External HDDs

Hard drive manufacturing is apparently exceeding pre-Thailand flood levels and companies such as Seagate are now reaping the benefits from increased HDD pricing.

Buffalo's external drive with the dual Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 interface is now shipping with a starting price of $199.99 USD.

Seagate now controls 64.5-percent of LaCie, and is offering to purchase the remaining shares.

Seagate's new Backup Plus line of external storage devices can back up local documents as well as Facebook photos.

Buffalo has introduced the world's first external drive featuring USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt ports.

The Thailand floods of 2011 will be impacting HDD prices for some time. In addition to the shortages, a new market environment is favoring higher prices and pre-flood levels will not be reached until 2014, market researchers at IHS said.

Seagate said that it has entered an agreement to purchase a majority share in consumer HDD storage vendor LaCie.

Market research firm IHS predicts a fast increase in HDD storage densities and, as a result, a similarly strong increase in storage capacities.