Solid-state disk (SSD) drive architecture can play a big role in how fast a computer boots up and performs. But how big a role the SSDs play - and how much faster an operating system is - depends as much on the operating system as on the drive. Although none of the mainstream operating systems now in use have been optimised to work better with SSDs, some do natively work more efficiently than others, according to storage experts.
This is the 5th annual edition of this popular guide. Pageviews of this SSD Guide increased 59% in November 2008 compared to the year ago period. Incoming searches to the mouse site which included the word “SSD” were more than 2x the level of a year ago, and occurred 2x as often as the #2 search term this month - which was “drive”. You can still see the earlier editions of this SSD guide here (2006 SSD Guide, 2005 SSD Guide, 2004 SSD Guide, 2003 SSD Guide). STORAGEsearch.com is the leading publication covering the SSD market and we have regular contact with most vendors, including many in stealth mode.
Who are the top 10 most important SSD manufacturers - the companies which you absolutely have to look at if you’ve got got any new projects involving SSDs?
A decade ago there was an easy answer. “All of them!”
It wasn’t till 1999 that our online SSD directory tipped over the 10 companies mark.
Today (October 2008) there are over 86 active listed SSD oems. Another 4 or so I know in stealth mode, another 10 I’m checking out as imminent maybes and I expect the total number of SSD oems to go north of 100 in 2008. The new storage gold rush is chasing an opportunity for storage systems companies that could eventually be worth 5 to 10 billion dollars a year.
Editor:- if the flash SSD market reaches the levels of penetration predicted by many analysts - then in a handful of years nearly half of all new notebook PCs will use flash SSDs instead of hard disk drives.
What happens when those SSDs inevitably fail - and there’s no backup?
Most consumers don’t do regular backups - and most small businesses don’t either.
When hard drives fail, get submerged in water or get damaged in fires - the solution of last resort - is to call a data recovery company.
Imation has announced the launch of Apollo Pro WX external hard drive compatible with WUSB technology. The goal of wireless USB (WUSB) is to connect peripherals such as printers, external hard disk drives, sound cards, media players and even video monitors to the PC wirelessly. Wireless USB works on the UWB frequency range (Ultra Wide Band, from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz), while Bluetooth technology works on 2.4 GHz frequency, the same used by IEEE 802.11 wireless networks (Wi-Fi) and its maximum theoretical transfer rate is the same as USB 2.0: 480 Mbps (60 MB/s) if the device is within 3 meters (9.84 feet) from the PC or 110 Mbps (13.75 MB/s) if the device is within 10 meters (32.8 feet) from the PC. Apollo Pro WX will reach the market in Q4 2008 in capacities ranging from 250 GB to 1.5 TB. No word on pricing.
Lexar has just unveiled JumpDrive FireFly flash memory with 16 GB capacity. This product comes with a free 30-day trial of Dmailer V7 software, which enables users to easily backup and synchronize files, including Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Its MSRP is of USD 99. Lexar also offers JumpDrive FireFly flash memory models with 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB capacities.
Imation has announced the launch of Apollo Pro WX external hard drive compatible with WUSB technology. The goal of wireless USB (WUSB) is to connect peripherals such as printers, external hard disk drives, sound cards, media players and even video monitors to the PC wirelessly. Wireless USB works on the UWB frequency range (Ultra Wide Band, from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz), while Bluetooth technology works on 2.4 GHz frequency, the same used by IEEE 802.11 wireless networks (Wi-Fi) and its maximum theoretical transfer rate is the same as USB 2.0: 480 Mbps (60 MB/s) if the device is within 3 meters (9.84 feet) from the PC or 110 Mbps (13.75 MB/s) if the device is within 10 meters (32.8 feet) from the PC. Apollo Pro WX will reach the market in Q4 2008 in capacities ranging from 250 GB to 1.5 TB. No word on pricing.
Hewlett-Packard says it has achieved a mobile-computing milestone by getting the HP EliteBook 6930p to operate continuously for 24 hours on a single battery charge. The laptop used in the test is, however, rather different from those consumers would pick up at the store, at least for now.
From CNET story.
Introduction
Some are users who are desperate because they’ve lost their data, and others are maintenance technicians who aren’t specialized in data recovery, but all face situations when every attempt to recover their data or their clients’ data failed. Some don’t put up with the fact that they were absent-minded enough to invert the polarity when connecting the HD power cable, others keep looking at the dark screen, thinking at how could that happened: the night before the PC was turned off as usual after having worked all day long without a single crash and, when turned on in the morning, the HD is solemnly ignored during setup, the computer doesn’t boot, and the worst: no backup has been done!
Introduction
When buying a hard disk drive most users are only concerned with the drive’s capacity. Should you also care about performance? We compared the performance of nine 320 GB SATA-300 hard disk drive models from Seagate, Samsung, Western Digital and Hitachi. Is there a big performance difference among them? Is it worthwhile to pay a little bit more and get a drive with a bigger buffer? If so, which is the fastest 320 GB in the market? Check it out!
click to enlarge
Figure 1: The tested hard disk drives.