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Need RAID? Fusion F2QR packs two 1TB drives into a portable shell
Do you demand portability from your Redundant Array of Independent Disks? Then you've probably already seen Sonnet's Fusion F2, with its two 1TB drives and eSATA connector. Today the company introduces the Fusion F2QR, which also features two 2.5-inch, 1TB hard drives -- but now comes with four interface options. You've got your eSATA, of course, but also Firewire 400, Firewire 800 and USB 2.0 connectors. There's a new built-in RAID controller that smooths configuration as well, and the aluminum case and fanless design keep noise to a minimum. All of that fits in a shell measuring 5.9- x 6.1- x 0.95-inches. This slender slab of storage is available now and will set you back $569.
G-Tech G-Drive slim: stylish storage in a small package
I've been trying out the G-Tech G Drive slim portable hard drive for a few days and I'm quite impressed with it. The unit I tried was the 320 GB version, and in my "everyday user" tests, the drive performed remarkably well. Design The first thing you notice about the G Drive is that it looks like it was designed by Apple. As usual, that's a very good thing. And as a matter of fact, the G Drive website says that the external hard drive was made to mimic the look and feel of the MacBook Air. Perhaps it's the design of the G Drive that made Apple give this external their unofficial blessing. In a retail setting it's sold exclusively at Apple Stores and can usually be found hooked up to one of the MacBook Pros on display. The G Drive slim is made of a lightweight compact aluminum enclosure with a black rubber trim around the edges and features a single USB 2.0 port. The size of the enclosure is roughly 5"x3.2" and only 9.9mm thick. Best of all, it weighs only 0.33 pounds, so throwing it into your backpack, laptop case, or even a jacket pocket hardly adds any noticeable weight to your baggage. Usage Inside the G Drive slim you'll find a 2.5" 5400RPM Hitachi hard drive. Since the G Drive slim uses a USB interface, you've got a theoretical data transfer rate of 480 MB/s. But as to be expected, real-world usage is always slower. Still, transferring a 1 GB folder full of photos from my Mac to the drive took only about 38 seconds. That's not too bad for a consumer drive where design is clearly the most important element. Out of the box the G Drive slim is Mac-ready. It ships formatted for any Mac running OS X 10.5 of later. The drive is also Time Machine-compatible right out of the box. Also, for those of you with a Mac and PC household, though the drive is Mac-inspired and ready, you can still use it with any PC running Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7. Conclusion Nowadays a 320 GB USB drive doesn't sound like much, especially one that costs US$99. However, the target audience for this drive isn't one who wants to back up dozens and dozens of HD video files or use the drive as a scratch disk for video editing. It's for those people who want a quick, stylish, and easy way to store and transfer their photos, documents, and music. And most of the people in that group (including me) care more about design and portability than having the latest and greatest Thunderbolt devices. The 320 GB G Drive slim is available for US$99 at Apple retail stores, Apple Online, and on Amazon.com.
Iomega eGo Helium Portable Hard Drive: Small, solid and secure
I have a pile of small USB-powered hard drives that I use to back up various devices. All of them are inexpensive, have somewhat limited storage, and are encased in plastic. The latter feature always makes me apprehensive about traveling with the drives, as they just don't seem to be sturdy enough for a lot of handling. The Iomega eGo Helium Portable Hard Drive ($149.99 for 1 TB, $99.99 for 500 GB) is built to take on a lot of abuse and look good in the process. Design The first thing that hit me when I pulled the eGo Helium out of the box was that it looked and felt like it had been crafted from a solid block of aluminum. Of course it isn't, but it does have a very solid aluminum case that is almost a precise match for the material used on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Even with all of that aluminum, the drive still weighs only 8.2 ounces. Design-wise, the case is quite stark -- simply a slab of aluminum with the Iomega logo stamped on the side. On the back is a mini-USB port and a single white LED to let you know that the drive is plugged in. Trust me, you'll need that light to know that the drive is in operation, since the eGo Helium is very quiet. Since the eGo Helium is designed especially for Mac laptops, it comes pre-formatted as Journaled HFS+. The actual mechanism runs at 5400 RPM and is designed to withstand a 36" drop. The really impressive feature of this drive is built-in AES 256-bit encryption in hardware. To enable or disable this feature, Iomega has a free utility available. The utility, which works with Mac OS X 10.5 - 10.7, requires a reboot after installation. Once you've installed the software, enabling encryption re-formats the drive. A Drive Protection Dashboard is used to eject your drive for disconnection. What's great about using hardware encryption and a utility like this is that the data on the drive can be encrypted, but used on any Mac that is running the utility (as long as you know the password). Unlike other manufacturers who tend to throw a pile of (in my opinion) relatively worthless software on each drive that goes out the door, I like that Iomega makes a companion software suite available as an optional free download. That software suite includes such items as a 12 month subscription to Trend SmartSurfing and a 2 GB free account for Mozy Home. Benchmark TUAW is uses a standard industry benchmark to compare the I/O capabilities of disks and arrays. The benchmark uses the AJA System Test, which simulates reading and writing video. The specific test I used was the Disk Read/Write test, also known as the DiskWhackTest, set at a video frame size of 720 x 486 8-bit and a file size of 128 MB. The test results are compared to the internal SATA drive of the test iMac. I've also included the results for another USB 2.0 drive (Western Digital 3 TB MyBook Studio) for a more direct comparison. I was wondering if enabling encryption on the Helium would slow down the read/write figures, so I ran a second set of tests with encryption turned on. The results were very close (average write speed was 30.5 MB/s, average read 33.5 MB/s), and most likely are within the margin of error considering the small sample size I used for the tests. Conclusion As a portable drive made to work with the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the Iomega eGo Helium Portable Hard Drive is built like a tank. The hardware encryption feature and solid construction should be useful to anyone who needs to protect critical data while on the road, and the speed of the drive is very close to desktop USB 2.0 drives we've tested. I like that Iomega is building drives specifically for the Mac market that match the Apple products they're made to work with. I'll also be reviewing the Mac Companion, a drive that's designed to complement the iMac. The eGo Helium is definitely worth your consideration if you need a portable bus-powered drive for your Mac laptop.
Angelbird's Wings PCIe-based SSD preview and benchmarks
Storage enthusiasts (yeah, there is such a thing -- what of it?) would probably tell you that PCIe-based SSDs are a dime a dozen these days. But in all seriousness, the prices we're seeing are proof that a few more competitors wouldn't hurt. A few weeks back, Austria's own Angelbird started to ship a solution that we first heard about during 2010, and we were fortunate enough to pop a Wings PCIe SSD RAID card into our Mac Pro for testing. For years, we've been booting this up and running every single application off of its stock HDD -- a 640GB Hitachi HDE721064SLA360 (7200RPM) -- as we surmise many of you desktop owners might be. Anxious to see if these are the Wings your existing tower needs to soar? Head on past the break for our impressions. %Gallery-134642%
Western Digital rolls out My Passport, My Passport Studio hard drives for Mac users
No rainbow of colors or stylized designs here, but Mac users do now have a pair of fairly sleek and streamlined new portable hard drives to consider from Western Digital. That includes the latest My Passport and My Passport Studio (pictured above), the latter of which boasts an all metal enclosure and a pair of FireWire 800 ports in addition to the standard USB 2.0 connector. Otherwise, both are available in 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities, and they are of course fully compatible with Apple's Time Machine. Look for the standard My Passport to run between $100 and $130, while the My Passport Studio starts at $130 and tops out at $180. Update: Storage Review has already taken a look at both drives, and is particularly impressed by the pricier My Passport Studio. Hit the links below for a closer look at them.
LaCie ships Little Big Disk Thunderbolt, promises 240GB SSD variant in mid-October
It's taken its sweet time, but folks who weren't exactly keen on the Promise Pegasus finally have a compact option for putting their Thunderbolt port to good use. LaCie has just announced that it's Little Big Disk Thunderbolt external drive -- a first for the outfit -- is available to purchase. For those keeping count, it's only the second overall T-bolt drive to hit the scene, with this 1.4-pounder boasting a pair of 2.5-inch drives, support for JBOD / RAID 1 / RAID 0 and a typically metallic chassis that measures 1.6- x 5.5- x 3.3-inches. We're promised speeds as high as 480MB/sec (for SSD arrangements) and 190MB/sec (for HDD models), and users can daisy chain several of 'em to hit transfer rates of around 800MB/sec. These guys should be available starting today (though Apple's online shop currently has a "one to two week" wait), with the 1TB 7200RPM edition retailing for $399, and the 2TB 5400RPM model listing for $499. We're still awaiting word on the specifics surrounding the October-bound 240GB SSD variant, but those who'd rather press their luck for a free one can enter the ongoing contest in the More Coverage link below. %Gallery-134418%
OCZ announces slimmer 7.5mm SSD, confirms one resides in LG's P220 ultraportable
LG's P220 ultraportable has been making the rounds since Computex in June, but OCZ has only just now confirmed that it's using a fairly special new 2.5-inch SSD from the company. Unlike traditional 2.5-inch laptop drives that measure 9.5mm thick, this new "custom designed" drive measures just 7.5mm in height, which makes it about 25 percent slimmer. So far only the 128GB variety included in the P220 has been confirmed, but OCZ indicates that it's just the first of more LG laptops to use the new drives. Press release is after the break.
Iomega Mac Companion 2TB hard drive on sale now for $240, we go hands-on
The Mac Companion hard drive that we told you about back in early August has started to ship from Apple's online store and is ready to take its spot beneath your iMac's monitor. We got a little hands-on time with the HDD and have to say, it's a slick peripheral that will certainly fit in with the collection of the aesthetic-conscious Apple devotee out there, with a metal-bordered exterior that seems to have taken a few fashion cues from the iPhone 4. On the front of the drive are four white LEDs, which turn off one by one as you fill up more space, letting you know how much room is left on the thing. Iomega's TV with Boxee (Box) hitting Europe by 'by mid-October,' or so it says Discount education-only iMac appears, makes you wish you'd opened that institute of higher learning Iomega Mac Companion Hard Drive offers 3TB of storage and a filling station for your iPad The top of the drive is a glossy black surface, which is a bit of a fingerprint magnet -- again, familiar territory to those with Apple products. Upon plugging it in (Iomega gave us the 2TB version to play with, though there's also a 3TB model), the Mac Companion will ask whether you'd like to back your system up via Time Machine. Transfer-wise, the drive does USB 2.0 and FireWire. In our limited testing, we got around 35MB/sec and just under 60MB/sec, respectively. The Mac Companion also doubles as a hub for your peripherals -- with two USB ports on the rear and a 2.1 Amp port on the side. The ports on the rear require the drive to be connected to a computer to charge and sync devices. The high-powered port on the side, however, will charge up devices like an iPad or iPhone even when the drive isn't connected to your Mac. The Mac Companion is a fairly straightforward, good looking drive, which worked quite well out of the box on the Lion system we tested it out on -- and the fact that it does double duty as a USB port sets the thing apart from much of the pack. The 2TB version will run you around $240 online.%Gallery-133759%
Satechi will LockDown your SATA hard drive, boasts USB 3.0 too
If you keep close watch over your digital belongings like we do, security is an utmost concern for external storage devices. Now you can keep your valuables under lock-and-key with Satechi's LockDown -- a SATA HDD enclosure that guards data via an encrypted 256 bit protection and allows lightning fast USB 3.0 transfer speeds. Utilizing a touch keypad on an OLED display, the device is only accessible through a 4 to 8 digit passcode -- even if it's connected to a PC or another device. This gives you the ability to keep "your backup data as secure as the data on your personal computer." Pretty sweet, right? The LockDown plays nice with both Mac and PC and is shipping now for $90. Hit that PR link just past the break if you're looking to lock down those precious research papers... see what we did there?
mLogic mDock extends your MacBook ports, steals your Thunder(bolt)
If you're trying to make a name for yourself in the incredibly crowded portable storage space, you can innovate and create something totally awesome, or you can do this. The mDock from mLogic is an external hard drive, port extender and port blocker all rolled into one pricey coffin-like chamber of fail. $219 will net you an eternal resting place for 500 gigs of data, while $299 ups the ante to an entire terabyte. Plus, with a pair of front-facing USB ports, you can add a third-party portable storage yokel for the less-than-princely sum of 50 bucks. If you haven't already gathered, the mDock is designed for mMacbook Pros, but there's also the iMac-mountable mBack (curiously not the iBack), designed with Apple's familiar desktop flavor in mind. That variant is slightly more affordable, with pricing ranging from $169 for 1TB to $349 for 3TB, but you'll forgo the dock-like USB hub and headphone jack. There's no word on when to expect these life-changing devices in stores, but it's never too early to dust off the mChair iChair and park yourself on 5th Ave. Update: As pointed out by many in the comments most ports that are blocked by the mDock are replicated on the silver brick, including the Magsafe. The only restriction appears to be a lack of pass-through for Thunderbolt, but you do get a mini DisplayPort for hooking up external monitors. We've added one more pic after the break.
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 plays the 4TB card with its GoFlex Desk external HDD, shipping now for $250
That tangled mess of a backup solution feeling a little cramped? Yeah, join the crowd. Seagate's looking to give you a dash of capaciousness -- a dash that you could desperately used -- with its newest desktop HDD. The GoFlex Desk line is about as sleek as it gets for a non-mobile drive, with 1/2/3/4TB options being made available. The stock model ships with USB 2.0 / 3.0 support, a required AC power adapter (blah) and support for OS X and Windows platforms. The entire unit weighs but 2.38 pounds and checks in at 6.22- x 4.88- x 1.73-inches; true to the GoFlex name, the lower base can actually be swapped out for those who'd prefer a different interface (you know, like FireWire or Thunderbolt), and there's a four-LED capacity gauge on there as well. In our limited testing, we consistently saw USB 3.0 burst rates top 100MB/sec, while sustained transfers hovered closer to 60MB/sec. When used on a USB 2.0 rig, we saw reads and writes hover between 30MB/sec and 40MB/sec. As for pricing and availability? The 4TB flagship can be found right now at Seagate's site for $249.99, while the GoFlex Desk for Mac -- which touts both Firewire 800 and USB 2.0 -- will be available in Apple stores by the end of the month. We're told that Thunderbolt will be supported once that GoFlex adapter is let loose, but an ETA isn't quite ready for public eyes. %Gallery-132801%
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid merges 100GB SSD with 1TB HDD for $499
We heard about OCZ's clever crossbreed a few months ago, but couldn't be sure about pricing for this premium model. Turns out, it's significantly less than we'd guessed: $499 for a 100GB SSD and 1TB HDD happily united on a single PCI Express card. Yup, that's still a heck of a lot more than the $300 or so it'd cost to pick up a SandForce-controlled 120GB solid state beauty along with a separate 1TB SATA 6GB/s hard drive. The comparison isn't entirely fair, though, because OCZ claims its combo boosts overall performance by caching both "hot" and "cold" data, which is automatically organized between the SSD and HDD, on a single card with up to 910MB/s bandwidth and 120,000 IOPS. Nevertheless, it'll take some real-world benchmarking to determine whether the promised speed gain is worth our wages. More details in the PR after the break.
Toshiba updates STOR.E external hard drives for PCs and TVs
Toshiba's STOR.E line of hard drives just got a bit of a refresh, and a dash of color, at IFA. It's CANVIO models come in sizes up to 1TB and sport one those spiffy USB 3.0 connectors, while weighing in at under half a pound in your choice of black, green or red. The BASICS line sports all the same features and options, except the pre-installed backup software, but only comes in black. The STOR.E PARTNER is another basic external drive with a USB 3.0 connection, but it's designed to match Toshiba's NB500 series of netbooks and has the color options to match (black, blue, lime green and orange). Much more interesting are the STOR.E TV 2 and STOR.E TV PRO -- a pair of devices with HDMI ports and a GUI all their own that will blend in with most home theater setups. While the TV 2 sticks with a traditional hard drive in sizes up to 2TB, the PRO opts for 8GB of flash storage. Both sport SD card readers, USB 2.0 and support for a broad range of codecs, but the PRO adds a Bluetooth remote with a QWERTY keyboard and full fledged web browsing capabilities. The STOR.E TV 2 and TV PRO will land in Europe during Q4 alongside the PARTNER, BASICS, and CANVIO lines. Check out the pile of PR after the break.
Samsung's 6Gbps SSD gets a consumer label, October release date
Many SSDs could easily blow away that legacy spinning drive in your notebook, but there's always room for a performance boost when it comes to tech. Announced last week, Samsung's 830-series SSD packs up to 512GB of storage, and full support for SATA's 6Gbps max throughput -- a 100 percent boost over Samsung's previous gen drive. There's only one problem with last week's version: it's only available to OEMs, leaving a DIY upgrade out of the question. Well, today Samsung announced consumer availability for the same drive, letting any Joe Bag O' PC Upgrades pick one up at retail come October. Drives will be available in 64, 128, 256, and 512GB capacities, with pricing details coming at the official launch this fall. Jump past the break for the full PR, should you care to read all about the drive's "precision engineered" brushed metal enclosure, with "deep black" highlights and a "stylish and chic exterior" -- exactly the features you should be looking for in an SSD.
ADATA's SH14 hard drive packs a stylish yet rugged punch
Always thought ruggedized storage had to look tough and utilitarian? Think again, because ADATA's latest looks more like a fashionable disco-futon than the outwardly brawny externals we're used to. Buried somewhere under all that style is a 2.5-inch, 5400RPM drive that's IPX4 water-resistant and "military grade shockproof." It'll come in red or black and in 500GB, 750GB or 1TB capacities, which'll set you back €59.90, €71.90 or €92.90, respectively. The chic but virile drives also tote USB 3.0, equating to a relatively speedy 90MB/s transfer rate. No word on pricing for yanks yet, but they'll probably show up before long at the "select agents and distributors" at the source below.
iFixit releases kit for a second hard drive in the Mac mini
I just went fiddling around in my old school Mac mini the other day. I put some extra memory in, sneaking inside that tiny extra bit of space to pull out the old sticks and punch in the new ones. But the newer Mac mini is even smaller than mine, which makes it all the more impressive that iFixit has released a kit that will allow you to add your own second hard drive without a ton of trouble. Well, there will at least be a little bit -- Apple doesn't want just anyone rooting around in its tiny little desktop PC. iFixit makes it about as easy as it's going to get if you don't want to pay someone to do it for you. There's a full guide here if you want to see how it all works. Though the kit is out of stock at the moment, when it's in stock it'll only be $70 plus the cost of whatever storage media you want to install. I found dipping into my Mac mini pretty rewarding. As long as you follow instructions and are as careful as you can be with all of the components, you could have an even nicer mini than you've got right now.
Seagate's GoFlex Turbo portable hard drive touts USB 3.0, built-in SafetyNet
Another week, another external HDD from the folks at Seagate. This go 'round, it's the GoFlex Turbo taking the stage, positioned somewhere between the GoFlex Slim and Satellite in terms of depth. It's the outfit's first drive to ship with two free years of SafetyNet, which nets you a single data recovery attempt should something go haywire during the honeymoon period. Tucked within, you'll find a 500GB / 750GB drive (7200RPM), a USB 3.0 port and support for eSATA / FireWire 800 connectors via an optional interface adapter. Per usual, it'll hum along just fine on both Windows and OS X, and can be snapped up today at Best Buy for $119.99 / $139.99, respectively. Full release is after the break, and if you're curious, we managed to see consistent USB 2.0 rates of 30MBps to 40MBps (read / write) during our brief time with it. %Gallery-129709%
Iomega Mac Companion Hard Drive offers 3TB of storage and a filling station for your iPad
How to get a hefty new hard drive for your Mac without making your other gadgets jealous? Iomega is offering up a solution with the fairly elegant Mac Companion Hard Drive, a two or three terabyte external drive designed with Apple computers in mind that adds a high-powered charging port for your peripherals. The drive also packs additional USB and FireWire ports (no Thunderbolt, guys?), plus a set of four LEDs, which let you know how full it is with a glance. The drives are available via Apple at $195 and $295, for 2TB and 3TB, respectively.
Toshiba unveils MQ01ABD HDD series, packs 1TB on a 9.5mm frame
It's been barely four months since Toshiba introduced its MK7559GSXP -- a tightly-packed, 750GB hard drive that, believe it or not, has already been eclipsed by the MQ01ABD series. Unveiled yesterday, the company's new lineup of 2.5-inch HDDs offers up to 1TB of storage capacity, thanks to an architecture that squeezes 500GB out of every platter. Standing at 9.5mm tall, the 5,400RPM drives also boast an areal density of 744Gb per square inch, and are designed to maximize energy efficiency, burning just 0.55 watts in idle mode. Gamers and entertainment gurus, meanwhile, would benefit from the MQ01ABD's enhanced acoustics, which max out at 19dB in idle, and 24dB while seeking. No word yet on pricing, but the beasts are scheduled to go into mass production by the middle of this month. For more of the nitty gritty, gallop past the break for the full press release.
