h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So we're constantly told that we're getting more and more memory for the same money all the time, and yes of course I can see that you can now buy a 32gb memory card for the same price as a 32MB card a few short years ago... so how come portable hard drive prices seem to have been static for years?

About 3 or 4 years ago I bought a 500gb external hard drive for around £50, however whenever I go looking to buy another one (and i check the prices every few months), well... 500gb hard drives *still* cost around £50-60 Sure you can buy a 1tb one for about £20 more, but i don't want that, I want to spend *less*.

Why can't I buy a 500gb hard drive for £20-30 ?

Probably because the market is demanding more storage volume for the same price. You probably need it, too, what with all this incessant bloatware.

So they want to give us more for the same price, but not the same for less price That's a bugger, cause I just don't want to spend £60+ on another hard drive. I may have to when I eventually run-out of space, but so far, judicious use of a range of back-up technologies like the 'cloud' and frequent clear-outs means I still have free space. Would just like to have a future contingency without spending that amount.

It's worth considering that because of inflation, you are paying less than you used to. If the price had risen at the same rate as inflation, you'd probably be paying the £60-£70 for the 500G external drive.

But given that wages haven't kept pace with inflation, if you're paying less than you used to it probably ain't by a helluva lot...

One (fairly major) contributory factor has been the floods in Thailand: <./>http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222871/Hard_drive_prices_slide_as_Thai_flood_aftermath_subsides</.> and <./>http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/data_protection/232301534</.> have details.

Ah yes I remember hearing about that

You're not paying for the actual memory storage disks (which are, frankly, cheap as chips - ha ha!). You're paying most of the money for the case, disk scanner and connecting electronics. And these are the same whether you have a 1TB hard drive or a 3.5-inch floppy ().

B

So there's a 'floor' base price that these things tend to not to be cheaper than, regardless of capacity. Oh well, will just keep an eye out for a second hand one with someone's badly deleted dodgy file backups still on it.