Storage

Back in December, we were intrigued when Micron first announced the RealSSD C300, the first solid state drive to take advantage of the high-speed SATA 6 Gb/s available on some high-end PC motherboards today, and all computers tomorrow. There aren’t any notebooks that feature SATA 6 Gb/s connectors just yet, but the C300 is backwards compatible with the current standard, SATA 3 Gb/s and Micron says that it will outperform all its competitors even on the slower interface.

The company says that the C300, which uses MLC flash memory, can achieve read transfer rates of up to 355 MBps and write transfer speeds of up to 215 MBps because of its unique controller (developed by Marvell), firmware, and ONFI 2.1 NAND.  Those rates would be somewhat lower on notebooks, because their SATA 3 Gb/s controllers will max out at a lower transfer rate.

This week, Micron announced it will start selling the RealSSD C300 under its consumer brand, Crucial Memory. The Crucial RealSSD C300 will sell in 128 and 256GB capacities and both 1.8 and 2.5-inch sizes. Pricing is TBD, but a Crucial rep told us that he expects it to be on par with other 128 and 256GB drives on the market today, which would mean $350 to $400 for the 128 and $700 to $800 for the 256GB.

With the drive now coming to market, both consumers and journalists will be able to put Micron’s speed claims to the test. We caught up with Micron in Las Vegas this week and they showed us a demo where the C300 was hooked into a standard desktop and ran an automated script where it booted into Windows, opened a few large image files, and then rebooted. We were impressed with what we saw, but will have to wait for a review unit before we can run our own tests and compare the C300 to similarly-priced competitors.

Meanwhile, check out the video below to see a demonstration of the C300 in action.

SuperSpeed USB chatter has been going for seemingly an eternity, but this year’s CES is the technology’s coming out party. Today, Seagate (one of the big guns in the storage space) took the wraps off its BlackArmor PS 110, a 7,200-rpm, 500GB portable The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn Morehard drive that leverages USB 3.0 to achieve breakneck data transfer speeds.

The new Super Speed USB interface allows lightning fast file transfers at sustained rates of 100 MBps, which is three times faster than USB 2.0. What does this mean in every day use? Seagate claims that a 25GB HD movie can be transferred in just 4 minutes instead of 14 minutes.

Fortunately, you don’t need an USB 3.0 notebook to reap the benefits. You simply plug the included PC Adapter card into a notebook, connect one end of the included adapter cord to the PC card, the other end to the BlackArmor PS 110, and it’s ready to fly.

Each drive  ships with Acronis data back up, and SafetyDrill recovery software for full system back up and restore.  The BlackArmor PS110 is compatible with Windows 7 ($77.49), Vista, and XP PCs, and is covered by a lengthy 5-year warranty. It’s available now for $179.

External hard drives have proven invaluable tools for toting applications, documents, presentations, multimedia, and other files, but Iomega has upped the ante with its new v.Clone software which allows you to make a clone of your Windows system on an Iomega external The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn Morehard drive, and boot it up on any other PC .

Designed for users who shuttle between multiple systems, v.Clone  lets you work and play within a cloned version of your primary PC.  Changes made within the cloned desktop are synced when you reconnect to your primary PC,  so files and settings are always up to date. The security-minded will be happy to know that no data is left on the secondary computer.

Perhaps best of all, v.Clone  will be available for free in Iomega eGo, eGo BlackBelt, eGo Encrypt Plus, and Prestige Compact Edition portable hard drives. The software will also be made available to owners of older Iomega hard drives via download.

It’s awfully expensive to buy notebooks and netbooks for everyone on your gift list. And what if your giftees already have portable computers that they love? Some of the best gifts are accessories that help notebook users be more productive, save themselves from disaster, or just have more fun. Here are some of the best notebook accessories and peripherals by category.

LCD Monitors

When you’re on the go, you must rely on your notebook’s screen, but for the many hours you spend at your desk, you’ll appreciate a bigger screen with more workspace. For well under $200, you can add a high-quality external monitor.

• Viewsonic 22-inch LCD Screen for $149. Get this high-definition 1920 x 1080 display for less than $150. Great for watching videos, opening lots of windows side-by-side, and seeing more of your Web pages and documents. (Buy)
• Dell E2310H 23-inch LCD Screen for $169. This 23-inch screen offers a full HD 1920 x 1080 display at an incredible price. (Buy)

– More Deals: Wireless Mice, Printers, and Portable Hard Drives

When we were in Las Vegas for CES 2009, we had a chance to sit-in on a demo of the long-awaited USB 3.0. The demo didn’t showcase any products that were soon to enter retail, but it demonstrated what the new high-speed data transfer interface was capable of delivering. Nearly a year later, talk of USB 3.0 has once again surfaced, but in this instance there are real products that are set to blow away what we’ve come to expect in data transfer speeds.

On December 11, Dane-Elec, will deliver its So SuperSpeed line of external USB 3.0 drives to store shelves, which may very well make the company the first to provide users with the next-generation USB interface in a storage device. The line, consisting of both standard platter-based HDDs and SSDs, are capable of true data transfer speeds of 250MBps. The 2.5-inch HDDs will be available in 500GB ($179) and 640GB ($199) capacities, while the SSDs (rebranded  Intel M-25 drives) will be available in 80GB ($399) and 160GB ($799) capacities.

“But”, you say, “there aren’t any USB 3.0 notebooks on the market.” Not at the moment, but they’re coming very, very soon.  A source told us that we can expect at least one USB 3.0 notebook on the market in December, with more to come in early 2010. Plus, Dane-Elec will also offer USB 3.0 adapters for notebooks with ExpressCard slots, which will allow users with USB 2.0 systems to see a speed boost when using USB 3.0 drives.

The USB 3.0 revolution is almost upon us, folks. Are you excited yet?

When we reviewed Corsair’s 16GB Flash Survivor USB drive, we loved the stick’s ultra-rugged metal build that elevated it to one of the few flash drives that felt as though it could take a battering while jostling about in your notebook bag, or survive a fall from,  say,  a hotel window without shattering like so many childhood dreams. Well, Corsair has just announced a new version of the tough-as-nails drive, which is designed to withstand drops, shock, and water, but with a much bigger capacity.

Like the other Flash Survivors before it, new model is made of an  aircraft-grade aluminum casing that’s fitted with a shock-dampening collar and EPDM seal (which provides water-resistance to a depth of up to 200 meters).  But the big news here is capacity; the new Flash Survivor sports a whopping 64GB of storage. That’s enough room to store many folks’ entire music and photo collections.

Each drive also comes bundled with dog tags (hardcore!) , a USB extension cable, and a lengthy 10-year limited warranty. Amazon is currently selling the Flash Survivor for $169 (slashed from $249), which isn’t too shabby for a pocketable drive that can take whatever you toss its way.

Yesterday at the GDGT NY launch event we stopped by the SanDisk table to check out some of their new products. The new Sansa Clip+ player caught our eye but the star of the table was this little box of the SanDisk Micro M2 memory cards. There are 64 in all, which adds up to 1TB worth of memory, all in the palm of our hand.

Almost 60 years ago the first commercial computer (UNIVAC) was delivered to the United States Census Bureau. It weighed 13 metric tons, used 5,200 vacuum tubes, and measured 25 x  50 feet. The storage capacity was 1,000 words or 12,000 characters.

Today a terabyte of storage weighs just a few grams and fits in a box with the same internal volume as my lipstick holder. In another 60 years, my grandchildren will wear 100-petabyte flash drives as noserings, just you watch.

We’re digging Cloud Engines’  Pogoplug. When we reviewed it earlier this year, we deemed it worthy of a LAPTOP’s Editors’ Choice Award due to how it brought simplicity to the idea of network attached storage. Apparently, we weren’t the only company impressed by the device. Today, Seagate announced a partnership with Cloud Engines that will see the slick Pogoplug technology power the new FreeAgent DockStar network adapter.

The FreeAgent Dockstar allows users to attach their FreeAgent portable hard drives, so that they can access files from any Web-connected computer or the free Pogoplug iPhone app. Users will be able to post linked photos and video to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, and even create custom RSS feeds for sharing content. Three USB ports are available for attaching even more drives.

The Seagate FreeAgent DockStar is available now for $99.99. It comes with a year of Pogoplug service, and the option to continue using the service afterward for $29.99 per year.

Are you a professional-level photographer in need of a swift and highly durable memory card? This morning’s SanDisk announcement may be just the item for you. The storage giant has released a new line of SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash cards designed to deliver breakthrough performance and worry-free reliability.

Featuring a new SanDisk Power Core Controller, the new Extreme Pro cards (in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities) are rated to deliver killer read and write speeds of up to 90 MBps, doubling the performance of previous SanDisk CompactFlash cards.  Although the cards are designed to work with any camera or reader that supports CompactFlash, SanDisk has launched the $49.99 Extreme Pro Expresscard Adapter to take advantage of the new speed. In addition, the cards are guaranteed to operate in extreme temperatures ranging from -13 degrees Fahrenheit to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, and survive falls up to 9 feet.

The SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash cards are available now, with prices ranging from $300 to $800. Exact pricing wil be set by retailers.

Is 160GB of notebook storage too small for all of your photos, music, and HD video? How about 320GB? Still too small? If big capacity is a requirement, today’s Western Digital news of a  640GB The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn Morehard drive may be just what’s needed to cure the small storage blues.

The WD Scorpio Blue 640GB hard drive is a 2.5-inch long, 9.5mm high notebook HDD (using  twin 320GB platters) that Western Digital claims is the biggest capacity in that form factor.  It features three technologies designed to improve the notebook experience: IntelliSeek (which calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration), ShockGuard (shock resistance), and WhisperDrive (state of the art algorithms that produce a quiet drive). The HDD also consumes 30 percent less power than previous Scorpio Blue drives.

Storage-starved tech heads will be happy to know that the WD Scorption Blue 640GB HDD is now shipping, and carries a $149 MSRP.