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Building on from its 7mm release last year, Western Digital has started shipping its first hard drives and solid state hybrid drives (SSHD) that measure 5mm (0.2-inches) thick. The new WD Blue and WD Black 2.5-inch drives are made to allow for even thinner notebook and ultrabook designs, while still providing a sizable amount of storage for the end user.
Western Digital has extended its high-performance hard drive line to include a 4-terabyte option, doubling the previous largest capacity drive. The new addition to the WD Black range continues the line's themes of fast access times and reliability, making it ideal for workstations as well as the desktops of performance-hungry gamers.
Kingston has extended its SSDNow line to include the V300 line. Using 19nm NAND Flash, a SATA 6Gbps interface, and an LSI SandForce 2281 flash storage processor, similarly to the SSDNow V+200 launched at the start of the year, the V300 can reach sequential read and write speeds of up to 450MB per second. Kingston claim this to be ten times faster than a standard 7200RPM hard drive.
Western Digital has rolled out a new version of the My Book Studio external hard drive, aimed towards users wanting more speed without switching to Thunderbolt. The update adds USB 3.0 connectivity, which provides data transfer speeds claimed to be three times faster than the USB 2.0 version, while also allowing for legacy connections through USB 2.0 and FireWire 800.
Apple has expanded the range of iMacs eligible for a hard drive replacement in its iMac 1TB Seagate replacement program. The program, launched in July of 2011, formerly covered iMacs sold between May and July of 2011. Under the expansion, iMacs with 1TB Seagate hard drives sold between October 2009 and July 2011 will now be eligible for replacements.
As notebook computers continue to grow in popularity, 2.5-inch hard drives have become one of the most popular upgrades. Most of the drives that are pulled out of a computer end up collecting dust, but Akitio's Neutrino U3+ enclosure promises to give life back to unused drives, or serve as a basis for custom external storage. In our full review, we take a closer look at the USB 3.0-equipped enclosure.
Hard drive maker Western Digital has revealed a new line of portable external drives specifically for Macs with capacities up to 2TB and USB 3.0 functionality, and has added a 2TB Thunderbolt-enabled drive that it says offers up to 400MB per second read speeds (and 380MB per second write speeds). When two My Book Velociraptor Duo drives are daisy-chained together, it doubles the speed capacity, rivalling consumer SSD drives at dramatically lower costs.
Toshiba has launched a new family of 3.5-inch hard drives. Four different models of drive being made available in three different capacities sees Toshiba releasing a total of 12 new drives. Half of the new drives are equipped with a streaming function for data transfers within a specific timeframe, which are optimized for applications such as digital video recorders.
Western Digital is bringing out hard drives designed specifically for network attached storage devices. The WD Red range is a new line of storage aimed purely at the NAS market, claiming improved reliability and system performance in comparison to desktop and server drives in such devices.
Seagate has continued to expand its GoFlex hard drive system, which features interchangeable interfaces for interoperability between various connection types. The company's latest adapters enable users to upgrade their existing GoFlex drives with a Thunderbolt interface to take advantage of fast transfer speeds on Apple's latest Macs and a number of upcoming Windows machines. In our full review, we'll take a closer look at the Thunderbolt adapter for GoFlex portable drives.
Hitachi has reportedly begun shipping a 4TB internal hard-drive, which has been spotted in the company's home country of Japan. The offering appears to be the first 3.5-inch internal drive to arrive on the market with a 4TB storage capacity, though competitors managed to release 4TB single-disk external drives earlier in the year.
Build-to-order Macs where the customer has specified a 2TB hard drive have suddenly jumped from a estimated shipping time of "next business day" to a new status of 5-7 weeks, in what could be a sign of the company being hit by the ongoing global hard drive shortage. Other drive sizes are unaffected so far, and the issue only crops up on built-to-order iMacs with 2TB drive options selected, reports AppleInsider.
Although the floodwaters have receded in Thailand, the disaster is still said to be affecting supply chains in the tech industry. Canaccord Genuity analyst Bobby Burleson suggests Intel has been forced to stockpile its microprocessors as a "direct result" of the hard drive shortages that resulted from flooded factories located in Thailand.
Many of Iomega's Mac-oriented storage products merely ship pre-formatted for HFS+, but the new Mac Companion has been entirely designed with Apple's computers in mind. The housing is shaped to match the footprint of an iMac or Cinema/Thunderbolt display, while FireWire connections and a 2.1 Amp USB port complement Apple's computers and iOS devices. In our full review, we explore the Mac Companion's functionality as a storage device and connection hub.
G-Technology has unveiled its latest storage system, the G-RAID. The aluminum-clad device offers 8TB of storage space, spread across two 4TB disks running at 7,200rpm. The company geared the system for Mac OS X, taking advantage of the 10Gbps Thunderbolt connections on the latest Macs, though a simple reformat extends support to Windows machines.
OCZ has introduced its latest storage system, the RevoDrive Hybrid, which pairs an solid-state drive with a standard disk drive. The hybrid storage is geared for desktop computers, build upon a PCI Express card rather than utilizing typical drive connectors. Operating system files and applications can be stored on the 100GB SSD for faster speeds, while the HDD provides an additional 1TB of capacity for other content.
iFixit has introduced a revamped optical bay hard drive enclosure for unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The new design serves the same basic purpose as its predecessor, replacing the optical drive with a drive enclosure for storage expansion, however the team has reengineered the mounting points for a tighter fit.
Toshiba has introduced its first 2.5-inch hard drives to reach 1TB in storage capacity. The drives, which fit in the MQ01ABD series, use 500GB/platter technology to reach a capacity of 1TB within the standard 9.5mm-thick housing design for notebooks and other small devices.
LaCie has expanded its Rugged series of portable hard drives, introducing the Rugged Mini. The new offering is said to be 40 percent smaller than its predecessors, without sacrificing a durable build. The compact drive features a rubber edge for resistance to shock and falls, while the aluminum housing is also claimed to be water resistant.
Sony has introduced its first external hard drive, the HD-PG5. Although the drive works as a general USB-attached storage device, it also provides a number of features specific to Sony's range of devices. Users can record HD video directly from their Bravia TV, transfer video files directly from a Handycam camcorder without using a PC, or play videos and photos through a PlayStation 3 console.
Yesterday in the MacNN forums Ron K, a Fresh-Faced Recruit, started a thread looking for the most reliable, fast and quiet portable hard drive, click here to join in. Recently a debate was started by one user who is trying to decide between purchasing a used G5 or an iMac, click here to read more.
Today's deals from DealNN include price breaks on hard drives, power supplies, and more. Macmall.com has recently lowered the cost of the refurbished Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 320GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, which features the Seagate Dashboard management tool, powerful encryption software, and a 90 day warranty for both parts and labor. Currently featured at DealNN, this hard drive has recently dropped from $79.99 down to only $36.99, and offers savings of up to $43.
I-O Data has quietly introduced an external hard drive, the HDCA-UT3.0K, with three terabytes of storage capacity. The drive is based on one drive, rather than using a multiple-disk configuration that is common to many high-capacity NAS systems. USB 3.0 support enables faster transfer speeds, though the drive is still backwards compatible with USB 2.0.
Today's deals include price cuts on hard drives, digital cameras, MacBooks and more. The Western Digital My Passport Essential 500GB External Portable Hard Drive is MacMall.com's deal of the day today. It has seen a 38% price break dropping the price from $89.99 to $55.99 with FREE shipping. 6ave.com’s Sick Deal of the Day today is the Sony Cyber-shot 14.1MP Digital Camera, it was $249.99, but is now only $169 after a price drop of $80.99.
Hitachi has taken the wraps off two new 2.5-inch 750GB mobile hard drives, the Travelstar 7K750 and Travelstar 5K750 hard drives. The 7K750 spins at 7,200RPM, while the 5K750 spins at 5,400RPM. They are the largest capacity mobile hard drives currently available on the market in the 9.5mm segment.
Today's deals from DealNN include a range of bargain priced items from iPods and headphones to hard drives. OnSale.com currently has the 4GB iPod shuffle 3rd generation for $66.67, which is already $12.33 less than the list price of $79, and about $2 less than the lowest price available anywhere else. A $20 mail-in-rebate offer drops the price further to $46.67. The 4GB iPod shuffle holds up to 1,000 songs with a run time of up to 10 hours on a single charge. A set of Apple earbud headphones are included, along with a one year warranty from Apple.
A Seagate representative has provided Electronista with a few additional details regarding Mac compatibility for the upcoming 3TB Constellation hard drive. In-house testing reportedly showed 3TB of usable space on Snow Leopard, indicating that Mac users should be able to utilize the full capacity of the drive without any special configurations or software updates.
Prosoft Engineering has launched Drive Genius 3.0, a major upgrade to its hard drive maintenance utility designed to improve speed and overall performance. With the latest release 64-bit support has been added for Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system, and enhancements have been made for the defragmentation of files. Drive Pulse technology has also been added in order to help monitor the overall health of the user’s drive, and send alerts regarding any possible issues.
Samsung has expanded its line of hard drives with the Spinpoint MP4, a 2.5-inch HDD featuring 7,200rpm rotation speed and capacities up to 640GB. The new notebook drive brings higher speeds to the company's 640GB notebook offerings, delivering a 30-percent performance improvement over 5400rpm models and doubling the cache size to 16MB.
LaCie has announced the Rugged USB 3.0 external storage and two USB flash drives, the CooKey and WhizKey. The Rugged drive features the latest USB 3.0 interface, with data transfer rates claimed to reach up to 110MB/s. The company has yet to announced capacities for the updated version, although the current USB 2.0 model is available with 250GB, 320GB or 500GB hard drives.
Happy Thanksgiving from DealNN, and with that said we would like to present our holiday deals collection. OfficeMax.com got a jump start on their Black Friday sales, cutting prices on items like the Hitachi SimpleDrive III 1TB external hard drive from $139.99 to $84.99. The NEXTAR Q4 4.3-inch touchscreen GPS also saw an early price drop and is now just $89.99.
LaCie on Tuesday introduced the LaCinema Classic HD, a media server capable of full 1080p video playback. Users can connect an HDTV using a standard HDMI cable, while Composite connectors are also available. Multichannel DTS audio is supported, sent via HDMI or a dedicated S/PDIF optical port. A 1TB hard drive is integrated for storing movies, music or photos, while a USB 2.0 connection is provided for interface with a computer.
Buffalo Technology has introduced the DriveStation HD-HXU3, a new series of external hard drives featuring USB 3.0 interfaces. The high speed connection option is claimed to support transfer rates of up to 625MB/s, beating USB 2.0 and even FireWire by a considerable margin. Users can still connect using the current USB standard, however the transfer rates drop to approximately 480Mb/s.
Cloud Engines on Friday introduced the second-generation Pogoplug, along with a variety of new features for storing and sharing multimedia. The hardware features the same plug-and-play capability of the original, but adds several USB ports to allow connection of up to four external hard drives without using a dedicated USB hub.
Toshiba has expanded its line of small hard drives with several 1.8-inch offerings featuring capacities up to 320GB. The MKxx33GSG series is available in 160GB, 250GB, and 320GB sizes, each based on dual-platter configuration. The drives feature a 16MB cache buffer, 5,400RPM spindle speed and transfer rates of up to 830Mb/s.
Toshiba has debuted a new line of hard drives, the MK5056GSY series, that expands the company's notebook offerings to included a 7200RPM model with 500GB capacity. The drives are claimed to transfer data at 1,255Mb/s, a 23 percent improvement over the earlier versions.
OWC has launched new 750GB notebook drive products. The new capacity drives arrive in bus-powered On-The-Go Pro models, with three connectivity options. The top-of-the-line triple interface offers FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 connections, while a dual-interface FireWire 400/USB 2.0 and a USB 2.0-only version are available for reduced pricing.
Apple service provider MyService has launched a 750GB MacBook Pro hard disk upgrade. The company is providing round-trip shipping, installation of the drive, and full data transfer. In particular the new drive is a 5400rpm Scorpio Blue model from Western Digital. Its height slightly exceeds the standard 9.5mm for 2.5-inch drives, but still fits in the computers accepted by MyService.
Hitachi has expanded its Travelstar line of 2.5-inch hard drives with the 7K500 series, available in capacities up to 500GB. The new drives represents the company's highest capacity notebook storage without sacrificing the 7200RPM speed and 16MB cache. Media transfer rates have been increased to 1245Mb/s, approximately 16 percent faster than the 7K320-series drives.
Apricorn has released its Aegis Padlock Secure Hard Drive, a portable storage system. The drive features a keypad that is used to input custom PIN numbers, protecting the device's content from being accessed by intruders. Users also have a choice between an AES-128 or 256 bit encryption to keep data safe. The device utilizes a USB 2.0 cable and is cross-platform compatible.
Apple on Wednesday released Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0, which addresses issues with 7200-rpm, 500GB MacBook Pro drives. Users were reporting that their computer would freeze for several seconds, before beeping and clicking. These are reportedly signs of overworked reading mechanisms. Apple released a statement last week saying it was working towards a solution to the problem.
Samsung has introduced its latest solid state drive (SSD), the 256GB FlashSSD, geared for gamers. The component is claimed to offer a five-fold improvement in data loading time compared to traditional hard drives, while running with lower power consumption.
Apricorn has released the PCIe and the PCI-X Drive Arrays which support up to four 2.5-inch SATA hard drives or solid state drives. The PCI Drive Arrays can handle up to 4TB per slot, with support for servers, high speed data collection, animation, CAD/EDA simulation, video editing, and other storage systems. Both Drive Arrays embed all four SATA HDDs or SSDs onto a single card.
Hitachi GST is now shipping its first 2TB, 7,200 RPM desktop hard drive. The fourth-generation Deskstar 7K2000 uses the company's proprietary five-platter design with relaxed bit density and perpendicular magnetic recording technology. The company is also refreshing its K1000.C Deskstar line, with capacities ranging from 160GB to 1TB.
Prosoft Engineering has released v2.2 of its flagship application, Drive Genius. The software is used to optimize hard drives to make them run faster and work more efficiently overall. The latest version supports Mac OS Snow Leopard and works with non-HFS volumes where possible. The update newly displays defragment, scan, and volume shift progress bars and provides information about any bad blocks found during scans.
Deals from DealNN today include a variety of items from MacBooks to digital cameras. Most notable is a price drop on the 13.3-inch unibody MacBook from MacMall.com, it is now priced at $924.99 after mail-in-rebate. The unibody MacBook features a 2.0GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive as well as a glass multi-touch trackpad, built-in iSight webcam and microphone.
LSI has released a Mac OS X driver for its 3ware 9690SA and 9650SE series RAID controller cards. The controllers enable Mac server users in directly attached storage environments to optimize reading and writing performance while streaming digital video, digital audio, and film. The device's StreamFusion firmware utilizes an Advanced Content Streaming feature to divide total bandwidth equally among various streams, allowing the devices to sustain multiple streams with large amounts of data. The controller's firmware also includes an Intelligent Read Prefetch feature that enables data to be retrieved from media and stored on the controller in advance of the data being requested by the host.
LaCie has released its LaCinema Rugged HD multimedia hard drive. The product is used to store and play high definition movies, music and photographs on any high definition television in 1080p resolution. The device is compatible with any HDMI supported display and utilizes graphic menus and setting features with a remote control for navigation. The LaCinema Rugged HD requires a USB 2.0 cable to connect to the computer where the device uses bus-powered multimedia loading.
Apple's online store is currently offering a selection of refurbished Mac mini's at discounted prices. Starting at $419 is the 1.83GHz Mac mini with 1GB of RAM and 80GB hard drive. Next up is the 2.0GHz model with 1GB of RAM and 120GB hard drive for $469. Lastly is the 2.0GHz model with 2GB of memory and 320GB hard drive for $699. Other refurbished Mac models include the 2.0GHz unibody MacBook with 2GB of RAM and 160GB hard drive for $949. The 1.6GHz MacBook Air with 2GB of RAM and 80GB hard drive for $999 and the 20-inch, 2.66GHz iMac with 2GB of RAM and 320GB hard drive also priced at $999.
QNAP Systems has released the newest addition to its line of storage servers, the SS-839 Pro Turbo NAS. QNAP believes this is the world's smallest eight-bay, Intel Atom-based network attached storage (NAS) unit utilizing 2.5-inch hard drives. The SS-839 Pro features disk-on-module architecture, an Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU, 2GB of DDR2 memory, and a total storage capacity of 4TB. The unit also offers two eSATA connections and five USB ports that can be used to attach the device to other storage servers and backups. The device is claimed to be energy efficient, with the eight-drive system operating on approximately 34 watts.
