Category: Hard Drives

Seagate Barracuda 7200 1 TB Hard Drive

With Western Digital and Hitachi unveiling their own versions of TB hard drives, Seagate is surely one hard disk manufacturer that will not be left behind. In fact, they have unveiled their own model, the Barracuda 7200.12 HD. It is the first mainstream desktop hard drive to feature high areal density that allows to store more data on each disk. Now that is something worth considering as file size requirements today are getting larger by the minute.

The 7,200rpm Barracuda drive packs 1TB (terabyte) of storage capacity on an areal density of 329 Gigabits per square inch to deliver the best combination of capacity, performance and reliability for PCs, desktop RAID and personal external storage. The drive’s Serial ATA 3Gbps (gigabits per second) interface delivers sustained data rate of up to 160MBps for fast boot, application startup and file access.

If 1TB of storage is too much for you, the 3.5in drive also comes in 750GB and 500GB capacities with cache options of 32MB and 16MB. But then again, today the ideal position to take is go for the larger drives even if you think that they are too much. The price disparity may be a couple of dollars but think of the future. In the long end, you will find yourself upgrading your hard drive so why wait.

Source

The Green Hitachi Hard Drive

First there was Western Digital and then Seagate. Both boasted of the Terrabyte storage capacity, the latest metric used in measuring the amount of space that they could accommodate. Now, Hitachi enters the fray but not on storage but bragging about how eco-friendly their hard drive is. The new drive is the EcoTrac Classification hard drive.

The new drive features Hitachi’s EcoTrac Classification. This means it’s halogen-free and has very low power consumption. The new CinemaStar features a read/write power specification of 1.4W–a reduction of 22 percent compared to previous models.

According to Hitachi, its new CinemaStar hard drive is best suited for digital video applications that require compact design and low power usage, such as slim digital video recorders, set-top boxes, and surveillance systems.

The new CinemaStar drive will be available in capacities ranging between 160GB and 500GB and is expected to ship during the second quarter of the year. For now, it’s unclear how much the drive will cost.

If you are the environmentalist freak who wants to do his share for environmental improvement, then this is the hard drive for you. It may not yet be in the terabyte era but surely, it will be in a matter of months.

Source

Seagate Launches Enterprise Terabyte Drives

Last week there was a post about Western Digital’s new 1 Terabyte hard drive. In that post as well, it was mentioned that Seagate had also launched its own higher capacity hard drive which was 500GB. Thanks to that first new flash, Seagate took the initiative to finally unveil its own terabyte hard drive, the 3.5 Constellation ES which comes in 1 or 2 TB.

The 2.5-inch Constellation will have capacities ranging from 160 gigabytes (GB) and 500 GB. The 3.5 Constellation ES comes in 500 GB, 1 terabyte (TB) and 2 TB. The Constellation family ships this quarter. Seagate’s Barbara Craig, senior product marketing manager, said that the drives are designed to offer a smaller footprint, cut energy consumption and be more stackable in tight data centers. “The new drives basically cut power in half,” said Craig.

Also, similar to what Western Digital unveiled, these are eco-friendly since they consume lesser power, making them an ideal hard drive solution for people who really want to cut down on cost. And if you were the computer geek, you would have to note, which do I get?

If you are brand conscious, Seagate has always been known to be a reliable brand. While Western Digital priced its hard drive at $299.00, it is likely that Seagate will have a higher price. They may practically have the same specs but it all boils down to which brand is reliable and tested.

Source

Google’s GDrive

Google has certainly been aggressive lately and now it looks like they have ventured out into the external drive business but online. Or at least that is what this GDrive is basically all about. The GDrive will allow users to save their data online and users will be able to access their data from any computer in the world.

The GDrive could also partially replace the physical hard disk that a user needs to select an operating system (OS) for usage — that is, after the initial booting. Google’s online hard drive will merge all of Google’s web based applications and make them available together.

In short, it is designed mainly for saving online data and being able to access it from any computer in the world. However, space restriction and reliability could be a user’s concern while depending on the Google servers to save their precious data.

Overall, it looks like any similar online storage option that is offered today. If there is any difference, it is perhaps because of the brand name, Google. Once the GDrive is launched this year, expect a lot of people trying it out, particularly the ones who have a lot of files online.

Also, it wouldn’t be surprising if this would be offered to people with Google accounts. The only question is would it be an add-on or free if you are an existing subscriber.

Source

Set a Cut-Off Date for Stored Files

Do not let storage space stop you from deleting current files such as documents and spreadsheets on your computer. If these files have been around for years, back them up and take them out of your computer. Other than taking up space, you just have to consider the worst scenarios such as hard disk crashes or imminent formatting caused by system software malfunctions that are common today.

Formatting a hard drive is the last resort but is the easiest solution when it comes to program conflicts and crashes. While there are programs that try to help you restore a system, it remains that your PC will never be the same again due to buggy installation. Overwriting may be a good option but you will notice that after you do this, your computer slows down a bit more.

So to address speed and consistency of the operating system of your computer, it would be best to clean it from scratch and start a fresh copy of your preferred Windows operating system. It is a hard decision to make but at times you are left with very few choices to make.

If you have files that have been around for over 2 years which you don’t access, just copy them to a CD or a tape drive. Do not leave them on your PC hard drive for easy access. At times you will never know when you would need to recover them and normally, backups are the best way to safeguard them in case something untoward happens to your PC.

Malware and Viruses Love Explorer Cookies

When we browse the web, we store a good amount of cookies to help us in navigating through sites. But while we see these so-called cookies are harmless, malware and viruses love the idea of using them as disguises as far as creating mischief later on once detected.

How are they detected? Normally if they are not cleaned or scanned properly by anti-virus software or spyware removers, they will quietly reside on your hard drive. Once they are detected, that is the only time you will gain notice of how harmful they can be, spreading like crazy and enabling a lot of browser popups warning you that you have malware infections on your computer.

So what is the best thing to do? For one, empty your cookies folder regularly. People do a lot of browsing but normally it is the URL that you only need to remember. You can always bookmark them if they are hard to remember but as far as the history and cookies folder is concerned, try to clean them out.

Also, when you are storing some temporary files, try to assign the least amount necessary. In the old Internet browsers, you could set it as low as 1MB. But now it has grown bigger, 8 MB to be exact. While that may seem small compared to the total gigabye storage your hard drive can take, a lot of spyware or small files can pose problems if you are not careful.

Just empty the history and cookies folder as often as you can. Don’t let the Spyware and Malware files ruin your computer and you day.

Loose PC Peripherals Contribute to PC Crashes

At times, PC parts such as our video cards, sound cards and network cards can have a bearing if they are not properly plugged in. Especially if your computer is not the traditional packaged computer set which we normally get from vendors like IBM or Dell, chances are there will be errors or overlooked placements when we assemble or buy cloned PCs.

To some, it may be a matter of checking out the loose peripherals but at times, they do have a bearing as far as blue screens and PC crashes are concerned. There is no definitive explanation but perhaps one aspect that contribute to it is the conductive nature. If the slots are not properly fitted towards the cards we install, chances are the processors and the software we use will malfunction due to erroneous reading or even because of lose threads that need to be properly installed to function properly.

It may sound mediocre in nature but they do have a part. When you notice your PC hanging or suddenly showing you the blue screen, you are limited only to the software or hardware issue. Most of the time it points to the software for most as pirated or bugged software can really be a pain in the neck. But after successive installations and you still get the same errors, open your CPU and start checking those pins and slots. The problem may be because of some loose connection that you have failed to consider in the first place.

Seagate Unveils 80-gigabyte Intel X25-M SATA Hard Disk

With the advent of better and efficient hard disks on the rise, PC geeks are now in for a treat as Seagate Technologies has unveiled a new 80 gigabyte hard disk that comes with higher performance specifications and makes swapping drives easy. For most PC owners, hard disks have a limit as far as usable life is concerned. While we now see the 160 gigabyte hard disks in the market, the new 80-gigabyte Intel X25-M SATA offers half the storage but with more reliable speed and flexibility.

The best part of it is that you can use it on a laptop or a desktop. The interface is similar to most, using an USB interface where you can copy and safeguard your data if you are worried about your hard disk crashing at any moment. So while others are still using the traditional optical storage drives or larger capacity flash drives, why bother to limit yourself if you can get an efficient hard drive that can store your files and documents handily?

The Intel drive is expensive — about $540 online — but comes with higher performance specifications and a three-year warranty. Solid-state drives are obviously an expanding niche in the world of laptop computers. The explosion of digital data is so overwhelming that even if our notebook disks become smaller, we will still have to keep our data somewhere.

So if you are looking to buy a new hard drive, hold on a bit. This may be expensive but it is sure to answer all your data storage needs.

Source

Catch a Glimpse of New PCs in Expos

While browsing on the web can really help a lot in being up to date on the latest computer peripherals and gadgets in the technology world, you may also want to check out the events sponsored by the big names in the PC industry who normally participate or sponsor technology expos to showcase their new products.

Through the years, companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Dell have been aggressive in showing off their new technology breakthroughs and apparently most of these are not yet even in the market. Also, critics and reviewers get their information from these events so why bother to wait when you can get a glimpse of them firsthand?

Further, you can also be the first to note when these new contraptions would be released in the market. Check out the features and perhaps a quotation so that you have and idea of how much you have to spend to get one once you are entirely tempted to do so.

Lastly, these events hold raffles and if you are lucky, you may even bring home the latest PC or technology gadget home with you. So rather than worry about the cost of getting one, bringing home a freebie PC or hardware that you can use just by attending them is truly a rewarding experience.

If you get an invitation to these computer expos, by all means go and check it out. You are going to see a lot of new stuff for your computer needs and perhaps get a bonus if you are luck in raffles or giveaways.

Check Before Emptying the Recycle Bin

When you delete files in your PC, they normally go first to the recycle bin. So technically, they are still around. There are cases where people recall these files and in some cases, restoring them from the recycle bin can still be done. If that were the case, then good for the use. But what if he really deletes and empties the recycle bin immediately?

Such are the cases where deleting files manually on any computer should be done carefully before doing the next thing in your mind. One cannot avoid it. For some, deleting a file is practically automatic towards accepting that they are useless. So why leave them hanging around in the recycle bin when you can free up more space for newer files?

Not all people are aware of the real use of a recycle bin. It is the primary location where deleted files fall in. But there are people who configure their recycle bin to automatically discard the files upon deletion meaning that once they are deleted, they are deleted forever. Is that a wise move? For the advanced people perhaps it is, but if you are a novice user, it would be best to avoid being to advance if you cannot really handle it and know how to recover them through technical means.

Space is something important for most PC users. Deleting files and some programs help them get through it. Though new storage solutions such as optical drives and external hard drives are present today, some people just don’t want to adjust to it. Regardless, when it comes to finding these files in your recycle bin, check it out thoroughly before making a decision. It may be something you would regret.