Barracuda
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Razer's new Barracuda headsets work with any phone or PC
Razer has revamped its Barracuda headsets with Bluetooth — you can connect to any phone, tablet or PC.
Seagate courts PC enthusiasts with Barracuda SSD (update: pricing)
Seagate has offered SSDs for a while, but it's not what you'd call a strong supporter. Unless you're an enterprise user, you're typically either buying a hybrid drive or looking to one of the many alternatives. The company is determined to change its reputation, though: it just launched a Barracuda SSD built for PC enthusiasts. It's a relatively familiar-looking 2.5-inch SATA drive with sequential speeds up to 560MB/s and capacities ranging from 250GB to 2TB, so it won't compete with the NVMe drives that are all the rage as of late. However, the BarraCuda should be more than enough for a speedy boot drive.
Seagate unveils a 10TB hard drive for your home PC
It's no longer far-fetched to buy a 10TB hard drive if you're running a server, but what if you need gobs of space for your games and 4K videos at home? Seagate has your back after today, as it's releasing a trio of 10TB drives (mainly focused on networked and surveillance storage) that include one designed for your desktop. The new Barracuda Pro doesn't do anything remarkable beyond its capacity (it's a standard 3.5-inch, 7,200RPM disk), but that still means getting a massive amount of room in a drive that's meant for a run-of-the-mill PC. Just brace yourself for the cost. Seagate pegs the 10TB Barracuda Pro's price at $535 -- it'll be tempting to settle for 'just' an 8TB disk unless you know you need as much storage as possible in a single drive bay.
PSA: Western Digital and Seagate commence bonfire of the warranties
Seagate and Western Digital really do have the spirit of the holidays running through their veins, as both companies are slashing the warranty periods on hard drives for the new year. Gone are the days of five-year safety periods, instead owners of Seagate's Barracuda XT, Constellation 2, ES.2 and Momentus XT drives will have three years protection. SV35 Series and Pipeline HD drives have two years while Barracuda, Barracuda Green and the 2.5-inch Momentus get a measly one year. Western Digital on the other hand, will be hacking a year off the Caviar Blue, Green and Scorpio Blue drives that ship after January 1st, each coming with just two years warranty. On the upside, you'll be given the chance to extend the package for a modest fee -- nothing like the odd nickel-and-dime to hasten the post-holiday slump, eh? [Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures]
Western Digital, Seagate and Hitachi square off in 3TB hard drive roundup
We've seen 3TB hard drives trickling onto the market for the better part of a year, but it's only now that we're seeing more UEFI-equipped motherboards that can actually handle all that storage capacity. So, the benchmarking wizards over at HotHardware decided now would be a fine time to pit a few of 'em against each other, rounding up models from the likes of Western Digital, Seagate and Hitachi and subjecting them to a grueling battery of 28 tests. We'll leave it to you to peruse the scores, but suffice to say the Seagate Barracuda XT swept about half the benchmarks, and notched a close second the rest of the time. But is it worth spending an extra $30 over Western Digital's consistently trailing Caviar Green? We'll leave that to you and your wallet.
Seagate copies Samsung's notes, re-breaks areal-density barrier with 1TB HDD platters
What better way for Seagate to celebrate its $1.375 billion dollar purchase of Samsung's HDD division than to re-introduce the old firm's breakthrough? Seagate took the Samsung's 1TB platter prototypes and packed them into a real hard drive, bringing the new technology to market for the first time. These new drives will boast an areal-density of 625 gigabits (78.13GB) per square inch, scoring 1TB platters for the outfit's next generation of hard disks. Unfortunately, Seagate won't be cramming four of those 1TB plates into a single hard drive as Samsung originally planned, instead opting to debut the technology in a 3TB external drive under their GoFlex brand. No official specs this time around, but when the turkey was on Samsung's platter, it spun at 5,400 RPM with a 32MB cache and SATA 6Gbps compatibility.
Seagate ships 7,200RPM 3TB Barracuda XT internal hard drive, we wonder what took so long
We've been hearing about Seagate's plans to offer an unencumbered 3TB hard drive since May of last year, but despite promises of a 2010 launch and the release of similarly large HDDs from companies like Western Digital and Hitachi, we're only now seeing the 3TB Barracuda XT shipping all on its own. We won't claim to have an explanation for the delay, but it's possible that the company's proprietary software -- which breaks the 2.1TB legacy OS barrier and enables this guy to function within Windows XP -- could have something to do with it. It might be tardy to the party, but the new Barracuda can definitely hold its own when stacked against the competition -- it spins at 7,200RPM, touts a 64MB cache, and plays nice with the 6Gbps SATA interface. It ain't the only 3TB fish in the sea, but at $280, it's definitely not dead in the water.
Seagate ships 3.5-inch Barracuda Green internal hard drive, leaves and all
Remember the Barracuda LP? Meet its formal successor. In a bid to generate some interest from upgrading Sierra Club members, Seagate has just introduced the Barracuda Green, described as the world's highest performance eco-friendly desktop hard drive. Essentially, this 3.5-inch internal HDD aims to split the difference between power and performance, with a 5,900RPM spin speed and the company's own SmartAlign technology to enable the benefits of the new 4K sector standard. The company claims that it's whisper quiet in use, and it drains less power than non-Green alternatives. It's hitting the sales channel now in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB sizes, with the big guy topping out at around $120. Ma Earth thanks you in advance for your consideration.
Seagate 2TB Barracuda XT: world's first SATA 6Gbps hard drive
Ready for this speed freaks? Seagate just announced the world's first 2TB disk with full support for the third generation SATA interface pushing data at 6Gbps -- double the rate of previous controllers. The 3.5-inch SATA 6Gbps Barracuda XT drive spins 4x 500GB platters at 7200RPM with a big 64MB cache to prevent bottlenecks. It promises a sustained transfer rate of just 140MBps (compared to 600MBps / 4.8Gbps possible), MTBF of 750,000 hours, and carries a five-year warranty. The disk hits retail this week for about $299 list. Then you'll just need to find SATA 6G controller / MoBo to make the most of your new purchase -- fortunately, SATA 6Gbps is backward compatible with SATA 1.5Gbps or 3Gbps rigs until then.%Gallery-73607% Show full PR text [Via TG Daily]
Seagate rolls out low-power Barracuda LP hard drives
Seagate's Barracuda drives have been plagued with a few problems as of late, but it looks like the company is doing its best to push the line in a fresh new direction with its just-announced Barracuda LP series, which promise to cut down on power consumption without making too many compromises in performance. Specifically, Seagate says that the drives will use up to 50% less electricity than standard hard drives, while also cranking out 5,900 RPM, along with an average latency of 5.5ms, and a 32MB cache. No word on what so of premium, if any, they'll demand, but you'll apparently be able to get 'em in 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB varieties (all 3.5-inch) right out of the gate.
Tick tick tick... significant number of Seagate hard drives failing
It hasn't been a great year so far for car companies and banks. Now, add Seagate to the list of enterprises facing unexpected challenges. The big manufacturer of hard disks reports that a 'small' number of Barracuda 7200.11 drives are failing. Once they fail, the data on them is supposedly still intact but can't be accessed without expert recovery procedures. Seagate has promised to expedite data recovery for affected users, which is nice enough but cold comfort if you're among the unlucky. Seagate offers a software utility that will tell you if your drive is at risk, but that only works on Windows PCs. The firm is providing some firmware updates for the affected, but at this point they do not appear to have an updater that will run under OS X. The problem drives also extend to the Barracuda ES.2 SATA units and the DiamondMax22. The flaky drives could be internal models, or drives installed in external cases. Wondering if you have one of these drives? You can use the 'more info' button when you select 'About this Mac' from the Apple menu (or just run the Apple System Profiler utility from your Utilities folder -- same result), and click on the Serial-ATA label in the left column. You'll get all your drive model numbers, and the firmware revisions. If the numbers match the bad news provided by Seagate, you'll know you may be living on borrowed time. Lots of people around the 'net are reporting failures, and others say their drives match the numbers and aren't sure what to do without a viable firmware updater. I tried to call Seagate myself this morning and after navigating the inevitable phone tree a recording said they were too busy to take my call. I'll bet they are. Seagate did say today they will fix any defective drives and they will provide a free data recovery service. That is nice but it's a time consuming and troublesome process. There is some talk of a class action lawsuit (of course) but clearly something is amiss with some Seagate drives so if you have one or more check them out, and hope the company comes up with some Mac friendly answers. If anyone has tried updating the firmware of a drive via Boot Camp, please advise (no, before you ask, trying to use a virtualization tool like VMware or Parallels to modify your drive firmware is neither advisable nor particularly feasible). Note that back in 2007 we reported on some problems involving Seagate drives and Apple laptops. Here's how to contact Seagate, but I suspect they are pretty busy. No telling how many Macs have these drives in them. Apple uses a lot of different vendors, including Seagate. Check your backups, folks. [via Engadget & The Register]
Seagate offers fix, free data recovery for disks affected by firmware bug
After a ground-swell of angry Barracuda owners voiced concern over their failing disk drives, Seagate has fessed-to the issue. According to Seagate, a firmware bug in Barracuda 7200.11, DiamondMax 22, and Barracuda ES.2 SATA drives could make the disks "inaccessible when the host system is powered on." Right, inaccessible -- Seagate assures owners that data is not lost (it's still on the disk). However, should data loss occur, it's providing a free data recovery service. Hit the read link to find out if your drive is affected. If so, a link is provided to contact Seagate to expedite resolution on a case-by-case issue. Good on ya Seagate, way to flip a public relations fiasco into a customer support victory.[Via The Register]
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives said to be failing at an alarming rate
Rumors flying, sensational headlines, dogs and cats living together. Yes, its another apparent rash of hard drive failures -- this one centered on Seagate's spacious 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 drives. Apparently, the problem lies in a faulty firmware found on drives manufactured in Thailand, which causes them to fail before they're even able to boot up and leaves them completely inoperable, with some extensive data recovery measures the only option for those looking to hang onto their data. What's more, while Seagate is now said to be updating the firmware on newly manufactured drives, it's apparently not possible to update the firmware on the toasted drives, as they're not even able to be detected by the BIOS once they fail. Seagate still doesn't seem to be addressing the issue publicly, however, and as Tom's Hardware points out, they haven't yet issued a recall on unsold drives, so anyone planning on upgrading or building a new PC may want to proceed with caution.[Via The Register]
Seagate's Barracuda 7200.12 HD packs 500GB per platter
Around 1.5 years ago, we were all sitting around in awe of the ultra-dense Barracuda 7200.10. Now, Seagate has doubled up on that gigabyte-per-platter milestone with the Barracuda 7200.12. As of this week, the desktop hard drive with the industry's highest areal density (329 Gigabits per square inch, for those curious) is shipping, as the firm's engineers have somehow figured out how to squeeze 500GB onto a single disk. The 3.5-inch 7,200RPM drive touts a SATA interface, a sustained data rate of up to 160MB/second and a burst speed of 3Gb/second. It's available as we speak in 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities, though there's no telling how much coin you'll be asked to lay down in order to take home the bragging rights.[Via TG Daily]
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11: 1.5TB of love
You know, we're not actually certain we want to trust 1.5TB of our precious precious NES ROMS invaluable work data to a single drive, but that doesn't mean Seagate's latest Barracuda isn't droolworthy regardless. The jump from 1TB to 1.5TB is the "largest capacity hard drive jump in the more than half-century history of hard drives," according to Seagate, and the perpendicular-recording drives should begin shipping in August. There are also a pair of Momentus 2.5-inch 500GB notebook drives coming in Q4 in 5400 and 7200RPM speeds, but like big brother, pricing is unavailable -- we've got a hunch you might want to start saving those pennies, though.[Thanks, Dave]
Seagate can't stop announcing 1TB disks: Barracuda 7200.11 and ES.2
Perhaps due to the raging insecurities of playing catchup to Hitachi's 1TB disk, Seagate just announced a couple more 1TB drives in what has quickly become a confusing HDD line-up. Joining their previously announced 1TB Barracuda 7200.10 are the SATA-equipped Barracuda 7200.11 for consumers and business class Barracuda ES.2 with SAS interface. This time however, Seagate had the good manners to at least provide a date and price: Q3 and $399.99. Right, exactly the same price as Hitachi's 7K1000.Update: Seagate just gave us some clarification on the 7200.10 vs. 7200.11: "The 7200.10 that was announced was a 250GB single-platter design; the purpose of it was to leverage the new areal densities we achieved and put it into the current 7200.10 chassis with the core electronics. It is shipping today. The 7200.11 and ES.2 use the same areal densities but are a new generation design with updated electronics, etc." So there you have it.
Samsung and Seagate finally match Hitachi with 1TB SATA disks
Months after Hitachi announced their big 3.5-inch, 1TB drive, Samsung and Seagate have finally matched that capacity by sheepishly launching their own 3Gbps SATA disks. Sammy does it all with efficiency boy, by spinning 3x 334GB platters to Hitachi's 5x 200GB platters (10 heads) or Seagate's 4 platters (8 heads) of 250GB each. That little trick should keep the weight, decibels, and power draw of their SpinPoint F1 (pictured) to a minimum. Hitachi's Deskstar 7K1000 still packs that impressive 32MB buffer which Samsung and Seagate can only aspire to with their 16MBs of respective cache. Expect both of the newcomers to be priced around $400. Cheap, but we'll be holding our wad for the inevitable head-to-head (to-head) shootout we're sure somebody is cooking up.Read -- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 Read -- Samsung SpinPoint F1
Seagate crams 250GB on a single Barracuda platter
Just a day after Hitachi and Philips boasted about its newest external 1TB offerings, Seagate is up on its own soap box clamoring over the "industry's first 250GB-per-disc, 3.5-inch disc drive." Touting the second-generation of perpendicular magnetic recording technology, the newest Barracuda 7200.10 stretches areal density limits by stuffing 180Gb per square inch, and also manages to "set new benchmarks" for power consumption, acoustics, and performance. The drives will feature a 3Gbps SATA interface and should pop up in future external models, but for now you can probably grab one in a retail box as Seagate has reportedly achieved worldwide volume deployments.[Via TGDaily]
Seagate leaks 750GB Barracuda 7200.10
Well, it's been a rather long year or so since 500GB drives came into style as the standard for high end disks, but it looks like perpendicular recording will save the day in stagnant storage. Seagate's inadvertently leaked the Barracuda 7200.10 line of SATA drives with speeds up to 3Gbps (SATA II), 7200rpm, 4.16ms latency, NCQ, 16MB cache, and 750GB of storage. 750 freaking gigs, man. Just another step on the magic road to a 1 terabyte petabyte drive though, you know? [Warning: PDF link][Via DailyTech, thanks, Diego]
