What can I say? Drives that are more reliable, store more data at a faster rate, and have a smaller time-to-data value usually cost more. The only time when you may
get a price break on a reliable, quick drive is if a manufacturer is trying to break into a market that is dominated by another manufacturer. Of course, then you bear the
risk of the drive being taken off the market. (Consider, for example, the quick disappearance of the Shark drive in the PC market. It was a great drive that did not get
market acceptance and disappeared in about a year. Now it's almost impossible to get media for it.)