Tiny Hard Drives Need New Plug

Grok Headline matches for Tiny Hard Drives Need New Plug

Toshiba's new tiny hard drives

Toshiba's new tiny hard drives 12/15/2003 11:35 AM
Toshiba's new hard drives are the size of a nickel and can store over a gigabyte of data.

The 0.85 inch diameter disk is believed to be the world's smallest hard disk drive that can store about 2 or 3 gigabytes worth of information, company spokeswoman Midori Suzuki said Monday.

Link (via Werblog)

Tiny hard drives get bigger capacities
at CES

Tiny hard drives get bigger capacities
at CES 01/05/2005 02:09 PM
Seagate and Hitachi are boosting storage capacities on their miniature drives and improving efficiency, which will translate into improved portable media players.

Tiny hard drives deliver holiday cheer

Tiny hard drives deliver holiday cheer 12/23/2003 04:35 PM
ZDNet Dec 23 2003 3:09PM ET

Tiny Hard Drives Coming to Cell Phones

Tiny Hard Drives Coming to Cell Phones 07/09/2004 03:24 PM
Extreme Tech Jul 9 2004 8:07PM GMT

Tiny tiny 4GB hard drive

Tiny tiny 4GB hard drive 04/09/2004 04:11 PM
So you thought the 4GB IBM/Hitachi micro drives as used in the iPod mini are small? Toshiba is making a 4GB drive that is only 2.1cm (0.85 inch) in diameter. (via Macminute) Less than 10 years ago when I had my BBS and FidoNet hub "the Source!" (spelled that way) I had a much bigger disk with much less capacity that imploded. Henrik Jørgensen came to the rescue, lending me a 4GB scsi disk and a scsi controller so I...

IFD-iV Flash Drives Masquerade as ATA
Hard Drives

IFD-iV Flash Drives Masquerade as ATA
Hard Drives 07/15/2004 08:59 AM

For embedded computing hackers, mass storage (like hard drives) is often the most frustrating piece of the puzzle, as the fragile and power-hungry spin of the hard drive is usually the last non-solid-state part in the whole deployment. And while most engineers will just use a Compact Flash card, sometimes the only option is an ATA (hard drive) connection; that's where the IFD-iV flash memory parts from IO Data Device Corporation come in. Basically just flash memory drives, the defining feature of the IFD-iVs (besides fairly rugged operating specifications) is that they use the standard ATA connection of a hard drive, meaning they can be deployed in place of hard drives when necessary. Models up to 2GB in capacity will be available for around $2,100 -- maybe we'll just deal with the fragile hard drives instead.
Read - Flash memory ATA hard drive [TechJapan]

Update: Reader Tom Lee brings up a much cheaper option for hackers on a budget (after the jump.)

Keep Your Confidential Data Confidential
With Biometric Fingerprint Flash Drives
and Hard Disk Drives

Keep Your Confidential Data Confidential
With Biometric Fingerprint Flash Drives
and Hard Disk Drives 02/01/2005 09:13 PM
Now you can have safe, secure, portable storage of your confidential business and personal data with the biometric fingerprint ClipDrive Bio USB Flash Drive and the Outbacker USB biometric fingerprint Hard Disk Drive. The devices are non-operational until a validated fingerprint or password is received. [PRWEB Jan 21, 2005]

An Array of Tiny Drives

An Array of Tiny Drives 09/13/2004 01:27 AM
Six hard drives in a RAID array: It sounds noisy, clunky, and hot. But as JMR's new SATAStor shows, a RAID array can be compact and quiet.

Tiny drives set for space boost

Tiny drives set for space boost 04/05/2005 06:37 AM
Hitachi demonstrates a leap in hard drive technology which will lead to one-inch hard drives that can hold 60Gb.

Seagate lands customer for tiny drives

Seagate lands customer for tiny drives 07/21/2004 04:39 PM
Creative Technology has signed up to use 1-inch drives from Seagate.

Other News: Seagate Making Tiny Drives

Other News: Seagate Making Tiny Drives 06/08/2004 10:31 AM
With Apple blaming Hitachi for its inability to deliver iPod Minis, Seagate will enter the market with new 1" hard drives.

Briefly: Seagate lands customer for tiny
drives

Briefly: Seagate lands customer for tiny
drives 07/21/2004 04:39 PM
roundup Plus: Intel's top lawyer to retire...Texas Instruments profit surges...Atheros reaches into electronics devices...Oracle backs Asian Linux project.

Tiny hard drive packs a big punch

Tiny hard drive packs a big punch 01/09/2004 09:54 PM

As Uses Grow, Tiny Materials' Safety Is
Hard to Pin Down

As Uses Grow, Tiny Materials' Safety Is
Hard to Pin Down 11/03/2003 03:14 AM
New York Times Nov 3 2003 1:45AM ET

Samsung Cell Phones to Get Tiny Hard
Drive

Samsung Cell Phones to Get Tiny Hard
Drive 09/09/2004 12:26 PM
Samsung's new SPH-V5400 mobile phone sports a built-in 1-inch, 1.5-gigabyte hard disk that can store about 15 times more data than conventional handsets, Samsung said.

Tiny Hard Drive Manufacturers Turn Up
The Heat

Tiny Hard Drive Manufacturers Turn Up
The Heat 07/01/2004 10:48 AM

According to The Inquirer, Japanese companies are rapidly increasing production of their small hard drives as, unsurprisingly, the demand for tiny storage that will fit in portable electronics increases rapidly. Toshiba is planning on ramping up production of its tiny 0.85-inch hard drives to a rate of almost 200,000 a month, while Hitachi will increase its 1-inch drive production to two million units per quarter. Global hard drive markers shipped 260 million units in fiscal 2003, 80 percent of which went into servers and PCs. The remaining percentage, which goes into home electronics, are expected to grow by 50% each year -- I'm betting it will be even greater than that once the manufacturers can get enough tiny units into the channels. Two years from now there won't be a single smartphone announced without a hard drive.
Read - Toshiba to ship 200,000 a month 0.85-inch hard drives [TheInquirer]

Toshiba unveils tiny hard-disk drive

Toshiba unveils tiny hard-disk drive 12/16/2003 08:54 PM
CNET Asia Dec 16 2003 8:13PM ET

Samsung Cell Phones to Get Tiny Hard
Drive (AP)

Samsung Cell Phones to Get Tiny Hard
Drive (AP) 09/09/2004 11:17 AM
AP - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has announced the world's first mobile phone to sport a tiny hard drive. With the built-in 1-inch, 1.5-gigabyte hard disk, the SPH-V5400 could store about 15 times more data than conventional handsets — everything from digital music files and photos to video, Samsung said.

Toshiba Whips Out Tiny Hard Drive,
Smacks Apple

Toshiba Whips Out Tiny Hard Drive,
Smacks Apple 07/30/2004 06:47 PM

Toshiba has semi-announced that they will claim the throne of "world's smallest portable audio player containing a hard drive" in 2005, thanks to their 0.85 inch hard drive announced in January. The iPod mini, freshly released in Japan, currently holds the title. It's not the size that matters, Toshiba. Wait, yeah it is, sorry. The capacity of Toshiba's new player is expected to be 2GB or more.

Read - Article (Japanese) [Asahi Shimbun via Slashdot.jp]

BBC NEWS | Technology | Tiny hard drive
packs a big punch

BBC NEWS | Technology | Tiny hard drive
packs a big punch 01/10/2004 07:15 AM
Tiny hard drive packs a big punch .. BBC Technology News .. BBC

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3381997.stm
track this site | 6 links

Hottest Hard Drives

Hottest Hard Drives 03/20/2003 01:05 PM
In 20 years, the hard disk drive has progressed from an IBM PC luxury add-on to an indispensable part of any computer, and finally to a component so inexpensive it can be upgraded on impulse. What are today's hottest hard drives, and what is on the horizon for this vital technology?

Defragment All Hard Drives

Defragment All Hard Drives 09/20/2004 01:00 PM

Next-Generation Hard Drives

Next-Generation Hard Drives 11/07/2003 11:04 AM

Arg! Memory, XP, and hard drives...

Arg! Memory, XP, and hard drives... 03/06/2004 01:53 AM
Ok... Sorry for the delay in posting anything. "ultra" - my main box, has had some issues during the last...

A new handshake for mini hard drives?

A new handshake for mini hard drives? 09/09/2004 06:09 PM
Intel, Hitachi, Toshiba and others propose CE-ATA, a new interface for miniature hard drives used in consumer electronics.

FBI Picks Up Some Novelty Hard Drives

FBI Picks Up Some Novelty Hard Drives 07/23/2004 03:08 PM
With all of the security problems in Los Alamos these days, apparently secrecy is no joking matter. The Black Hole Surplus Store and Museum apparently had some hard drives behind the counter with "secret" labels on them. They're not for sale, but are really just there to generate conversation with tourists. The FBI apparently wasn't particularly thrilled with this explanation and have confiscated the hard drive which the owner of the surplus store insists was a joke. Who knows what goes through some people's minds, but does it really seem likely that someone walking out of Los Alamos with classified info is going to hand it over to the local surplus store?

FireWire Hard Drives and The Future of
the TBU

FireWire Hard Drives and The Future of
the TBU 06/12/2004 06:49 PM

I bought a FireWire hard drive enclosure the other day, and I'm awfully happy with it. It cost about $45 and I filled it with an old 40GB hard drive I had lying around. It works beautifully — plug it into a FireWire port and you get a G: drive.

It makes me wonder what'll happen to the venerable tape backup unit (TBU). I have a TBU on my server, but it's old, slow, cranky, and only holds 20GB. Furthermore, 20GB tapes are like, $30 while hard drives are running less than a dollar per gigabyte these days.

Right now, I can think of no reason why I would use my TBU for anything anymore. Am I missing something? I imagine that tapes are physically pretty durable, certainly more so than a hard drive, but is there anything else?

I'm using this portable hard drive for off-site backups. Once a week, I'll bring the drive in, copy the latest backups onto it, and take it home where it will sit on my bookshelf for a week until I bring it in again to refresh the backups.

FireWire hard drives, incidentally, are fast as lightning. I have a small RAID Tower which runs via FireWire. You'd never know it wasn't an internal SCSI drive. In fact, I installed a very CPU- and I/O-intensive server process on it once and it ran beautifully. Again, the simplicity is amazing — plug it in and you get an F: drive, end of story.

I'm so impressed with the utility of these things that I'd go so far as call them mandatory equipment for your PC. The enclosure will cost you $45. I found a 40GB Maxtor drive on Froogle for $32. I bought a FireWire card and cable on eBay last year for $15. That's $92 for 40GB of removable storage that you can throw in a fanny pack — tough to beat.

On my next PC, I'm going to physically separate the operating system from my data files. I'll keep all my data on an external FireWire unit, and only keep the OS and program files on the internal IDE unit. I'd love for my PC to be essentially disposable. If I have a problem, just pave and reload it knowing that all my data files are safe and secure a few feet away on the external unit. Perversely, I may mirror them on the internal drive just for redundancy.

For the record, I bought the Metal Gear Box from NewEgg. It was rock simple to get running — find a hard drive, physically screw it into the unit, plug it two cables, then plug it into the PC.

I'm not thrilled with look of the thing — it's all brushed aluminum and black metal grating. (Kind of makes me feel like a 40-year-old man driving around in a lowered Civic with a big wing on the back.) Additionally, when you put it down, there's no padding or rubber stops, so it kind of clanks against the desk, which makes me a little nervous.

Anyway, the theory is valid. External hard drives: good. FireWire: great. Go get one.

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External FireWire Hard Drives

External FireWire Hard Drives 10/29/2003 01:13 AM
180 Gigabyte QPro ICE 7200 RPM FireWire & USB External Hard Drive Regular price $279.99, now take $15 off with Q-Pon Code "EXTHDD"

Archos 20GB Portable FireWire Hard Drive ***PRICE DROP TO $99.99!!!*** FREE SHIPPING with Q-Pon Code "SHIPHD"

Exp. 11/03 More deals inside...

Other News: WiFi Hard Drives

Other News: WiFi Hard Drives 04/12/2004 10:04 AM
Hooking up hard drives to wireless networks may shortly become easier.

New Technology for More Spacious Hard
Drives

New Technology for More Spacious Hard
Drives 03/20/2003 01:05 PM
An old adage in the computer industry holds that you can never be too rich or have too much space on your hard drive. That may be difficult to believe now, considering that the hard drives in many personal computers sold today can now store the digital equivalent of several complete sets of encyclopedias. And leave plenty of room to spare.

Labs look beyond today's hard drives

Labs look beyond today's hard drives 07/21/2004 09:37 AM
ZDNet Jul 21 2004 2:09PM GMT

Grim times for hard drives

Grim times for hard drives 05/28/2004 06:14 AM
ZDNet UK May 28 2004 9:49AM GMT

Green Tea Good for Hard Drives

Green Tea Good for Hard Drives 04/29/2004 05:00 AM
The same tannins in green tea that cause stains to form on your mugs and teapots could save the hard-drive manufacturing industry some serious dough, says a team of researchers. By Amit Asaravala.

Hard Drives the unsung Hero

Hard Drives the unsung Hero 05/27/2004 12:28 PM

I had to smile today. Sitting on my shelf of memorabilia is a 65 meg RLL Hard-drive that I payed $465.00 for back in the mid 80's. I was the top dog on the block and all of my buddies and I marveled at how we would every fill it up. Little did I know that in 1993 I would layout $1056.00 for a 1.6 Gig drive.
I have been kicking myself in the butt every since. But luckily the days of over-priced hard-drives are long gone. The history of the Hard-Drive is an amazing one. [CNet]

New Hard Drives to Expand DVR Capacity

New Hard Drives to Expand DVR Capacity 04/28/2004 09:30 PM
San Jose Mercury News Apr 29 2004 1:42AM GMT

New Hard Drives to Expand DVR Capacity
(AP)

New Hard Drives to Expand DVR Capacity
(AP) 04/28/2004 08:10 PM
AP - The power of the U.S. cable and satellite TV industries rests on the 85 million households they count as subscribers. But the influence of Hollywood, which controls the entertainment flow, is even more formidable.

200 Gig Hard-Drives on sale at CompUSA

200 Gig Hard-Drives on sale at CompUSA 10/28/2003 11:07 PM
There are a few good things about being on travel I have a chance to spend a little extra time...

Hitachi to bring 1TB hard drives soon

Hitachi to bring 1TB hard drives soon 04/05/2005 04:32 AM

Not-So-Clean Hard Drives For Sale

Not-So-Clean Hard Drives For Sale 06/08/2004 11:40 PM
Slashdot Jun 9 2004 4:16AM GMT
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Tiny Hard Drives Need New Plug

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