Storage developer Seagate has added a new monster to its desktop hard drive offerings: a new edition of its GoFlex Desk external hard drive with a whopping 4 TB capacity. Seagate claims the 4 TB of storage is the highest in the industry, but the drive isn’t a behemoth: it actually sports a small desktop footprint and a new industrial design Seagate plans to migrate across its entire GoFlex Desk line in the coming weeks. The drive sports a USB 3.0 interface, and the company says a version with FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 will be available in Apple stores by the end of the month to keep Mac users happy.
“Yet another industry first for Seagate, we have reached a new high-capacity in the 3.5-inch hard drive form factor. At Seagate, we are committed to pushing the limits for our customers and will continue to adapt and innovate our products based on customer needs,” said SeAgate retail products VP and general manager Patrick Connolly, in a statement.
The GoFlex Drives get their names from swappable bases that enable users to attach different interfaces depending on their needs: that means the Mac version of the drive will just have a different base with a FireWire 800 port and USB 2.0, and enabled Seagate to support other technologies (like Thunderbolt) without making everyone buy new drives—used can even set it up as a network drive with the GoFlex Home adapter. The 4 TB Seagate GoFlex Desk will work with Mac OS X and Windows-based PCs out of the box, and comes pre-loaded with backup software.
The USB 3.0 version of the 4 TB GoFlex Desk should be available this month for a suggested price of $249.99.