hdd

I had a chance on Friday to chat with reps from Hitachi, who told me about some new products in conjunction with the SimpleTech acquisition earlier this year. We've reviewed SimpleTech hard drives in the past, with positive results, so we're anxious to see how these two new drives compare to their predecessors.

Up to bat first is the SimpleTOUGH portable hard drive, a tough guy that claims to be one of the most rugged drives for an excessively abusive environment. The Hitachi reps claimed the drive can withstand a 10-foot drop, more than 5 feet more than … Read more

Toshiba's newest additions to their line of external portable hard drives come in 500GB($150) and 320GB($120) capacities with an array of new color choices including green and blue, but the most notable feature is all the enhanced backup software you get in the package.

The hard drive comes with backup solutions for both Mac and Windows OS. Windows users get the benefit of NTI's BackupNow EZ software for one-touch data backups and even grants the user the ability to create a boot disc or even boot directly off the drive itself. In addition, the software also … Read more

I'm very proud to announce CNET's most recent Editors' Choice product, the Iomega eGo Portable Mac Edition. Iomega has always registered excellent marks in our throughput and cost-per-gigabyte ratings, but this particular HDD uniquely combines three different ways to connect the drive to a computer: USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800.

The drive comes in three versions: a 500GB in ruby red, a 320GB in a cobalt blue, and a 250GB in alpine white. All of the drives come formatted to work with Macs out of the box, but you can easily format the drive back … Read more

Bozeman, Montana, has decided they need everyone's social network log-ins and passwords to conduct background checks on prospective employees. So cute. They call it Face Page. Plus we talk about the iPhone lines, and go to town on the need for copyright laws. Turns out we may not need them.

Live blog: iPhone 3G S launch day http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10268140-37.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10268774-37.html

How to tether your iPhone running OS 3.0 without jailbreaking, for … Read more

Clickfree just announced its new Traveler external hard drive that uses the same file-based transfer software we reviewed in the Clickfree Portable Backup Drive back in January. The difference is that this device uses solid-state technology for faster transfers and increased durability.

Clickfree stresses that its file-based software is different from other backup solutions that only create an image of the host computer onto their drives. During this "total backup," the drive will restore operating systems and applications, but also winds up restoring viruses, malware, and corrupt files.

Clickfree's automatic backup software only restores your "irreplaceable … Read more

RipNAS announced their latest network attached storage devices this week--the Statement series--in solid-state drive and hard-disk drive formats. The RipNAS Statement is purported as the first CD ripping NAS device to come equipped with the former.

Based on the Windows Home Server OS and housed in a silver aluminum casing (designed to eliminate noise pollution), the Statement is capable of CD ripping, media streaming, and networked storage on either the 500GB SSD configuration (2 x 250GB SSDs) or the 3TB HDD configuration (2 x 1.5TB HDDs). The entire case measures 10 x 43 x 38 cm and is powered … Read more

Cruising the freeway in the 2009 Infiniti G37x Coupe, we were impressed by the level of luxury and refinement. Over the highway's sweeping turns and long straights, the G Coupe was proving to be quite the Grand Tourer, smoothing out the bumps and damping out much of the road and wind noise.

From our heated leather-trimmed seats, we were guided to our destination by Nissan/Infiniti's excellent hard drive-based navigation system, which also served up tunes from its 9.3GB MusicBox or our connected iPod.

Veering from the major traffic artery, the G37 revealed its sports car roots … Read more

Fujitsu is fairly new to the external hard drive game, but they recently hit one out of the park with the Fujitsu HandyDrive. Each hard drive that makes its way through our labs seems to get cheaper and cheaper (from a cost per gigabyte standpoint), and the HandyDrive is no different. Since Fujitsu shipped us the 400GB version for our testing, we used the current retail price of $110 to calculate a $0.27 per gigabyte cost for the end user. Compare that to the last external drive we tested, the Transcend StoreJet 25 Mobile, which came out to $0.… Read more

Correction: This post previously misstated the location of Western Digital's headquarters.

Western Digital on Monday announced it has acquired solid-state drive maker SiliconSystems for $65 million.

The purchase will provide the current market leader in 2.5-inch drives with a way into the growing SSD market. Based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., SiliconSystems was established in 2002, and makes SSD products for communications, industrial, embedded systems, medical, military, and aerospace applications. SiliconSystems' product lineup includes SSDs with a variety of interfaces, including SATA, EIDE, PC Card, USB, and CF, in 2.5-inch, 1.8-inch, and CF.

The Lake Forest, Calif.… Read more