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LaCie's Rugged Mini is rugged, also mini (video)
Got a knack for all things rugged, rubberized and orange? Then you're undoubtedly familiar with LaCie's robust line of drives, which the firm's been peddling to abusive storage lovers since 2008. Joining the family today are 500GB, 1TB, and (next month) 1.5TB miniaturized versions of Neil Poulton's shock, drop, and rain-resistant baby. They also tote USB 3.0, making them perfect candidates for speedy transfers while you're being hunted by some rare and soon-to-be extinct Amazonian jungle cat. Sound like your kind of shindig? PR and a video await you after the break.
Mitsubishi's new all-in-one set crams 500GB HDD and Blu-ray recorder into tiny package
Mitsubishi's new Real LCD-22BLR500 TV is hardly the first set packed with a built-in Blu-ray recorder and hard drive, but it's certainly one of the smaller ones we've seen. The 22-inch 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit display is probably too tiny for your average living room, but cramming the 500GB HDD and optical dive in the base helps it keep a thin profile and a stable footprint that could fit perfectly in a small bedroom or dorm. Around back are a bevy of inputs, including a USB jack, a pair of HDMI ports, an SD slot, Ethernet, and i.Link. Sadly, this compact all-in-one TV will be a Japan-only affair when it hits shelves on July 21st for around ¥110,000 (about $1,360).
The under-appreciated hard drive gets torn apart and explained (video)
We don't know about you, but we generally don't give much thought to our hard drives or how they work. And that's a shame because, as you'll find out in the video after the break, they're veritable miracles of modern science. Bill Hammack, also known as Engineer Guy, takes us on a detailed tour of the inner workings of the ubiquitous hard disk drive -- from the Lorentz Force driven arm, to the head that floats a mere 10nm above the layered cobalt platters thanks to the wonders of aerodynamics. Maybe after this lesson in modern magnetic storage from Mr. Hammack you'll appreciate how much more there is to storing your collection of Mission of Burma b-sides than simply printing ones and zeros on a shiny, spinning thing.
Samsung's 2.5-inch Spinpoint M8 1TB drive fits in your laptop, no cramming necessary
The trouble with high capacity hard drives is that they're about the size and weight of a brick, and just as bad for throwing in glass houses or ultrathin laptops. Samsung is slimming up the beastliest of disks though, with the just announced Spinpoint M8. Inside this 1TB drive are a pair of 500GB storage platters, instead of the three 334GB ones found in most storage solutions of this size. By using AFT, Advanced format technology, Sammy was able to up the storage density and trim its latest Spinpoint to a svelte 9.5mm thick (your average 1TB drive is 12.5mm). As an added bonus, the increased density also boosts performance and power efficiency since the drives heads need to move less. If you want to slap one in your notebook you can pick one up for $129, and we're sure a few of these will find a home those skinny "ultrabooks" that Intel has been talking up. Check out the PR after the break.
Clickfree C2 Rugged hard drive can fall down, backup
There's just something about the phrase "built to strict U.S. military standards" that makes us want to go positively medieval on a rugged device. Sadly, the aforementioned qualifier doesn't mean that Clickfree's new C2 Rugged Back-up Drive is capable of withstanding, say, a hail of gunfire, but the rubberized disk will continue to work after being dropped from four feet. The peripheral also features the company's Easy Run software, which will start automatically backing up your PC when you're done showing that storage device who's boss. The 500GB C2 is available now through Clickfree's site for $140 -- or $100, if you're one of the lucky 100 first people to buy, so maybe buy two, in case you go a little overboard.
iMac frees you from the tyranny (and convenience) of servicing your own hard drives (update: not exactly a new problem)
Letting Apple control most facets of your computing experience is just a fact of life for the Mac faithful, but if you want to swap out the hard drive for a bigger or faster one with the most recent iMac refresh, well, you have somewhat limited options. Rather than a 4-wire SATA configuration Apple uses a 7-wire configuration that keeps you from hooking up just any old hard drive, lest a temperature sensor go batty and your system refuse to cooperate. There are ways around it, but your warranty may not apply afterward... Update: We've revised this post to clarify that this isn't exactly a new issue. The same problem existed in previous revisions, but the big issue now is that the separate thermal cable has been integrated into the SATA cable. It's similar to what was done before, just a little harder to get around now. But, you can get around it. Update 2: Hardmac has a detailed analysis of the situation which we'd recommend you check out. It verifies OWC's findings, and recommends you short pins 2 and 7 to basically circumvent the issue. Why does Apple do this? The separate temperature monitor enables OS X to more regularly check the temperature of the system's drives without compromising overall bandwidth provided by SATA. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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.
Western Digital's new My Book Studio Edition II has 6TB on offer, but no Thunderbolt or USB 3.0
If you want a lot of the GBs in not a lot of space, 3TB per disk is about as good as you're going to get. Western Digital has slapped two of its triple-terabyte monsters into a dual-disk enclosure and paired it with eSATA and FireWire 800 interfaces to create the My Book Studio Edition II. There's a good 'ol USB 2.0 hole in there as well, but no USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt for those getting hip with the new connections. Time Machine support is baked in as well as your choice of RAID configurations, all at a cost of $549.99. That's a good bit more than you'd spend if you bought a pair of disks and an empty enclosure, but such is the price of convenience. %Gallery-119224%
Samsung HDD manages 1TB per platter, areal-density enthusiasts rejoice
Solid state drives are the geek storage of choice, what with their quiet nature, blazing fast speed, and stunning good looks. However, the limited capacity and sky-high price of SSDs keeps many of us buying traditional disk-based storage solutions -- which is just fine considering Samsung keeps finding ways to fit more bits and bytes on every drive. Last year, Sammy's EcoGreen F4EG squeezed 2TB onto a 3-platter drive (or 667GB per platter), and now the company's primed to release a new series of Spinpoint drives with even greater areal density at a time and price that remains TBD. Whenever they do get here, the new HDDs promise to deliver up to 1TB per platter spinning at 5,400RPM -- meaning 4TB desktop drives and a terabyte of storage (courtesy of two 500GB platters) in standard-sized laptop HDDs. The 3.5-inch version packs a 32MB cache and SATA 6Gbps compatibility, while the 2.5-inch variety has an 8MB cache and a 3 Gb/s SATA interface. Knowing all that, only one question remains: could areal-density enthusiasts be the new pixel-density enthusiasts?
ASUS Lamborghini external HDD sports beautiful curves, bloated price tag
Hot on the heels of ASUS' underwhelming Lamborghini VX6 netbook comes the equally over-hyped Lamborghini external HDD. Underneath that logo you've got either 500GB or 700GB of storage spinning at 5400RPM in the USB 2.0 model and 7200RPM in the USB 3.0 edition. The only sign of luxury in sight, however, is the price tag -- at $120 for the 500GB and $140 for the 700GB, the USB 2.0 versions are nearly twice as pricey as the non-Lambo competition. We've still no idea when the drives will land Stateside or how much the USB 3.0 iteration will cost, but then again, if you have to ask ...
Samsung spices up the USB 3.0 hard drive party with three new models
It's not the first time that Samsung's pimped up their hard drives with some USB 3.0 goodness, but come April, the Korean giant will be delivering three new product lines that are yet to be named. The first one is a basic portable model that goes up to 1TB, and comes encased in a smudge-resistant matte housing with a choice of four colors. The next one up is simply a premium version of the portable drive that not only looks prettier (as pictured above), but also beefed up with auto backup software and 256-bit Full Disk Encryption. A USB dock will be available for both portable lines. Last but not least, those looking for more storage space (and presumably faster spinning speeds) can turn to the desktop version, which will be available in three flavors: 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB. Press release after the break. %Gallery-112514%
Hitachi's 7mm-thick hard drives grow to 500GB, keep slimline profile
If you can't beat SSDs (and you can't, we've checked), you might as well try and dress like them by squeezing into the unreasonably low profile of just 7mm. Such must be the reasoning behind Hitachi's svelte 7mm-thick HDD series, which today gets augmented with a new top-of-the-line drive boasting 500GB of storage room. This single-platter archivist measure 2.5 inches diagonally, but as its Z5K500 product name suggests, it only spins at the tame rate of 5400RPM. The less generously proportioned Z7K320 offers 7200RPM if you're after more oomph, but it's most likely that your first real contact with either of these drives will be when you see them built into whatever larger device you're buying. Like, say, an ultrathin netbook or a PMP that's eager to swallow your music collection whole.
Imation Apollo D300 pairs 2TB of storage with USB 3.0 connection for $220
Decisions, decisions. The $200 price range tends to be reserved for happy shiny smartphones in our minds nowadays, but spare a thought for the demure hard drive as well. Imation's just announced an overhaul of its Apollo line of external plate spinners, with the headliner being the Expert D300 unit you see above. Accompanied by its very own detachable stand and backup software, this $220 USB 3.0 drive promises oodles of room and a decent turn of speed as well. Set for an October launch, it'll find lower price points for archivists with needs closer to 500GB or 1TB in size, and there's also a selection of classically minded USB 2.0 HDDs for the more frugal among you -- learn more about them in the full press release after the break.
MacBook makeovers bring new life to a couple of old laptops
Last weekend provided not one, but two opportunities for me to do some upgrades to some "old" MacBooks to bring 'em up to workable condition. To start with, one client of mine wanted to get rid of an unused MacBook, so I decided to purchase it from her as a machine for training. The other client had one of the original 15" Intel Core Duo MacBook Pros and doesn't want to spend the money on a new machine. In both cases, the machines were running older versions of Mac OS X, had insufficient RAM, and had hard drives that were both slow and small. The following post is a textbook example of how you can bring new life to slightly old Macs by just spending enough money to upgrade the memory, OS, and hard disk drive. For the MacBook, I decided that I wanted to max out its RAM, add more hard drive space, and speed up the hard drive while I was at it. I wanted to set up the machine with Mac OS X 10.6 and a Boot Camp partition running Windows 7, with an alternative external boot drive containing Mac OS X Server 10.6. The machine's initial setup: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Penryn) CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and a 160GB 5400 RPM SATA hard disk. I chose to max out the RAM to a total of 6GB, purchase a 500GB 7200 RPM drive for the internal drive, and procure a USB 2.0 bus-powered external shell for the existing drive. This MacBook was also running Mac OS X 10.5.8, and I wanted to update it to the latest version of Snow Leopard. Click "Read More" to find out how the upgrades went.
Samsung S2 Portable hard disk does the 7,200RPM bump with USB 3.0
If you picked up Samsung's 640GB S2 portable USB hard drive earlier this year then you might want to look away. Sammy just update the drive with a USB 3.0 interface and 7,200RPM spindle speed that should easily best its predecessor when it comes to pushing the bits around. Then again, maybe you bought the Michael Jackson edition in which case, a USB 2.0 interface and 5,400RPM speed are the least of your problems.
Samsung's faster EcoGreen F4EG hard drive does 2TB for less
Samsung latest 3.5-inch EcoGreen desktop hard disk does with three platters what its F3EG did with four: obtain a 2TB capacity. That's 667GB per platter for what Samsung calls the world's highest areal density, environmentally friendly hard disk drive on the market. Specifically, this 3.0Gbps SATA disk with a 32MB buffer brings a 19 percent improved standby performance and requires 23 percent less power in standby mode than its EcoGreen F3EG. Better yet, it does all this for $60 less (just $119.95) when it ships to the US and EU markets in early September.
Aegis Bio grows to 640GB of fingerprint-protected storage
Apricorn specializes in the fine art of making people believe their data is worth stealing and charging them for the privilege of protecting it. Its Aegis Bio range has now been expanded, both in number and in capacity, as the former ceiling of 250GB has been lifted with the introduction of 320GB, 500GB and 640GB variants. The 2.5-inch external disk validates user identity with that handy fingerprint scanner on top before allowing access to the otherwise 128-bit encrypted precious stuff within it. Prices of the new models top out at $160 for the most voluminous one, making them thrifty enough to buy even if you don't need secret agent-level security -- which, let's face it, you don't. Full PR after the break.
My trip through Time Capsule Hell leads to a different backup approach
I bought a one terabyte Time Capsule shortly after it hit the market, along with an external 1.5TB drive. I use the Time Capsule's internal drive to back up two smaller capacity Macs, while the external disk backs up my two larger capacity Macs. Working with Time Machine in Leopard or Snow Leopard, the Time Capsule updates its backups every hour. This makes perfect sense if you're just dealing with one Mac wired into the Time Capsule, since it really doesn't slow anything down. But if you are using it to wirelessly back up multiple Macs, hourly backups slow everything down to a crawl. TimeMachineEditor (a free utility that I highly recommend), allows you to set Time Machine to back up as frequently or infrequently as you like. I created a setup where, with staggered backups starting between 2am and 4am, each Mac gets backed up once a day. Outside of some errant sparse image problems that required a reformat, all was well. I had long beaten the 18 month Time Capsule funerals that were recently reported... but then things turned ugly.
Seagate busts out 3TB external hard drive for $250
Yeah, you heard that right. As of today, those among us who value quantity over speed in our storage can buy a whole trifecta of terabytes in one solitary package. Seagate has just unveiled the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk (did they have the teenage intern name this thing?), which is the first 3.5-inch drive to store quite so much data. It also comes with a USB 2.0 adapter that can be upgraded to USB 3.0 or Firewire 800, depending on your preference (and cash reserves). Priced at $250, this record-busting storage hub is available to buy today direct from Seagate. Full PR after the break.
Samsung's Spinpoint F4 320GB is fast and quiet, we think
You still rocking a desktop rig at home? Then you might want to check out Samsung's latest 3.5-inch spinner, the SpinPoint F4. The latest F-series drive features a 7,200 RPM platter rotation and 8MB/16MB buffer memory in capacities of up 320GB. While detailed performance specs aren't given, the SATA 3Gbps F4 has a one-head design with fewer moving parts (for quieter operation) delivering a 10% increase in read/write performance over Samsung's Spinpoint F1 while consuming 7% less power. Unfortunately, that's not very helpful for comparison against other manufacturers' drives now is it? Regardless, it's shipping to OEMs now.
