Toshiba's inaugural 3.5-inch external HDD is exactly what you think it is
By Ross Miller 
posted July 28th 2009 10:14PM
posted July 28th 2009 10:14PM
[Via Testfreaks; thanks, Nickolas R]
posted July 28th 2009 10:14PM
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Mac compatible?
...It's a USB hard drive.
If it's not they're doing something very seriously wrong.
it looks like a netgear router.
5400rpm on a 3.5" drive that costs more than same sized 7200rpm drives?
Seriously. 5400rpm and 640GB for triple digits? Is this supposed to be a joke?
5400rpm? Are they kidding?
If your going to launch a new product...a good top is to start off with something good. You know like 7200rpm and Firewire...
Dont tell me your one of those people that pays an extra $50 for an external hard drive thats been "certified" to work with Macs.
ALL external hard drives work with Macs, it takes 5 seconds to convert it to HFS+
Oh, but most Mac people don't know that.
I've seen quite a few people who won't get anything that's not Apple certified, because it's unreliable since it's made for Windows.
Oh yeah? It takes /four/ seconds to convert to ext4!
Pfft! It only takes three seconds (of freefall) to convert it to a pile of shards on the city street below.
Seriously though...woot ext4.
they should be making ssd and scrap hdd for good who's with me?
Im not with you.
The $ to GB ratio is just not there for SSD's.
Its like saying lets scrap all Hyundai's and just build BMW's because they are better. In theory it means everyone would be getting a better car but it costs lots more $$$
@Adderz:
Yeah, right now HDDs still have the $/GB advantage. But take note of the 'right now.' SSDs and their flash underpinnings are multiplying in capacity and halving in cost at rates so far in excess of the advances that have been seen recently in the HDD world that we're looking at a 2-4 year window before HDDs are obsolete in not just the moving parts category but also on basis of price.
We've had 1TB HDDs for over 2.5 years now (first one announced Jan of 2007), but just recently was the first 2TB single 3.5" drive announced. So right now we're on a roughly 2.5 year cycle to double hard drive sizes in a single form factor. Whereas SSDs are dropping like rocks in price and multiplying in storage capacity on time scales measured in months.
It doesn't take a genius to realize which of these technologies is going to win. It's just a matter of time.
@Josh
SSD's will eventually replace HDD's in probably all sectors, I think however that your timeline is optimistic at best.
Currently a 3.5" 1TB HDD is around $80. The same SDD is about $2200.
We'll assume that SSD prices drop by half each year (they haven't, but, let's assume).
1 year $1100
2 years $550
3 years $275
4 years $135
5 years $70
Now we're price competitive.
Problem is, in that same 5 years, by your own assumption, HDD's will have doubled in size twice to 4TB.
Now we are neither price nor size competitive.
Sorry, my final point.
In an industry that advances as fast as computers, 2-4 years is a lifetime, let alone the 6+ years it's likely to take SSDs to catch HDDs.
@Adderz
I for one support scraping all Hyundai's.
i'd scrape the sh*t outta that hyundai
1) Scraping != Scrapping
2) I'll take a reliable car over an inflated price tag any day (i.e. Hyundai over BMW), so your analogy isn't working very well there Adderz.
I wonder if there would be any gain using a 7200RPM over a 5400RPM hard drive when using USB? I know USB can be slow.
You are right, there should be almost no difference. Data rate is capped by USB at a theoretical 400mbps or in practice about 30MB/s - that's the fastest USB drive I have seen. I have seen quite a few slower than that too, like 20MB/s.
Access times should be better for the 7200 but it would require some testing to see if the advantages in raw drive speed propagate through the rather inefficient USB protocol.
Am I missing something? I had one of these:
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=309919
about 2 years ago, and when it got flooded and I pulled it out the case to recover the data, it was definitely a 3.5" drive in there.
Or is this Toshiba's first external 3.5" drive in the USA...
irs already at bestbuy
Hmm this looks interesting.
not sure how to log into my account info :(
Netgear called, they are missing some router housings.
It doesn't matter if it's 5200RPM since you'll never get that fast on USB.
I don't understand why people didn't go with Firewire.
It's superior in every way possible, so why are we still stuck using USB?
Umm I think I heard that it has a eSATA port too???
7200 RPM will definitely make a difference!
The easiest answer is that USB is required on motherboards, whereas Firewire isn't. Firewire may only be a $2 chip and $0.50 connector, but that's an extra $2.50 that mobo makers and OEMs don't want to have to pay to sell someone a $400 desktop or a $500 laptop.
But yes, higher sustained throughput, minimal processor involvement in scheduling, and higher power (in the 6 pin variant) than USB are all draws. That said, isn't eSATA supposed to be taking over from Firewire these days in terms of external storage?
yu guys need to stop cryin about it nt havin a firewire, it has esata in it ?
Slow evening, huh.
OK
This is so NOT TRUE.
I recently bought a Toshiba StorE 1TB 3.5" 7200rpm External HDD with aluminium casing from Amazon.de. In fact I'm using it right now as I write this comment.
It retail for almost €100, but I got my self an exhibit-ware for €50. It's 50 euro cents per gigabyte.
check this link for picture (Amazon.de page): http://foxyurl.com/q0b
How could it be offering e-SATA data speed while rotating at
5400vpm?? Unless there is much vacant in band width when transfering.
How could it be offering e-SATA data speed while rotating at
5400vpm?? Unless there is much vacant in band width when transfering.
USZzzz.z.z.z.z.
I just bought this today, so far so good. I got it at Best Buy for 130. I only got this one because I wanted to have eSATA.
I just got the 640 gb and I love it. I had gotten a western digital and all it did was freeze up my computer so I went back and got the Toshiba and it is like magic.