Storage - Page 126

Snow Leopard is has not been having a very good time. After being hailed as the next best thing since the Pizza it launched with lukewarm press coverage. You see normally when Apple launches something the press simply goes nuts and talks about all of its virtues. This trend has been shifting slightly. This is probably due to normal cycles in the fickle press, but also could be due to growing scrutiny of Apple's policies and business practices.

No matter the reason Snow Leopard has had its share of issues. From being labeled as a Microsoft copy (for 64-bit, multi core support, built in malware protection etc), to finding out it shipped with a seriously flawed version of Flash and that the built in Malware Protection can only detect two viruses. Now we hear there is an even larger issue with Snow Leopard.

The problem relates to the way the Guest Account works (something disabled by default in Windows). You see some users are reporting that if they log in using the Guest account and then to their regular user account they find that all of their data is simply gone. It is like something reset their account. The problem has been all over the Apple Support Boards, but until today Apple had not even acknowledged the problem.

Today, while they are saying there is a problem they are dealing with it in typical Apple fashion. They are saying "We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix" according to a statement given to CNET on Monday. I am sure this is a great comfort to all of the users that have lost their data.

With another round of IDF now underway, Larrabee is in the forefront of most minds and thankfully it was shown off publicly for the first time today, running on a six cored Gulftown based PC.

Much like Western Digital with its energy-efficient Green series, mainstream Blue series and high-performance/enthusiast oriented Black series desktop HDDs, Seagate now has a three-tier arrangement in place with their latest high-performance XT series of drives shipping to distributors as of today. Seagate also has the existing Barracuda LP series drives for low-power users and of course the standard Barracuda 7200 series for mainstream.

It seems like it was just yesterday that Intel announced there was a data corruption problem with the X25 SSD. Well I guess it is yesterday that it was announced. But it is not the one you are thinking of.

The first generation of SSDs had an issue where the drive would become fragmented and loose performance over time. This could also lead to data corruption in severe cases.

Now the issue is with the latest 34nm X25 SSDs. The problem is connected to a very small number of drives becoming corrupted when a BIOS password is used. Still to ensure that this does not become a major issue Intel has suspended shipments of the new drive and are working on a firmware fix for this problem.

During the launch of the new Runcore Pro IV SSDs here in Hangzhou today, we also got a look at the newly launched Runcore Easy Three Step upgrade process for its full range of SSDs.

Runcore bundled some software on all its new SSDs, which allow for easily upgrading your HDD to an SSD. It allows you to entirely move over all files and the actual file system (MBR) and OS from your old drive to your new SSD. Software is included to support both Windows and Mac systems, depending on which SSD you buy, the appropriate software will be included.

The process is rather simple, as you'll see in the video below. Matt from Runcore shows us just how it is done. Runcore has really gone out of its way to make the upgrade process as simple as possible and will probably end up selling more drives as a result.

The next video from here in China will probably be of the factory tour where we follow the making of an SSD from start to finish!

We are here in Hangzhou, China in the technology and development area (or HEDA as it's known officially) at the moment visiting the Runcore office to get a hands-on look at its range of Pro IV SSD drives that will launch later today and go on sale very soon.

We spent some time exclusively testing the new Runcore Pro IV, specifically the 1.8-inch Micro SATA 128GB. We compared the performance of this new SSD against a standard notebook HDD in two identical Lenovo X301 laptops. We confirmed that no funny business was going on and that both systems were identical in terms of setup, clock speeds and so on.

Take a look at the video below. We have an unboxing, look at the tiny SSD, performance numbers, boot up and shut down time comparisons and more.

We'll have some more content online soon from our trip to China to visit the friendly folks at Runcore here in beautiful Hangzhou.

Intel has just announced their release of a 34nm NAND flash cell in an SSD. But while this is pretty cool news all on its own; the real news is that this will reduce the price of the existing 50nm versions.

According to Intel the move will help reduce the prices of the 50nm MLC SSDs by up to 60%... but that is 60% off of the original prices not current market prices.

The new pricing for the X-25-M 80GB will be $225; this is indeed 60% of the original $595. The problem is that you can get the X25-M 80GB for $324 from NewEgg this makes the new reduced price about 30% off the current market. The 160GB flavor of the X25-M will be $440, you can get the X25-M 160GB for $629 right now.

Don't get me wrong that is still a good bit off the price but not a 60% reduction to be sure.

Recently Kingston made news by being the first to have a 128GB Flash drive out and on the market. Kingston was not satisfied with this capacity and so decided to do a one up and release a 256GB version.

The new drive will sell under the label of DataTraveler 300. The new drive will run under the USB 2.0 standard. It will feature the same Password Traveler software as the DT200 that allows you to create a hidden, password protected area for your private documents.

Pricing is a little high at $935 (more than some 256GB SSDs. This price will make the DT 300 a toy for only a very small number of people.

Although not really computer related news I thought this was interesting. The new LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) has sent back some of its first images.

The images were shot right on the edge of the terminator (the line between the dark and light sides of the moon) they were intended to map out suitable areas for future manned landing sites.

Now the interesting part is that although none of these images are near any of the landing sites, many "no-moon-landing" skeptics are already using this to "prove" that man never went to the moon.

Adding to the craziness (and fun for me) some people are already saying they are doctored images...

Intel seems to be on a roll bumping up product releases, first with the announcement that Clarkdale would be coming this year instead of next and now with reports that their new SSDs are just weeks away instead of the Q4 release that was expected.