Toys weekend deal: 500GB Pocket Drive, $104.99 | 9 to 5 Mac.

We talked this week about the 500 GB sweet spot in laptop hard drives.  Another good option has popped up.  J&R just marked down the Western Digital 500GB USB External WDME5000TN (Midnight Black) hard drive to $104.99(+$6 Shipping). This is in retail box and is $45 off of list price and less than we could find anywhere else (J&R through Buy.com has it for the same price with more for shipping and tax).  Other colors are also available at higher prices.

While that is slightly more expensive than the internal drives we talked about earlier, it comes with an enclosure (which is easy to open and swap with your laptop’s internal drive).  It also features the Western Digital hard drive that gets higher ratings than either Seagate or Samsung at the same price we mentioned earlier without the enclosure.

Also, you can protect that portable 2.5 inch drive with a Case Logic poratble hard drive case for another $10.

Technical Details

  • Box Contents – My Passport Essential 500GB Portable USB Hard Drive, USB 2.0 cable, Quick Install guide
  • 500GB Hard Drive Capacity
  • Installation is a snap because you don’t really install this drive; you just plug it in and it’s ready to use. There is no CD to install; the included software loads from the drive the first time you plug it in
  • Powered by the USB bus. No separate power supply is needed
  • This ultra-portable drive fits easily in your pocket or purse, weighs only a few ounces, and holds tons of valuable data