Filed under: Storage

The LaCie product roof has been raised to 7.5TB with the new 5big Network — an Active Directory and gigabit Ethernet-friendly array of storage drives that supports several RAID configurations for up to five hot-swappable hard drives. You can try it on in four different sizes — 2.5TB for $899.99, 5TB for $1,399, or the aforementioned, bar-raising 7.5TB for $1,899. In keeping with his sixteen year relationship with LaCie, the renowned Neil Poulton applied his HAL 9000-inspired design to the product, winning him another Janus de L’industrie award. The only problem with the HAL motif: you really, really don’t want your RAID storage device to drone on about how its “mind is going, Dave.”

[Via Technabob]

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Filed under: Storage

We certainly hope that Joongoo Lee has a royalty check in the mail, because to the untrained eye, it looks like Samsung has taken the Costume concept we peeked back in July and made it a reality. The fashionable S1 and S2 hard drives include 1.8- and 2.5-inch HDDs (respectively), with the former arriving in 80/120/160GB capacities and the latter in 160/250/320/500GB sizes. The compact drives are entirely USB-powered and include a handful of expected backup / data protection features. As for colors, you can expect these in piano black, snow white, red wine and chocolate brown this month in Europe, while South Koreans will be asked to wait until November. As for the rest of ya? Hope you know a good importer.

[Via I4U News, thanks Luigi]

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Filed under: Storage

We certainly hope that Joongoo Lee has a royalty check in the mail, because to the untrained eye, it looks like Samsung has taken the Costume concept we peeked back in July and made it a reality. The fashionable S1 and S2 hard drives include 1.8- and 2.5-inch HDDs (respectively), with the former arriving in 80/120/160GB capacities and the latter in 160/250/320/500GB sizes. The compact drives are entirely USB-powered and include a handful of expected backup / data protection features. As for colors, you can expect these in piano black, snow white, red wine and chocolate brown this month in Europe, while South Koreans will be asked to wait until November. As for the rest of ya? Hope you know a good importer.

[Via I4U News, thanks Luigi]

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Filed under: Storage

Western Digital didn’t have too many comrades on the green bandwagon back in July of last year, but now it’s just one amongst legions. Nevertheless, it’s keeping its eco-friendly membership badge up to date with the second-generation Caviar Green Drive. Said HDD features the firm’s own GreenPower technology to “significantly reduce power consumption” compared to those traditional energy-sucking alternatives. The freshened platform is based on WD’s 33 GB/platter technology with 32MB cache, with sizes ranging from 500GB to 1TB. According to the company, this one consumes up to 20-percent less power and offers a 10-percent uptick in performance over the previous Green Drive, and best of all, the 1TB edition (WD10EADS) can be ordered up right now for $219.

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Filed under: Wireless, Storage

We knew wireless USB would eventually rise up and become more than a pitiful excuse for not plugging in your digicam to transfer photos, and lo and behold, it has done just that. Imation’s latest Apollo drive packs a lot of promise, thanks in huge part to the integrated WiQuest WUSB solution tucked within. Put simply, the Apollo Pro WX can begin to backup user data as soon as the machine in question comes “into range.” Without any wires (save for that pesky AC adapter), this one no-touch backup system can ensure that your most precious 1s and 0s aren’t lost for eternity when unforeseen disaster strikes. There’s no word on price just yet, but expect these to sell like hotcakes when they ship in Q4.

[Via EverythingUSB]

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Filed under: Storage

Ok, it’s not by much, but world’s biggest is world’s biggest especially notable when it comes in a package this small. Toshiba just busted up its own record for 1.8-inch drive capacity with this new 250GB MKxx29GSG series disk spinning at 5,400rpm — the previous 240GB 1.8-incher announced a few weeks ago is stuck with a slower PATA interface more suitable to portable audio players. That makes this 8.0-mm thick, 3Gbps SATA hard drive ideal for ultra-slim, ultra-portable laptops requiring snappy (and cheap compared to an equivalent capacity SSD) data access by your applications. At least it will be when it begins mass production in November.

[Via Impress]

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Filed under: Storage

Nothing too special about Tosh’s latest USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive — just a good lookin’ 400GB unit that should slide into most average sized cargo pockets on the market today. The 6-ounce drive is available in “Electric Blue and Black” (pictured) as well as Carbon Grey, Hot Rod Red and Gecko Green, and while pricing has yet to be revealed, those looking to size it up can chew on these dimensions: 0.65- x 3.19- x 5.0-inches. Not too shabby, huh?

[Via Electronista]

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Filed under: Storage

Iomega went out of its way to make sure you really, really understood that this here external hard drive would go nicely with your MacBook Air, but we’d prefer to see it as something that could slip right into just about any traveler’s briefcase. The anodized aluminum shell measures in at just 0.63-inches thick, weighs 7-ounces and packs a 320GB 2.5-inch hard drive within. Additionally, the unit comes formatted with Apple’s HFS+ file system, features the company’s own Drop Guard design to protect it from falls of up to 1.3-meters (and not a nanometer more), and gets all the juice it needs from a spare (or only, in the MBA’s case) USB 2.0 port. It’ll be available across the globe next month for $149.99.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

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Filed under: Storage

Addonics is good for providing über-secure storage options, and this one does a fine job of keeping that legacy alive. The Ruby Cipher hard drive kit shows lots of love to any 2.5-inch SATA drive that you’ve got laying around, and once you slip it in there, you can rest assured that only you (and maybe your ghost) will see what files are within. The enclosure itself comes with inbuilt eSATA / SATA connectors, and there’s also a SATA direct bridge to “isolate the SATA hard drive power and data connectors from the wears and tears incurred in some other removable SATA hard drive systems.” Of course, you’ll also find 256-bit AES hardware encryption, with a bundled flash key included to unlock the doors to your deepest, darkest secrets. Shame there’s no price listed, but you know this level of security won’t run you cheap.

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Filed under: Storage

We’ve been around this stuff long enough to know that hard drives just keep getting bigger with time, but if you were eager to know exactly when a 1TB unit would be prepped and ready for your notebook, try 2010. According to those infamous “undisclosed sources,” both Western Digital (which started shipping a 500-gigger today) and Fujitsu are looking to pump out 750GB 2.5-inch HDDs by mid-2009 and 1TB variants in 2010. Keep the faith, brethren.

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Filed under: Gaming

This one isn’t quite as dodgy as they come, but the very notable limitations really keep this from being the whiz-bang hack that it appears to be on the surface. Hacker StreetskaterFU had no trouble getting confirmation from others that his method of running Blu-ray games from the PlayStation 3’s hard drive was indeed legitimate, but it is only confirmed to work with select “older titles” including Warhawk, MotorStorm and Call of Duty 3. To make matters worse, instructions are sketchy at best, but at least there’s a video of the process working after the break. Let us know how things go should you give this a whirl.

Continue reading Hacked PlayStation 3 reportedly runs Blu-ray games from HDD

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Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Oh sure, you’re pretty 1337 if you can say you’ve got an SSD within your laptop, but if you’ve a need to store more than, say, 8GB of files, a bit more room may be desired. tnkgrl’s Aspire One mods began earlier this week with the addition of Bluetooth and extra RAM, and today she’s showing the world how to swap the built-in SSD with a 1.8-inch 60GB PATA drive. As expected, this one’s remarkably easy to complete once you’ve torn the thing open, but she also explains how to best put it all back together once you’re done. But you’re not, because she’ll be producing a how-to for adding internal 3G in the coming days / weeks.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

Although it seems like every TV shipping recently comes with USB ports and DivX compatibility packed in, if all you want is the ability to plug in a drive and play, the Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link may be right for you. Equipped with the same HDMI / component / composite outputs plus WAV, WMA, MPEG-1/2/4, MP3, OGG, AC3, AVI, DivX, XviD and JPEG file formats as the ScreenPlay HD, this unit forgoes the 500GB hard drive — a far cry from the old ScreenPlay days when it was just a HDD — in favor of a sleek 3.26 x 3.07 x .78-inch profile weighing less than 4 oz. Plug in your USB flash drive or FAT32 or NTFS formatted HDD and play or upconvert SD content up to 1080i with no problem. Granted it doesn’t have the power of a full-fledged media streamer but as a $99.95 take-anywhere box (available now in the U.S., Europe later this month) it’s probably worth a look.

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Filed under: Storage

It’s hard to say if we’ve ever laid eyes on a family of portable hard drives with less vigor and pizazz, but Memorex isn’t kidding around when it calls these things “essential.” Boasting nothing more than the bare necessities, the new line of TravelDrives arrives with 2.5-inch HDDs that pack 160GB, 250GB or 320GB of space. You’ll find a USB 2.0 port and a flashing LED to keep you from dozing off, and there’s even a few color options to choose from in case you’re partial to Spring Blossom, Tropic Green, Caribbean Blue or Cool Silver. At least they start at just $89.99, right?

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Storage

Brando’s SATA HDD Stage Rack doesn’t stay the same for very long, as it seems a new iteration keeps popping up every month or so. The latest (and greatest, might we add) is the SATA HDD Multimedia Dock, which enables users to slap in any ole 2.5- / 3.5-inch SATA hard drive and access it via USB. That’s not all, though. This one also provides an SD card slot, S-Video / composite / component outputs and a bundled remote — what for, you ask? So you can play back MPEG1/2/4, XviD and DivX (among others) files, of course. This takes multifaceted to an entirely different platform, huh?

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

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Filed under: Storage

Not that we haven’t seen bamboo-based gizmos before, but there’s something about SimpleTech’s [re]drive that just screams upscale. This elegant, smooth looking external HDD was crafted to be easy on the eyes and Mother Earth alike, with the outfit utilizing “renewable, naturally grown bamboo and recyclable aluminum” along with an Energy Star power adapter and eco-friendly packaging. You’ll also find a USB 2.0 jack, automatic power up / down and 500GB of internal storage space. Not too shabby for an estimated $150.

[Via Wired]

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Filed under: Storage

Not that Samsung is actually looking to pump this out into beauty salons worldwide, but there stands at least a mild chance that sophisticated females shopping for new compacts would also spring for some storage. Joongoo Lee’s Costume is a sleek, deliberately styled 2.5-inch external hard drive that looks entirely at home mixed in with various makeup components. Additionally, the bundled dock is equally sexy, though we can only hope there’s a USB 2.0 port somewhere on this thing. Though this is just a concept, we wouldn’t put it past Samsung to turn into a reality — after all, it did just produce pink and blue BlackJack IIs. Your soft side is showing, Sammy.

[Via PCLaunches]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

We’re not saying it can’t be done, but you should have some considerable trouble managing to run out of room for your expertly-shot, highly-narrative vacation antics with Hitachi’s new DZ-BD10H camcorder, which records 1080p HD video to Blu-ray discs or to its built-in 30GB hard drive. There’s even an SD slot, which we aren’t positive you can record video to, but it’s a fair guess. Other specs include a 2.7-inch LCD and a 10x optical zoom. Price should be around $1,500 when it hits Japan on August 9, but no solid word on a US berth just yet.

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Filed under: Storage

Western Digital has been flaunting its VelociRaptor for some time now, but the drive you’ve been slamming into towers is now available for low-power, high-performance blade server applications. The 2.5-inch, 10,000RPM enterprise SATA drive (WD3000BLFS) is specially designed to fit snugly within 1U and 2U rack servers, and aside from consuming 35% less power than the previous Raptor drive, this one is available with up to 300GB of capacity. You’ll also find 16MB of cache and a 1.4 million mean time before failure rating, though you won’t be able to procure one until later this month for an undisclosed price.

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Filed under: Storage

Although Western Digital seems to have the portable hard drive sector all wrapped up, LG’s looking to snag a bit of that market share by introducing a new line of stylish alternatives. Each member of the XD1 family possesses a 2.5-inch HDD with a SATA II interface and a USB 2.0 port, and just in case black isn’t your bag, you can expect a red wine colored version as well. For now, we’ll have to live without a price or release date, but you can look forward to units arriving in 120GB, 160GB, 250GB and 320GB sizes sometime in the future.

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