The latest info about laptop data storage, including the announcements of new hard drives, hybrid HDDs and solid-state drives.
The Seagate Momentus XT ST750LX003 is the latest generation hybrid hard drive, combining traditional HDD platters with solid state drive storage.
The Momentus XT ST750LX003 SATA2 6Gbps drive spins at 7,200rpm and has 8GB of SLC type NAND Flash memory embedded. The faster than standard laptop HDD rotational speed and inclusion of SSD storage make the ST750LX003 a high-capacity alternative to costly Flash-only SSDs.
Toshiba has joined the 1-Terabyte laptop hard drive market with the MQ01ABD100.
Samsung and Western Digital are the first companies to offer 1TB 2.5-inch hard drives that fit in standard laptops.
Previously, if you wanted more than 750GB of storage in a laptop, you had to choose one of usually larger than average notebooks with dual HDD bays. Now it’s possible to get 1TB of capacity in a single-bay laptop, thanks to the Samsung Spinpoint M8 HN-M101MBB and WD Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT.
Hitachi has released the the Travelstar 5K750 and Travelstar 7K750 laptop hard drive families, featuring storage capacity of up to 750GB.
The new 2.5-inch HDDs have a standard 9.5mm height, a Serial ATA 3Gb/s interface, and 750GB, 640GB or 500GB of storage space. The Travelstar 5K750 has a 5,400rpm speed and 8MB of buffer memory, whereas the 7K750 spins at 7,200rpm. It has a 16MB buffer and optional self-encryption.
Seagate has announced the Momentus XT, a 2.5-inch laptop-use solid state hybrid drive which combines solid state memory with traditional hard disk.
The Momentus XT has a 7,200rpm spin speed, 4GB of solid state memory, and Seagate’s Adaptive Memory technology to deliver “world’s fastest” hard drive performance. According to the manufacturer, it boots the operating system “up to 100% faster” than standard 5,400rpm notebook HDDs and “sets new benchmarks for real-world system performance for notebooks and gaming systems”.
Samsung has announced the Spinpoint MP4 2.5-inch hard drives with 7,200rpm rotational speed and 250GB to 640GB capacity.
The Spinpoint MP4 series are highest-capacity 7200RPM hard drives available for notebooks and feature 16MB of cache and SATA 2 interface.
Western Digital (WD) had released the Scorpion Blue WD7500BPVT standard-height 2.5-inch laptop hard drive with 750GB of storage, “the industry’s highest capacity to date in this form factor”.
WD’s 750GB two-platter 9.5mm-high HDD has the SATA 3Gbps interface, 5,400rpm spin rate, and 8MB of cache. It uses Advanced Format Technology to enable such a large drive capacity.
Toshiba today announced the MK7559GSXP and MK1059GSM 2.5-inch hard drives featuring 750GB and 1GB “industry-leading storage capacities”, respectively.
The 750GB HDD has the laptop-standard 9.5-millimeter height and two platters, whereas the 1TB unit is 12.5mm high and includes three platters.
Phoenix Technologies today announced it is working with Fujitsu to enable remote disk control and disk data protection for laptops equipped with Fujitsu’s new full disk encryption (FDE) 2.5″ 7,200rpm SATA hard disk drives.
With Phoenix FailSafe technology, the notebook owner can remotely disable the Fujitsu FDE drive in the laptop, thus ensuring “failsafe” protection against data theft and personal information loss, Phoenix says.
Fujitsu Computer Products of America has announced the MHZ2 BJ, its 2.5-inch SATA hard disk drive with 7,200rpm rotational speed and up to 320GB of storage capacity.
The new high performance HDD is designed for use in laptops and slim desktop PCs.
Samsung Electronics announced this week the development of “the world’s first 500GB 2.5″ hard drive that fits in the industry’s standard 9.5mm height dimension”.
Samsung’s new Spinpoint M6 500GB consists of three 166GB platters in a standard laptop HDD form factor.
Hitachi GST today introduced the Travelstar 5K500 laptop hard drive featuring 500GB of storage space, which is the world’s highest capacity for a 2.5-inch HDD.
“The half-terabyte (500GB) Travelstar 5K500 is poised to usher in a new era of “slim” desktops, full-featured notebooks, gaming consoles and other advanced applications for consumers on-the-go,” the company’s press release says.
Samsung has released the Spinpoint M6 HM320JI 320GB 2.5-inch notebook hard drive, featuring a 5,400rpm rotational speed, Serial ATA interface, and 8GB of cache memory.
The M6 HM320JI 320GB utilizes perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology and has an optional Free-Fall Sensor that protects data from drops, as well as an optional Rotary Vibration Controller that minimizes the influence of external vibration.
SanDisk Corporation has unveiled the Vaulter Disk, a solid-state storage solution that works in conjunction with a PC’s hard drive.
A SanDisk Vaulter Disk-equipped PC is claimed to provide enhanced performance over a PC that has only a standard HDD. Both the Vaulter and a hard drive are integrated into a PC and operate simultaneously, the company says.
Seagate has launched the Momentus 5400 PSD laptop-use hybrid hard drives, featuring 256MB of embedded Flash memory for faster boot-up and better system performance.
According to InformationWeek, the 5400 PSD 2.5-inch hybrid HDD has 160GB of storage capacity and sells for $190, “which is almost a 30% premium over a traditional drive of equal storageâ€. This Seagate’s Power Savings Drive for notebooks can quicken the time it takes to boot a PC by 20 percent, and uses half as much power as a traditional hard drive reportedly.
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