Data Storage | DataRecoveryUnion.com

Seagate, the world’s leading provider of hard drives and storage solutions, and MusicSkins LLC, the leader in music and music-related, high-quality, vinyl skin products, today announced a marketing partnership to add personal flair to the FreeAgent Go™ and FreeAgent Go™ for Mac external hard drives. With a wide range of skins from a vast catalog of licensed creative or customized designs, this partnership expands on the already extensive range of FreeAgent® drive color, size and capacity options that let people to put their personal stamp on their Seagate external storage devices.

MusicSkins’ utilizes a patented 3M® adhesive technology that prevents air bubbles and allows for both easy application and clean removal. These hassle-free, premium vinyl skins offer a distinctive look, and personal style to Seagate external drives, while also safeguarding the device with a durable anti-scratch, anti-UV coating to protect the exterior of the hard drive. From Bob Marley to John Lennon, Madonna to Lil Wayne, EXPLODINGDOG to Adult Swim, and even personal photos and images, there’s a MusicSkin to suit every personality.

“Our FreeAgent Go™ portable hard drives allow people to store their personal digital treasures in a slim, fashionable, easy-to-carry package. It makes sense that they would want to add their personal stamp to the drives, Your photos, music and movies are a reflection of who you are and through our partnership with MusicSkins, you can now have their drives reflect your personality, too.” said Terry Cunningham, senior vice president, Seagate Branded Solutions.

Tricking out your FreeAgent external portable drive is easy. Consumers can either purchase a skin directly from Seagate.com when purchasing a FreeAgent Go drive, or outfit a previously purchased drive by visiting www.seagate.com/musicskins and selecting a skin from the library of designs, or creating a uniquely designed personal piece with the online customization tool. The skins traditionally range in price from $15.00 to $30.00, depending on the selection and type of device, and arrive via mail in seven to ten business days(1). However, for a limited time(2), those who purchase a FreeAgent Go or FreeAgent Go for Mac drive at any Seagate retailer, can take advantage of a special email offer to receive 20 percent off any MusicSkin and 35 free songs from eMusic when they register their FreeAgent Go on Seagate.com. With even more options for tricking out a Seagate hard drive with fresh looks and favorite tunes, the FreeAgent Go drive makes the perfect addition to any back-to-school, gift or personal shopping list.

“As the leading manufacturer of premium quality vinyl skin products for an array of leading personal digital devices, we’re proud to be working with Seagate to tailor their award-winning FreeAgent Go™ drives to fit the personal style of their customers, People today are inseparable from the tools that give them access to content. They want it with them wherever they go, whether it’s on their phone, iPod, laptop or an external hard drive. They also like to put a personal mark on the device to make it their own.” said Vince Bartozzi, president, MusicSkins LLC.

Data Storage

WD Ships Industry’s First 1 TB Mobile Hard Drive

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago4 years ago14 mins

– New Drives Offer the Highest Capacities to Date For Mobile Storage Applications and Notebooks.

WD announced two new mobile hard drives that reach new capacity extremes. The highlight is a one terabyte model – the industry’s highest-capacity 2.5-inch drive available. Industry-leading 333 GB-per-platter technology enables the new WD Scorpio® Blue™ SATA 2.5-inch hard drives to offer mobile storage device and notebook users an enormous 1 TB capacity. A 750 GB WD Scorpio Blue model also will be available.

The WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB and 1 TB hard drives have a 12.5 mm form factor¹ and are ideally suited for use in portable storage solutions, such as the newly released My Passport™ Essential™ SE Portable USB Drives. Other applications include select notebooks and small form factor desktop PCs, where quiet and cool operation are important. Both WD Scorpio Blue drives deliver high-performance with a 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s) transfer rate.

“The convergence of the growing mobile computing and digital media trends produces demand for desktop-like capacities in portable devices, Our new WD Scorpio Blue drives enable people to take even more of their digital collections with them wherever they go and, realizing the value of their data, back up their notebooks on their My Passport drives.” said Jim Morris, senior vice president and general manager of client systems at WD.

WD Scorpio Blue hard drives offer high-performance, low power consumption and cool operation in portable applications. They are designed with WD features to be reliable and shock resistant while also delivering industry-leading capacity and performance.

WD Scorpio Blue Features

WhisperDrive™ – WD’s exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to produce one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives available.

ShockGuard™ – Leading-edge ShockGuard technology combines firmware and hardware advancements to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications required for mobile and notebook applications.

SecurePark™ – Parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface, resulting in improved long-term reliability due to less head wear and improved shock tolerance.

Price and Availability

WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB drives (model WD7500KEVT) are available now through select distributors and resellers; the 1 TB capacity (model WD10TEVT) is available now configured into My Passport Essential SE USB drives. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for the WD Scorpio Blue 1 TB drive is $249.99 USD and for the 750 GB version it is $189.99 USD. WD Scorpio Blue hard drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty.

Data Storage

What’s the difference between duplicating, archiving and backing up data?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago4 years ago07 mins

An introduction to Backups

As applications and hardware can still fail no matter how reliable a PC or server is. It’s vital to have a good backup solution. While once costly and complex, they are now inexpensive, simple-to-use and depending on the solution implemented, completely automated. If your data and your time are truly important, it makes sense to develop a strategy based on those needs to keep your data safe and to choose hardware and software that fits with your strategy.

What’s the difference between duplicating, archiving and backing up data?

Duplication is a 1:1 copy of your data, which means it only keeps one version of each file on your system. You don’t need to open your backup software to access your duplicated data but you can retrieve data through the explorer/finder. Macintosh’s MacOS even gives you the opportunity to boot from your backup drive if you duplicated your complete system.

Archiving is functionally the same as backing up data. The main differences are that backup files are only kept for a short time and NOT DELETED from the original source while archived files are kept for a much longer time, hence the name archive. And archived files are normally deleted from the source, e.g. your system disk or data drive. That’s why with archiving, you would normally use a CD, DVD or tape as storage medium.

Backing up data is faster and more efficient than copying and takes up less space on the storage media because you can make “incremental” opposed to full backups. As a result it’s easier and more cost-effective to make frequent backups of multiple versions of data. Backup software automatically copies data into a single file that can’t be directly read by the original applications. It then compresses this file and prevents unauthorized access by protecting it with passwords or encryption.

Which backup strategy is the right one for you?

You should backup your data as often as it changes. To correlate with Murphy’s Law: “The likelihood of suffering data loss increases in direct proportion to the elapsed time since your last backup “. In layman’s terms, the day you don’t backup your data, something will go wrong. When you start a backup strategy you should backup all data (documents, music, movies, etc.) and applications that you want to protect with a full backup, to be repeated on a more or less weekly basis. In between, you can perform incremental backups to protect data that has changed since the last full backup. The best time to run a backup is when you are not working on your computer, as every file accessed by applications or by the user will be locked and will thus not be backed up. Running your backup can therefore best be done manually when you have finished your work and before you switch off your computer, or it can be scheduled at times when nobody is using the computer in cases where the computer is switched on most of the day or longer.

How many backups do I need?

A good backup strategy should include backups of your backups. The reason for this is that your original data and your backup might be damaged or lost (for example, lightning strikes or a burglary at your home/office). That is why it is wise to use multiple backup media, such as 2 or 3 external drives alternating between them, one of which you always take with you off-site. That is, if this is within your budget.

Other alternatives include CDROM, DVD, online storage, and tape drives.

System recovery

If your system fails completely you will need to do what is called a system recovery. This process calls for reloading the operating system, the backup software, and all applications and restoring the data.

With the aid of a disaster recovery software like Retrospect, where the disaster recovery copy was fully run before the disaster, you would only need to reinstall the operating system and Retrospect.

Once this is done you can restore your system backup, keeping in mind that this only works if your hardware doesn’t change; all applications, system settings and data will be restored to your system. Mac users have one advantage here if they have Retrospect HD, as in this case you can create a bootable backups on your external drive, from which you can boot if your internal system drive fails without first reinstalling the operating system and Retrospect.

Data Storage

Samsung Introduces High-Capacity 250 Gigabyte 1.8" Hard Drives

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago4 years ago03 mins

Samsung announced its 250 Gigabyte (GB) 1.8 inch hard disk drive, the Spinpoint N3U which incorporates a native USB controller on its printed circuit board. This optimized design results in a smaller foot print, less power consumption and optimized performance, which is ideal for portable external storage devices. The Spinpoint N3U stores up to 125 Gigabytes per platter for a total 250GB data storage capacity.

Most external hard drives require the addition of a bridge circuit board to convert the hard drive’s PATA interface into a USB interface. Samsung’s N3U drive, however, uses a native USB interface and as such does not require this bridge board.

“The new high-capacity 1.8″ 250GB drive enhances Samsung’s product offerings and is ideal for consumers who require a small form factor, high capacity data storage, It is easy to carry around and it is designed to withstand a free fall drop of up to 50 centimeters and be resistant to a maximum shock incident of up to 1500G.” said Choel-Hee Lee, vice president of marketing Storage System Division, Samsung Electronics.

As a native USB interface device, the Spinpoint N3U eliminates possible points of failure due to loose cable connections and optimizes performance by eliminating the interrupt service time for the bridge board to convert PATA to USB signals. And the N3U 1.8″ drive also consumes about 40 percent less power than a 2.5″ hard drive of an equivalent capacity.

Samsung now ships industry leading areal density levels for all of its hard disk form factor products with up to 1.5 Terabyte for 3.5″ drives, 500GB for 2.5″ drives and 250GB for 1.8″ drives. The Spinpoint N3U comes in 120-, 160-, 200- and 250-GB capacities, the disk rotation speed is 3600rpm, and it supports a USB 2.0 interface. The drives are equipped with an 8MB cache memory. Initial shipments to OEMs are scheduled from mid-July with a MSRP at $199.00.

Data Storage

How To Create A BlackArmor Recovery CD Or ISO Image?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago3 years ago04 mins

I lost my BlackArmor Recovery CD…is there a quick way to create one?

The Seagate BlackArmor Backup software has a utility within it called the Bootable Rescue Media Builder. This utility has the ability to do the following:

Create a Seagate BlackArmor Recovery CD.
Create an ISO Image of the Seagate BlackArmor Recovery CD that can then be used to create a Recovery CD at a later time.

To Create a BlackArmor Recovery CD

Prerequisite: One (1) blank CD-ROM

Click Start – All Programs – Seagate – BlackArmor Backup – Bootable Rescue Media Builder.
(For Windows Vista only) A User Account Control (UAC) window opens asking for permission to precede. Click Continue.
The Welcome to BlackArmor Media Builder window opens.
Click Next. The Rescue Media Contents Selection window opens.
Check the Top-Level, BlackArmor Backup box.
Click Next. The Bootable Media Options window opens.
Click Next. The Rescue Media Selection window opens. Select the CD-ROM drive from the list of options.
Click Next. A Media Parameters/Summary window opens.
At this time (if you have not already done so), insert the blank CD-ROM in your System’s CD/DVD ROM drive bay.
Click Proceed. At this point the Seagate BlackArmor Recovery CD creation starts processing (this may take a few moments to complete).
When finished, an information window opens, notifying you that the process is complete.
Click OK. The BlackArmor Recovery CD is created.

Video Tutorial – Using Bootable Rescue Media Builder to Create a BlackArmor Recovery CD.

To Create an ISO Image of the BlackArmor Recovery CD

Click Start – All Programs – Seagate – BlackArmor Backup – Bootable Rescue Media Builder.
(For Windows Vista only) A User Account Control (UAC) window opens asking for permission to precede. Click Continue.
The Welcome to BlackArmor Media Builder window opens.
Click Next. The Rescue Media Contents Selection window opens. Check the Top-Level, BlackArmor Backup box.
Click Next. The Bootable Media Options window opens.
Click Next. The Rescue Media Selection window opens.
Select the ISO Image drive from the list of options.
Click Next. The Destination File Selection window opens.
Browse to the location where you want to save/store the ISO Image.
Optional – you can opt to change the default filename too.
Click Next. A Media Parameters/Summary window opens.
Click Proceed. At this point the Seagate BlackArmor Recovery CD creation starts processing (this may take a few moments to complete).
When finished, an information window opens, notifying you that the process is complete.
Click OK. The BlackArmor Recovery CD is created.

Video Tutorial – Using Bootable Rescue Media Builder to Create a BlackArmor Recovery ISO Image

Data Storage

Samsung Develops SSD with SATA Mini-card Design for Netbooks

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago4 years ago24 mins

Samsung Announced that it is now sampling a SATA-interface mini-card solid state drive (SSD) with some of its customers, for use in the expanding netbook marketplace. The Samsung SATA mini-card SSD expands the use of SSDs from not only being a primary storage medium, but also as a complementary drive to boost the performance of PCs with dual drive capabilities.

Samsung’s new mini-card form factor, with a highly robust interface, makes an already rugged SSD even less susceptible to damage from jarring, jostling and dropping.

Featuring a mini-PCI Express (PCIe) form factor with a SATA 3.0Gb/s interface, the highly cost-efficient mini-card SSD is nearly 80 percent smaller than the conventional 2.5-inch hard disk drive, making it ideal for the tighter constraints of most netbooks. In addition, it can be used in printers and various handheld terminals including ruggedized mobile devices.

Moreover, the SATA mini-card SSD form factor can be used in a combination comprised of the SSD as main memory and HDD as supporting storage space. This new approach is expected to increase the adoption of SSDs in a broader range of applications.

Samsung is working to standardize the new mechanical form factor and its pin layout specifications at JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council). With possible revisions by OEM manufacturers, standardization could be expected as early as the third quarter of this year.

Available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB densities, the new SSD drive will be produced using 40-nanometer-class process technology. The SATA mini-card SSD provides strong performance levels with a sequential read rate of 200MB/s (megabytes per second) and writes data sequentially at 100MB/s.

Samsung’s mini-card SSD is only 30 millimeters (mm) wide and 51mm high. The drive weighs up to 8.5g and measures up to 3.75 millimeters thick. Also offering a high degree of energy efficiency, the new drive consumes 0.3 watts of power.

Samsung’s new netbook-targeted SSD is available with optional full disk encryption to thwart theft or any unwanted access to a netbook or other device.

“The market is beginning to embrace a smaller SSD for the nascent netbook sector, The cost-efficiency and reliability of lower-density, highly compact Samsung SSDs are perfectly suited as the storage medium for the rapidly growing netbook marketplace,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

Data Storage

Physical Storage Devices Overview

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago4 years ago14 mins

1. Several types of data storage exist in most computer systems. They vary in speed of access, cost per unit of data, and reliability.

* Cache: most costly and fastest form of storage. Usually very small, and managed by the operating system.

* Main Memory (MM): the storage area for data available to be operated on.

General-purpose machine instructions operate on main memory.
Contents of main memory are usually lost in a power failure or “crash”.
Usually too small (even with megabytes) and too expensive to store the entire database.

* Flash memory: EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory).

Data in flash memory survive from power failure.
Reading data from flash memory takes about 10 nano-secs (roughly as fast as from main memory), and writing data into flash memory is more complicated: write-once takes about 4-10 microsecs.
To overwrite what has been written, one has to first erase the entire bank of the memory. It may support only a limited number of erase cycles ( tex2html_wrap_inline570 to tex2html_wrap_inline572 ).
It has found its popularity as a replacement for disks for storing small volumes of data (5-10 megabytes).

* Magnetic-disk storage: primary medium for long-term storage.

Typically the entire database is stored on disk.
Data must be moved from disk to main memory in order for the data to be operated on.
After operations are performed, data must be copied back to disk if any changes were made.
Disk storage is called direct access storage as it is possible to read data on the disk in any order (unlike sequential access).
Disk storage usually survives power failures and system crashes.

* Optical storage: CD-ROM (compact-disk read-only memory), WORM (write-once read-many) disk (for archival storage of data), and Juke box (containing a few drives and numerous disks loaded on demand).

* Tape Storage: used primarily for backup and archival data.

Cheaper, but much slower access, since tape must be read sequentially from the beginning.
Used as protection from disk failures!

2. The storage device hierarchy is presented in Figure 10.1, where the higher levels are expensive (cost per bit), fast (access time), but the capacity is smaller.

Figure 10.1: Storage-device hierarchy

3. Another classification: Primary, secondary, and tertiary storage.
1. Primary storage: the fastest storage media, such as cash and main memory.
2. Secondary (or on-line) storage: the next level of the hierarchy, e.g., magnetic disks.
3. Tertiary (or off-line) storage: magnetic tapes and optical disk juke boxes.
4. Volatility of storage. Volatile storage loses its contents when the power is removed. Without power backup, data in the volatile storage (the part of the hierarchy from main memory up) must be written to nonvolatile storage for safekeeping.

Data Storage

Seagate Additions External Storage Solutions For Small Business

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago4 years ago14 mins

Seagate Introduces New Additions To Its BlackArmor Family Of External Storage Solutions For Small Business, New Products include Networked, Desktop, and Mobile Storage Options to Store, Backup, and Secure Business Critical Data.

Seagate announced three additional BlackArmor ® product offerings:
1. BlackArmor ® NAS 220 storage server
2. BlackArmor ® WS 110 external drive workstation
3. BlackArmor ® PS 110 portable drive

Joining the existing network attached storage line up – the BlackArmor ® NAS 440 and BlackArmor ® NAS 420 storage servers – these new solutions share the same suite of robust backup applications for business professionals and home office use.

“In challenging economic conditions, small businesses are demanding that high-quality, integrated, reliable IT solutions be delivered in economical packages,” said Ben Woo, vice president, Enterprise Storage Systems Research, IDC. “Providing the flexibility to choose from an array of solutions that support current needs and provide a strategic growth path with minimal additional investment will be very appealing to this market segment.”

Additions to the Seagate BlackArmor family:

* BlackArmor NAS 220 Storage Server : Delivering centralize network storage and secure remote access in a compact design, the BlackArmor NAS 220 storage server is a small-business-specific network attached storage solution designed to provide data protection for up to 20 PCs¹. With up to 4TB of shared storage capacity, the BlackArmor NAS 220 storage server can meet the needs of small offices and self-employed professionals as well as home networks.

* BlackArmor WS 110 Workstation External Drive : For small office, home-based professionals or remote staff, the BlackArmor WS 110 external drive is a powerful, complete and secure direct attached external storage and backup solution. The dual interface of eSATA and USB 2.0 provide quick access to data. With a piano black enclosure, the BlackArmor WS 110 external drive is designed to lie flat or stand vertically to blend seamlessly into a work environment.

* BlackArmor PS 110 Portable Drive : With the BlackArmor PS 110 portable drive employees who travel with business critical files can do so with the peace of mind that their backed-up data is protected. The business-grade backup application coupled with a reliable Seagate hard drive in an exceptionally slim, 12.5mm package, which makes the BlackArmor PS 110 portable drive a powerful storage solution for traveling professionals.

Availability and Pricing

All products can be purchased through channel partners and select retailers at the following manufacturers’ suggested retail prices (MSRP):

* Available in late July, Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220– $449.99 for 2TB and $699.99 for 4TB
* Available now, Seagate BlackArmor WS 110–$159.99 for 1TB and $309.99 for 2TB
* Available now, Seagate BlackArmor PS 110–$159.99 for 500GB

More detailed information about the Seagate BlackArmor family of solutions can be found at http://media.seagate.com/seagate-blackarmor-media-kit/

Data Storage

RAID 6 Areca ARC-1120

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago4 years ago14 mins

Fierce competition dominates the market for professionally-equipped Serial ATA RAID controllers. Shortly after manufacturers HighPoint and Promise became the first to launch their PCI-based products on the market, more well-known names like Adaptec and LSI Logic followed suit. A year ago, RAIDCore and NetCell also debuted their products, and made a good impression from the word go.

All of these manufacturers concentrated primarily on making their products better suited to the professional market, and are focusing particularly on offering devices on the PCI-X interface . Now, Taiwanese manufacturer Areca hopes to go them one better by supporting RAID 6.

RAID controllers are used most often in business settings, particularly for servers. The point of RAID is to increase the performance of the storage subsystem when using numerous hard drives simultaneously, and also protecting against data loss due to hard drive crashes. Even if regular backups are used, constant availability of storage systems is invaluable for business workflows, and this is what RAID provides.

A RAID Level 5 array is a common type, used in most normal business situations. In this arrangement, when data is written to the array, it is distributed to all drives but one. The controller generates a checksum (parity information) for the data set written, and writes the checksum to the final hard drive. This can be used to reconstruct the data if any one drive is lost. At the same time, performance is improved because data is being written to (or read from) many drives in parallel.

In RAID5, the drive chosen for the checksum changes for each data block written. Thus, it is an enhancement of RAID3, where a single dedicated drive is used for all checksums. RAID5 improves performance because in RAID3 the dedicated parity drive can create a bottleneck.

But there are also cases in which higher reliability is needed than can be met by RAID 5. Areca addresses this by offering the option of setting up a RAID 6 array. RAID 6 is like RAID 5 but uses two drives for parity data, which means two drives can fail without data loss. Naturally, this requires another hard drive to be put in the array. We took a close look at how well this RAID level functions, and how well it performs.

Data Storage

Hard Drives: Yesterday to Today

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago4 years ago03 mins

Hard Drives Versus Solid State Drives

The most recent solid state drives, which are referred to as flash SSDs, have reached capacities of up to 256 GB, and their performance often exceeds 200 MB/s with extremely short latencies. However, only a few of them are truly worth the several hundred dollar investment they demand, as flash SSDs require intelligent, multi-channel configurations with smart controllers and cache memory. The cache is required to enable command queuing, in an effort to maximize wear leveling and performance with changing performance loads. But we’ll stop talking about flash storage, as it is only interesting in the very high-end and the very low-end. Hard drives will continue to dominate the storage market for several years.

Capacities of up to 2 TB cannot yet be realized on flash memory; and if it were possible, it would cost thousands. The cost advantage in the mainstream is even more significant, as terabyte hard drives are available at only $100, while you have to spend three times as much for only 10-20% of the capacity on flash SSDs. And finally, the flash market could not even supply sufficient flash memory to saturate the storage demands of today (and tomorrow).

Desktop Hard Drive Analysis

We will look at some notebook hard drives in a future article, as these HDD types will dominate the storage market in coming years, due to the shift from stationary to mobile computing. Today we’ll look at three hard drive generations by Samsung: the Spinpoint T166 at 500 GB, the Spinpoint F1 EcoGreen 1000 GB, and the Spinpoint F2 EcoGreen 1500 GB. These represent Samsung’s last three product lines, and they serve as perfect examples to pinpoint where storage is heading.