• Gizmodo
  • bestmodo
  • lifehacker
  • kotaku
  • Profile logout login

#maxtor

Gizmodo

Share Cancel
   
Upload an image | Add an image URL
×

logging in
  • FAQ. Include # before tag:
  • #tips,
  • #dealzmodo,
  • #rumors,
  • #broken,
  • #iphoneapps,
  • #apple,
  • etc.

New York, 5:36 AM
Tue Nov 10
54 posts in the last 24 hours

FR | IT | DE | SP | JP | AU | BR

Gizmodo Team

Tip your editors:
tips@gizmodo.com

Editorial Director:
Brian Lam | Email | Twitter

Editor:
Jason Chen
Email | AIM | Twitter

Features Editor:
Wilson Rothman
Email | Twitter

Senior Contributing Editor:
Jesus Diaz
Email | AIM | Twitter
Mark Wilson, Reviews
Email | AIM | Twitter

Contributing Editors:
Matt Buchanan
Email | AIM | Twitter
Adam Frucci
Email | Twitter
Sean Fallon
Email | Twitter
Jack Loftus
Email | Twitter
John Herrman
Email | Twitter
Dan Nosowitz
Email
Chris Mascari
Email
Danny Allen
Email | Twitter

Columnist:
Brendan I. Koerner

Interns:
Don Nguyen
Email
Chris Jacob
Email

Comment Intern:
Nick Ellenoff | Email

Heroes and Friends

Comment Account Questions:
Comments@gizmodo.com

SUBSCRIBE TO Gizmodo RSS

New: Breaking news and daily top stories via email
9515 Subscribers
Gizmodo
  • posts about #maxtor more →

    Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives

    Hard Drive Failure Soundboard Guarantees Debilitating Flashbacks

    Maxtor Central Axis 1TB NAS is Monolithic, Family Friendly

    Question of the Day: Which Hard Drives Have Crashed On You?

    Maxtor BlackArmor Portable HD Looks Like Area 51 Gear, Locks Your Data Down Just as Tight

    Maxtor 300GB Hard Drive for $44

    Seagate Fingers Hard-Drive Poisoning Employee, Hardens Prevention Measures (Full Story)

    SentrySafe Fireproof Waterproof USB HDD Housings Save Your Data (Not You) From Armageddon

    Seagate Accidentally Shipped 1,800 Trojan-Horse Tainted Drives

    Leopard Disk Utility Format Issue Screws With Time Machine (But There's An Easy Fix)
  • Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.
    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of Tiger-Fever Tiger-Fever
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    Hey! I had that MP3 player. It was called the Dell Jukebox. I'm pretty sure it still works too. Nifty!
     Reply
    Tiger-Fever was starred Tiger-Fever was unstarred
    Image of Hyman Decent Hyman Decent
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives

    RPM means the same thing it does in cars, rotations per minute.
    Actually, in the automotive world, RPM stands for revolutions per minute.
     Reply
    Hyman Decent was starred Hyman Decent was unstarred
    Image of matt buchanan matt buchanan
    12/10/08

    @Hyman Decent: Actually it means that in the computer world too, I was just a tard. Fixed.
     Reply
    matt buchanan was starred matt buchanan was unstarred
    Image of Worf Worf
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    PATA can reach 133MBps 9 that's 133 megabytes per second. SATA does 3Gbps, and as you say, 6Gbps, that's 3 gigabits per second and 6 gigabits per second, roughly 375megabytes per second and 750 megabytes per second. Modern high-speed desktop drives are barely breaking 80megabytes per second.


    It seems only the high-end SSDs that cost $100 for 80GB can start to reach the limit of even SATA 3Gbps (I think they started hitting 200megabytes...).


    No, the drive interface was never the limiting factor in speed - the interface speed jumped faster than drives can pull data off the media.

     Reply
    Worf was starred Worf was unstarred
    Image of matt buchanan matt buchanan
    12/10/08

    @Worf: Actually, USB association is talking about SSD drives interfaced with USB 3.0 as how they think mass storage will roll.
     Reply
    matt buchanan was starred matt buchanan was unstarred
    Image of dmanatunga dmanatunga
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    How does seek time relate with RPM? I thought rpm just revolved around how fast the drive spins and seek time gave the average seek time it takes to move from one cylinder of data to another? I know together, you can estimate data transfer rate, but I am still confused how a faster RPM leads to lower seek time. I could see it leading to faster transfer rates, but not lower seek times.
     Reply
    dmanatunga was starred dmanatunga was unstarred
    Image of matt buchanan matt buchanan
    12/10/08

    @dmanatunga: You're right, that was an editing error. Fixed.
     Reply
    matt buchanan was starred matt buchanan was unstarred
    Image of ripfire ripfire
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    A mention of memory buffer under "What All Those Numbers and Letters Mean" would be nice.
     Reply
    ripfire was starred ripfire was unstarred
    Image of xanadu1979 xanadu1979
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    Nothing about SAS (Serial SCSI) hard drives?


    They aren't just for enterprises anymore. The ASUS P6T motherboard that I just ordered has the controller built-in and I'm going to take advantage of it.


    They're pretty much the same price as Raptor drives but they're 15k RPM instead of 10k.

     Reply
    xanadu1979 was starred xanadu1979 was unstarred
    Image of IN THE FACE! IN THE FACE!
    12/10/08

    @xanadu1979: And they are good at counter-terrorism.
     Reply
    IN THE FACE! was starred IN THE FACE! was unstarred
    Image of Nintenboy01 Nintenboy01
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    Wait Mr. Buchanan! You did forget to mention one important bit- CACHE SIZE. I know Western Digital sells the same 7200RPM 160GB drive with either a 2, 8 or 16MB buffer.
     Reply
    Nintenboy01 was starred Nintenboy01 was unstarred
    Image of matt buchanan matt buchanan
    12/10/08

    @Nintenboy01: Added. 8MB from 2 is a big deal, 16 from 8, not so much, says Tom's Hardware.
     Reply
    matt buchanan was starred matt buchanan was unstarred
    Image of OMG! Ponies! OMG! Ponies!
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    Excellent writing, matt. I forgive you for all the times you shot me, even if you are a ginger.
     Reply
    OMG! Ponies! was starred OMG! Ponies! was unstarred
    Image of John_001 John_001
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    Does a hard drive with a faster RPM (say, 7200 RPM over 5400 RPM) make your computer faster in general, or only your data transfers faster? Or is that one in the same?
     Reply
    John_001 was starred John_001 was unstarred
    Image of matt buchanan matt buchanan
    12/10/08

    @John_001: I'm actually upgrading my desktop to a 10,000RPM drive next week (one of the few decent Black Friday deals), gonna see how much it changes things on my end, though for gaming, it helps more in a game like WoW where it's constantly pulling stuff from the disk.
     Reply
    matt buchanan was starred matt buchanan was unstarred
    Image of LiviaSnake LiviaSnake
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    Ok, I probably sound stupid to a lot of people here, but why can't they manufacture some sort of super thin - magnetically neutral piece of plastic or something to go in between the platters and the head? Or something along those lines. Will someone please explain why this wouldn't work? Thank you!
     Reply
    LiviaSnake was starred LiviaSnake was unstarred
    Image of 1.21Gigawatts 1.21Gigawatts
    12/10/08

    @LiviaSnake: I don't know why you would want a thin piece of plastic between both. The space between the head and the platter is smaller than a dust particle. That's why hard drives are vacuum sealed. A dust particle or human hair is wide enough to destroy the contact.


    If you were to put something between them, it would be along the lines of a membrane, but due to the thickness you won't have much protection, conductivity, etc.

     Reply
    1.21Gigawatts was starred 1.21Gigawatts was unstarred
    Image of GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn
    12/10/08

    @1.21Gigawatts: Don't all hard drives have a hole to allow air into them due to pressure? It's usually surrounded by a sticker which says, don't cover this hole.
     Reply
    GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn was starred GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn was unstarred
    Image of N@tedog N@tedog
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    Note: All HDDs have a 100% failure rate. All of them. 100%. Guess how many that is?
     Reply
    N@tedog was starred N@tedog was unstarred
    Image of dukemang dukemang
    12/10/08

    @N@tedog: All SSD's have a 100% failure rate as does anything built by man.
     Reply
    dukemang was starred dukemang was unstarred
    Image of framitz framitz
    12/10/08

    @dukemang:

    Ultimately as does man.
     Reply
    framitz was starred framitz was unstarred
    Image of OMG! Ponies! OMG! Ponies!
    12/10/08

    @framitz: Woman inherits the earth, still has to clean up man's mess.
     Reply
    OMG! Ponies! was starred OMG! Ponies! was unstarred
    Image of Toshie Toshie
    12/10/08

    @N@tedog: "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero"
     Reply
    Toshie was starred Toshie was unstarred
    Image of SherriffBacon SherriffBacon
    12/10/08

    @Toshie: You aren't supposed to talk about fight club. Thanks for breaking rules one and two.
     Reply
    SherriffBacon was starred SherriffBacon was unstarred
    Image of BeautifulAgony BeautifulAgony
    12/10/08

    @SherriffBacon: Well, you jusr broke the rules by telling everyone which rules he broke. You should have just silently kicked his ass and called it a night.
     Reply
    BeautifulAgony was starred BeautifulAgony was unstarred
    Image of N@tedog N@tedog
    12/10/08

    @N@tedog: My points exactly gentlemen. So many people still think their harddrive will never fail and get upset at others when it does and they haven't backed up any info.
     Reply
    N@tedog was starred N@tedog was unstarred
    Image of IN THE FACE! IN THE FACE!
    12/10/08

    @N@tedog: My drives are magic, they won't fail. My south-bridge told me so, and my video card agreed.
     Reply
    IN THE FACE! was starred IN THE FACE! was unstarred
    Image of GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    My big question is how did I live so long with a 160MB drive, then with a 1.4g, and finally a 6g, and now I carry one flash drive that can hold all three of those drives, and also managed to fill a 80gb hard drive so I had to buy a 500gb drive? Does Moores law apply to the amount of crap I dl, or is it related to my online connection speed?
     Reply
    GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn was starred GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn was unstarred
    Image of BeautifulAgony BeautifulAgony
    12/10/08

    @Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: It is reasonable to assume that as processors are able to perform exponentially more calculations, that the number of tasks requested will rise as well.


    As processors *can* do more, programmers will tend to request more. As programs demand more, they will tend to increase in size. As programs increase in size, storage requirements increase...


    Development of storage peripherals doesn't increase in lock-step fashion, but the trend tends to be for researchers and manufacturers to increase by orders of magnitude rather than by incremental amounts. Since numbers of platters or heads are doubled or tripled, storage space ramps up dramatically.


    With the tendency for people to collect, hoard, save and create things, this generally means we will usually approach the storage capacity of our media. With the advent of the internet, streaming media, digitalization of art, books, music, television, movies and more, the possibilities for *what* we store become incredibly large. Not long ago there were few media options besides text files, small, grainy GIF images, and the occasional VOC or MID files, aside from the executables and command files we ran.


    There is probably a formula to be extrapolated from all of this, but I am too lazy and poor at math to discover it!


    (I have similar theories about closet sizes, lingerie-drawer sizes and numbers of shoes and panties, but that belongs on Fleshbot!) ;)

     Reply
    BeautifulAgony was starred BeautifulAgony was unstarred
    Image of Red3y3Ninja losing faith for the Giz. Red3y3Ninja losing faith for the Giz.
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    nothing worse than losing all your "girlfriends" due to a "head crash"...
     Reply
    Red3y3Ninja losing faith for the Giz. was starred Red3y3Ninja losing faith for the Giz. was unstarred
    Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead
    12/10/08

    @Red3y3Ninja: This is why you store the web URL's on a flash drive.


    .....


    :[

     Reply
    Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred
    Image of ILikeMacsWhatAboutIT ILikeMacsWhatAboutIT
    12/10/08

    In reply to Giz Explains: Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives
    Hard drives are cheap when compared to the value of the data they hold.


    I have everything double, sometimes triple backed up.


    Shake and Bake! That JUST happened!

     Reply
    ILikeMacsWhatAboutIT was starred ILikeMacsWhatAboutIT was unstarred
    Image of RacecarBoobTat RacecarBoobTat
    12/10/08

    @ILikeMacsWhatAboutIT: If I learned nothing else from watching I Am Legend, it's that you're not thorough unless you're making six redundant copies -- even if there's nobody else alive to use your data.
     Reply
    RacecarBoobTat was starred RacecarBoobTat was unstarred
    Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead
    12/10/08

    @RacecarBoobTat: If the good doctor was really concerned about retaining his important research data, he wouldn't have used a string of LaCie Porsche bricks. C'mon man, get some G-techs at least!
     Reply
    Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred
    Image of txpunk txpunk
    11/12/08

    In reply to Hard Drive Failure Soundboard Guarantees Debilitating Flashbacks
    Uh, yea. Flashbacks to [gizmodo.com]
     Reply
    txpunk was starred txpunk was unstarred
    Image of johnnyabnormal johnnyabnormal
    11/12/08

    @txpunk: Exactly! My favorite one was:


    [odeo.com]

     Reply
    johnnyabnormal was starred johnnyabnormal was unstarred
    Earlier threads | All threads | Show hidden threads | Show featured threads only | Start a new discussion

Login

Enter your username and password.

Please enter a username.
Please enter your password.
logging in
Login via Facebook | Sign Up | Forgot Password?

Reset Password

Please enter your email address to have your password reset.

Please enter your email address.
Please enter a valid email address.
requesting password reset

Register

Registering will give you a user profile and the ability to add other users as friends. To become a commenter, however, you need to audition.

Want to know more? Consult the Comment FAQ and legal terms.

Please enter a username.
Please enter a password.
Please confirm your password.
Passwords are not identical.
Please enter a valid email address.
registration sent, waiting for reply

Submit Your Comment

You don't need to login to comment. Just enter your email address below.

See how your address will be displayed in the Comment FAQ.

Please enter a valid email address.
Please enter a valid email address.
logging in

Login with your Facebook or Gizmodo account.

Sign up here.



  • Archives
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Legal
  • Help
  • Report a Bug
  • FAQ
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.