Addonics SATA adapter turns six CF / CFast cards into one SSD

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a CF-to-SATA hard drive adapter, but Addonics’ CF / CFast Drive is definitely the biggest. The thing sports six separate slots, which means you can use it to turn your memory cards into six different drives, or combine them in a RAID configuration to form a high capacity SSD. What’s more, the whole thing fits comfortably in a standard 5.25-inch drive bay. If you’ve got a stack of CF cards collecting dust somewhere, you can get your hands on one of these bad boys starting at $135 at the source link below. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Addonics SATA adapter turns six CF / CFast cards into one SSD

Addonics SATA adapter turns six CF / CFast cards into one SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rogue modder rips off stingy consumer, puzzles repairmen… all with a USB thumb drive

Welcome to today’s episode of “You Get What You Pay For,” starring some poor sap in Russia who bought an external hard drive in China for a “very, very low price.” It seemed like a bargain, until the schmo noticed that video files were picking up from the tail end, as if the preceding footage had vanished. When the folks at a local repair shop tore the disk apart they found a dinky 128MB thumb drive running in a loop, emptying itself when full only to start saving more data. Laugh all you want, but the repair guys (and us, frankly) are still scratching their heads as to how those scam artists pulled off this mod in the first place.

[Thanks, David S.]

Rogue modder rips off stingy consumer, puzzles repairmen… all with a USB thumb drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 06:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PogoPlug Video and Buffalo CloudStor now shipping, streaming your stuff all over the place

Yes, you’ve seen these guys before, and now the latest PogoPlug offspring are ready to ship. Both PogoPlug Video and its storage-sporting cousin, the Buffalo CloudStor, put their own unique twist on the firm’s remote access service. As you might recall, PogoPlug Video, which is now available exclusively from Best Buy for $200, allows you to hook up your external hard drives and share streaming video, music, and images to devices anywhere with internet access. Buffalo’s CloudStor, on the other hand, provides the same cloud-based access, with a little something extra. It’s the first PogoPlug branded gadget to sport integrated storage, and comes in three iterations, ringing in at $150 for 1TB, $210 for 2TB, and $250 for the 2TB Pro version. Now you can share all your favorite kitten clips, without ever uploading them to YouTube. Isn’t that precious?

PogoPlug Video and Buffalo CloudStor now shipping, streaming your stuff all over the place originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 02:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate starts shipping pencil-thin $99 GoFlex Slim hard drive

Remember that 9mm 2.5-inch GoFlex external HDD that Seagate teased us with back at CES? You’re looking at it. The company has just gone official with the newly christened GoFlex Slim, a performance-oriented, multifaceted drive that’s slimmer than your mother’s last smartphone. The final product will boast USB 3.0 support, a 7200RPM drive (ours was 320GB), a three-year warranty and a price tag that’s still being determined. By the numbers, you’re looking at a pocketable drive weighing 0.356 pounds and measuring 4.91- x 3.07- x 0.354-inches, but due to the GoFlex attachment on the bottom, you’ll need the special SuperSpeed USB cable that Seagate includes in order to make contact. In our testing, it managed to transfer files at upwards of 40MB/sec when attached to a USB 3.0 system, which ain’t half bad for a drive that’s powered via USB and slimmer than a pencil. It’ll hit US retailers on August 5th, and at just $99, you know you’ll be picking up two just for kicks and giggles.

Update: Seagate just pinged us with a clarification; it’ll start shipping today!

Continue reading Seagate starts shipping pencil-thin $99 GoFlex Slim hard drive

Seagate starts shipping pencil-thin $99 GoFlex Slim hard drive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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World Backup Day reminds you to backup your world, today

It’s a bit less silly than the National Day of Unplugging, but unless your weekend starts on Thursday, there’s nary a snowball’s chance in Hades that you’re going to skip tonight’s network comedy lineup in order to do something that you can clearly put off until tomorrow. But what if, dear readers, your data doesn’t make until tomorrow? What if those images from your first date vanish into the ether? What if you spend $4,598 next week in vain as a perplexed computer technician asks you if you’d ever considered backing your critical data up? For those that choose to act on World Backup Day, that future isn’t one you’ll have to consider, and a host of online backup services are urging you to sign up today in order to protect what’s most important to you: your stash of decidedly unbecoming Facebook messages. We’d also suggest investing in a NAS or RAID setup for your home, but throwing everything into a fireproof safe four miles below Arches National Park probably isn’t a bad idea, either. You know — in case your fail-safe fails. Not that we’d ever consider fear mongering…

World Backup Day reminds you to backup your world, today originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba updates STOR.E external HDDs to USB 3.0, sees no lightning and hears no thunder

Toshiba updates STOR.E external HDDs to USB 3.0, sees no lightning and hears no thunder

Allegiances are being drawn and battle plans laid out as the USB 3.0 vs. Thunderbolt war truly begins. Toshiba is, for the moment at least, staying friendly with the USB side, announcing updated versions of its STOR.E external HDDs, both packing Superspeed tech. On the smaller side is the ALU 2S, packing a 2.5-inch HDD internally that has up to 1TB on platters. If you need a little more you can step up to the Steel S, another external unit containing a 3.5-inch HDD with up to 2TB of storage. That one, unfortunately, will require an external power supply, while the littler ALU 2S will get by with only a USB cable. Both feature metal exteriors, increasing their usability as impromptu bludgeons, and both are slated to start shipping before this first quarter is through — which should mean any time now.

Continue reading Toshiba updates STOR.E external HDDs to USB 3.0, sees no lightning and hears no thunder

Toshiba updates STOR.E external HDDs to USB 3.0, sees no lightning and hears no thunder originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate Pulsar XT.2 and Pulsar.2 SSDs target enterprise, reliability-obsessed consumers

Seagate has just taken the wraps off a slew of fresh enterprise storage drives, highlighted by a pair of new Pulsar SSDs. The MLC NAND-equipped Pulsar.2 is capable of 6Gbps speeds over SATA, while the 2.5-inch XT.2 uses SLC memory and a 6Gbps SAS connection, and both are unsurprisingly touted as being the fastest and finest guardians you can buy for your company’s data. Seagate sees the use of MLC flash on the Pulsar.2 as a major advantage in lowering costs, while its data-protecting and error-correcting firmware is expected to maintain the high levels of data integrity required in this space. No price is actually given to validate Seagate’s claims of a breakthrough price / performance combination, but both of its new SSDs should be available in the second quarter of this year. The XT.2 is already shipping out to OEMs, along with its 360MBps read and 300MBps write speeds. There are also new Savvio and Constellation HDDs from the company, but you’ll have to read the 1,400-word essay press release after the break to learn more about them.

Continue reading Seagate Pulsar XT.2 and Pulsar.2 SSDs target enterprise, reliability-obsessed consumers

Seagate Pulsar XT.2 and Pulsar.2 SSDs target enterprise, reliability-obsessed consumers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask Engadget: best home backup solution?

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Michel, who seems to be having difficulty sleeping without a decent backup solution in his home. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“It’s been 6 years since the last Ask Engadget article on best home backup solution. Is there a good update yet? It’s for PC, and I need to be able to disconnect the hard drive and plug it in, and navigate the folders like on my main PC. Thanks!”

Home backup solutions have come a long way over the years, but having one that also funtions as a conventional external drive cuts down your options somewhat. We’re guessing this fellow is looking for something more akin to a Clickfree drive rather than a 5-bay NAS, so if you’ve got any recommendations in that area, shout ’em out in comments below.

Ask Engadget: best home backup solution? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung HDD manages 1TB per platter, areal-density enthusiasts rejoice

Solid state drives are the geek storage of choice, what with their quiet nature, blazing fast speed, and stunning good looks. However, the limited capacity and sky-high price of SSDs keeps many of us buying traditional disk-based storage solutions — which is just fine considering Samsung keeps finding ways to fit more bits and bytes on every drive. Last year, Sammy’s EcoGreen F4EG squeezed 2TB onto a 3-platter drive (or 667GB per platter), and now the company’s primed to release a new series of Spinpoint drives with even greater areal density at a time and price that remains TBD. Whenever they do get here, the new HDDs promise to deliver 1TB per platter spinning at 5,400RPM — meaning 4TB desktop drives and a terabyte of storage in standard-sized laptop HDDs. The 3.5-inch version packs a 32MB cache and SATA 6Gbps compatibility, while the 2.5-inch variety has an 8MB cache and a 3 Gb/s SATA interface. Knowing all that, only one question remains: could areal-density enthusiasts be the new pixel-density enthusiasts?

Samsung HDD manages 1TB per platter, areal-density enthusiasts rejoice originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 02:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Western Digital drops $4.3 billion to acquire Hitachi GST, enter staring contest with Seagate

Yow. Western Digital — the company responsible for shipping the planet’s first 1TB 2.5-inch hard drive way back in 2009 — just announced a monstrous deal to acquire one of its primary competitors, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Both outfits have actually shown quite a few interesting HDD designs in recent months, and it’s pretty clear that WD would rather not go at it alone any longer. Granted, these types of deals aren’t entirely unheard of — in fact, Seagate swallowed up Maxtor back in 2005 for a cool $2 billion. Under the deal, which is a mix of $3.5 billion in cash and $750 million in WD common stock, the two will combine in a way that sees the Western Digital brand and headquarters surviving, while Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Hitachi GST, will join WD at closing as president. Hard to say what this will mean for consumer pricing and competition, but we’re pretty certain the powers that be will be looking it all over for fairness before they hop in the blender during Q3. Full release is after the break.

Continue reading Western Digital drops $4.3 billion to acquire Hitachi GST, enter staring contest with Seagate

Western Digital drops $4.3 billion to acquire Hitachi GST, enter staring contest with Seagate originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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