Hitachi today announced the availability of the newly designed SimpleDrive desktop external hard drive with capacities of up to 2TB. In addition, the company announced that all of its 3.5-inch retail drives are now available in 2TB capacities including its flagship Deskstar 7K2000, the industry’s first 2TB 7,200 RPM hard drive. New, upgraded solutions include the Hitachi SimpleTech Pro Drive; the two-drive, RAID 0/1 Duo Pro Drive; and the Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kit for the do-it-yourself (DIY) computer-upgrade market.

Now available at OfficeMax stores nationwide, the Hitachi SimpleDrive comes in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities for $99.99, $129.99 and $249.99, respectively.

SimpleTech Pro Drive by Hitachi - With four interface options (USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and 3Gb/sec eSATA) and two levels of backup protection, the Pro Drive is compact hard drive that lets you stack multiple units or stand them upright to optimize desk space. A built-in security lock helps ensure that the drive remains where you left it. Capacities and MSRPs include 500GB ($119.99), 1TB ($169.99) and 2TB ($299.99).

SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive by Hitachi - With two drives in one, the Duo Pro Drive gives you two ways to save your data: RAID 0 (speed) or RAID 1 (mirroring). RAID 0, or striping, leverages both hard drives inside to read/write files, making storing and accessing files significantly faster than using one disk alone. If using eSATA in RAID 0, you can receive six times the speed of USB 2.0, ideal for home video editing or working with graphic-intensive files. For added data protection, RAID 1, or mirroring, makes an extra copy of stored files on the second internal hard drive, so you always have two separate copies of your important stuff. Interfaces include eSATA and USB 2.0. MSRP is $199.99 for 1TB, $299.99 for 2TB, and $499.99 for 4TB.

Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kits - Easily boost the capacity and performance of your Mac or PC desktop computer in minutes with a Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kit. Each premium kit features a proven and reliable high-performance drive, easy installation instructions, a SATA cable and mounting screws. Balancing low-power and performance, Hitachi hard drives come in 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM with up to a 32MB cache buffer. The MSRP of the 2TB, 7,200 RPM Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kit is $249.99.

All drives are now available.