WD today made the good old portable hard drive concept something totally new again.
The storage vendor announced a new family of portable external hard drives for Macs and Windows PCs, called My Passport Edge, that's ultrasleek and ultraslim.
There are minor differences between the Mac version and the Windows version of the new drive.… Read more
Generally, the term "hard-core" and external hard drives don't go together. This is because external, portable hard drives are probably the most popular and casual type of consumer storage.
But some of them can get really serious, too.
These are external storage devices that are not just fast or rugged, but also are likely to make you think before purchasing due to their cost. In other words, they are not for everyone, but only those who have the need for them and can appreciate their value.
If you are one of these people, the following five drives are totally worth the investment.… Read more
It's generally easy to upgrade your computer to a standard solid-state drive (SSD) as long as your computer supports the standard 2.5-inch hard-drive design. The MacBook Air, however, doesn't, so most people are stuck with the machine's relatively limited stock storage.
OWC announced today the OWC Mercury Aura Pro SSD, which is designed specifically for 2012 MacBook Airs. Instead of the standard design, the new SSD comes in the same design as those used inside the supported Air; it's shaped more like a stick of system memory than a hard drive.
OWC says the Mercury … Read more
Crucial announced today a bevy of solid-state drives for skinny gadgets ranging up to 256GB.
Sold under the Crucial brand name (the flash memory used in the SSDs is manufactured by parent company Micron Technology), the m4 drives deliver the performance of mainstream SSDs but in a much smaller 1.2 x 2.0 inch (3cm x 5cm) mSATA size -- the package typically used in ultrabooks and tablets.
SSDs are faster than standard spinning hard disk drives found in many laptops.
The m4 can be used as an upgrade to a device with an mSATA-compatible SSD or act as a cache to boost the performance of an existing magnetic hard disk drive. … Read more
When you think of a portable storage device, you think of something that can be plugged into a computer's port to provide extra storage space. Well, that's true for the most part, but some can offer more, such as really fast speeds, a lot of storage, a convenient backup solution, or a built-in mobile media server that works even when not plugged in.
Here are the best portable drives currently on the market and they collectively offer all the goodies mentioned above, as well as something I personally find important: sexiness. They are sorted in the order in … Read more
Despite the proliferation of solid-state drives (SSDs) with vendors, such as Samsung, OCZ, Plextor, or RunCore, regularly releasing new drives to the market, Seagate, a major storage vendor, has been for the most part missing from the party until now.
The company announced today that it and DensBits have entered a strategic agreement for development of SSDs for consumer and enterprise markets. DensBits is an Israeli-based developer of the world's first Memory Modem controller for SSDs. In SSDs, the controller is one of the most important parts since it determines the performance, life span, and reliability of the drive.… Read more
When it comes to storage, you definitely don't want to risk getting stuck with a lemon. That's because, unlike other commodities like a car or a TV, when a storage device breaks down, chances are you lose a lot more than just the drive itself. It's a painful experience to see your invaluable data vanish. Take my word for it on this.
But you likely don't want to spend too much, either, and want your storage device to be easily accessible, especially on the go since there's not much use for your data if it always has to stay at home.
Bearing that in mind, compact and portable external hard drives are arguably the most popular form of storage. They have room to hold lots of data, often more than your laptop or ultrabook can, without being big or heavy. Following is the list of the top five portable USB 3.0-based drives that are the best among their peers, offering great performance, large storage space, compact design, and sometimes even the kind of toughness that will withstand drops and submersion in water. Most importantly, you can easily find them for less than $100. Have more to spend? You can get larger capacities that cost more.
Note that these drives also work with USB 2.0 (MacBook Air owners, you're included here) and they are all bus-powered, so you don't need a separate power adapter to use them.… Read more
The time when you could only use Thunderbolt storage devices with Thunderbolt-enabled computers is about to be over.
Drobo announced today two new Thunderbolt storage drives, its first that, on top of the traditional two Thunderbolt ports, also come with a USB 3.0 port. In fact, these are among the first Thunderbolt storage devices from any vendor that also support USB connectivity. This means you can use the drives with your existing computer, be it a Windows PC or a Mac, and keep them for use with future systems that support the Thunderbolt standard.… Read more
Those days of the "I am a PC" and "I am a Mac" guys have long gone, mostly because the two have married into one, so to speak. The truth is Mac and PC are now one -- they are both personal computers anyway -- sharing the same Intel chipsets and processors. In fact, you can install Windows on an Intel-based Mac, and, if you … Read more
If CNET's sterling review of the Samsung 830 series solid-state drive isn't convincing enough, here's another incentive.
Samsung announced today that its 830 series SSDs will include a downloadable version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier PC game with a purchase of the 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB model. … Read more
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