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Seagate Introduces External Hard Drive That Automatically Backs Up To Amazon's Cloud (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Seagate and Amazon have partnered up on a $99 1TB external hard drive that automatically backs up everything stored on it to the cloud. The Seagate Duet drive's contents are cloned to Amazon Drive, so you can be pretty confident that your important stuff will be safe. Getting set up with the cloud backup process requires plugging in the drive, signing in with your Amazon account -- and that's pretty much it, from the sounds of it. Drag and drop files over, and you'll be able to access them from the web or Amazon's Drive app on smartphones and tablets. If you're new to the Drive service, Seagate claims you'll get a year of unlimited storage just for buying the hard drive, which normally costs $59.99 annually. Amazon's listing for the Duet (the only way to buy it right now) confirms as much, but there's some fine print: Offer is U.S.-only; Not valid for current Amazon Drive Unlimited Storage paid subscription customers; You've got to redeem the promo code within two months of buying the hard drive if you want the year's worth of unlimited cloud storage; If you return the Duet, Amazon says it will likely reduce your 12 months of unlimited Drive storage down to three, which beats taking it away altogether, I guess.
This will go along nicely with my Amazon Echo, which is very popular. Everyone has one and they are very useful. You should get one too. Right now the Amazon Echo is on Sale at amazon.com. Get it now! You will be glad you did.
This doesn't sound like they created a hard drive that automatically backs itself up, they created software that will sync your hard drive to Amazon. This is not new, difficult or news. Thanks for the slashvertisment though!
Enigma
Now I don't even have to get malware for this kind of service!
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
That means it will also back up your OS files, your programs, and everything else you download off the internet. After your first free year of cloud storage, you will be paying for every GB of stuff uploaded...including a lot of stuff you don't care if it is backed up or not. It's like when cable charges you extra every month for all those channels you never watch.
But it's a Seagate. Of course you would want another copy of it somewhere else. I've seen nothing on the warranty so I guess the cloud is the warranty too?
"drive's contents are cloned to Amazon Drive, so you can be pretty confident that your important stuff will be safe."
It either does clone to Amazon or is safe, not both.
Just in time for 1tb caps everywhere.
They don't waste time with encryption. Their drives are designed to fail within 90 days. That's the real security feature right there.
This might actually make them reliable enough for normal use. (66% failure rate on 1tb drives over an 18 month period. I'll never buy another.)
I heard the cloud is fast and infinitely scalable so I'm looking forward to the awesome performance boost I should get by putting my swap on this.
That's the catch. The backup is only good for 1 year. Beyond that you'll have to shell out the same amount that could have bought you a brand new 1TB HDD (or 2TB possibly when the year has elapsed and prices have dropped). It's a rip-off.
You'd be better off just buying two drives for $50 each and mirroring them. Then your backup won't just disappear after a year and nobody will try to squeeze annual fees out of you.
Do I get to pick my own encryption key, or can Amazon always see my stuff?