage). For some reason those get a little bit pricer. I have a 320Gb NAS that I bought 4 years ago. It's ok but don't go trying to send any really big files across the network or expect blazing speeds. I'd stick to a external USB/SATA personally. Oh yeah .. the link! ==>> http://www.tigerdirect.com/.../item-details.asp?EdpNo=5532176&Sku=S130-9000

I thrown the hint out so many times from myself .. and nobody is catching on. This is all I want for xmas. Alas, it will not happen and the hatred I have for this season stemming from my childhood will just fester and grow! I've aligned myself with scrooge just for this very reason!

$125 including shipping is a good price for a 2TB drive these days. The only downside I see is that it's a 5400 RPM but that's not a big problem, just a little slower than a 7200 RPM.

What I don't want is one of those 5900 RPM so called "Green Drives". I've read some nightmare stories about those.

Thanks for the link!!

If I can swing the money, I might grab one. I have a guy coming to look at my heat pump today. It's out of commission. All the CF-22 has leaked out and we can't find the leak. Not sure what the final cost will be but it's probably gonna kill my Christmas fund. If it were not for bad luck, I'd have no luck. Born under a bad sign, I guess.

Speaking of a good deal. I'm drooling over this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=6977

That will be my next mother board. It has all the features I'm looking for at just the right price point.

Ouch; sorry to hear about your heat pump Tux.

New MB looks good; still, I really do want an i7 or better (if a higher core indeed exists), but don't see a new computer in my near or distant future. Got an AMD 6400 dual Core Gigabyte motherboard which is good enough for Win7 64-bit and good enough for my needs for now.

That board supports the 2nd generation I7 Lyle.

You could start with an I3 and move to an I7 when they get cheap.

I need the drive more than I do the mainboard but I that one caught my eye..

Actually, I have a 1TB green drive. I've had no problems with it and the wifes Win7 PC has a 1.5TB green as well. Guess it's just like everything else .. the bad always speaks louder then the good!

That's a sweet board! I'd like to build a new PC I can never find deals like that during the year. Although I'm going back to AMD next PC. Even tho' this Core2 has been good to me and the price was a steal when I bought it. I side more with AMD since they seem to be more about innovation rather then how many machines they can put them in. Of course that's just IMHO.

Sorry to hear about your heating/cooling situation! Maybe the HVAC guy will have some xmas cheer. Never know. Strange things happen! Hey, I got a 60 mile tow one time for $30 bucks just because of my Welsh heritage, the tow truck driver was a Welshman as well. So, funny things can happen. I'll rub my Buddha belly for you! It can't hurt!

Ahh; only saw Quad being offered when I read the specs. Not a details guy anymore (got way too lazy in my old age and far removed from being an EE; lol).

Cheap drives are still available but are harder to find. I subscribed for ads (on my junk mail account) for several online/local stores. Staples just had a 1-day sale of a Seagate Go Flex 1.5TB drive for $70. I picked up a Seagate Go Flex 2TB drive for $80. from Best Buy 2 weeks ago.

Tru and not just xmas either. Seems when they (Tiger, NewEgg and a few of the other retailers) don't get a move on drives the drive will change. I've seen Fry's advertise drives at wild prices from time to time.

Oh .. another xmas wish .. a solid state drive! 60Gb is all I need! I'd through the OS and pagefile on that everything else on the HDD. That'd be NICE! Once again .. ain't gonna happen!

I got one of the Western Digital Worldbook devices a couple of years ago, one with the RAID controller. 2t of data if I stripe it which negates the redundancy. Haven't had a lick of trouble out of it and it has more stuff than I really need, or want. Media server stuff that's just pointless to me. It even has a USB port for expanded storage. Sorry,can't remember what it cost, suspect it's cheaper than what it would be now.

So many cool gadgets, so little xtra cash.

My HVAC guy just gave me the news and it's $200+, which is actually a good deal for what he has to do. Still, it could have went toward a 2TB drive and a few other Christmas gifts.