2.5-inch

Toshiba jacks up 2.5-inch hard-drive speed: Tops 10K rpm

Think 2.5-inch spinning hard disk drives are slow compared with the solid-state variety? Not always, Toshiba seems to be saying with today's announcement of drives that top 10,000rpm.

Toshiba launched four 2.5-inch HDDs, ranging up to 900GB in capacity, that boast speeds of 10,500rpm.

That's faster than the 5,400rpm and 7,200rpm 2.5-inch HDDs typically found in laptops.

The internal transfer rate for Toshiba's AL13SEB900 family of HDDs is 286 MB/s (megabytes per second), a boost of approximately 32 percent over the previous generation of drives "due to improved liner recording density," according to Toshiba.

Though slower than the fastest solid-state drives on the market, that kind of transfer rate approaches some less-expensive SSDs in speed. … Read more

WD 2TB My Passport review: The future is here

The WD My Passport, the first-ever 2TB portable drive WD introduced last week, turned out to be pretty impressive.

Despite the fact that it offers the top capacity for 2.5-inch-based drives that use the current perpendicular recording technology, the drive is also compact and light. In fact, it's more compact than the My Passport Studio that offers just half of its storage space.

Originally, it was predicted that for 2.5-inch internal drives -- those housed inside portable drives like the new My Passport -- to reach 2TB, a new recording technology would be required. WD's My … Read more

Toshiba to acquire Western Digital's 3.5-inch HDD manufacturing equipment

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Western Digital (WD) announced today a mutual and definitive agreement of property divesting between the two.

Under the agreement, Toshiba will acquire from WD manufacturing and related intellectual property for 3.5-inch hard drives (HDDs), used in desktop PCs and consumer applications, and near-line HDDs for server applications. Near-line storage is a type of data storage supporting larger capacity and with higher reliability than HDDs for desktop PC applications.

"The purchase of part of Western Digital's 3.5-inch HDD manufacturing equipment and with it the capability to produce 3.5-inch HDDs for desktop … Read more

Hitachi intros first 7,200rpm, single-platter 7mm hard drive

Hitachi GST announced today that it's now shipping the Travelstar Z7K500 hard drive. The company says this is the first low-profile (7mm) 2.5-inch hard drive that spins at 7,200rpm, supports SATA 3 (6Gbps), features 32MB of cache, and can handle shock up to 400G.

The new drive uses only one platter and offers up to 500GB, meaning it has a data density of 626 gigabits per square inch. Despite being much thinner, the Z7K500 drive supports standard power and data connectors and can replace existing 9.5mm standard 2.5-inch hard drives, as well as working in … Read more

Data backup: Top portable drives for home users (roundup)

Having up-to-date backups of your data is like insurance, we all need it and at the same time never want to have to resort to it.

Though backing up data is not required by law, the consequences of not doing it are often so huge that it's fair to call those who don't frequently back up their important data, well, reckless, irresponsible, or just simply foolish. The truth is, when you realize that the originals of your important documents or photos are gone because of a hard-drive crash or losing your laptop, being called names is the least of your worries.

Now there's an easy fix. Here's a list of our top portable hard drives that make backing up data a no-brainer. Take a look and get yourself one if you don't already have a backup solution in place. … Read more

HP Portable Hard Drive review: Best when stationary

The HP Portable Hard Drive, while indeed quite portable, is a mild oxymoron: it wants to remain plugged in all the time.

And that's not because it's heavy or bulky--it's not--but because its built-in SimpleSave backup software is designed to automatically make backups only when the connected computer has been idle for 5 minutes or so. In other words, the drive works best when you plug it in, run the backup software, and forget about it. Now that seems more suitable for a bulky desktop external hard drive than for a compact device that's designed to … Read more

Toshiba announces 1TB 2.5-inch standard internal hard drive

Following Western Digital, Toshiba announced today that it's now shipping its first 1TB standard 2.5-inch, 9mm-thick internal hard drive for laptops, the MQ01ABD series.

This is the company's first 2.5-in internal hard drive that's based on the 500GB-per-platter technology that offers the areal density of 744Gb per square inch.

Previously, most high-capacity 2.5-inch internal hard drives came in the new 12.5mm thickness standard and therefore were not compatible with most laptops and other applications.

The new drive comes in capacities from 250GB to 1TB, features SATA 2 (3Gbps), and spins at 5,400rpm. … Read more

WD ships first 1TB standard notebook internal drive

Western Digital announced today that it is now shipping the WD Scorpio Blue 1TB, its first 1TB internal 2.5-inch hard drive for laptops that has the same 9.5mm thickness as drives of smaller capacities.

While 1TB is not the largest capacity on the market for a drive of the 2.5-inch design, most other current 1TB or larger drives, including the previous version 1TB of the Scorpio Blue, come in the 12.5mm thickness standard and therefore are not compatible with most existing laptops.

WD says that the new WD Scorpio Blue 1TB is designed for mainstream notebook computers and has an areal density of 500GB per platter, making it possible to keep the dual-platter drive in the standard-thickness design. For the first time, laptop computers will be able to offer 1TB of storage without having to resort to external solutions.

According to WD, the WD Scorpio Blue features low power consumption and cool and quiet operation, and is resistant to shocks of up to 400Gs. The drive itself spins at just 5,200rpm, slower than the typical 5,400rpm. … Read more

Seagate Momentus Thin powers first HDD-based tablets

Because of the high prices of solid-state drives, most tablets have limited storage. To keep the cost reasonable, manufacturers have to opt for offering low-capacity units.

And the main reason why tablets don't use hard-disk drives (HDDs) is the physical size: HDDs are generally not compact enough for the portability of a tablet computer. That is, unless, that HDD is Seagate Technology's Momentus Thin.

The company announced today that this hard drive, which is the world's first 2.5-inch hard drive with a 7mm profile, is now also the internal storage unit for the first HDD-based handheld tablets in the world, the 8- and 10-inch Archos G9 tablets. The new tablets, unveiled today, are among the first low-cost high-capacity tablets on the market.… Read more

OCZ Vertex 3 SSD review: Fast is in

If you can't decide whether to get the Samsung 470 solid-state drive because it's so expensive, there's now another one that's even more tempting--the Vertex 3 from OCZ.

At around $500 for 240GB, the OCZ SSD isn't any cheaper, but it is much faster than the Samsung 470 and supports the new SATA 6Gbps standard (SATA 3). Most existing computers, however, support the popular SATA 3Gbps (SATA 2), which has data cap speeds of close to 300MBps.

SATA 3, available in computers powered by Intel's new Sandy Bridge chipset, on the other hand, offers twice that speed. And the Vertex 3 delivered in our testing, emerging as one of the fastest internal drives on the market.

Sharing the same design as a standard 9.5-millimeter, 2.5-inch internal hard drive, the Vertex 3 also includes a drive bay converter that helps it take the place of any 3.5-inch hard drive. This means it will work in any case where a traditional SATA hard drive, be it a 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch, would be used.

The OCZ Vertex 3 is also available in 120GB and 480GB capacities. The former costs around $250, and the latter is outrageously priced at more than $1,800.

To see if the drive is worth the investment, check out CNET's full review.… Read more