Seagate launches 1.5TB portable hard disk drive

Seagate has launched what it claims is the first 1.5TB,Seagate offers the GoFlex Net media-sharing device.
2.5-inch portable hard disk drive, which arrives less thanBoth add-ons are available at an additional cost.
three months after the company introduced a 3TBThe latest FreeAgent GoFlex drive can store and
external drive.access files from both Windows and Mac OS X
computers without reformatting. To make that possible,
The company, which has been pushing the capacitythe user has to install a driver for the Mac provided by
envelope for HDDs based on current standards,Seagate.
released its latest FreeAgent GoFlex drive Tuesday.The new product is available online through Seagate
The portable device supports a Mac or Windows PCor at select retailers for $250.
and can store up to 60 high-definition movies, 750In striving to produce higher capacity drives, Seagate
video games, or thousands of photos.and competitors are trying to stay ahead of the
In addition, Seagate has included a USB 3.0 port andgrowing need for storage as people use their
cable. When connected to another USB 3.0-supportingcomputers for storing high-definition video, pictures, and
device, the drive can transfer data up to 10 timesmusic. Seagate, however, has been staying ahead of
faster than devices using older USB 2.0 technologythe pack in terms of capacity.
found on most devices.In June, the company introduced what it claimed was
That 160GB hard drive in your netbook not doing it forthe industry's first 3TB external hard drive, the
you? No worries, there are plenty of portable hardFreeAgent GoFlex Desk. While surpassing rivals in
drives on the market that you can use to expand yourcapacity, the company also kept the price competitive
storage, or easily backup or copy files from yourat $250, or about 8 cents per gigabyte.
desktop to take with you on the road. We've seenThere are a number of companies offering 1.5TB and
plenty of 500GB and even 1TB models over the pastlarger external hard drives — but most of those
year or so. Now Seagate has upped the game withmodels are 3.5 inch disks which require external
the introduction of a 1.5TB model.power. The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex drive is a
For example, a 25GB file would take less than fivesmaller 2.5 inch disk which draws its power from the
minutes to transfer over a USB 3.0 connection versusUSB port on your computer.
14 minutes over USB 2.0, Seagate said. USB 3.0 isHowever, the drive comes with a USB 2.0 base,
backward compatible.requiring the user to pay an additional $40 for the
Besides offering lots of storage, the new drive can beoptional base with a USB 3.0 connector.
used to play content on a high-definition TV using theSeagate's hard drive major competitors include
Seagate add-on GoFlex TV HD media player. ForWestern Digital.
accessing stored content remotely over the web,