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Return of the $99.99 1TB hard drive

Get all the storage you need and then some with this dirt-cheap external drive.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida

Your chance to score 1TB of storage for a cool $100. Buy.com

It's been awhile, but once again you can pick up a 1-terabyte external hard drive for under $100.

Specifically, Buy.com has the Fantom 1TB G-Force USB/eSATA hard drive for $99.99 shipped. That's an awful lotta storage for the money. And no rebates!

Though fairly industrial in design and not likely to win any beauty contests, the Fantom's got it where it counts: a 7,200-rpm drive, an 8.5-millisecond seek time, and your choice of USB or eSATA interfaces. It's compatible with most versions of Windows and the Mac OS.

A drive like this is perfect for keeping your system backed up, but Fantom supplies no software for the job. Fortunately, there are plenty of third-party freebies; here's a list of three free back-up utilities for Windows. (Anybody know of any good programs for Mac users? List 'em in the Comments.)

I'd rather see a three-year warranty on this drive, but Fantom's coverage expires after just one year. That's the only negative I can see on this deal, and it's a minor one. The drive earned a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 from more than 200 Buy.com customers, so you can bet it's a winner.