Origin unveils 750GB and 1TB Data Locker encrypted external HDDs
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 18th 2009 9:41AM
posted Oct 18th 2009 9:41AM
Questionably christened the world's first 1TB portable hardware-encrypted hard drive, Origin Storage's extra-capacious Data Locker Secure Drive is certainly the one to get if you're paranoid about whatever it is you'd keep on such a large platter. Also available in 750GB, 500GB and 320GB models, the drives are secured by AES hardware encryption and a 6 to 18 digit PIN number which must be entered directly onto the device itself before the contents become accessible. Think James Bond, but for real. The USB-powered unit also packs rubber shoulders in case things get a little crazy between you and Mr. Data Thief, though we wouldn't try running this thing through the rain forest if at all possible. The 1TB edition will be available soon for £399 ($652), while the others are priced at £299 ($488), £239 ($390) and £180 ($294) from largest to smallest.[Via Slashgear]
Nintendo called, and they want their Game Boy screen back.
The internet called, and it wants its meme back.
I'mma let you finish, but that meme is the best of all time!
why does engadget look so weird?
engagdet looks normal in internet explorer, but in firefox its all messed up.
can someone tell me whats the proble?
Nintendo...?
THIS. IS. DATAAAAAA locker secure drive
Nintendo emailed*
...21st century and all that
You know phones are still a pretty big deal in the 21st century?
It is not so much the overall price that annoys me, more the price difference between the 1TB one and the 320GB one. You could get 4 1TB drives for that alone, and presumably the rest of the hardware is identical.
I agree. It's not like their sticking SSD's in these things.
Apple Emailed, they want their pricing structure back.
You think this practice is new? Go to Dell's or Apple's website, configure a computer and look at the price differentials for various components. Then go to a component supplier's website and check the price differentials there.
I know its not new. I'm just saying that companies that do it can GTFO.
I won't by any external drive that doesn't let me swap the drive. Enclosures stay the same price, hard drives get cheaper and cheaper. Why would I want the two permanently linked together, especially enclosures with expensive extra features like this.
Hey, for the 320gb edition its going to cost you 0.91875 usd for 1gb of James Bond secured data.
just think of it like that.
If they would have make a 4gb device for 3.6 usd that is that secure would you buy it?
Nice for porn and your jailbaits lolz
I could use one...
LCD-based PIN entry? Wow... if this was 1990.
Biometric-based hardware-encrypted HDD's have been available for quite some time...
http://www.mxisecurity.com/categories/display/65
Or just make an AES-256 encrypted file image to fill up the entire capacity of a regular drive... It'd be a lot cheaper...
Can Engadget please bring out the banhammer on the ip addresses of these commenter ad's?
IP bans on spammers are about as effective as screen doors in tsunamis.
That's so sweet! In reading their news release, I discovered their drives only use AES128 encryption! I guess if you only want to encrypt to the SECRET level, and not TOP SECRET, these drives will work just fine for you!
My bad. The PRO line (the prices of which were mentioned in the article) use AES128. The ENTERPRISE line uses AES256.
Finally I can safely store all my porn and know that my girlfriend won't find it.
Frankly, I would get a regular HDD and use TrueCrypt software-based encryption. It's open source, and therefore, it can be trusted not to have any backdoors.
Truecrypt is useless if you have a hardware or software keylogger on your computer.
Darren, don't write 'PIN number', as it doesn't actually make any sense. PIN stands for Personal Identification Number, so the extra 'number' afterwards is needless. Either say PIN or PIN code.
Darren, ban this guy for being a pedantic tool. ;)
A puke green monochrome screen in 2009? That was barely acceptable twenty years ago. Back to the old drawing board for this one, me thinks.