hard drives
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Iomega buying ExcelStor, becoming $1 billion company
In an acquisition that promises to create a combined company with over $1 billion in annual revenue, storage manufacturer Iomega has "entered into a definitive share purchase agreement" with ExcelStor Great Wall Technology Limited -- another storage firm headquartered in Beijing but doing business out of the Cayman Islands. ExcelStor, a subsidiary of the $2.6 billion Great Wall Technology Company Limited, has been manufacturing certain external hard drives for Iomega since 2004. The deal, still subject to approval, would create an organization with a 3,000-member workforce, led by Iomega's current executives joined by former ExcelStor management in the positions of Executive Chairman and Chief Administrative Officer.
Buffalo announces 320GB portable hard drive
You can never be too good looking or have too many gigabytes on your person, which is why Buffalo has just announced what it's touting as the "world's largest" portable external hard drive, a 320GB dynamo called the MiniStation Turbo USB HD-PS320U2. This 5,400rpm platter features 256-bit AES encryption courtesy of Buffalo's Secure Lock Ware utility, and Windows users also getting Memeo's AutoBackup software thrown in to boot. Look for this portable powerhouse next month for around £155 ($319).
LaCie launches Little Disk line and portable DVD+RW drive
LaCie, always known to drop a fresh drive on us during our extreme times of need, has once again stepped up to the plate with a new line of petite storage options aimed at "people on the go" and other likeminded busibodies. The company's new "Little Disk" line was designed by the "award winning" Sam Hecht, and comes in 1.8- or 2.5-inch varieties, ranging from 30GB to 250GB, all with retractable, USB 2.0 connectors. Mr. Hecht also oversaw the creation of LaCie's other small offering, a portable DVD+RW drive with LightScribe technology (allowing you to etch custom labels into discs), that comes in both USB 2.0 and Firewire varieties. The hard drives and optical drives are available now, ranging from $99.99 to $119.99 for the disks, and $99.99 to $149.99 for the DVD writers.[Via PhotographyBLOG]Read -- LaCie Announces the New Little Disk Family of Mobile Drives, Design by Sam HechtRead -- LaCie Ships Portable DVD±RW Drive with LightScribe, Design by Sam Hecht
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.
Seagate intros Maxtor OneTouch 4 line
Seagate has updated its line of Maxtor OneTouch external drives, making the new set the fourth iteration of its cheapo hard drive solution. The new models heading out are the OneTouch 4, OneTouch 4 Plus, and OneTouch Mini, all wrapped in black plastic and metal (which Seagate likes to refer to as "vault-like"). The OneTouch 4 can rock your storage world in 250GB, 500GB , or 750GB varieties, ranging in price from $99.99 to $269.99, the OneTouch 4 Plus is available in 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, or 1TB, from $129.99 to $359.99, and the OneTouch Mini comes 80GB, 120GB, and 160GB, running you an affordable $99.99 to $149.99. All of the drives offer the famous OneTouch backup, which should give you at least a sliver of peace of mind. The whole line is available right this second, so get the credit card out.[Via Crave]
Rumors of hard drive production shortages bubble to the surface
The tech-world rumor mill tends to ceaselessly turn, and this week is no different as its attention gets focused on hard drives, or more specifically -- hard drive production. According to ETNews, a Korean tech blog, increased demand for PMPs and GPS navigators, as well as recent earthquakes in Japan, have led to a price hike in 80GB and 160GB drives due to shortages from the manufacturers. Obviously this story calls for a healthy grain-of-salt attitude, as we've seen no outward sign that there's any significant movement when it comes to hard drive prices (except to say they're steadily shrinking), though according to ETNews, prices jumped 10 percent this month. If you believe the report, domestic demand for drives is expected to be in the region of 13 million units (in Korea, we assume), but current estimates have production falling 1.95 million (or 15 percent) off the mark. Obviously, that kind of slip would have an impact on the manufacturers bottom line, but until there's some hard evidence, we wouldn't recommend selling off your Hitachi stock.[Via PlayerBites]
New .Mac iDisk sizes gobble up drive space for those who sync
When Steve Jobs announced a ten-fold leap in .Mac storage space, most of us were generally happy to hear it; I know I was. For those of us, including myself, who have been synching their iDisk to use it more or less as an online backup drive however, this good news had an unfortunate side effect in the form of lost local storage space. Because of the way iDisk synching works (a setting you must enable in the .Mac System Preferences pane), the amount of free space on your local hard drive will diminish according to the size of your iDisk. This is because your Mac keeps a disk image that serves as a constant backup of everything in your iDisk - that's part of the advantage of enabling the synching feature because you can retain a copy of everything in your iDisk even when offline, and sync any changes you make once you get connected again.Before the upgrade, .Mac offered 1GB of total storage between .Mac email and iDisk storage, so synching one's iDisk like this didn't gobble up too much space. Now that this total storage has been raised to 10GB, the tables have turned a bit for us synchers, and especially for me since about a month ago I paid for the next tier of storage (I know - I've been bit by the Apple update bug again); imagine my surprise when my iDisk instantly went from about 1.5GB in size to 19GB. But how can we solve this problem? There are a few solutions, so you can play with these and see which fits best with the way you work.The first solution is perhaps the more obvious: log into your .Mac account online, go to your account management page and readjust the balance of storage between .Mac mail and iDisk storage. You can knock your iDisk storage as low as you want and perhaps gradually increase it if your iDisk activity grows in the future. There's room to play there, but you get the idea.The next solution, the one I originally opted for but have since double-backed on, is to turn synching off. You can still quickly mount your iDisk anytime you need it - assuming you're online - via the Go > iDisk > My iDisk command in the Finder (or cmd-shift-I). If you're mounting it for the first time after a fresh restart or login you'll experience a slight lag, but after that your iDisk should act almost as snappy as it did when you kept it synching. The only problem here, and the reason I'm rethinking this, is the catch with being offline: I'm not offline very often, but when I am, I still need my iDisk, so I just downsized the amount of iDisk storage I have allotted and I'm re-synching as I write this. For those who work differently however, turning off synching is still a viable option: if you're always connected or you simply don't need iDisk files both large and small always available at your fingertips, shutting off synching altogether could solve your storage issues.The final solution I have is to simply start using your iDisk to store more stuff. After all, with a ton of extra space now you can really let loose and keep a lot more stuff in there, making it online, backed up, sharable by moving to your iDisk's Public folder and accessible via a browser on any web-connected computer in the world. That's a darn handy tool when you think about the possibilities. I'm moving more folders of documents and other files to my iDisk since it is now a pretty spacious and effortless way to store files, share them between Macs that keep my iDisk synched and back them up online all in on fell swoop.No matter what solution you come up with, I'm not sure how much Apple can do about this considering how the iDisk seems to fundamentally work right now. It sure would be nice if the iDisk could simply expand automatically as you add files to it instead of taking a massive bite out of your hard drive, and who knows, maybe that's something we could see in the upcoming Mac OS X Leopard or beyond. For now, if your iDisk is cramping up your hard drive, it looks like you'll have to get a little creative.thanks Mr. Gaskell
Mac Pros gain RAID storage option
Oh Apple, you sly devil, what with all the secretly upgrading hardware and not even telling us. Thanks to eagle-eyed reader Eric Wortman, we now also found that the Mac Pro gained a RAID card option for those who need mounds of storage and a secure, redundant system with which to manage it. The card supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 0+1, and Enhanced JBOD. The card also features a 256MB cache and a 72 hour battery with which to protect that cache, and it occupies the top PCI Express card slot, connecting to all four internet drive bays.What's all this RAID connectivity going to cost you? A cool $999 on top of the price of your Mac Pro.
Buffalo shows off mini 300GB external drives
Not wanting to leave traditionalists in the cold after making its 56GB SSD offering, Buffalo has introduced a "shock-resistant" 300GB, external USB drive for neo-luddites. The skinny little number likely houses one of Fujitsu's new-ish 300GB 2.5-inchers, as the drive manufacturer is pretty much the only name in the game for that capacity. The portable drives come in black for your Cradle of Filth album collection, or white for your DC Talk FLACs. Available next month in Japan for ¥38,000, or around $315.[Via Akihabara News]
Mac 101: Hide Hard Drives, CDs, etc on your Desktop
I like a relatively neat Desktop. I keep out just those items I need to access right away for my day-to-day work. It's so easy to clutter Finder, especially when you use multiple hard drives and partitions, an iPod, a memory card reader and the odd CD or DVD. An often-overlooked Finder preference can come to the rescue. To hide volumes on your Desktop, choose Finder -> Preferences (or just type Command-, when Finder is active). In the General tab, choose which items you want to show on your Desktop. Place a check next items you want to see or clear the checkboxes to hide items. You can always bring hidden items back by updating your preferences later.And don't forget: whether you hide disks or CDs on your desktop, they're always there on the side drawer of your Finder windows where you'll find all hard drives, servers, removable media and so forth.
Iomega announces Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive with 2TB of storage
If your current drives are just stuffed the the gills with 10 megapixel photos you never resized and episodes of Still Standing that you forgot to erase, Iomega's got a new RAID array that'll bulk up your storage by two terabytes and let you continue living your carefree, digital pack rat lifestyle. With four independent, lockable 500GB drives, though, you could just as easily shift the Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive into RAID 1 and make sure that your 1TB of never-used files are doubly secure; RAID status plus free space, fan speed, and temperature are all displayed on the built-in LED. Connectivity options are also plentiful here, with the PPDHD offering both the 400 and 800 flavors of Firewire and, of course, USB 2.0 as well. Mac and Windows compatible, this one will set you back $1,700 when it hits on April 10th.[Via Macworld]
Apple-styled HD Enclosure
Wikidesign tracked down this hard disk drive enclosure which offers you some of very Apple-ish aesthetics. It's a standard 3.5" IDE/(P)ATA enclosure with USB 2.0 and 1394 support. The holes on the back are needed because it's a fan-free enclosure--which you need to take into account because this thing needs good ventilation. The aluminum materials used in the unit should help with heat dissipation but it's probably not very stacking friendly. At £39.99, it's a bit pricey--especially since it doesn't come with an actual disk. You're just buying the enclosure. Still, it's pretty good looking, isn't it? [via WikiDesign]
Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Mac Compatibility
Lots of news coming out of Macworld, of course, but this one caught my eye: Seagate has announced Mac compatibility with the software for its OneTouch III Mini line of portable USB hard drives. The software offers security (password protection) and standard Backup features -- i.e. schedule backups or utilize the OneTouch button -- but also a great-looking folder-based Sync option: select your Music folder, for instance, on one Mac, back it up on the drive and sync it with the Music folder on another. It's even possible to modify the files on the drive directly, and sync the changes back to your machine.The drives come in 80GB ($129), 120GB ($169), and 160GB ($229) capacities and are available now. Check out their website for more details, and check TUAW in the near future for a full review.
Buffalo debuts four new DriveStation Combo drives
Last we heard from Buffalo, it was busy releasing mega-sized drives, which left those of us who don't have that kind of coinage out in the cold. Today, we spied a handful of new Buffalo DriveStation Combo USB 2.0 / FireWire external drives, which may warm our hearts just a little bit. The new quartet of drives range from the 250GB (HD-HC250IU2) to a 750GB (HD-HC750IU2) drive and prices extend from $180 to $580, respectively. Each drive spins at 7,200rpm, has an AutoPower feature, remains fanless (packin' a dedicated heat sink instead) and operates at near silence.[Via ExtremeTech]
Apple adds 750GB hard drive option to 24-inch iMac, Mac Pro
We aren't sure if this new option appeared today with the newly-updated MacBook Pro, but it's the first time we've heard of it: reader Mark S tipped us off to the availability of a 750GB hard drive option in the iMac 24-inch and the Mac Pro. The massive drive isn't available in any other iMac (they still cap out 500GB), but with 4 available bays in the Mac Pro, they can now be configured with 3 terabytes of storage straight out the gate. That's a lot of iTS movies.These drives don't come cheap, however: typical of Apple, each 750GB drive (across both machines) is a somewhat expensive $399 upgrade, so that's an extra $1596 just for the bragging rights of having the big bertha of Mac Pros on the block.
Seagate claims world record for magnetic recording density
While researchers in academia have the luxury of playing around with exotic technologies like nano-clusters, shape-shifting lasers, and nanomagnetic vortices, the engineers at Seagate know that they actually have to profit off of their research, so for now they're sticking with traditional magnetic recording techniques in order to push the limits of hard drive capacity with new and exciting storage densities. Using now-standard perpendicular recording heads and media manufactured with current production techniques, the company recently demoed drives with a record-breaking 421Gb/in² data density, which should allow for 500GB 2.5-inch notebook drives, 2.5TB 3.5-inch desktop drives, and 1-inch to 1.8-inch consumer electronics drives that can store between 40GB and an impressive 275GB, starting in 2009. Looking beyond perpendicular recording, Seagate researchers say that the still nascent Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) and bit patterned media techniques should eventually allow mind-boggling densities of up to 50Tb/in², which is surely more space than anyone could possibly need, ever. (We know that last part's actually untrue, but we just included it so that future generations perusing our archives can have a good, hindsight-enabled laugh at our naïveté).
Slim Devices, Infrant Tech offer Squeezebox/ReadyNAS bundle
A partnership announced today by storage specialist Infrant Technologies and Squeezebox-maker Slim Devices promises to give consumers an easy way to store and stream up to 200,000 songs around the house, no computer necessary. The two companies are now offering a bundle which includes Infrant's 1TB ReadyNAS network attached storage device pre-loaded with the SlimServer software along with two Squeezebox 3's for $1,500, advertising that the coupling signals the "death of the CD player." We'll wager that many of our readers have already kicked the CD habit long ago, but there's no denying the appeal of having a full terabyte of RAID-protected tracks in a plethora of different formats that can be streamed anywhere your little heart desires.
WD adds FireWire 800 to MyBook Pro external drives
So if you were interested in one of those decorative MyBook hard drives from Western Digital, but the spouse/kids felt that its FireWire 400 port just wasn't fast enough for their data transferring needs, now the whole family may be able to agree on these drives-in-disguise thanks to a key spec bump in the Professional series. Both the 500GB and 200GB Pro models now come with a FireWire 800 connection -- giving you maximum transfer speeds of 800Mbps -- along with the previous FireWire and USB 2.0 jacks, which offer pokier 400Mbps and 480Mbps, respectively. Shipping now, these models will set you back $350 or $220, depending on capacity.[Via Reg Hardware]
Samsung, Seagate show off ReadyDrive HDD prototypes
No surprises here: we've known since last WinHEC that Samsung was working on a so-called ReadyDrive hard drive that sports a 128MB flash buffer for enabling lower laptop power consumption, and just as we suspected, they've unveiled a working prototype of the technology at this year's conference. Also on hand with their own ReadyDrive was Seagate, who, like Samsung, plan to release their model when Vista finally starts shipping, as only the next-gen operating system will have the proper ATA driver command sets to allow for such a large buffer. PCMag was on the scene for one of Samsung's demos, and claim that a laptop running an office apps script only needed to access the hard drive every three to four minutes, which could result in ReadyDrive-equipped laptops sipping up to 40% less juice than models with those outdated, perpetually-spinning HDDs.
Samsung adds Premium Anyview plasma TVs with DVRs
Samsung has just upped the ante in its ongoing "anything-you-can-do-we-can-do-better" battle with LG. While LG's most recent plasma and LCD TVs with built-in DVRs had hard drives that topped out at 250GB, Samsung's new 42 and 50-inch Anyview models have 300GB of storage. Yeah, an extra 50GB is hardly a big deal (unless you run out of space while recording the season finale of "Lost," that is). But it lets Samsung thumb its nose at its crosstown rival -- for a few days at least. We have no doubt that LG will hit the market with a 500GB model very soon.
