Microsoft Windows has been sending out updates which have created some problems for those cloning mass storage devices like USB flash drives and USB hard drives. This article should help you resolve those issues. The Disk Signature is a unique ID Windows will assign to a device inside the Master Boot Record or MBR. The […]
Toshiba announces a slick new Netbook running Android OS and NVIDIA processor. It boots in about 1 second, yes, that’s right, 1 second…and is it just me, or does that case look like leather? The AC100 has a full sized keyboard, 10.1 LED backlite screen and 512RAM [upgradeable to 1GB] with 8GB of storage. With […]
Western Digital released a hard drive compliment to their USB Passport hard drive, the WD TV HD Media Player. What they’ve done is develop a high resolution real time streaming device capable of recording up to 1080p to your USB hard drive or super sized USB stick. It’s clear to me Western Digital will begin […]
ION Audio has a handful of vinyl to digital audio converter products. However, the ION LP-2-Flash is their first to directly off-load vinyl audio to a USB stick, USB hard drive and even SD card. The LP-2-Flash is a standalone, PC-less vinyl audio ripper for simple operation for even the most lazy music junkie. The […]
OWC is giving you GB hungry data hoggers some extra storage space. Their new 500GB Mercury portable hard drive is their largest [portable] edition yet. It’s got Firewire and USB connectivity to support any gear you’re dealing with. A couple concerns I have are a) it’s a 5400 RPM hard drive, which is standard for […]
Iomega is shifting it’s focus to the consumers with more disposable income, the gamers. Well at least in theory. The Iomega Media Xporter is a portable 160GB hard drive designed to seamlessly integrate with cross-platform applications to PlayStation 3 consoles and Xbox 360 console. With the gaming console become more of a home entertainment center, […]
Press Release LAKE FOREST, Calif., Feb. 6 — Western Digital Corp. (NYSE:WDC) today announced that its WD Passport(TM) Portable USB Drives are now available with 120 GB capacity. WD Passport Portable USB Drives were recently named one of the “Ten Coolest Products” by USA Today Now: Personal Technology magazine (Nov. 2005). With no need for […]
Are Micro-Writes Secretly Killing Your SSD? Let’s Calm This Down. If you’ve been following storage headlines lately, you’ve probably seen a wave of articles claiming your SSD is being quietly worn down by background activity — browser cache updates, telemetry logs, tiny 4KB writes stacking up until your drive fails prematurely. It makes for a […]
Micron just launched the first PCIe 6.0 SSD — the Micron 9650 — capable of sustained reads up to 28GB per second and write speeds over 14GB per second. That’s not incremental. That’s architectural. On paper, it doubles the throughput of PCIe 5.0. Random reads reach into the multi-million IOPS range. For AI data centers […]
For years we’ve been told that hard drives fail, tape must be refreshed, and flash memory slowly forgets. Then along comes a headline claiming scientists have invented a glass storage medium that could preserve data for 10,000 years. That sounds dramatic. It also sounds like marketing. So instead of repeating the headline, let’s walk through […]
Why Multi-Pass DoD Erase Schemes Don’t Translate to Flash Memory, Despite Being Widely Referenced For a long time, secure erase meant one thing: overwrite the data. Then overwrite it again. And maybe again, just to be safe. That approach worked, it was measurable, and it aligned neatly with Department of Defense guidance written in the […]
If you still think “MLC is required for reliability,” you’re using a 2015 rulebook in a 2026 storage world. If you’ve been around flash storage long enough, you probably remember when choosing NAND felt like a moral decision. SLC was “the good stuff,” MLC was the responsible compromise, and TLC was the thing you avoided […]
