Hitachi ships self-branded USB easy hard drives

Typically the source of hard disks for other companies, Hitachi today revealed that it has begun shipping the easy hard drive range, a series of external hard drives designed to be simple extensions of people's desktops; both the desktop and pictured notebook models come in a stylized black and red with preloaded backup software to streamline backups through a single button press. Reflecting its background, Hitachi stresses capacity: the desktop-class drive uses a single 1TB disk to store as many as 300,000 photos, while the notebook version offers the latest 250GB mobile drive without the need for an external power source.

Either drive format supports both Mac OS X and Windows PCs for both regular storage and in the automated backup software. The notebook drives are already available at Best Buy with prices of $220 for a 200GB drive and $250 for a 250GB drive, with a 160GB version also available from Hitachi. Desktop drives range in size from 500GB to the range-topping 1TB but haven't been listed or received official pricing.