Seagate readies world’s first 3TB desktop drive

David Flynn
18 May 2010, 4:45 PM


Two terabytes not enough for you? Seagate launches the world’s first 3TB desktop drive in its new FreeAgent GoFlex external drive, with an internal Barracuda disk drive to follow.


1,000GB of data? Bah! What about a whopping 2TB? We laugh at your puny storage solution!

For now, or rather Very Soon, you can have a whole 3TB on tap.

Seagate is busting past the 2,000GB mark with a new 3TB drive, which makes its debut in the new FreeAgent GoFlex family of external drives.

The 3TB GoFlex Desk drive will cost $479 when it arrives later this year, and will be followed by an internal Barracuda 3.5 inch drive kit.

The new FreeAgent GoFlex packs up to 3TB into its shiny black chassis...

Don’t go looking for the 3TB GoFlex drive on Seagate’s Web site – the unit still hasn’t been listed. But Seagate let the cat out of the bag at last week’s launch of the FreeAgent GoFlex range, which it touts as “the third generation” of its FreeAgent external hard drive range.

The GoFlex series uses the disk’s own SATA interface as the primary connection with cables providing the output to USB 2,0, USB 3.0, FireWire 800 and eSATA.

The disk’s own SATA interface doubles as connector for the USB 2.0, USB 3.0, FireWire 800 or eSATA cables.

Seagate also offers an automated backup cable which comes with Windows backup software preloaded on a slab of flash memory baked into the cable hub.

The portable GoFlex and GoFlex Pro drives and the GoFlex Desk are all bundled with a USB 2.0 adapter cable.

Who said that USB drives have to be black or silver? The FreeAgent GoFlex Pro also comes in blue and red.

The portable drives also slide into the GoFlex TV HD media player  dock to play 1080p HD video and run digital photo slideshows on a big-screen telly, as well as the GoFlex Net media sharing hub to stream content to other devices across the Internet.

The GoFlex Net lets you drop two GoFlex portable drives into the dock for instant content sharing over the Internet.

The entry-level GoFlex ultraportable drive goes on sale later this month at $120 for 320GB, $140 for 500GB and $250 for 1TB; the 7200rpm GoFlex Pro, which also includes inbuilt backup, starts at $170 for 500GB and $230 for 750GB.

The GoFlex Desk kicks off at $160 for 1TB and $250 for 2TB, with the GoFlex TV HD media player for $190 and the GoFlex Net for $130 (both the docks are priced sans disk).

Seagate has priced the GoFlex cables at $39 for the USB 3.0 cable, $49 for eSATA and $69 for FireWire 800.


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itd (New user):

As far as I can see GoFlex means the customer has to buy the drive THEN buy the special cables that interface with the drive...

It will give you the added advantage of being able to "upgrade" to a new cable type if you want to pay the money; $39/$49/$69/etc - but this is getting close to the cost of a new drive.

So in essence, Seagate has found a way to charge you more for something that used to be included for free?

18 May 2010, 6:29 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Tin (Regular user):

Quoting itd:
the customer has to buy the drive THEN buy the special cables that interface with the drive...


Or just buy some random internal hard disk? Seems if it's just using the cable to connect to a SATA port you could use anyone's drive (just no pretty plastic casing).

18 May 2010, 6:51 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

DFTBA (New user):

Hate to do it but..

"Seagate is busting past the 2,000GB mark with a new 3GB....."

Nice way to spin the less is more theory.

18 May 2010, 6:42 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

anonymous user Anonymous user