Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Whenever I replace a hard drive I usually dismantle the discarded drive for security reasons, and because you can never have too many really strong magnets kicking around. Other slightly easier methods for wiping the data off a hard drive include degaussing machines or software solutions that write over the original data until it’s unreadable. But both of those can take a long time, particularly when compared to what the Hard Disk Crusher can do in just 10 seconds. It basically ‘drills’ through the hard drive’s spindles which physically creates ripples in the platters making it impossible to recover any data.

The site claims the Crusher can destroy over 60 disks an hour (at 10 seconds per crush that doesn’t seem to add up) but they also mention that they’ve had customers destroy over 800 drives in a single day. It runs off a standard 110V outlet but there’s also an emergency hand-pump accessory that allows you to use the Hard Disk Crusher without an electrical power source. About 15 pumps creates enough power to destroy a single drive. Not surprisingly the Hard Disk Crusher has a price tag of $11,500 which includes a one-year warranty. Extending that warranty will cost you $995 per year (yikes!) and the aforementioned emergency hand-pump option is another $895.

[ EDR Solutions Hard Disk Crusher ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The Snap-In ExDrive25 is kind of like those hot-swappable SATA hard drive readers that have become popular as of late. But instead of being a large, clunky reader that sits on your desk, the ExDrive25 comes in the form of a portable external drive case. Installing a drive is as easy as opening the access door on the front and sliding almost any 2.5 inch SATA drive inside. If you find yourself even occasionally having to swap 2.5 inch drives in and out of a case, you’ll appreciate the ExDrive25’s screw-free approach.

The case is made from aluminum for maximum head dissipation and includes a patented shock mount mechanism allowing you to travel with the case without the risk of damaging the drive inside. It also includes both USB 2.0 and eSATA connections on the back for connecting to a laptop or even a desktop with an easily accessible eSATA port.

And at just $29 from Addonics, I’m tempted to replace the external cases I’m using right now.

[ Addonics Snap-In ExDrive25 ] VIA [ I4U News ]

By Luke Anderson

When I travel, I tend to pack as lightly as possible. However, being a geek doesn’t make that very easy. In order to cut down on the amount of clutter in my gadget bag, I usually forgo the inclusion of my external hard drive. My laptop hard drive is usually large enough to accommodate most of my files, and I’m afraid that as hard as I am on my gadgets, I’ll end up killing an external drive (I’ve done it before). If you’re worried about protecting your data when you’re away from home, the StoreJet 25 might put your mind at ease.

The new drive from Transcend features an extra-rugged silicone case that stands up to US military drop-test standards by utilizing a two-stage anti-shock technology. The drive will come in capacities of up to 250GB, which is about as large as you’d expect for a 2.5-inch drive. The highest capacity will set you back $176.99.

[ Transcend ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ve been saying for a while now that I’d love to switch the main hard drive in my PC to a SSD drive. There are two very obvious reasons why I haven’t taken the plunge yet. Namely, they aren’t very large, and you pay an arm and a leg for what little you do get. BiTMICRO is looking to change both of those things with a new drive that they’ll be unveiling this week at CES.

Their new SSD will be sporting a whopping 832GB of storage space. That’s a huge leap from the 64GB drives that we’ve been seeing lately. What’s even better is that they’re using a new proprietary technology called MLC which they promise will bring the price down below the market average. We’ll look forward to hearing more about this later in the week.

VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Luke Anderson

In the computer industry people are always trying to find ways to speed up their PC. Usually when they think of increasing the performance of their computer, they immediately think about switching out their CPU or adding more memory. One bottleneck that is often overlooked is the hard drive.

One of the reasons that the hard drive is often overlooked is because there aren’t a lot of good options for improvement on the market. One that will give you a considerable boost is the ioDrive PCIe card. That’s right, it’s not a SATA or an ATA (eek!) drive, but rather it takes full advantage of your PCIe bus speeds to transmit data. It will feature sustained read/write speeds of 700MB/s and 600MB/s respectively and 3.2 Gbps bandwidth.

Of course such an upgrade will cost more than most people’s computers. A 640GB model will set you back around $2,400 when it comes out in Q1 of 2008.

[ Fusion io ] VIA [ PC Launches ]

By Luke Anderson

If you’ve ever wanted to use a flash memory card to run your PC’s operating system, you’re not alone. Flash memory has proven itself to be fast, quiet and less susceptible to damage due to shock and vibration. The easiest way I have found to do this with an SD/MMC card would be to use this IDE to SD/MMC adapter.

This adapter is awesome because the BIOS actually detects your card as a regular IDE drive. Just hook it up and you’re ready to install your favorite OS. The adapter is cheap, as you’ll only pay around $25.

[ GizFever ] VIA [ RedFerret ]

By Luke Anderson

Lets say that you’re one of the semi-rare people that actually backs up your computer’s valuable data onto an external drive on a regular basis. That’s great and all, but what happens if your house catches fire? That plastic enclosure won’t stand up to the heat very long. Thankfully Maxtor has teamed up with Sentry Group to bring us a drive that is both fire resistant and waterproof.

These new drives can withstand 1550F degrees for a half hour, and spend up to a full day submerged in water. The peace of mind offered by these drives doesn’t come cheap, but it’s well worth the investment in the long run. An 80GB drive will run you $259.99 and a 160Gb will be $319. A safe is also available that can store your regular external drive (with a USB pass-through) for $520.

[Sentry Group] VIA [EverythingUSB]

By Ryan Nill

This nifty concept is really quite simple: it’s an external hard drive that only stores what you delete. Of course, if you’re deleting something, you probably want to be rid of it, so the point of this thing is a little dubious, but still. The “Tempo” (as it’s called) was designed by Franco Cagnina, and while it makes sure you never permanently delete something it apparently can be used as a regular external drive with 250Gb of space (Is that “bits”? Shouldn’t it be “bytes”?). The colored LEDs covering the Tempo slowly creep upwards as it reaches maximum capacity. Besides looking good, the Tempo also reinforces the ideal of a “recycling” bin; something that you can add to and remove from.

[ Cagnina Design ] VIA [ technabob ]

by Shane McGlaun

Toshiba announced today that they have moved into the high-performance 2.5” notebook hard drive segment. The new MK-49GSY series of hard drives uses perpendicular magnetic recording technology to squeeze up to 200GB of storage onto the small notebook size hard drives.

Lots of capacity is only one of the ingredients you need for better notebook performance, the other is fast speeds and the new drive delivers there with 7200rpm. Toshiba promises a media transfer rate from the new 200GB 7200rpm drive of 895.9 Mbps and an average seek time of 12 ms.

The interface used for the drive is 3Gbps SATA. Toshiba made the drives strong as well with an operating shock resistance of 300G and a non-operating shock resistance of 900G. There is no word at this time on the pricing or availability of the new 7200rpm drive family which can be had in capacities from 80GB to 200GB.

VIA [ Toshiba (PDF Link) ]