Western Digital Corp. today announced a new family of hard drives for audio and video recording products, one of today's fastest growing digital storage markets. Drawing on its expertise as a leading supplier to major consumer electronics and surveillance manufacturers worldwide, WD has designed its new 3.5-inch WD AV hard drives with technologies that provide the increased reliability, cooler and quieter operation and low power consumption required for these demanding environments. The WD AV drives in capacities ranging from 80 GB to 500 GB are available through the company's distribution network.

Addonics Technologies has announced a family of CF Hard Drive Adapters, which allow users to replace 2.5-inch IDE/SATA hard drives with one or two less power-hungry compact flash(CF) cards. The low power and shock resistant CF media can be used on any desktop PC or notebook. Once installed, the CF appears as an ordinary hard drive to the system BIOS and operating system and can also be configured as a boot device. No special device drivers are required. The adapters are compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris Operating Systems. The primary products in the Addonics CF adapter family include the IDE/CF Hard Drive Adapter and the SATA/CF Hard Drive Adapter. The IDE version comes with choice of single slot($24.99 MSRP) or dual slots($29.99 MSRP) to accommodate up to two CFs. The SATA version has a single CF slot and MSRP price of $35.99. The products will be available in April directly from Addonics.

Anyone hoping to plug in a 120GB hard drive into their Xbox is going to have to pay a figurative pretty penny for the privilege. To replace your 20GB Xbox360 hard drive with a 120GB version will cost the end user roughly $180 USD. Most people would argue that this is an absolutely ridiculous price, considering you can get a small enclosed external hard drive with the same capacity for less than $100 USD ($120 USD when it's not on sale). Microsoft said in a podcast exactly why they are making a 120GB hard drive a $180 attachment. Microsoft claims that everything in their hard drive is designed specifically for the Xbox 360. This means that you don't have to configure anything when you install this new hard drive, it's just plug-and-play. Microsoft has also put their Xbox360 hard drives through rigorous tests several times, a claim upon which other manufacturers aren't "able to deliver" according to Microsoft.

The DVD+RW Alliance industry group announced the release of the faster 12x/16x Double Layer DVD+R recording specifications on April 2nd. This new v1.2 standard covers burning speeds of up to 16x (around 21MB/s) which results in a writing time of only 9 minutes for a 8.5GB disc. It will take some time for the usual suspects like Plextor, Pioneer or LiteOn to come up with compatible drives. And let's not forget the media manufacturers who also need their time to improve their recordable discs.

Samsung Electronics, today announced its new SpinPoint S166 Series of ultra silent and high-speed hard disk drives. The new SpinPoint S Series of hard drives offer upgraded versions of Samsung's proprietary SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technologies to accelerate operational speed while reducing noise. The new drives are fifteen percent quieter than other competing 80GB and 160GB models currently in the market. The S166 Series has a spin speed of 7,200rpm and provides an 8MB buffer. The Series features the SATA 3.0Gbps interface and includes Native Command Queuing (NCQ). The drives are also available with a PATA interface for customers who require this application. The 3.5" SpinPoint S166 hard drives are currently shipping in 80GB and 160GB capacities and will be available worldwide in April. Pricing and market availability information will be provided on a regional basis.

This week Lite-On IT Corporation and Royal Philips Electronics announced that the joint venture between the two companies will officially take shape on May 1 of this year. The joint venture between the two companies will focus on the manufacturing and marketing of optical storage drives. Under the new agreement between Lite-On and Philips, the new venture will be called Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions (PLDS). The European Commission has fully approved of the new venture as of April 2.

PLDS will be effective in Europe from 1st of May 2007. Lite-On IT BV, the European head office of Lite-On IT Corporation, will continue to provide the same service to its customers under the new flag of PLDS. The company will handle sales, marketing, service, finance and logistics of Optical Disc Drives (ODD). PLDS will continue to sell ODD under the brand names Lite-On and HP

Some people are worried that the superior technology in flash-based solid-state-drives (SSD's) might make a serious dent in the hard disk drive (HDD) market. However, according to market analysis firm TrendFocus, the hard drive industry is actually looking at a projected growth. Thanks to perpendicular recording technology, which reduces the cost to shove more data on a disk, the hard drive market is expected to grow an impressive $33 billion USD. The enormous growth projection is also due to the growing IT markets in India and China.

Iomega's new Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive, offers 2TB of space powered by four hot-swappable SATA hard drives with hardware-based RAID security features, giving users a cost-effective but powerful storage solution for the large data and image files created in today's business environment. The new Iomega Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive is Windows and Mac compatible, including the new Windows Vista operating system. The Power Pro has versatile performance with a choice of computer connections: FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0. RAID security options on the Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive include RAID 0/0+1/5 and RAID 5+ configurations. The Power Pro's four 500GB SATA drives are arrayed in a stylish tower, with each drive secured in a bay that can be locked. For ease-of-use and maintenance, the new Iomega Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive has an LCD panel that displays the current status for RAID level and available storage capacity, as well as fan and temperature condition. The Iomega Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive is expected to be available worldwide on April 10 for $1,699.95.

Seagate Ships FreeAgent Family of Data Movers, Growing Beyond Traditional Backup and Storage

FreeAgent Family of Data Movers Combines a Sophisticated Design with Easy-to-Use Lifestyle Tools for Anywhere, Anytime Access of Digital Content

FreeAgent Pro data movers allow consumers to automatically synchronize their content anytime, anywhere and allow access to Seagate Internet Drive, an online service that provides a "24/7 ATM" to post, access and share files from anywhere using the Web. The FreeAgent Pro comes in 320GB, 500GB, and 750GB capacities.

FreeAgent Go data movers plug into any computer's USB 2.0 port for mobile access to your computing environment - including Web favorites, passwords and settings, IM, email, contacts and digital files and is available in 80GB, 120GB, 160GB capacities.

FreeAgent Desktop data movers provide simple add-on storage for people to gather and access their content in one place. The FreeAgent Desktop data movers are available in 250GB, 320GB, and 500GB capacities.

Plextor unveiled the first space-saving Slim line optical drive solution for desktop PCs. The compact 'dual-bay' Plextor PX-DB600 enables two optical slim line drives to be positioned into the space of just one 5.25" drive bay - making it ideal for lifestyle chassis and small form factor Media Center PCs. Developed from their extensive experience in laptop opticals, the dual-layer multi-format (DVD+/-R and DVD-RAM) Plextor PX-608AL and the dual bay PX-DB600 (combined as the PX-DB608AL) enables greater flexibility and convenience for 'small footprint' PC-owners. For example, users can watch a DVD movie while burning other media to disc, and copy discs directly without saving to the hard disk first. The PX-DB608AL has the following writing speeds: DVD±R 8x, DVD±R DL 4x, DVD+RW 8x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD-RAM 5x, CD-R/RW 24x. It reads DVDs at 8x and CDs at 24x. The Plextor PX-DB608AL solution will be available from April 2007 at Plextor's network of dealers. It is covered by Plextor's Fast Warranty Service (2-year warranty in the EU, Norway and Switzerland (Collect & Return); other countries 1-year carry-in).

Adaptec, Inc., a global leader in storage solutions, today launched the most comprehensive family of Unified Serial RAID controllers for the PCI Express (PCIe) interface. The new family consists of five different products and includes 4- and 8-port low-profile models, as well as the industry's only 12- and 16-port designs. Ideal for bandwidth-intensive applications including media servers, email databases, and application servers, these Adaptec Unified Serial RAID controllers deliver enhanced I/O performance, expanded scalability and high throughput.

Dell this week announced that it will be the first manufacturer in the industry to start shipping computers with the first consumer 1 terabyte (TB) hard drive. Using the Deskstar 7K1000 drive from Hitachi, Dell will begin including the new drives in both its own line of XPS gaming systems and under the Alienware brand. Alienware Aurora and Area 51 systems will be receiving the new 1TB drives first. According to official Hitachi specifications, the new drive is a Serial ATA 3Gbps model with a 7200 RPM spindle rate and 32MB data buffer. Read time comes in at 8.5ms and write times at 9.2ms. Along with the new 1TB drive, Dell is launching a service called StudioDell, which the company calls a "video time capsule". StudioDell will allow subscribers to upload videos, which will be stored at Dell headquarters for 50 years, so that later generations may view them. Dell even indicated that the videos will be stored on the new 1TB drives from Hitachi.

Tokyo, March 14, 2007 - Fujitsu Limited today announced the development of the MHW2040AC model 2.5'' hard disk drive (HDD) for use in automotive and various equipment that must operate in harsh environments, ranging from cold climate regions to deserts. The new model will be available on global basis at the end of March, 2007.

After Intel, Samsung, Seagate and Sandisk there is a new competitor in the Solid State Disk Business: Super Talent. In April they will start selling 1.8" (up to 32GB), 2.5" (up to 64GB) and even 3.5" models (max. 128GB). The prices are still not known but all versions will have a SATA interface.

MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 13, 2007 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today broadened its solid state drive (SSD) product line for the portable computer market with the introduction of a 32-gigabyte (GB)1, 2.5-inch Serial ATA (SATA) interface model, compatible with most mainstream notebook designs. Coming just two months after SanDisk introduced a 1.8-inch SSD for ultraportable notebooks, the 2.5-inch SSD is now available to PC manufacturers as a drop-in replacement for hard disk drives.

Although Blu-ray and HD DVD look set to battle it out for high definition sales, DVD still has some life left in it as New Media Enterprises (NME) has developed a disk capable of holding 20GB of data. This new version of DVD continues to use red lasers to read data, and is known as Versatile Multilayer Disk (VMD), with 5GB of data being stored on each layer. It is exactly the same thickness as DVD, but by using a "modified 2P process" NME has managed to produce disks with more than two layers on a single side, with production costs comparable to standard DVDs. Although the only VMDs at the moment are 4 layer, NME is already planning versions as large as 48GB, and believes the technology will be capable of reaching the 200GB barrier. NME has already managed to sign deals in 12 regions around the globe, and is planning to give consumers a third (less expensive) option in the HD market.

Seagate announced that it has begun shipping its Momentus 7200.2 2.5" hard drive with a 3 GB/s SATA interface. The Momentus 7200.2 with a platter rotation speed of 7200 rpm and perpendicular recording technology has been shipping for some time with a 1.5 GB/s SATA port and now promises twice the available bandwidth. The capacity remains at a maximum of 160GB; 80GB, 100GB and 120GB versions are available as well.

Samsung has started shipping hybrid hard drives with 128 or 256MB flash memory to OEMs. The drive is available in 80, 120 or 160GB with 5400RPM and SATA interface. It should be available to retail shortly. These drives will become mandatory for Vista certification in June 2007, so expect all the major companies to feature such hard drives in their notebooks soon.

Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of SATA technology, today announced the availability of the Serial ATA Revision 2.6 specification. This updated specification combines the previously published SATA Revision 2.5 material with new feature definitions and enhancements that will enable developers to integrate the technology into new applications.

Tokyo, March 6, 2007 - Fujitsu Limited today announced the development of the new MHW2 BJ series of world's first 7,200 rpm 2.5" hard disk drives (HDDs) with a serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s interface. Featuring the world's highest storage capacity of 160 GB for a 7,200 rpm 2.5" HDD, the new series is targeted primarily at high-performance notebook PCs. The new series will be available on global basis at the end of May, 2007.In addition to achieving the world's leading storage capacity, MHW2160BJ is capable of data transmission speeds at up to 300 MB/s, the fastest rate in the industry. The series also features best-in-class acoustic noise level of 2.5 bels at idle, and low-power consumption, operating at 2.3 watts or less when reading or writing data.

As the use of notebook PCs becomes even more popular, there is demand for high reliability notebook PC HDDs that offer high-speed and high-capacity performance on par with those used in desktops. The MHW2 BJ series meets this demand with a speed of 7,200 rpm, the highest of any serial ATA 2.5" HDD. These HDDs boast the high quality Fujitsu customers come to expect, and they can be easily incorporated into high-performance notebook PCs and flat panel desktop PCs, both of which are expected to gain popularity. They are also RoHS compliant.

A group of researchers at Keio University in Japan has developed a new technology which uses bacterial DNA as a medium for long-term data storage. Although it's not incredible in terms of data capacity, the technology works by creating artificial DNA carrying information, which is then inserted into the bacterial genome sequence. After this, the DNA will multiply, reproducing the data. This can therefore act as a long-term method of storage because the DNA will be passed down from generation to generation - possibly for thousands of years (current storage methods will only last a few centuries). So far the researchers have only managed to encode "e= mc2 1905!", but there is potential for the future.

"Get rich, or die trying" - this time, there is no risk involved. The Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center, Alabama, in co-operation with the FBI, is looking for a lost hard drive, that went missing some time this week. The reward is set at a hefty $25 000 - the equation information = money literally applies in this case. The HDD was used as a backup disk for patients' information, and apparently, there were at least 500 000 medical records on the device. The reward is also being offered for the identification of anyone responsible for the loss of the Iomega external hard drive.

Anyone with information is asked to call the VA Medical Center at 933-8101, ext. 4401; the FBI at 326-6166; the VA OIG hot line at 1-800-488-8244; or the VA Medical Center Police at 933-8101, ext. 6444.

Traxdata has joined the Blu-ray side of the HD-DVD vs Blu-ray war. And what better way to do it than by introducing a rewritable Blu-ray disk? The disk can hold 25GB of data, and can play 1080p HD at an impressive bitrate of 40Mb/s. It also features a hard-coating technology that should make it more resistant to things like fingernails that tend to scratch disks. It can be re-wrote at speeds of 2x.

Expanding its lineup of consumer-friendly, easy-to-use external hard drives that has made it the leading consumer external storage brand worldwide, Western Digital Corp. today introduced the My Book World Edition family of shared storage appliances. This new family of shared storage appliances allows consumers and home office workers to securely access their digital content, such as photos, home videos and documents, and share it with family and friends from anywhere in the world as if that content were stored local to the user. The terabyte (TB) My Book World Edition II model is equipped with a dual-drive configuration and RAID capability.

One common argument in the world of computing is that high temperatures make hard drives more likely to fail, and the same is said for high usage levels. However, when conducting internal research, search giant Google suggests that this is only true for hard drives in their first months of operation or once they are over five years old. According to Google, there are so many other variables that the biggest factor in the lifetime of hard drives is actually the model itself rather than the conditions. In fact, Google saw a trend suggesting that drives are more likely to fail at lower temperatures or extremely high temperatures, and generally speaking, hard drives failed less as temperature increased (until these extremes were reached). As for high usage, the research showed that hard drives only seem to be affected by high usage in the first months or after it is five years old, and other than that the rate of failure was the same as drives in low-usage environments.