Storage - Page 121

Looking for an alternative to mechanical drives when backing up large amounts of data? Hitachi and LG have teamed up to develop a prototype NAS-like device that, in addition to using four hard-disks for storage, adds two slots for cartridges that hold eight Blu-Ray disks for up to 1TB of data storage per cartridge.

There are a bunch of companies that offer external storage today that connects to your computer with USB. Most of those drives are still USB 2.0 and if you have a new computer that supports the much faster USB 3.0, you will want a new drive that can back up large data sets faster using USB 3.0 connectivity. WD has announced that it has expanded its line of external storage solutions with new capacities and USB 3.0 connectivity.

I have talked about Sharkoon on a couple of occasions and typically the product the company is unveiling is storage related. Sharkoon is famous for its SATA HDD docks that allow you to use HDDs to store and access data without having to find a place inside your computer for the drives. Generally, those docks are clearly designed to be used at the desk, not in your entertainment center with a HTPC machine. Sharkoon has unveiled a new SATA dock called the QuickPort Home that is just for HTPC fans.

The thing that most of us were really looking forward to when we first heard of USB 3.0 was faster data storage for external hard drives. Waiting for slow USB 2.0 drives to back up lots of data is no fun. One of the first companies to offer USB 3.0 flash drives was Super Talent and the company has announced coupe new and speedy additions to its lineup today.

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The flash drives that Super Talent is offering are the new USB 3.0 Express Ram Cache drives that will come in 32GB and 64GB. Super Talent claims that the drives can boost small block random performance by up to 300% compared to drives that don't use the DRAM caching system.

The transfer of 40 MP3 files is used as an example to show the performance of ht new drives. The files would take 13 seconds to transfer on a normal USB 3.0 drive. With the RAM Cache drives, the transfer takes only 5 seconds for a 260% improvement in performance. The performance increase gets even better when the file size decreases and file count increases according to Super Talent. The 32GB drive will sell for $129 and the 64GB version is $209.

I am glad that the days of the gigantic wireless receiver for wireless mice and keyboards are gone. Today just about every maker out there uses small receivers for their wireless gear that you can plug into a USB port and just leave there. The small devices don't block the USB ports around them either, which was an issue with large receivers of the past. The average flash drive is still a large and bulky gadget that looks like those old receivers though.

External storage solutions have been around for a very long time and they are getting better all the time with more storage capacity and better performance. As the amount of data people store on their computers grows, the time it takes to back up a machine gets longer and longer. Many don't have the time or patience to wait for USB 2.0 backups to complete.

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This is where USB 3.0 comes in with much greater bandwidth allowing large backups to be completed more quickly. Samsung has announced a new version of its S2 Portable external HDD that has USB 3.0 connectivity. The new drive uses a 2.5-inch HDD inside that spins at 7200 rpm. The drive also uses Samsung features to make it quieter when in operation.

Samsung uses onboard USB technology to allow the drives to be packed inside more compact cases to make them more portable. The new S2 USB 3.0 HDDs will be offered in 320GB and 640GB capacities and are set to start shipping in Europe this month. Presumably, the drives will come to the US but no estimates are offered at this time.

ioSafe has been offering a rugged external storage device for a long time that connects to a computer via USB 2.0. The drive is special because not only is it rugged to survive little spills and bumps in the office on a daily basis, but the thing can withstand catastrophic disasters like floods or fire as well. That means that those irreplaceable digital photos or work documents can be saved even if the drive itself is unusable.

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The only real issue that I have ever taken with the ioSafe offering that has been around was the fact that the USB 2.0 connectivity was too slow for large data sets. ioSafe has announced a new version of its external storage solution that has new connectivity methods that will make backing up lots of data much faster. The new ioSafe product is the SoloPro USB 3.0 HDD.

As you can gather for the name, the device has a USB 3.0 port. It also has USB 2.0 connectivity and has an eSATA port, all of which will allow the data backups to the drive to be much faster. The drive offers more connectivity and still keeps the rugged design and promise of data retrieval in the event of a disaster. The SoloPro will be offered in 1TB for $249.99, 1.5TB for $319.99, and 2TB for $419.99. All capacities will ship on September 1.

Intel's next-gen X25 series of solid state drives aren't far away now with word of a Q4 2010 release. There is said to be four new models coming out in the new series, all of which use the latest IMFlash Technologies 25nm NAND flash memory chips.

Apart from a customised pod at its Canberra Data Centre, Centrelink's data centres are more than 20 years old now and the federal agency has reached a time where it needs a storage upgrade; a mighty big one.

A pre-tender notice has been sighted which gives indication that Centrelink is planning to issue a request for tender (RTF) by October which could be as much as $40 Million. With this, it would purchase enterprise storage equipment that includes disk, mainframe, data protection and archiving products.

Many notebook users out there seldom use their optical drive. Other than installing software, the drives often tend to collect dust. If you are the type of user, who can live without an optical drive and want to get more storage on a Mac OWC has a new product for you.