This GE lightbulb expired after just 5/100 of one percent of its promised useful life. And it is not the first of these bulbs I have seen fail so quickly. That's why I wrote the install date right on the base and save my receipt.

The idea of a product warranty is fairly simple: a company “warrants” that, should their product fail in a specified period of time and circumstances, they will repair or replace it. But the implication of the product warranty is far more subtle: it tells the consumer what level of reliability they should expect. In short, a warranty is all about confidence. But when does a warranty become a confidence game?

Typical retail products are backed by warranties ranging from a few months to a few years. Some products, such as cars and major appliances, are warranted for far longer. Products generally carry a warranty that matches their expected lifetime, and consumers have come to expect that products will last roughly this long.

But there can be quite a bit of gamesmanship in product warranties. Companies can “one up” their competitors by offering longer warranties, a typical tactic for up-and-coming car manufacturers, for example. A longer warranty is a promise to consumers that product quality has improved, as well as a security blanket in case this is untrue.

Companies also game the terms of their warranties. It is not uncommon to find that the “10 year warranty” on a new car only covers the engine and transmission, or that the 3 year warranty offered by Apple only includes one year of technical support. But the generous length of coverage is what gets attention, regardless of the terms and conditions.

Companies know this, and sometimes they offer warranties that they never expect to be called on to meet. Consider the incredible shrieking warranties on hard disk drives in the wake of the Thai flooding disaster. Seagate and Western Digital did not suddenly begin to cut corners on drive quality. Rather, they simply decided that they could no longer afford the extra cost of drive replacement and shrunk the warranty to match.

A recent example in my hands was a compact fluorescent (CFL) floodlight that carried a 4 year warranty from GE. It failed after just 41 days of occasional use in my kitchen, not the 6000 hours promised on the package. But the terms of the warranty made it clear that the company never expected to replace the product: I would have to mail it to Cleveland at my own expense, along with my original sales receipt, in hopes of receiving a replacement. This replacement transaction would probably cost far more than the bulb itself, so it is clear that the warranty was just a bunch of hot air.

I rarely purchase extended warranties for products, and never even consider offbrand or store offered warranty products. These are generally a scam, with vendors hoping that customers will forget or misplace warranty materials before a claim is needed. The only exception for me is AppleCare, which I happily purchased on my MacBook Pro after having the logic board replaced in my previous Apple computer. I even purchased the new AppleCare+ package for my iPhone 4S, since I really can’t survive without a phone.

What does this say about warranties and consumer expectations? Clearly, companies know that customers put a great deal of faith in product warranties, whether deserved or not. And customers have come to expect that a product with a longer warranty will offer a longer useful life. Sadly, this is often not the case, and many companies never expects to live up to the expectations they set right on the package.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | What’s the Point of a Warranty, Anyway?
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Seagate GoFlex Desk already ships with the new Barracuda ST3000DM001 drive!

Today, Seagate consolidated three sub models of the Barracuda hard disk drive line into one. The new Barracuda is a 7200 rpm drive that the company claims combines the efficiency of their Barracuda Green with the performance of the Barracuda XT. It turns out that I had one of these drives in my hands for a few months, since they have been shipping in the GoFlex Desk external hard disk drive for a while.

The Green Revolution

See What Is The Secret To Efficient Hard Disk Drives? for more info!

“Green” hard disk drives were all the rage for the past few years. Market leaders, Seagate and Western Digital as well as challenger Samsung all produced “green” drives. The three manufacturers claims that these drives drew less power and were thus more appropriate for the bulk storage needs of end-users.

Each manufacturer used a different technique to accomplish this low-power trick. Samsung’s offering was a traditional 5400 rpm hard disk drive that squeeze out efficiency by using fewer platters, heads, and other drive components. Their EcoGreen F2 hard disk used three or fewer high density platters, but my own experiences were not all that positive. I had to EcoGreen drives called out in my Drobo.

Western Digital’s Caviar Green was much-lauded in the press, with many believing it was a variable speed drive. This turned out not to be the case, with performance gains due to firmware tweaks and a simple 5400 rpm mechanism. I had fairly good luck with my half-dozen or so Caviar Green drives, though I didn’t notice they were particularly energy-efficient or performant.

Seagate was the only vendor to try something really radical in the “green” space, introducing a 5900 rpm mechanism with generous and dense platters. Initially called the Barracuda LP but later wearing the Barracuda Green name, these drives were popular for a balance of performance and energy efficiency. I bought a number of them myself, and although they weren’t that fast they were just fine for bulk external storage needs.

I Feel the Need for Green

Consumers weren’t exactly beating down the doors of drive manufacturers asking for low-power hard disk drives. Rather, these drives were born from a need to conserve power mostly in external add-on storage applications. Although 3.5″ drives cannot be bus powered in a USB enclosure, low-power is still a major benefit. Smaller adapters, simpler electronics, and less heat enable the production of cheaper and simpler external drives.

And it’s not as if a USB 2.0 drive can actually benefit from a high-performance hard disk mechanism. With a maximum transfer rate under 40 MB/s and seriously reduced I/O performance, USB 2.0 just didn’t need much in the way of performance. Even today, USB 3.0 drives, like the Seagate GoFlex Desk poke along way below the capabilities of that interface. No rotating hard disk drive will deliver true USB 3.0 performance, and he remains a major concern in the extra drive market.

The New Seagate Barracuda

You gotta love hard disk drive hero shots like this!

I already had one of these! See How To Open a Seagate GoFlex Desk Hard Disk Drive Case

Apparently, there just wasn’t enough market demand even for an industry leader like Seagate to produce three separate hard disk drive lines. So the company’s new lineup is consolidated on a single specification: 7200 rpm, 64 MB of DDR2 cache, and 1 TB platters. These drives will be available in 1 TB, 1.5 TB, 2 TB, and 3 TB capacity points and are apparently already shipping as the innards of GoFlex Desk external storage.

Note that these new drives apparently use the 4 KB “Advanced Format” sector size rather than the old 512 byte sectors. This means you’ll want to use them with new versions of Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X for compatibility and performance reasons. But my GoFlex Desk drive did not appear to be using 4 KB sectors when I examined it. I remain puzzled by this inconsistency. Seagate does include their “SmartAlign” technology, which helps avoid the performance impact of misaligned volumes, however.

Performance-wise, the new Barracuda exceeds its predecessors in terms of sequential read and write time, but it’s no great shakes when it comes to random I/O. Although somewhat faster than the previous generation 7200 rpm drive, not to mention the 5900 rpm Green, a generation spoiled on SSD is not to be impressed by these drives. In terms of bulk storage, however, they’re hard to beat. Considering that the 3 TB GoFlex Desk is available for under $150, these drives are a steal.

Seagate promises a hybrid flash-packing Barracuda XT in the future, and this should represent a serious performance improvement. But tests of the existing hybrid Momentus XT show mixed results, and many have complained of unreliability and buggy firmware. Hopefully this third-generation of Seagate hybrid storage technology will be a keeper.

It will be interesting to see how Western Digital reacts to this shift. Will they to drop their 5400 rpm “green” drive in hopes of simplifying their product line? Or will they continue on with no competition? The transition from USB 2 two USB 3 is well under way, and consumers will likely notice the difference in performance. Perhaps we have finally seen the and of 5400 rpm drives.

Stephen’s Stance

Increasing hard disk drive density always brought better performance, and Seagate’s use of faster spindle speed will help as well. My only concern is the increased heat generated by these new drives: My GoFlex Desk drives are definitely hot to the touch when in use. But the availability of 3 TB drives is to be welcomed at this price point.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | No More Green Drives from Seagate
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Hard disk drive capacity continues to increase at breakneck speed

Earlier this week, Hitachi GST (soon to be part of Western Digital) announced they would soon ship a 1 TB single-platter hard disk drive. But archrival Seagate rained on their parade financing immediate shipment of their own 4 TB unit. With the industry consolidating rapidly, it’s good to see healthy competition among the two remaining hard disk drive giants.

Seagate’s 4 TB GoFlex Desk

The 4 TB GoFlex Desk sets a new capacity record for hard disk drives

I’ve been quite impressed by Seagate’s GoFlex family of hard disk drives, and have bought quite a few for my own personal use. I love being able to mix and match interfaces based on immediate needs: I snap on a FireWire dock for bulk transfers from my Mac, then hand off the drive with a USB dock for maximum compatibility.

Seagate has been quite aggressive in pricing their GoFlex drives as well. I recently picked up a pair of 3 TB GoFlex Desk drives at Best Buy for under $140 each. The idea that I could buy 6 TB of capacity for under $300 is really mind blowing!

Now Seagate has announced immediate shipment of the highest capacity drive yet. The 4 TB GoFlex Desk drive will be available for a suggested retail price of $249.99, and will likely drop quickly below.

Hitachi GST’s 1 TB Deskstar 7K1000.D

Hitachi GST's Deskstar 7K1000 line packs 1 TB on a single platter

A few days before this, Hitachi GST announced that they would soon ship a single platter 1 TB hard disk drive, the Deskstar 7K1000.D. This marks the first time any hard disk drive company has been able to squeeze a terabyte onto a single 3.5 inch platter, and suggests that Hitachi may soon introduce a 4 TB four platter hard disk drive of their own.

Increasing areal density is a constant trend in the storage industry, but it is important since performance and thermal efficiency are driven by it. A four platter 4 TB hard disk drive will have somewhat faster sequential access performance than a less dense drive and will run cooler as well.

Stephen’s Stance

This is really an amazing capacity point, but Seagate’s method and timing is a little suspect. The company reached the 4 TB mark by packing five 800 GB hard disk platters into a single drive. Considering how hot my GoFlex Desk drives run, I’m somewhat concerned by this. Clearly, Seagate took a shortcut so they could jump ahead of Western Digital/Hitachi GST in claiming to be the first to ship a 4 TB hard disk drive, but it’s likely that a family of 1 TB per platter Seagate drives will be released shortly as well. So goes the march of progress!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Seagate Jumps Hitachi’s Density Record With 4 TB Hard Disk Announcement
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

OWC sent me the DataDoubler (purple), so my MacBook Pro now has "paired storage": A hard disk drive and an SSD

Datacenter servers commonly store data on shared networked storage arrays, but the laptops and desktops used by individuals continue to rely on internal hard disk drives. Enterprise arrays employ a number of performance enhancements, including large RAM caches and fast flash storage, but end users are stuck with single disks. This is changing, however, as users increasingly deploy flash SSD for performance while retaining a hard disk as well for capacity. This is “paired storage”, and it’s a major trend.

Tiering and Pairing Storage

Tiered storage is commonly used in the enterprise server space. Storage pros deploy a few different categories of storage and assign them to servers as needed: Slower RAID-5 for capacity and faster 15k rpm mirrors or flash SSD for performance. Some systems now have the ability to actively move data on the fly between according to demand, often on a block-by-block basis.

Tiered storage makes sense in the enterprise because storage arrays are shared by multiple servers. But it was impractical to deploy multiple storage types in a desktop, and often impossible in a laptop. The typical client machine still has a single hard disk drive, often chosen for capacity rather than performance.

Avid gamers challenged the status quo, however, by deploying faster hard drives, multiple drive types, and even RAID storage. Drives like the 15k rpm Western Digital VelociRaptor and OCZ Vertex SSDs took this enthusiast market by storm, and the excitement about the massive performance offered by these devices is spilling over into other markets.

Today, high-end laptop and desktop buyers are rapidly adopting dual-drive strategies, pairing an SSD for booting and applications with a hard disk drive for capacity. PC makers are responding, offering built-to-order paired storage configurations in high-end machines like the Apple iMac.

Leave The Optical Drive At Home

A common aftermarket paired storage configuration replaces the optical drive with a hard disk drive (HDD) using a specialized bracket. This is especially common in the Apple world, with MacBook Pro users snapping up the MCE OptiBay and OWC DataDoubler and moving their DVD SuperDrives to external enclosures.

One reason for this shift is the lagging capacity of optical media. Today’s hard disk drives have up to 100 times the capacity of a DVD, and “ripped” media files are even more compact. A 1 TB hard disk drive can hold over a thousand hours of high-definition video and can serve double duty storing virtual machine disks, music, and other space hogs as well.

Another reason to skip the DVD drive is a shift in the distribution of software from optical disc to online download. Apple has rapidly moved to Internet-based distribution with their Mac App Store, and independent publishers commonly rely on digital downloads rather than box-and-disc distribution. Many users simply no longer need an optical drive.

Fitting an SSD in place of a DVD or Blu-Ray drive is something of a challenge, however. The Slim SATA connectors used by optical drives is mechanically incompatible with laptop hard disks (microSATA), as is the drive bay mounting screw locations.

Data Placement Difficulties

But mainstream operating systems like Microsoft Windows 7 and Apple Mac OS X are not inherently suited for paired storage. No desktop operating is able to make optimal use of an SSD and hard drive by dynamically placing data according to performance demands or frequency of access. They will not even combine the SSD and HDD into a single logical drive.

Instead, users must manually configure their storage, often placing most of their data on the SSD and moving data to the hard disk by hand. This wastes valuable flash capacity and limits the effectiveness of a paired storage configuration. But users are willing to sacrifice some price efficiency for the performance they get from the SSD.

Stephen’s Stance

Paired storage is a growing trend in the laptop computer market, with many high-end machines sporting both a SSD and hard disk drive. But it remains a game for the rich, adding many hundreds of dollars to the cost of a computer, and manually placing data is inefficient. It will be interesting to see if future operating systems bring better support for paired storage, and if it will reach into the server world.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | What Is Paired Storage?
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Iomega StorCenter PX4 is both an evolution of the older IX4 and the start of a new line of business-focused devices

Iomega today announced a new line of small desktop and rackmount storage devices. The PX Series addresses many of the limitations of the IX line, bringing high-performance CPUs, SSD, “bring your own drive” options, and “personal cloud” data protection. But the PX will not replace the recently-refreshed IX; instead, it segments the market between home office (IX) and small business (PX).

A Look Back At the IX

I have been ambivalent about Iomega’s IX line of StorCenter devices since they appeared in 2009. Although they bring impressive features like iSCSI and multimedia at a low cost, devices like the ix4-200d in my lab left me wanting more. This was especially true in the area of performance, where the 4-drive ix4 delivered a mediocre 25-30 MB/s of iSCSI throughput in my testing.

The core issue for the ix4 was its reliance of an under-powered embedded CPU and modest 512 MB of integrated DRAM. It was nice to have a sub-$1000 iSCSI array for VMware ESX and Microsoft Windows Server testing, but there was no way I would deploy it in a production business environment. The performance issue was addressed with the ix12-200r, but it came at a steeper price and that rack-mount device was not intended for use outside the data center.

Another concern about the IX was its dizzying set of features. One got the feeling that EMC’s engineers were given free rein when adding features to the StorCenter’s “LifeLine” platform, and the result was something of a mess. This improved with each successive release, but the IX feels like a servant of too many masters: Is it a home multimedia device, a security server, an office file server, or an iSCSI target for virtualization?

PX: A New Level of Performance?

The PX changes everything, or appears to at least. Clearly aimed at the small business and remote office market, the PX promises an enterprise feature set and the horsepower needed to deliver serious performance.

		PX4-300d	PX6-300d	PX4-300r
Form Factor		Desktop		Rack-Mount
Disk Slots		4	6	4
CPU		Intel Atom D525		Intel Celeron
RAM		2 GB SO-DIMM

Let’s start with the brain. All StorCenter PX devices include a dual-core Intel CPU: An Atom D525 in the PX4 and PX6 desktop models and a Celeron multi-core in the rack-mount PX4. All three models also feature 2 GB of RAM, and SSD can be used for high-performance applications. The StorCenter operating system should perform much better on this platform, which is reminiscent of the existing ix12 array. Expect that device to be refreshed shortly with SSD support and perhaps a Sandy Bridge CPU.

The new devices have been completely redesigned mechanically. The PX4 is similar in total volume to the IX4, though it appears smaller since it is taller and skinnier. The PX6 is a veritable tower, while the rack-mount PX4 has a conventional look but adds an optional swappable power supply and redundant fans for datacenter use.

Flexible Drive Options

Iomega has added "bring your own drive" capability to the PX line

There are three firsts in terms of drive support:

1. Iomega has added a “bring your own drive” (BYOD) option, allowing end users to buy an empty or partially-populated PX device and add supported drives in the future. The software does not support dissimilar drives as flexibly as some competitors, but this lowers the price point substantially.
2. The PX Series supports solid state drives (SSDs), as we will discuss in a moment.
3. Finally, the included drive carriers now support 2.5-inch drives, though capacity and price points make this less interesting except when it comes to SSDs.

This is a big step forward for Iomega, who has long required their own drives to be used in these devices. Iomega will ship 1, 2, and 3 TB Hitachi 7200 rpm Deskstar drives at first, but may add other options in the future. I expect a low-power “green” drive from Seagate or Western Digital.

The PX Series approved vendor list (AVL) includes many popular options, including the Hitachi Deskstar, Seagate Barracuda (including the LP line) and Western Digital Caviar and Green. The company has created an area in their support forums for customers to discuss other drive options, though only AVL-listed drives are supported. Since many of these drives are 4K natively, the PX Series should have no trouble with the shift to Advanced Format.

SSD Ahoy!

The introduction of solid state disk (SSD) storage is a major step forward. Iomega will use the excellent Micron C400 (aka Crucial M4) SSD in 128 or 256 GB capacity points. These  are installed in pairs and will typically be used as a RAID 1 mirror for performance-sensitive data. The best application for the SSD, therefore, is the 6-bay PX6-300d, along with a 4-disk RAID 5 set.

There is no automated storage tiering or SSD caching in the Iomega PX series. Administrators simply create RAID sets, LUNs, and shares on SSD or HDD and manually place data there based on need. It is possible to leverage the StorCenter’s included “copy job” functionality to create a rudimentary tiering system, but it seems likely that most users will rely on manual data placement.

It will be interesting to see what the combination of the dual-core 1.8 GHz Atom CPU and C400 SSD will offer in terms of performance. This represents a “maximum speed” configuration for the Iomega device and will likely set a new benchmark in the segment. Although just two Gigabit Ethernet ports are available for connectivity (no 10 GbE or USB 3.0), iSCSI and NFS performance should be very respectable. Iomega tells me they will be demonstrating a VMware VDI “boot storm” scenario using a PX6 with SSDs at EMC World next week.

Updated Software

Beyond the hardware, Iomega has revved the LifeLine software stack for performance, features, and integration. Iomega previewed many of these updates in the “Cloud Edition” versions of the IX2 and IX2 products earlier this year. This includes a cleaner interface as well as “Personal Cloud” software for SOHO or small business users.

The Personal Cloud is pretty clever, allowing different devices (StorCenter, IX Cloud, PX, PC and Mac) to share data using a peer-to-peer architecture. Desktop users experience Personal Cloud similar to Dropbox, using Explorer or Finder to mount a volume for drag and drop copies. This Iomega technology can be accessed remotely or scripted for data distribution between locations.

Owners of older Iomega IX devices can’t officially upgrade to Personal Cloud, but I’m told it is possible. Call the support team and ask for help. Sadly, this upgrade is destructive to data, so back up first!

One important change (necessitated by the BYOD option) is that the LifeLine operating system image is stored in (and executed from) flash rather than on the disks. The iSCSI stack finally supports SCSI-3 persistent reservations and trusted domains for clustering, and Iomega also promise that the updated iSCSI target software performs better with simultaneous file and block traffic.

Pricing and Availability

The PX Series is shipping to resellers now, and will be in end-user hands next week. Pricing is up from previous offerings, but still reasonable, especially in BYOD configurations. CDW has an exclusive on the pre-populated models, but others will sell BYOD versions (and the pre-populated arrays after 30 days).

Iomega will continue to sell the IX lineup for SOHO users but will focus on the PX for business and server use cases.

Stephen’s Stance

The StorCenter PX line is a major step forward for Iomega. The BYOD option is welcome, as is SSD performance and improved specs. With official Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Windows Server, and VMware ESX support, the PX is finally up to the task of business computing. We look forward to putting these new devices through their paces in the future!

Strategically, it makes sense for Iomega to segment their “network storage” offerings into the home/home office-oriented IX line and business-focused PX series. I would prefer even stronger differentiation and perhaps the elimination of home media features from the PX line. It pains me to mention it, but perhaps the IX no longer needs iSCSI support, since it was so woefully underpowered and unable to deliver on the promise of block storage. At least these features should be de-emphasized since they don’t appeal to the intended audience of the products.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Iomega StorCenter PX Series Preview
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Features, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Western Digital's Caviar Green series of hard disk drives has proven popular, but the IntelliPark feature is controversial, leading to drive failures in some use cases

Being one of the few remaining mechanical components of the computer system, the hard disk drive is also one of the major power consumers. A spinning hard disk platter effectively turns power into heat, working contrary to user expectation. Not surprisingly, most hard disk drive manufacturers have implemented a number of power saving features, reducing the impact of disk drives on one’s electric bill. But one power saving feature from Western Digital has come under increasing fire: the Intellipark system found in their Caviar Green hard disk drives is a serious liability when used in many “always-on” scenarios.

The Green Revolution

Western Digital’s Caviar Green series of hard disk drives is part of a trend in the hard disk industry toward power saving drive technologies. The Caviar Green series uses half the power of conventional desktop hard drives through intelligent power management and reduced spindle speed.

For more about these drives, see “What Is The Secret To Efficient Hard Disk Drives?“

Although marketed as providing nearly the performance of full power drives, the Caviar Green series really is substantially slower when pushed to the limit with random reads and writes. Happily, most users never really exercised their hard disk drives, and would see very little performance difference and a great deal of power savings by going with the Caviar Green or competing models from Seagate or Samsung.

One of the basic tricks Western Digital employees with the Caviar Green series is reduced spindle speed. Conventional desktop hard drives typically spin at 5400 or 7200 revolutions per minute. While Western Digital does not officially share the spindle speed of the Caviar Green series, independent tests have shown it to be only slightly more than 5400 RPM in some drives and as high as 6000 RPM in others. Contrary to early published reports, spindle speed is fixed rather than variable. In contrast, Seagate’s Low Power series spins at 5900 RPM, while Samsung’s EcoGreen uses a conventional 5400 RPM speed.

In order to attain good performance, all three vendors use the highest density platters available. Packing the bits close together accelerates throughput for sequential operations, making the drives appear to be as quick as one with a faster spindle speed. They also loaded the drives up with RAM cache: 64 MB in the case of the Western Digital Caviar Green series. This also helps accelerate performance, especially in random I/O situations.

IntelliPower and IntelliPark

IntelliPower is Western Digital’s trade name for a variety of power saving technologies, but reduced spindle speed is the centerpiece. But there is more to IntelliPower than spindle speed: Western Digital also ups the cache and includes power saving features to reduce the load on the disk drive.

One of the more unusual features of these drives is IntelliPark, which positions the read/write heads unloaded in a parking position and turns off certain drive electronics. From the factory, IntelliPark is quite aggressive, adopting this mode (referred to as “idle 3″ by the company) after just 8 seconds of non-use.

The Problem with IntelliPark

This is no problem for operating systems like Microsoft Windows, which have been tuned to leave disk drives in the idle state for as long as possible. But Linux and RAID devices are not nearly as friendly. Assuming that hard disk drives are always spinning, many of these systems write data much more frequently, often every 10 to 20 seconds.

When Western Digital Caviar Green drives are used in systems that write data very frequently, IntelliPark can become a serious liability. Continually parking and on parking the heads causes wear and tear, potentially leading to drive failure. The difference between a park operation every 10 seconds and one every 5 minutes is dramatic, both in terms of drive longevity and power savings.

Enthusiasts have been quick to suggest that this feature is a critical design flaw, causing otherwise good hard disk drives to fail. Predictably, Western Digital sees things differently. They contend that the Caviar Green series was designed to be used in operating systems like Microsoft Windows, and suggest using other drive models in Linux and RAID systems. They also offer an idle mode update utility which allows end-users to tune this parameter or turn it off entirely.

Stephen’s Stance

Although I cannot agree with the enthusiasts claiming that Western Digital Caviar Green hard disk drives are defective or fatally flawed, the execution of the IntelliPark feature are debatable. Parking heads every 8 seconds seems overly-aggressive to me, especially since many operating systems are not optimized for this condition. I continue to recommend using RAID optimized drives in RAID systems, but it seems that Linux desktops ought to be able to use desktop drives like the Caviar Green.

I tuned some of my Caviar Green drives to unload the heads only after 5 minutes of idle time using WD's WDIDLE3 utility

I applaud Western Digital for creating and distributing an idle mode update utility, since it allows these drives to be used in nearly any operating system while sacrificing only a little bit of the power saving benefits. My own experimentation shows that these drives function just fine in my Drobo storage array without excessive load/unload operations, so I continue to recommend them. Users should beware of these drives in devices such as this, however, and should consider using the idle mode update utility to disable IntelliPark.

Perhaps Western Digital should update the firmware of these drives to detect excessively frequent load/unload operations and automatically disable IntelliPark in these cases. Although they are within their rights to design a drive that is applicable only to certain use cases, automating this tuning would save them from unnecessary PR backlash.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Western Digital IntelliPark: Feature or Design Flaw?
This post was categorized as Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Intel's "Olympus 2" is a Thunderbolt prototype board

People like me who bought a 2011 MacBook Pro are eager to explore the new Thunderbolt interface. Although no peripherals are available yet, there was much excitement about the interface at the recent NAB Show in Las Vegas, and many pre-production products were on display. It appears that LaCie will be first to market with a Thunderbolt storage device, but Promise will follow a few months later. And there were many intriguing interfaces on display as well, including Fibre Channel and video links, along with rumors about Apple’s plans for the Thunderbolt iMac.

Technology Demos Abound

Perhaps the most telling aspect of the Thunderbolt presence at the NAB Show was the overall level of excitement about the interface. Vendors and consumers alike were thrilled by the possibilities of this new technology, and preproduction Thunderbolt hardware brought a steady stream of visitors to booths as diverse as Adobe, AJA, Blackmagic and Matrox, as well as Promise, LaCie, Sonnet, and G-Technology.

Intel set the stage for a Thunderbolt-filled NAB Show

One high-profile Thunderbolt exhibit was Intel’s own pavilion. Located in a different exhibit hall from the rest of the infrastructure technology, Intel placed Thunderbolt on display alongside their new 10 Gb Ethernet adapters. The Ethernet representative joked with me that the only time anyone wanted to talk to him was while they were waiting for the Thunderbolt station to free up. This was my experience too, as there was a steady stream of visitors every time I stopped by. Intel was demonstrating the Promised Pegasus array with Final Cut and a DisplayPort monitor humming along at 800 MB per second.

Adobe integrated a Promise Pegasus array and a Blackmagic A/V adapter using Thunderbolt

Adobe was another company demonstrating the possibilities of Thunderbolt rather than a specific product. At their stand was a Promise array connected to a Blackmagic Thunderbolt video converter, all tied together with Adobe software and running on a MacBook Pro.

G-Technology: Diving Into Thunderbolt

G-Technology, soon part of Western Digital, showed the possibilities for future Thunderbolt products

They did not have production hardware ready for the show, but G-Technology was pleased to be able to demonstrate their commitment to Thunderbolt using Intel’s reference board and a passive PCI backplane. Although tightlipped, the G-Tech engineer did note that he was impressed with the ease with which they were able to roll out a functioning Thunderbolt prototype. This bodes well for future product development efforts.

This little AV-oriented company recently got a big boost in profile: Having recently been purchased by HGST, they now find themselves owned by Western Digital, the world’s largest hard disk drive manufacturer. It is likely that Western Digital will come out with a variety of RAID devices built on the G-Technology base, including a line of Thunderbolt storage products to compete with LaCie and Promise.

LaCie, Promise, AJA, Blackmagic, and Matrox

I’ve devoted separate articles to the main products on display at NAB Show, so I suggest taking a look at these individually:

• LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Preview
• Promise Pegasus Thunderbolt Preview
• Promise SANLink Thunderbolt Preview

Each Little Big Disk features two Thunderbolt ports, and LaCie demonstrated daisy-chaining four of the devices at NAB

There were two main categories of products on display at the NAB Show: Storage arrays and I/O interfaces. LaCie looks to be the first out of the gate with a Thunderbolt storage array. Their Little Big Disk is even bus powered, and portable enough to be of interest to MacBook Pro owners. It is likely that LaCie will follow on with a solid-state drive (SSD) boasting better performance, and I would bet that a 4- or 5-disk RAID array will follow before the end of the year.

The Promise Pegasus R4 is a desktop RAID system featuring Thunderbolt connectivity

Promise had both a storage array and an I/O adapter on display at the show. The Promise Pegasus is a 4- or 6-drive RAID storage system boasting up to 800 MB per second in ideal conditions. The SANLink, a Fibre Channel interface for Thunderbolt, is a bit puzzling until one considers its desktop use cases. The Pegasus shows what a desktop Thunderbolt peripheral looks like, and together with the SANLink presage Apple releasing Thunderbolt-equipped desktop computers like the forthcoming iMac.

The I/O interface boards at NAB were skewed toward multimedia, as was the show itself. Blackmagic, AJA, and Matrox all had digital video interfaces for Thunderbolt on display, but it is difficult for an infrastructure guy like me to adequately judge the merits of these products. One thing is certain: AV pros are excited to get their hands on these devices!

Stephen’s Stance

That NAB Show is a hotspot of Thunderbolt interest should come as no surprise: The broadcast and media professionals present represent a nexus of Apple customers and storage power users. Because they have been dragging their feet on eSATA and USB 3, Apple ran the risk of alienating this core customer group. But Thunderbolt promises to deliver a new level of performance and a whole world of peripherals. The excitement was palpable!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | The First Thunderbolt Peripherals On Display At NAB Show
This post was categorized as Apple, Everything, Features, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

"So it is down to you, and it is down to me."

Seagate and Western Digital appear to have locked up the majority of the hard disk drive (HDD) market with their respective acquisitions of Samsung and Hitachi’s business. Leaving Toshiba with just a sliver, the American companies will soon become giants, each with more than 40% of the total HDD share and a full line of products. Despite the noise made by solid-state disk (SSD) lovers, the HDD market is likely to continue to rake in profits for decades, and these two giants will battle it out for the foreseeable future.

Western Digital Looks To The Enterprise

Originally maker of integrated circuit chips, Western Digital entered the storage market in the early 1980s, producing hard disk drive controllers. It wasn’t until 1988 that Western Digital produced its first hard disk drive, after acquiring Tandon. These were decidedly low-end products, competing in the desktop PC business with the likes of Quantum and Maxtor, two companies that would later merge and sell to arch-rival Seagate.

Western Digital moved steadily upmarket after the year 2000, expanding buffer cache and platter speeds. This culminated in the Raptor line, the first 10,000 rpm serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive, and Western Digital is still known as a purveyor of high-performance desktop hard disk drives today. The VelociRaptor, for example, is popular among gamers for its small low-latency platters and high spindle speed.

Although Western Digital sells a wide variety of hard disk drives, they’re not a familiar face in the enterprise storage market. They’ve produced a number of raid storage devices but have never been able to break in the high-end, and have similarly been left out of many OEM contracts.

All this will change shortly, as Western Digital will soon acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST). Formed as a merger of the hard disk drive businesses of IBM and Hitachi, HGST is a formidable competitor in many OEM areas, including enterprise storage. The combined company will control nearly half the storage market, offering products in every niche.

Toshiba looks mighty tiny next to Seagate/Samsung and Western Digital/HGST!

Seagate Expands In Asia

In contrast to Western Digital, Seagate is a familiar name in much of the storage market. Founded by a group of industry legends, including Al Shugart and Finis Conner, Seagate move rapidly from the personal computer space into the enterprise. By the late 1990s, Seagate was prime supplier for enterprise storage companies, competing with IBM and Hitachi.

Although formerly dominant, Seagate was surpassed in market share by Western Digital even before they acquired HGST. The new Western Digital would have dwarfed Seagate, whose 30% market share left them in a distant second place. It is perhaps easier to understand Western Digital’s moves that Seagate’s, but there is much logic in acquiring the hard disk drive assets of Samsung.

First, the transaction, worth 1 1/3 billion dollars, bring Seagate back within spitting distance of the new Western Digital. It also opens up the vast Asian OEM market, where Samsung has had much success, and guarantees a market for Seagate hard disk drives in Samsung products. But the relationship between these two companies goes much further: Samsung and Seagate are now related companies, just as Hitachi and Western Digital will be once the acquisition is complete. In both cases, the new companies will have a strong East-West alliance.

The NAND Angle

Although much of the attention in both transactions has revolved around a hard disk drive business, one should not overlook the solid-state implications. Samsung is the world’s largest supplier of NAND flash memory, and Seagate will gain an important relationship with the company. This may be the furthest reaching aspect of the transaction, since Seagate will be able to leverage this relationship as high-performance storage transitions to flash memory.

HGST had already been working with Intel to develop high-performance flash-based storage, and their combination with Western Digital will continue and expand this relationship. Intel, partnered with Micron as IMFT, is another leading supplier of flash memory chips, and the collaboration with HGST looked promising in the enterprise space. Therefore, both companies gain access to key flash memory technology thanks to these transactions.

Stephen’s Stance

Both Seagate and Western Digital have much to gain from these transactions. Western Digital becomes a full line giant of the industry, a credible competitor, and a successful supplier to OEMs. Seagate also retains its credibility in the market, but also gains access to Samsung, one of the strongest electronics companies in the world. Time will tell which of these companies got the better deal.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Seagate Versus Western Digital: The Hard Disk Drive Battle Lines Are Drawn
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Everything. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Not all advertised items are really that special!

I’m a crazy gadget freak. My prime consideration when buying gifts is electricity: If it buzzes, lights up, or moves I’m all over it!

Holiday shopping in the USA traditionally kicks off with “Black Friday”, the day after Thanksgiving. Although not quite the bonanza it’s rumored to be, many retailers do offer compelling Black Friday deals. Here are my favorites for 2010:

• The Amazon Kindle is the best holiday gift this year in my opinion. It’s fairly affordable (as electronics go) and desirable to a wide range of adults, both male and female. Seriously, I can’t imagine anyone wouldn’t want one!
  • I bet Amazon’s Black Friday sale will see a reduction from the already-reasonable $139!
  • Or Best Buy will have the Nook for $99 on Thursday if you’re looking in that direction.
  • Don’t buy the cheesy Pandigital e-readers. They’re more expensive than a Nook or Kindle and, well, terrible.
• Want a tablet? Even after almost a year, Apple’s tablet is the hands-down best, and the iPad is the most-desirable electronic gift for adults (according to Retrevo) and number 3 for kids (according to Duracell).
  • Hit all the TJ Maxx and Marshalls stores in your area looking for a $399 iPad.
  • Best Buy is offering $50 off the Verizon Galaxy Tab, but it’s still no match for the mighty iPad.
  • Staples’ $399 ViewSonic Android tablet isn’t even marked down but it’s fairly cool anyway. It’s not yet available on Amazon, but Staples claims to have it in stock.
  • Skip the Augen 7″ Android tablet at Kmart, even at $139. The reviews are, how shall we put it, “unfavorable“. Same goes for the Sylvania tablet at Toys R Us. In fact, don’t buy any of the multitude of off-brand Android tablets you’ll find for under $200 – they’re all junk! This makes Sears’ offer of a Velocity Micro tablet amusing at $250!
• Want an iPod Touch?
  • Apparently, the “iTouch” is the number-2 most-requested gift for kids, with 13% asking for one this Christmas! The iPhone 4 is number one…
  • Best Buy is offering the 8 GB iPod Touch with a $30 gift card, but Toys R Us beats them with a $50 gift card on every iPod Touch! Radio Shack’s $20 offer pales in comparison, though their $15 offer on the iPod Shuffle isn’t bad.

• Need portable storage?
  • Best Buy has a 1 TB Western Digital My Passport Essential SE portable hard drive for $89. That’s $60 off MSRP and $40 less than Amazon.
  • Or you can pick up a 1 TB Seagate FreeAgent Go portable hard drive for just $89 at Staples. It’s not a GoFlex, but that’s still really cheap.
  • Walmart (ugh) will have a Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB Portable Hard Drive for just $39, too. That’s $30 less than Amazon’s regular price.
• Cheap Macintosh computers are hard to come by.
  • Best Buy is offering a $125 gift card with the 13″ MacBook Pro or iMac. That’s $40 less than Amazon’s price for the MacBook Pro and $85 less for the iMac!
  • Neither can’t match MicroCenter’s $200 instant deals, but at least Best Buy is available nationwide.
• Best Buy will also have $50 iTunes gift cards for $40 – buy a pile!
• Need a PC laptop? Read What To Look For In A Laptop (Holiday 2010 Edition) first!
  • Best Buy has a nicely-equipped 15″ HP Core i3 laptop for $499.
  • Staples also have a solid HP 17″ laptop with a Core i3 CPU at $499 after rebate.
  • I can’t recommend any of the junky laptops Walmart and others has on sale.
• Looking for an awesome printer? B&H Photo has the cool HP ENVY 100 on sale for $189! Otherwise, the killer HP Photosmart eStation C510a with the Zeen tablet is $360 at Amazon.
• I’m going to order a discounted copy of Office 2011 for Mac OS X from Amazon.com: Home & Student is just $79 for a single license or $109 for a 3-pack! Note that neither includes Outlook if that’s what you’re after. That’s Office for Mac Home and Business 2011, and it’s $182 for a 1-pack.
• How about a camera!
  • Though not a special discount, the $550 Sony NEX-3 Camera at Amazon remains a killer deal.
  • It’s outdated, but the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 is really unbeatable for $399!
• Toys R Us has some Lego sets at 30% off: My favorite is the 6754 Family Home. I’d also grab the $10 Lego alarm clock or $65 Star Wars biofeedback Force Trainer ’cause it’s freaky.
• Finally, head to JC Penney and get a home popcorn cart for $99 after rebate!

What Not To Buy

Some things aren’t worth what you think they are. Do not buy these, even as gifts.

• E-book readers and tablets are “ecosystem devices”. Why even consider an off-brand device that lacks books or apps? And considering the aggressive pricing from Apple and Amazon, you’re not really saving much money.
• Do not buy charging mats. They require special add-ons to electronic devices. Although the Duracell and Powermat devices are being widely-pushed, geeks don’t want them!
• Do not buy off-brand GPS devices, either. You’ll wish you opted for a Garmin nüvi 1300 or Magellan RoadMate 1470.
• Same goes for still and video cameras – get a Canon, Sony, Nikon, or Flip.

I’ll be updating this post as I spot more interesting deals. Happy consumer-ing!

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends $11 my way! But many of these links just go to other stores or the products themselves. I’m not trying to get rich with this list, I just picked the things I like and Amazon happens to have the best prices more often than not!

Image credit: “Look K-mart…” by Cosmic Kitty

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | The Best Black Friday Deals For Nerds Like Me (2010 Edition)
This post was categorized as Apple, Deals, Everything, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Seagate's massive 1000 GB laptop drive is almost here, packing almost 800 Gb per square inch!

Seagate is one of the world’s most-successful hard disk drive companies, consistently ranked first in overall sales for a decade. The company is respected for their high-end products, but is aggressively moving into the world of smaller hard disks for laptops and portable storage as well. The company’s mainstream “Momentus” portable hard disk family has kept pace with the industry, but Seagate will soon break away with a major jump in areal density. Using public information, and the first product in this line, we will consider what Seagate’s eighth-generation Momentus family will look like.

Looking Back (5400.6 and 5400.7)

The sixth- and seventh-generation Momentus families were solid performers, selling fairly well especially in Seagate’s own line of FreeAgent portable USB hard disks. The company has always named its Momentus families using the speed and generation. Thus, the sixth generation of 5400 rpm drives was 5400.6 and the seventh generation was 5400.7.

The successful sixth-generation product reached 250 GB per 2.5″ platter, or an areal density of 394 gigabits per square inch. The “small form factor” drives in this family included a variety of riffs on the same theme of 125 GB per “surface” or head. Therefore, we had a 500 GB 2-platter drive, a 250 GB single-platter drive, as well as 320 GB and a 160 GB offerings.

The current Momentus products belong to the seventh generation, though Seagate appears to be de-emphasizing the “5400.7″ name. Although the name is mentioned on the web site, Seagate appears to want the entire Momentus line to appear more coherent and less generational. The product manual is pretty hard to locate, too.

The drives themselves feature 507 gigabit per square inch for nearly 320 GB per platter. This yields the 640 GB, 500 GB, and 400 GB 2-platter offerings as well as the single platter drives with 320 GB, 250 GB, and 160 GB.

One major differentiator for the 5400.7 family was the introduction of 4K “Advanced Format” offerings. These use larger sectors for increased efficiency, larger capacity, and better data protection but could be incompatible with certain older computers and operating systems. All hard disk drive manufacturers, including Seagate, have committed to using Advanced Format for new drive models introduced after the first of January, 2011. Although offered as part of the Momentus 5400.7 family, the Advanced Format drives were apparently only sold preformatted and in portable drives that would not likely be used incorrectly.

The areal density of the Momentus 5400.7 line was impressive, but 640 GB was just not much of a step up from the 500 GB capacity point of the previous family. So it received relatively little attention.

Introducing the Terabyte Laptop Drive

Seagate needs to move forward with a major new capacity point, and they appear to be doing exactly that. As noted last week, the Seagate GoFlex family now includes a slim 1 TB portable drive. This unit includes the next-generation hard disk technology, and we expect an impressive new family of products to appear shortly. We aren’t sure if the “5400.8″ name will be applied, but these new Momentus models will push capacity all the way to 1.5 TB (with 3 platters), and the increased areal density will push the cost per GB to a new low.

After being briefed for my previous writeup on Seagate’s GoFlex 1 TB, the company offered to send me a drive for evaluation. I accepted, and was eager to connect it to my test rig and take a look. Although the drive information is obscured by USB and FireWire connections, eSATA reveals that it has a very Momentus-looking name: ST91000420AS. This name includes a new family identifier (the “4″ in “420″) and confirms it as a 2-platter unit (the “2″ in that number), as if the thinness of the FreeAgent wasn’t enough proof. The company confirmed that the new 1.5 TB GoFlex portable drive contains a 3-platter variant of this same family.

A little deductive reasoning suggests that this new Momentus family will include, in addition to the known 1.5 TB and 1 TB models, offerings sized at 750 GB, 500 GB, and 250 GB. We may also see a 1.2 TB model, though the value of that capacity point is questionable. Given the naming for the 1 TB model, we have suggested names (in italics) for the rest of the family.

It is likely that every model will feature 4 K “Advanced Format” sectors internally. Since Seagate has developed their own “SmartAlign” in-drive sector size compensation technology (more on that another day), it will not be necessary to call out the difference anymore.

Given that the 5400.6 had 394 Gb/in and 250 GB platters and the 5400.7 has 507 Gb/in and 320 GB platters, this new family likely has about 790 Gb/in for its 500 GB platters. This is a very impressive number, easily besting rivals Western Digital and Hitachi GST.

Stephen’s Stance

This new product family will really shake up the portable storage market. It will single-handedly alter both the high- and low-capacity limits found in everything from laptops to portable drives. And other drive vendors will have to scramble to reach the nearly-800 Gb/in technology Seagate is using.

Seagate already had the most-desirable laptop disk, the killer 500 GB hybrid Momentus XT. Now they will be introducing another lust-worthy drive, the 1 TB Momentus 5400.8. With 2 platters, 9 mm thinness, and low power usage, I expect this to quickly become the top capacity offering for laptop makers. And the fact that each platter side has 250 GB means that the 160 GB capacity point will vanish in favor of 250 GB as the minimum configuration.

And one final note: Applying this technology to a 3.5 inch form factor gives us over 1 TB per platter in a drive like Seagate’s 5900 rpm Barracuda LP series. Since those cases already hold 4 platters, we could see a new line of Barracuda LP drives with 4 TB of capacity very soon!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Forecasting Seagate’s Next-Generation Momentus 5400.8 Family
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Everything, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.