Toshiba HDs with Wipe Technology

Data security is always on the minds of corporate America, especially when it comes to top secret trade information. Encryption not good enough for you? Let me introduce you to the new line of Toshiba hard drives. A new quick wipe technology built in to Toshiba Self Encrypting Drive (SED).

“Wipe is a technology that can automatically invalidate an HDD security key when its power supply is turned off, instantly making all data in the drive indecipherable.”

Meaning? The data is scrambled into pieces using an algorithm. The algorithm is locked in a box. The box needs a key to open. If the security senses a breach, the key is destroyed. No key = no box = no algorithm = no data. That’s taking security for the regular joe to a whole new level. Now just be sure to remember your login password.

Not enough storage

If you are a data whore you probably already own a NAS where you store all of your home made porn. Well this begs the question what do you do if you have a lot of porn? 2 TB NAS not good enough. 8 TB still not good enough. Heck why not build your own 16 TB NAS from scratch? All you need is some handy welding tools, 8 x 2 TB WD hard drives, ATOM N270 processor and board, and some free time to watch the video. Performance times should look something like 88MB/sec (write) and 266MB/sec (read) rivaling that of most current top end SSD’s. Enjoy!

Perhaps the DIY is not for you. Well meet the new lineup of Seagate’s GoFlex external hard drives. Basically the idea behind this is they are flexible (hence the name). Got a drive with a USB 2.0 connection and have a computer with USB 3.0? No need to buy a new drive with these drives. Simply buy the USB 3.0 adapter/cable and voila, that Seagate GoFlex magically works with whatever connection you require. eSata, Firewire, tv connection, wifi, whatever you need. Expect the other hard drive manufacturers to follow suit.

Seagate 3 TB hard drives will require new motherboards. Should be coming out later this year so hold off on buying those 1.5 TB and 2 TB drives if you can.

Movies on hard drives?

Yes, yes, I know you store you downloaded movies on your external hard drive but did you know that you can now buy them with movies already on them? Seagate has started offering pre-loaded movies on their FreeAgent Go lineup of portable hard drives. No word on how effective the anti piracy method will work but for the law abiding citizens this is a new way to get your movies. First one’s free, the rest will vary between $10 – 15 for an “unlock” code. OR you can just free up the remaining 20GB of storage by deleting the extra folder. I’ll stick with buying my illegal bootlegs. 7 for $20! You just can’t beat that price.

SSD News

Looks like Seagate is pressing full steam ahead with PCI-e SSD devices for the enterprise market. Teaming up with LSI to produce really fast hard drives. Expect them to be expensive. (link)

Got an old laptop that uses 1.8″ form factor hard drives? Well there’s still some love for you in the SSD market. Active Media Products has a 128GB SSD (SaberTooth ZX) just waiting for you over at Amazon. $380 gets that old laptop up and running really fast again. (link)

Now There’s a Good reason to buy the WD Elite

Let’s face it, who needs extra connections? Blah. The electronic display on new WD external elite models are reason enough to spend the extra money on these drives. Other than the flashy “elite” name there are some useful options with it. The label helps distinguish which drive contain what data, plus gives you a rough estimate of how space is available. Things that are the same: shape, automatic backup software, hardware based encryption, warranty, and Western Digital’s green technology.

USB 2.0? Come on already. Hello? USB 3.0? Heck even eSATA would be appreciated. If I’m paying a premium for the brand name it should have firewire. FYI Mac users will need to reformat the drive to work optimally with their hardware. FAT32 just doesn’t cut it. A nice aluminum or metal casing would look fantastic, albeit more expensive, would probably do wonders for the failure rate. Plastic is not great when it comes to heat dissipation.

Hmm, I wonder how much a label machine costs? I’m always mixing up my music and porn drives…