HardDiskDrive
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Xbox 360 getting USB storage support in Spring 2010 firmware update
Are we gazing onto the cusp of a new horizon, one where our Xbox 360 storage needs aren't shackled to overpriced proprietary hard drives? Probably not quite. Our best friends at Joystiq have managed to obtain documents (corroborated with multiple sources) showing that the folks in Redmond are mulling over an option to enable USB mass storage support for its game machine. To elaborate, that means downloaded Xbox Live and Arcade games, DLC, other associated game files, and even installed disc-based games can be saved to an external HDD of your choosing. The documents further elaborate that the storage device itself must be 1GB or more; a system partition of 512MB is required, and by default beyond that the consumer partition (i.e. your games and the like) will occupy the remainder of the drive or 16GB, whichever is smaller -- and unfortunately, that's as much as you're gonna get. This could be another way for Microsoft to, alongside the rumored Valhalla motherboard, trim some fat for a slimmer future... but given the size constraints, we're guessing it's more likely to be a more spacious alternative to Memory Units than the main HDD itself. Word has it the feature will be rolled out in a Spring 2010 firmware update -- that is, if Microsoft keeps to its paperwork here. Excited? We are. Read the full documentation over at Joystiq.
Xbox 360 Hard Drive accessory bumped to 250GB in Japan
On March 11th, Microsoft will kick out its 250GB external hard drive to the good people of Japan; notable, as the first time that this 250GB drive has been sold anywhere outside of a new console bundle. The slab of external magnetic storage is set to cost ¥15,540 or about $172 should it ever ship Stateside. Unfortunately, Microsoft isn't revealing its plans for that at the moment while conceding the need for more local storage for content such as software, TV shows, and movies downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace. In other words, you'll get your storage bump... someday.
Lenovo RapidDrive brings SSD and HDD together, demoes 66 percent speed boost on video
You know, making that jump from HDD to SSD still costs an arm and a leg, so how about somewhere in between that gap? That's what Lenovo's offering as an option for the IdeaPad Y460 and Y560 coming in March. The idea with this RapidDrive technology is that you can have a 32GB or 64GB PCI-Express SSD installed alongside your regular HDD (up to 500GB option), and the two drives will effectively be combined into one. Sounds like a tribute to the hybrid hard drives that seem to have quietly disappeared. The guys at Lenovo Blogs claim that "this is not Intel TurboMemory" as RapidDrive implements a "more automatic" algorithm to dynamically pool and manage the hybrid drive, thus giving up to 66 percent increase in Windows 7 boot speed as well as everyday performance. Regardless of this jab at Intel, we've seen this demoed at CES and it looked as good as the video demo after the break. Just don't let us down with the SSD prices, Lenovo.
Imation Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive review
Imation was set to announce its first-ever Wireless USB hard drive a year ago, but it lost a dear friend shortly before it materialized and we'd heard nothing since then. Today Imation has returned -- holding hands with its new partner, Staccato -- to release the Pro WX 1.5 terabyte Wireless USB hard drive for both Windows and Mac. At $449.99, though, we thought to ourselves: does the Pro WX offer something extraordinary for the premium price? Or are you better off with a NAS device like Apple's infamous Time Capsule? We ran some quick tests to find out -- do read on for some juicy results.
Toshiba's 320GB hard disk is world's largest 1.8-incher
That's the world's largest capacity 1.8-inch hard disk drive right there. A claim met by a list of specs going a little something like this: 3.0Gbps SATA interface, 320GB capacity, 5,400 RPM, 16MB buffer, and 19dB of emitted noise during seeks -- a 4dB cut from Toshiba's previous generation of 5,400 RPM 1.8-inchers. Of course, these 1.8-inch mechanical HDDs are the form factor most commonly found in those netbook-shoving CULV thin-and-light ultraportables now coming onto the market. Look for it in December when the MK3233GSG hits mass production.
LaCie hard drives stand in Starck contrast to the competition (hands-on)
Ready for some churchin' up? Then step on in to the house of Starck. Philippe Starck that is, the prolific designer who's left his mark on hotel interiors, motorbikes, and toilets across the globe. His latest contribution to the economy of stuff also heralds a return to LaCie (remember his "toaster" series?) with a pair of new hard disk drives: the LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive and Desktop Hard Drive. Both drives are conspicuously inscribed with Starck's name and flare for melding organic shapes within the rigid rules of geometry. Drives that must be pressed to flesh to be fully appreciated for their aesthetic and mass. And while the models we received feature off-the-shelf disks from Samsung and Hitachi, LaCie adds a few functional tricks to enhance that high-design form. Read on to see if the two struck the appropriate balance. %Gallery-74697%
Hard drives quit their day job to pursue new life as a speaker system
We know what you're thinking, why would you ever turn two decent hard disk drives into tinny speakers when it's much more logical to use them as storage and buying cheap speakers instead... but if you're the kind of mad scientist who likes to see doohickeys function outside their intended use, or have friends who'd be really impressed or amused, you might want to consider recreating this classy speaker set complete with transparent glass case and the requisite blue lights. All the instructions lie beyond the read link, and if you're not quite convinced, we think the video after the break is likely to change your opinion for the better. [Via Hack a Day]
Apple releases MacBook Pro firmware to silence those 7200 RPM HDDs
That new MacBook Pro's 7200 RPM HDD singing you too many ballads lately? As promised, Apple today released a new firmware update to silence that troublemaker. If it doesn't come up through automatic system update, you can obtain Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0 (catchy name, eh?) via the read link. Admit it, you're gonna feel just a teensy bit lonelier once your laptop stops chirping so much. Update: Apple today also released Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0.1, which alongside various bug fixes improves compatibility with the company's wireless mouse and keyboards on all machines with the Broadcom chipset -- that includes all unibody laptops and any Mac released in 2009. [Via TUAW]
Apple 'fesses up to 7200 RPM HDD issues, aims to dispatch a fix forthwith
MacBook Pro owners suffering from 7200 RPM noise pollution and performance issues, Apple has acknowledged your pain and wants you to know that it's working hard to remedy the situation. According to CNET, the problem seems to be restricted to 500GB / 7200 RPM hard drives, with the likely culprit being code that's somehow "causing the drive to sleep during use." No word yet on a release date for the patch, but you'll know as soon as we do. As you know, we'll pretty much take any opportunity we can find to run a Lloyd Dobler Photoshop.[Via Register Hardware]
Toshiba's inaugural 3.5-inch external HDD is exactly what you think it is
Good old Tosh is putting a little more heft on its drives, unveiling what the company cites as its first ever 3.5-inch external hard drive. It spins at 5400RPM, features USB 2.0 and eSATA output, and an aesthetic that's easy on the eyes. Not much else to say about this space saver, but you can be sure it's just the first of many that are in the pipeline. The presser says it's available now, but we've been looking and have yet to find it on Toshiba's retail site or other online retailers like Amazon. When it does show its face, expect it to cost $130 for the 640GB model and $160 for a cool 1TB. [Via Testfreaks; thanks, Nickolas R]
MacBook Pros with 7200RPM HDDs getting a touch too noisy?
MacBook Pro hard disk storage really seem to be down on its luck this generation. First was the 3Gbps SATA transfers (now fixed), which honestly didn't affected but a marginal percentage of users upgrading to SSD themselves. Now comes word from a number of irate users on the Apple support forums that claim their HDDs, specifically those spec'd at 7200RPM, are suffering from performance issues and some audible clicking / beeping sounds. The folks at Other World Computing chimed in to say that it might have something to do with the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 G-Force drives, which takes anti-shock precautions that are possibly causing both noise and extra strain. If you're not hearing anything now, we wouldn't suggest you start getting hyper paranoid over the issue -- it's the internet, where things often get blown way out of proportion, in case you haven't noticed. If you're still worried / curious, hit up the read link for the full collection of anecdotes.[Via Engadget Spanish and MacNN]
Samsung Mini S2 portable HDD graced with colors that perfectly match your tacky beach gear
Sammy's done it again. The company, known to have a penchant for pink products, has unveiled two new eye-catching colors for its Mini S2 portable HDD series. Joining the already available Snow White are Ocean Blue and Sweet Pink, pictured -- and yep, if you look closely enough, that's a sea of hearts lining the case on the right. All other options appear to be the same as when Samsung first unveiled the 2.5-inch drive, with capacity options ranging from 160GB all the way up to 500GB, and it's current status is "coming soon" in Korea, with options to import likely to follow shortly after. Catering / pandering to the female audience? You betcha, and if this pic's not proof enough, hit up the break for an image that's decidedly more in line with the device's initial inspiration / concept art. [Via Engadget Spanish]
Brando's latest HDD dock adds HDMI into the mix
There are apparently an awful, awful lot of people out there with shoe boxes full of spare SATA drives. Somebody is buying all these new HDD docks, and while most surpass the previous editions by adding support for another obscure format of memory card, Brando's latest seems like an actually useful update, adding HDMI and component ports through which it can output video at either 1080i or the always popular 576p. Standard resolutions may not be its strong point, and sadly there's no mention of which video codecs it can unravel, but it does at least support the major flavors of audio files (MP3, WMA, AAC, etc.) and of course will read memory cards and thumb drives to boot. No, a bare drive may not look particularly appealing while rattling away on your entertainment center, and at $69 you're not far from the price of a Windows Media extender or the like, but don't let such practical concerns dissuade you from adding this unique focal point to your home theater.
Seagate's 2TB Constellation ES is rife with potential space puns
It's been a long time coming, but Seagate's finally unveiled its first 2TB hard drive, the 3.5-inch Constellation ES. The hefty spinner also comes in 500GB and 1TB varieties and runs at 7,200RPM, which should make it a bit faster than Western Digital's behemoth, according to reviews for the latter. It'll be out calendar Q3, which we take to be fancy schmancy business talk for "this Summer." Meanwhile, the 2.5-inch ES-less Constellation line sports 3 Gbps SATA and SAS 2.0 interface. Look for this one in 160GB and 500GB sizes sometime this quarter, with Dell said to be one the first companies to offer the drives. Check out one more out-of-this-world promotional image after the break.
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green review roundup
Now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag on Western Digital's 2TB Caviar Green HDD, hardware fanatics have had a chance to take the 3.5-inch drive for a spin. While its performance leaves something to be desired -- transferring files took longer than the 1TB Caviar Black or 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda -- instead we've got low heat and noise. Of course, the biggest boon is a ginormous storage capacity for just three Benjamins, the same price as some 128GB SSDs. Solid state be damned, rotating disks aren't going away anytime soon. Read - Register Hardware Read - Trusted Reviews Read - Extreme Tech
Laser Hard Drive boasts 1Tbits/s access time, doesn't exist yet
Whenever we uncover promising new research into lasers, we can generally be sure that it will sound really awesome, and that it will be a long time before it trickles down to the consumer electronics scene (if ever). That said, research into light powered computing has shown considerable promise -- with some folks estimating that commercial laser-drive hybrids (with picosecond pulse lasers doing the work that magnetic read/write heads once did -- something considered impossible until very recently) will be available in five years time. Although the first drives will only achieve a humble 1 TBits/s, in the future we might see femtosecond-based laser drives reaching speeds beyond 100TBits/s. And you know what they say... that's a lot of terabits.
Xmas tree made entirely of SCSI drives, offers lower CPU load than IDE alternatives
Ever found yourself with 70 decommissioned SCSI hard drives and an awful, awful lot of free time on your hands? If so, and you're bursting with holiday spirit, perhaps you'll choose to do the same as an apparent sys admin who goes by the name of Trigger. He took those drives from RAID arrays destined for the scrap heap and, rather than perform the DoD wipe that would have otherwise been required, chose to build this lovely -- if somewhat askew (see below) -- "tree" from the bevy of mirrored platters within. In fact the geeky holiday decor was made entirely from the bits and pieces within the drives, the lone exception being a nut purchased for $.39, making it a far more affordable project than yesterday's OLED tree. It's impressive to behold, but given the amount of personal data within, we think it's probably more likely to spread lawsuits than cheer this season.
Hitachi breakthrough: 4TB disks by 2011
When Hitachi -- the first disk manufacturer to go perpendicular and subsequently break the 1TB consumer disk drive barrier -- speaks about advances in hard disk technology, you'd be wise to listen. Today they're touting the world's smallest read-head technology for HDDs. The bold claim? 4TB desktop (3.5-inch) and 1TB laptop (2.5-inch) drives within the next 4 years. The new recording heads are more than 2x smaller than existing gear or about 2,000 times smaller than a human hair. Hmmm, Samsung may have to update their SSD vs. HDD graph after this, eh?
Harddisc-Uhr spins a disk of hard time
Has 3:15 ever looked so foxy? The German-made Harddisc-Uhr (er, shouldn't that be "Harddisk?") adapts just enough disk drive innards and Compaq power supply to coat our mouths in geek-spittle. The platter spins the hour while the minutes creep ever so slowly along the horizontal actuator arm. Practical? No, but we'd go to the mat for first dibs. [Via Hackaday]
New HDD read heads could significantly boost capacity
Sure, your hard drive does an okay job, spinning around, hefting 200 gigabits per square inch, but wouldn't you know it, the sensors used to read all that data are reaching their physical limits. Enter the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, UK, where researchers are proposing a whole new sensor design that could result in much thinner and smaller read heads, leading to drives with data densities as high as one terabit per square inch. According to the researchers, the sensors would use less power than current read heads, and could improve the speed of the reader. In the words of lead researcher Marian Vopsaroiu, "You could read back data ten times faster... instead of one GHz, you can read at five to ten GHz." Currently, hard drives use the magneto-resistance effect to read data, needing a constant current which converts resistance to voltage. The new sensors work by using the magneto-electric effect, wherein data's magnetic field will directly generate voltage instead of resistance. The new heads will be smaller and lighter as well, using half as many layers of materials as current sensors, but there are difficulties in putting together the complex alloys of the tiny readers. Want to know all the truly techy details? Grab a cup of strong coffee and hit the read link.
