Seagate Powers Next Generation Of Computing With Three New Hard Drives, Including World's First 1.5-Terabyte Desktop PC And Half-Terabyte Notebook PC Hard Drives

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.-July 10, 2008-Seagate (NYSE:STX) today unveiled the industry’s first 1.5-terabyte desktop and half-terabyte notebook hard drives to meet explosive worldwide demand for digital-content storage in home and business environments.

The debut of the Barracuda® 7200.11 1.5TB hard drive, the eleventh generation of Seagate’s flagship drive for desktop PCs, marks the single largest capacity hard drive jump in the more than half-century history of hard drives – a half-terabyte increase from the previous highest capacity of 1TB, thanks to the capacity-boosting power of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology.

The Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive combines proven PMR technology, components and expert manufacturing to provide 1.5TB of reliable storage for mainstream desktop computers, workstations, desktop RAID, gaming and high-end PCs, and USB/FireWire/eSATA external storage.

Seagate’s new 2.5-inch half-terabyte 5400- and 7200-rpm drives – Momentus® 5400.6 and Momentus 7200.4 – deliver the best combination of capacity, mobility and durability for mainstream and high-performance notebook computers, external storage solutions, PCs and industrial applications requiring small form factor.

Highlighting the global growth of digital content, Seagate expects to ship its two billionth hard drive within the next five years. Earlier this year Seagate shipped its one billionth hard drive since the company’s inception nearly 30 years ago.

“Organizations and consumers of all kinds worldwide continue to create, share and consume digital content at levels never before seen, giving rise to new markets, new applications and demand for desktop and notebook computers with unprecedented storage capacity, performance and reliability,” said Michael Wingert, Seagate executive vice president and general manager, Personal Compute Business. “Seagate is committed to powering the next generation of computing today with the planet’s fastest, highest-capacity and most reliable storage solutions.”

Momentus 5400.6 and Momentus 7200.4 hard drives are the fourth generation of Seagate’s laptop family to use PMR. The Momentus 5400.6, a 5400-rpm drive, combines a powerful Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface and capacities ranging from 120GB to 500GB with an 8MB cache.

The Momentus 7200.4 hard drive, with its 7200-rpm spin speed and a Serial ATA 3GB/second interface, delivers true desktop performance. The power-efficient 7200-rpm drive maximizes battery life and comes in capacities ranging from 250GB to 500GB with a 16MB cache.

Both Momentus drives are built tough enough to withstand up to 1,000 Gs of non-operating shock and 350 Gs of operating shock to protect drive data, making the drives ideal for systems that are subject to rough handling or high levels of vibration. For added robustness in mobile environments, the Momentus 5400.6 and 7200.4 are offered with G-Force Protection, a free-fall sensor technology that helps prevent drive damage and data loss upon impact if a laptop PC is dropped. The sensor works by detecting any changes in acceleration equal to the force of gravity and parks the heads off the disc to prevent contact with the platter in a free fall of as little as 8 inches and within 3/10ths of a second.

Seagate’s new Momentus drives are lean on power consumption, allowing notebook users to work longer between battery charges, and are virtually inaudible thanks to Seagate’s innovative SoftSonic™ fluid-dynamic bearing motors and QuietStep™ ramp load technology.

The Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive combines the capacity and speed required for today’s most demanding desktop PC applications. The drive packs 1.5TB on just four platters and its fast Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface delivers an industry-leading sustained data rate of up to 120MB/second for fast boot, application startup and file access. The 3.5-inch drive is also offered in capacities of 1TB, 750GB, 640GB, 500GB, 320GB and 160GB with cache options of 32MB and 16MB.

All Momentus and Barracuda drives are backed by Seagate’s leading five-year warranty. You can find photos of these three new drives, and other Seagate products, at: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/news_room/photos/

Availability
Shipments of the Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB are set to begin August 2008. Momentus 5400.6 and 7200.4 hard drives are to begin shipping in Q4 calendar 2008.

Iomega Makes the Move From Gigabytes To A New One Terabyte "Super eGo" External Hard Drive # # # A Big Beauty in Three Striking Colors Arrives on the Desktop: The New eGo 1TB Desktop Hard Drive

SAN DIEGO, May 29, 2008 - Iomega Corporation (NYSE: IOM), a global leader in data protection and security, today announced that stylish data security has reached the 1TB* plateau with the worldwide introduction of the Iomega® eGo™ 1TB Desktop Hard Drive.

This new single-drive HDD "Super eGo" is now available worldwide in ruby red, midnight blue, and jet black. Its design is based on the popular Iomega® eGo™ Portable Hard Drive, one of Iomega's best-selling line of hard drives. The eGo Portable is currently available in 160GB, 250GB and 320GB capacities, and in several different colors, including new camouflage and leather-wrapped models. The new eGo Desktop model houses a 1TB, 3.5-inch hard drive with USB 2.0 connectivity that holds up to 4,000,000 photos, over 18,500 hours of music or 1,500 hours of video.**

"By applying the award-winning style of the eGo design to a desktop hard drive, Iomega is giving users a one-terabyte Super eGo that's all about form and function, a beautiful and pleasing design for even the most data-intensive applications," said Peter Wharton, vice president marketing, Iomega Corporation. "Today's computer users want more style, capacity, and data security out of their computer hardware; the colorful, dependable and colossal one terabyte eGo Desktop Hard Drive delivers on all counts."

The new 1TB eGo Desktop Hard Drive is a complete storage solution out of the box, including a license for EMC® Retrospect HD software (PC-only download) for automatic backups, scheduled backups, or on-demand backups.

Compatibility
The Iomega® eGo™ Desktop Hard Drive is compatible with Mac OS X 10.1 or higher and with Microsoft® Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP, and Windows Vista™. EMC® Retrospect HD backup software is available for free download (PC only).

Price and Availability
The Iomega® eGo™ Desktop Hard Drive, USB 2.0, 1TB is now available worldwide for $269.95 (pricing is U.S. suggested retail) from online retailers, VARs, resellers and select retailers, as well as at www.iomega.com.

Other features include support for DLNA, NFS and SMB multimedia sharing and a 1TB single SATA hard drive on the TS-109 (2TB with an external eSATA or USB drive) or 2TB for the TS-209. Unfortunately, No pricing or release date information has been announced.

From the press release:

QNAP Announces Next Generation 500MHz CPU+256MB DDRII TS-109 Pro/TS-209 Pro II Turbo NAS Series

Taipei, Taiwan, April 2008 - The leading network-attached storage (NAS) provider QNAP Systems, Inc. today unveils the next generation Linux-embedded one-bay and two-bay NAS: TS-109 Pro II and TS-209 Pro II for power users, SOHO, and business users. The TS-109 Pro II and TS-209 Pro II series adopts high performance Marvell 500MHz CPU and 256MB DDRII large memory, which is a double of the memory size of the previous generation (TS-109/209 series) and becomes the best hardware specifications in the present SOHO NAS market. The Turbo NAS maintains superior system performance even if there are multiple accesses to various network services of the server concurrently. The new models are equipped with enhanced software functions, including the new BitTorrent download engine, built-in Joomla! CMS 1.5.1 for ease of PHP/MySQL-based web server hosting and upgraded TwonkyMedia version 4.4.4 for DLNA compliant media playing. Other professional features such as HDD S.M.A.R.T., complete log system, schedule backup from NAS to external storage device, etc. are also available. TS-109 Pro II and TS-209 Pro II series is the ideal choice of high performance and energy-saving NAS for modern business and home users.

Upgraded BT engine for high-speed download
Besides the outstanding hardware specifications, the BitTorrent download performance of TS-109 Pro II and TS-209 Pro II series is largely enhanced. The high-speed DHT mode and TCP/UDP tracker protocols are supported to overcome the drawbacks of slow download of general embedded systems. You can now enjoy the level of P2P download speed as PC-based BT download. The optional firmware with encrypted BT is also provided on QNAP website for users who are suffered from traffic shaping by ISP to increase the download speed! QNAP also provides the remote management software-QGet to allow you to manage the download tasks of multiple NAS servers remotely over the local network or the Internet. According to Mr. Laurent Cheng, Product Manager from QNAP, "Most power users are used to using PC for BT download. However, PC-based BT download is energy-consuming and the fan is always noisy. As the performance of embedded system improves and evolves, we strongly believe that QNAP's energy-saving Linux embedded NAS will become an alternative solution to replace PC as a download server."

Supports DLNA, NFS, SMB multimedia sharing to set up the home multimedia centre
QNAP NAS is the NAS device with the highest compatibility with tens of different DLNA media players, Sony PS3, and Microsoft Xbox360 gaming consoles. With the upgraded TwonkyMedia version 4.4.4, the popular DivX video can be streamed to Sony PS3 from NAS. Users can enjoy more of the music, photos, and video sharing function in the home network. Moreover, the Turbo NAS Pro series works well with NFS supported High-Definition (HD) DMA for HD video streaming. They can also be connected to XBMC (modded from Xbox gaming console) via SMB for media playing. The high compatibility, energy-saving and reliable features have made QNAP NAS the first choice for setting up the digital home multimedia centre.

Feature-rich NAS for modern business
The advanced functions which are only available in enterprise-level NAS models are now supported in QNAP Turbo NAS series. The HDD S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is supported for users to monitor the status of hard disk drive and check the potential problems. The comprehensive log system allows administrator to track the file-level connection logs and the status of all online users. The Turbo NAS provides numerous built-in functions which can be easily managed via the web interface, e.g. network storage, file server, encrypted FTP server, encrypted remote replication, printer server, etc. The intelligent backup software NetBak Replicator is also offered for users to back up data from multiple Windows PCs to the NAS. Also, Windows AD authentication is supported for efficient user account management and reduced maintenance cost.

About QNAP TS-109 and TS-209 Turbo NAS
QNAP TS-109 series supports up to 1TB single SATA hard drive. The total storage capacity can be expanded to 2TB with an external eSATA or USB drive. With the unique fanless design and aluminum alloy case, the noiseless TS-109 is suitable for operation in digital home environment. Moreover, the power consumption rate of TS-109 is less than 14.4W under normal operation. This energy-saving design enables the server to run 24x7 non stop. TS-109 series supports 12-in-1 complete functions and high transfer performance. TS-109 Pro was honored the "The Best NAS Box" from MAXIMUMPC (US), "Lord of NAS" from Hexus (UK), and "Golden Bear Award" from Bjorn3D (US) etc.

QNAP TS-209 series is the only 2-bay, RAID 1, hot-swappable NAS model in the current SOHO NAS market. With 12-in-1 functions, the maximum storage capacity supported is 2TB. TS-209 is a perfect large-storage and high security solution for home, SOHO, and SMB users. TS-209 Pro was honored "Gold Medal Award" from ComputerGEIL.dk (Denmark), Golden Award from InfoMods (France), and "Product of the Year 2007" from Hardware-TEST.dk (Denmark) etc.

PlayStation 3 owners who want to shove a bunch of DivX/XviD movies onto a server to stream to their consoles for HD movie action will be thrilled. Less thrilling is the price: $699 in May. Those features aren't cheap, nor are the smaller laptop drives they use to power it. Then again, for about $699 you could also get a Windows Home Server, which is quite full-featured but isn't nearly as compact. On the third hand, we're not sure why you would need a NAS to be all that compact unless you were living in a tiny apartment or wanted to sneak it through customs. [Buffalo]

Seoul, Korea, January 3, 2007 - Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, announced today its new F1 RAID Class 3.5" SATA hard drive featuring 1TB of capacity specifically designed and manufactured for enterprise storage and surveillance applications. Offering the world's highest recording density using only three platters and running at 7,200rpm, the F1R drive is designed for demanding applications such as database, email servers, web servers, super computing, software development, data warehousing, surveillance, call center and nearline/backup storage systems. "Demand for storage capacity continues to grow at an annual rate of nearly 60 percent and high capacity disk drives are increasingly being deployed in data centers to meet this demand." according to John Rydning, IDC's research manager for hard disk drives. "Samsung's new F1R with 1TB of capacity on three platters offers enterprise customers an attractive combination of capacity and features for this growing segment." Samsung's new Spinpoint F1R is made to meet the industry's highest quality standards, providing a mean time between failure (MTBF) of up to 1.2 million hours. The new F1R also offers enterprise class features such as command completion time limit, and vibration tolerance with RV controller (RVC). It features a 16 or 32MB cache, a Serial ATA 3.0Gbps interface, a 175MB/s maximum media transfer rate, and NCQ for random I/O performance. Samsung leads the industry with its implementation of perpendicular recording and three platter 1TB design. The new Spinpoint F1R is ideal for use in video surveillance and similar environments with critical features such as high reliability in heavy-duty, 24/7 operations, low power consumption, improved performance, high capacity, and A/V streaming firmware command set. The Spinpoint F1R ensures low heat generation and power consumption, high durability and stability in extreme environments (low/high temperatures, high humidity), stable performance for prolonged operation periods, and large storage capacity for extended recording time. Samsung has improved recording stability via PMR recording and data integrity, and reliability through full-extent dynamic Flying-On-Demand (FOD) control. This advanced FOD control technology ensures enhanced read/write sensitivity by dynamically lowering the fly-height in read or write mode while maintaining a consistent and higher fly-height across the disk in standard mode. "The dramatic increase in digital content is driving the need for greater storage capacity across the board, " said Andy Higginbotham, director of hard drive sales and marketing, Samsung Storage System Division. "With our new F1R, we are entering the enterprise marketplace in full force by offering best-in-class performance and low power consumption." The Spinpoint F1R incorporates a wide range of proprietary technologies to achieve increased performance and lower power consumption. The three-platter structure provides a higher data storage density per platter, resulting in faster data processing speeds when compared with other 1TB drives. The optimized electronics and power saving modes reduce power consumption and resulting heat dissipation, making the F1R the coolest operating 1TB drive in its class. Under the same test conditions with similar drives, the Spinpoint F1R uses the lowest power, just an average of 6.7 watts in idle mode and an average of 7.2 watts in random seek mode. In addition, the drive operates at just 2.7 Bell in idle mode. The Spinpoint F1R drive features a 334GB per-platter capacity, a 7200RPM spindle speed, and a 32MB cache. Its performance is further enhanced through Samsung's optimized firmware system, a rotational vibration controller (RVC) for vibration tolerance, and an optimized system-on-chip (SOC) controller that lowers power consumption. Samsung's Spinpoint F1R will be available in the first quarter of 2008.

The problem was Western Digital's DRM-infested Anywhere Access software, which lets you access your files over the Internet as long as they're not dealing with any of 30 different forbidden file types, most of which have to do with music and video. But we didn't really want to share files over the Internet, anyway; we just wanted to use this huge drive on our internal network.

As Wired's Rob Beschizza noted, if you don't install that Anywhere Access software, which is really not required, you're good to go. We noticed that without installing that software, which was included on our drive, our files transfered back and forth normally across our internal network.

While the whole idea of accessing a drive anywhere in the world sounds great, apparently there is a convoluted process of reaching your files and sharing them with someone else when you're using Access Anywhere software, and then there's this DRM aspect of the software, which makes it a completely unacceptable alternative.

Shame shame, Western Digital, for including such a crippled piece of software in the package, which on some drives is said to be "required." To Western Digital's credit, we didn't see any such notation of requirement on ours. So far, we're finding the drive to be a pretty good deal at $316.66 from Buy.com. [Boing Boing, via Wired]

According to Rambus, graphics and game consoles will push memory bandwidth needs toward 1TB over the next 4-5 years. Rambus believes that they can achieve the 1TB goal in that time frame using a multi-chip array. There is no doubt that the need will be there sooner or later, but whether Rambus can succeed in this time frame remains to be seen. [Rambus via Electronista]

Product Page

The 1TB version is on sale now for $499, and the 2TB will be shipping in August. We're always looking for more storage for all the crap we amass from being on the Internet 18 hours a day (we went on a Batman comic downloading spree last week). – Jason Chen

Product Page [Hammer via Electronista]

Man, 1TB drives… it feels like some sort of milestone, doesn't it? I remember back in the day when I had a 1GB drive and I had to delete an MP3 if I wanted to download a new one. That sucked. –Adam Frucci

Dell and Alienware Bring World's First Terabyte Hard Drive Computer to Consumers [Dell]

The capacity diff here lies in those swappable drives, and instead of the four 500GB hard disks of its 2TB predecessor, now there are four 750GB hard disks ($695 each for spares) nestled inside. Techno-strap them altogether with RAID 1-5 for your choice of speed or data security, and they also support DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), that nascent industry attempt to make sense of drives and multimedia networking in the home.

Take a look at one more beauty shot of the drive, plus one of the removable 750GB drives:

Damn, 3TB is a lot of movies even when you're talking HD, and then swapping out those drives makes this config even more versatile. We'll take two. – Charlie White

Buffalo teraStation pro 3TB [Akihabara News]

Sure, drives with 1TB of space aren't exactly new, but these large-capacity drives were mostly limited to mini home servers and the like, such as the Iomega Network Attached Storage. Seagate came close last year with the release of a 750GB hard drive, but when you spend all day sucking in content from public and private trackers, you need all the space you can get. It's rated at 7,200 rpm, so it should be plenty fast. Let's just hope Hitachi can keep its promise this time. – Nicholas Deleon

Here comes the terabyte hard drive [CNET News.com]

When we reported on the similar My Book Pro 500GB model with FireWire 400, 800 and USB just three months ago, it was $350, now here's the twice-as-big 1TB version retailing for $549. Plus, the RAID-striped drives inside make for fast response and transfers.

We're warming up to these Western Digital bookish-looking drives, as we're really needing space to store all those huge video files. A tera for $549? Such a deal.

Product Page [Western Digital]

The TeraStation Home Server includes media server software that was developed by Mediabolic. This isn't a media center, but it does allow media management easily over multiple PCs. The Home Server also includes four USB 2.0 ports, a USB print server and file server. This will be available in May and prices will begin at $1,499 for the 1.6TB model.

The TeraStation Pro features Active Directory member support, two USB 2.0 ports, four serial ATA hard drives, lockable front panel and even an LCD monitor that will display operational mode, disk usage, network information and any problems. This is available now for $1,999.

Buffalo Technology