harddrives
Latest
WD TV Live Plus gets reviewed, lauded for value
After being announced in early June, Anandtech recently put the Western Digital WD TV Live Plus through its paces and discovered the Netflix enhancement works as advertised. Like many Netflix-enabled devices though, the TV Live comes up short compared to the full PC experience since access is limited to only the Instant Queue. Its presence also sacrifices firmware hackability -- a quality which previously made up for the WD TV Live's lack of versatility as an HTPC. The ability to move, copy, and manage locally stored media files via the interface, on the other hand, was praised as a unique advantage over competing models -- exciting, we know. Sadly, video quality was docked as being "significantly less than the HTPC counterparts they've seen so far." However, it's possible this could be improved in the future via firmware updates, since its Sigma Designs processor features noise reduction and deinterlacing algorithms that strangely aren't currently enabled. File format-wise, DVD ISOs worked flawlessly, while Blu-ray ISO and some WMV video formats experienced issues that users may want to read up on before buying. Gripes aside though, Anandtech was still willing to place it "around the top of the list" for media player devices, thanks to its wide file compatibility and robust features. For more details, hit the review source link.
Distributor roadmap shows super speedy 900GB, 2.5-inch HDD
Got a hankering for smaller, faster, more capacious magnetic storage? Compellent says you'll get it soon, at long as you're buying for the IT market. According to The Register, the enterprise storage provider listed 900GB, 10,000RPM 2.5-inch hard drives on its product roadmap, as well as 300GB models that spin at 15,000RPM. Sure, we've seen smallish drives with those speeds or that capacity before, and you can get a 600GB, 10,000RPM Velociraptor even in the consumer marketplace, but it seems like the puzzle pieces are all coming together. Quick disclaimer: Compellent doesn't actually make hard drives, but it most certainly sells them, so we'd expect a company in their position to know what's what. That, or they could be making stuff up. Perhaps platter density makes those sizes and capacities inevitable, but we can't pretend that we're not jazzed about the possibilities.
Western Digital VelociRaptor VR200M review roundup: fast, capacious, but no SSD
While it's only a matter of time before solid state storage becomes cheap and reliable enough to replace magnetic media for good, companies like Western Digital are still finding ways to keep those platters a' spinning. Take this new WD VelociRaptor VR200M, for instance. Critics agree that while it doesn't offer anywhere near SSD levels of performance, it's certainly the fastest rotational SATA drive ever tested -- 15 to 30 percent improved over the last generation of VelociRaptors, depending on the benchmark -- and at roughly 50 cents per gigabyte for the three-platter, 600GB WD6000BLHX ($329), it offers more capacity than any SSD you could hope to buy without refinancing your third vacation home. Reviewers note that with a 15mm drive height, you still won't be dropping one of these speed demons in your new laptop, and your desktop might be better off with a cheaper 7200RPM drive paired with a similarly inexpensive SSD, but if you're looking for that single drive that does it all, the new VelociRaptor is your best bet. Hit the links below for the full skinny, and a deep, deep dive into the fascinating world of IOPS, read speeds and write times. Read - TechReport Read - AnandTech Read - PC Perspective Read - HotHardware Read - Tom's Hardware Read - ExtremeTech Read - LegitReviews Read - StorageReview Read - DesktopReview
OS Xbox Pro is the hottest hackintosh ever
Warning: some NSFW lyrics on the music in the video above. What do you get when you combine an old Xbox with OS X and some Mac Pro level hardware? This monstrosity. Built by Will Urbina, the OS Xbox Pro is a hackintosh casemodded into an original Xbox dev kit, with some crazy hardware under the hood, including a pair of 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550s, an NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT card, 8GB of RAM, an 16GB solid state drive, and four traditional hard drives -- one boots Windows 7, the other one does OS X (Snow Leopard, we believe -- he bought a copy retail), a Ubuntu install in there somewhere, and two other sweet hard drives for video editing. And here's the wacky thing: Total material cost of the system is under $1500. That, combined with the video above, almost makes me want to spend a month of weekends trying to do something like this myself (aside from, you know, fitting it into a dev kit Xbox thing -- although fitting it into an old Macintosh might be a fun build, too). At any rate, awesome build for sure.
Carbon ring storage promises 1,000 times higher memory density
Terrifying news, kids: we're growing seriously close to maxing out the density limits of present magnetic memory technology as it becomes increasingly difficult to shrink the necessary grains used in the process. Thankfully, there's a team of German scientists devoted to doing more than standing around and watching the inevitable happen. Cobalt, the element responsible for keeping your precious data intact, typically requires a 50,000 atom fleet for each grain, but boffins from Dresden have found a way to shrink that to a measly flotilla of 50. Without trampling you with technological details, attaching carbon rings to the cobalt reproduces the requisite hexagonal close packed structure, which leads to reduced space requirements. Should this technique prove viable, we can expect yet another race among hard drive makers as they strive to make each other's most capacious drives look downright diminutive. Hit the read link for all the grisly details.[Via Graphene-Info]
Pogoplug review
When we first caught wind of the Pogoplug -- a small box that essentially lets you turn any USB hard drive (and drives only) into a network device -- we were pretty darn excited. Having a house full of disparate storage boxes and no easy way to connect to them made the prospect of the 'plug seem very enticing. Not only does the Pogoplug make your drive accessible via your PC (with accompanying software), but it -- we think more importantly -- makes the drive accessible via a web front-end and an iPhone app. We finally had a chance to break one of these out and see how it performs, and our findings are below.
DIY'er constructs artsy wall clock from spare HDD parts, tells all
Instructables user grybaz has joined a special crew today with his masterful design, and that would be the oft-unappreciated DIY clock crowd. By utilizing a drill, screwdriver kit, pliers, a basic quartz clock movement and a dozen or so old hard drives, he was able to piece together something truly worthy of den placement. Handymen aren't apt to find this one any more difficult than fixing that pipe that one time underneath the sink, so if you're looking to do something useful with all of those 4GB 3.5-inch HDDs you're still hanging onto from college, roll up your sleeves and hit the read link.[Via Unplggd]
Seagate developing mutant hybrid SSD tech to bring costs down
We'd heard that Seagate was prepping its first solid state hard drives, but there was no plan for consumer-friendly products in that vein anytime soon because solid state drives cost far more to produce than the conventional variety. Recently, CEO Bill Watkins hinted that the company intends to overcome that problem by combining relatively inexpensive (but unreliable) multi-layer cells with pricier (but dependable) single-layer cells in some kind of hybrid drive technology. It's all very pie in the sky right now, but surely it's a better hope than sticking to your old fashioned ways and seeking out opportunities to sue envelope-pushing competitors.[Via Electronista]
Drobo Apps gives you cool add-ons for Drobo
By now, you've probably heard about Drobo. It's the ultimate RAID-like array, with USB and Firewire 800 connections, that allows you to store up to 6 terabytes using 4 hard drives (you get about 4.1 TB of usable space, since some of the room is used for RAID redundancy -- see the Drobolator capacity calculator for the details). Not too long ago they released DroboShare, a way to turn Drobo into a NAS (network attached storage device) with Gigabit Ethernet. If you have both a Drobo and DroboShare, you can now run DroboApps. Because Drobo is built on a small version of the Linux open source OS, you are able to run these lightweight applications that can do some awesome things. There are currently around 20 applications that can create an iTunes media server (Firefly), or limit the total size of a Time Machine backup (Time Tamer), among other functions.If you're a Drobo owner, you might want to check out these cool new applications. And if you're a developer, why not take a look at the Drobo development SDK?
Toshiba intros 'stylish' line of hard drives to match your purse, coke habit
Toshiba -- clearly feeling the heat from other fashionable external hard drive makers -- has introduced a new line of disks guaranteed to bring on a neon flashback from your disco days (or Eurotrash nightmares). The three new models come decked out in the 160GB "Gecko Green," 250GB "Hot Rod Red," and 320GB "Carbon Grey" variations, with USB 2.0 ports and 8MB buffers on-board. The drives are Mac and PC compatible, and are available now for $89.99, $179.99, and $199.99, respectively.Update: Apparently these drives have been out for a little while (thanks commenters!), so feel free to quiet any alarms that may have been sounded.[Via Pocket Lint]
Hitachi working on 5TB hard drive, halfway to human brain capacity
Just when solid-state drives were about to catch up to the spinners, Hitachi has gone and announced that it is working on a 5TB hard drive. It says the drive should be available by 2010 in a 3.5-inch format and will use perpendicular CPP-GMR tech to achieve some serious density. Just to show off, Hitachi's Yoshiro Shiroishi pointed out that the human brain has been estimated at (only?) around 10TB. So there we have it -- we're halfway to intellectual obsolescence. Don't say we didn't warn you![Via TechDigest]
SSDs save battery power, right? Wrong.
If you just shelled out some pretty pennies for the a high-speed, low-power SSD, Tom's Hardware may have stumbled onto some findings that won't sit well. According to a rigorous benchmarking session, they discovered that not only do the drives not save you battery power... they eat more of it. How is this possible you ask? Well mechanical drives only hit peak drainage when the actuator has to move the heads, whereas SSDs use full power whenever they're in use, so the end result is actually a diminished efficiency. What that means is that the hype over "green" drives may be just that: pure hype. On the other hand, you're still getting a drive with no moving parts, which at least makes your data more secure, if not more eco-friendly.[Via Eeeuser; Thanks, Tony]
Verbatim's new SmartDisk HDD is so small we could just eat it up
Because history has proven that hard drives must get smaller and more capacious, Verbatim went and released the 500GB 2.5-inch SmartDisk HDD. Despite claims from others, Verbatim says this marks the first available 9.5mm Z-height 2.5-inch hard disk. The drive is made up of three 166GB platters striped with Perpendicular Magnetic Recording at 5400RPM. With enclosure, it weighs in at less than 6 ounces and measures 3.38-inches by 5.38-inches by 0.63-inches in both USB and USB / FireWire combo versions. Expect it this summer for under $300.
Revolutionary: Wii can has hard drive?
Every other week, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_Wii_can_has_hard_drive'; If you're smitten with the Virtual Console, one thing we're sure you aren't in love with is having to swap games between an SD card and your Wii's internal memory, or even worse -- deleting games to be re-downloaded later. WiiWare is on its way and it's hard to imagine My Life as a King demeaning itself to share its estate with less noble games. And certainly not with it bringing microtransactions to the royal ball. And wouldn't it be dandy if some of our multiplatform ports had somewhere to store that downloadable content that everyone is raving about on other consoles? We want need more storage, and some of you have gathered to plead with Nintendo to sell a Wii Hard Drive. It appears that your cries just fall on deaf ears because they seem hardly driven to provide one. In this edition of Revolutionary, we'll examine why Wii can't have a hard drive.
Hitachi to phase out 1.0 and 1.8-inch drives, Fujitsu scraps plans to launch them
As the flood of SSD announcements over the past couple days indicates, flash is rapidly gaining ground on traditional hard drive storage, and it may have just claimed it first victims: Hitachi has just announced that it will phase out production of 1.0 and 1.8-inch drives over the next year, and discontinue plans to launch a 1.5-inch line. Hitachi had only shipped 560,000 1.8-inch drives in the July - September quarter, representing only 3.2 percent of its total drive sales, and just a miniscule 3,000 1.0-inch drives in the same period. Hitachi says it'll keep supplying existing customers, but we're hearing that 1.0-inch production has already stopped, and that 1.8-inch production will cease by next summer.Similarly, the rising popularity of flash in personal devices has led Fujitsu to scrap plans to develop a 1.8-inch drive line to complement its existing 2.5 and 3.5-inch drive lines. The company announced plans to enter the small drive market way back in 2005, and although it eventually entered a deal with Cornice to jointly develop the drives, it looks like that plan's been tabled for now. All in all, announcements that aren't totally surprising -- but let's hope NAND prices continue to fall, eh?
Verbatim's 2.5-inch SmartDisk portable USB and FireWire drives
Just because everything's getting all fancy pants this year at CES -- that is to say, wireless, wireless and wireless -- doesn't mean there isn't a place for the tried and true. Verbatim is sticking to the basics with its new line of SmartDisk portable hard drives. The drives are available now, and come in 120GB, 160GB, 250GB and 320GB capacities, all spinning at 5400 RPM. All drives are available with either a USB plug or a Combo USB / FireWire interface. Speeds reach 480MBps over USB and 400MBs over FireWire, without needing AC power for either connector type. Prices start at $99.
Toshiba intros five capacious new 1.8-inch hard drives
We're all for bulking up the storage in our notebooks and portable gear, so naturally we're quite thrilled that Toshiba has developed a quintet of new 1.8-inch PATA hard drives that promise higher capacity and better performance for the gadgets we hold so dear. Three of the drives offer up 60GB on a single platter: the 4,200 RPM MK6028GAL for laptops and UMPCs, along with the 4,200 RPM MK6014GAL with 2MB buffer and 3,200 RPM MK6015GAA with 160KB buffer, both of which employ so-called "long data sector" technology to bring "format efficiency, improved error correction capability and enhanced storage capacity" to portable consumer electronics devices, according to ol' Tosh. Also destined for lightweight PCs are the dual-platter 120GB MK1214GAH and single-platter 80GB MK8025GAL, both 4,200 RPM drives with 2MB and 8MB buffers, respectively. Expect the new models to start appearing in consumer products sometime early next year. [Warning: PDF link][Via Slashgear]
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).
Seagate shuts the gate
The horse has bolted. Do be a dear and go out and shut the gate. You may remember that news broke earlier this week that Maxtor/Seagate drives were coming out rigged to thieve your World of Warcraft account credentials, fresh from the factory. Seagate responded with a notice that is hard to find, unless you know exactly where to look - no mention of the debacle appears to be on their front page, news, or press-releases.
