Loyd Case

When disaster strikes, its important to get up and running as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, tape backup is expensive and slow, so a few alternative solutions are emerging for small-business- and departmental-backup needs. One interesting solution is the Olixir Mobile DataVault FastRestore SE Backup and Disaster Recovery System, which uses a set of removable hard […]

When we reviewed the original WD360 Raptor 10,000RPM hard drive a while back, we lamented its relatively small capacity. Just shy of 37GB, the original Raptor lacked the mega-capacity that todays desktop PC users crave. In fact, most 36GB drives found their way into SATA RAID configurations. The new WD740 doubles the capacity to 74GB. […]

The Intel Developer Forum conference coming to San Francisco on Tuesday is unlike many other industry events and shows. For one thing, it offers substantial “real meat,” in the form of specialized sessions that go deep into particular areas of technical interest. These sessions range from in-depth looks at new logicboard form factors to networking […]

Imagine an enterprise-class server. Such a system would typically have a fairly beefy server—but more importantly, would have robust, reliable storage. These servers typically have an array of hot-swappable hard drives, as well as technology to improve data integrity (parity drives, for example). A server like this would be ideal for delivering multiple video streams […]

The sheer volume of our personal data is exploding. Digital photography, music, video, and games gobble up hard drive space like Cookie Monster set loose in Mrs. Fields. As we load up our home systems with more storage-consuming media, the value of that media becomes greater than the dollar cost of the underlying hardware. Its […]

Weve been covering AMDs 64-bit x86-64 “Hammer” architecture for quite some time now and are intrigued by its combination of 32-bit compatibility and performance, as well as the promise of a 64-bit future for desktop PCs. AMD divides up their 64-bit world into the Opteron and Athlon64 lines. The Opteron series is targeted at workstation […]

Once a loyal customer of Norton Antivirus, Loyd has switched to a competitor. Why? Because Nortons activation scheme breaks too frequently, leaving his computer at risk. Putting Customers at Risk Until a couple of years ago, Id never been much of a user of antivirus software. Mostly, it was because I had been lucky. After […]

As our society increasingly values mobility, the need to carry data with us becomes more important as well. While we can always schlep around notebook PCs, PDAs, and even music players, sometimes you just want a tiny repository for miscellaneous bits of information. On a more mundane level, having portable storage is also very handy […]

Imagine a spinning glass platter overlaid with an ultra-thin magnetic film. Then imagine a magnetic head flying above the platter, based on GMR (giant magnetoresistive) head technology originally developed for desktop and server hard drives. As that little mental picture develops, it sounds suspiciously like were talking about a hard drive. In reality, Cornice — […]

External drives are nothing new. Weve been building them since back in the days of 50-pin, SCSI-1 connectors – anyone want a Micropolis 9GB SCSI drive? The advent of FireWire (IEEE 1394) and USB 2.0, however, have made low-cost external drives practical. Last February, ExtremeTech reviewed Maxtors 5000DV external drive, the first incarnation of its […]

Disclaimer: This is a preview based on a very early release of Microsofts next-generation operating system. It lacks the modern user interface elements that will be in the final version. Given that the code is far from final and may contain many debug elements, the systems performance will likely improve in subsequent releases. Any statements […]

At first blush, DVD recorders are very cool. You can use them to back up files (up to 4.7GB) or archive data. In practice, DVD recorders have caused nearly as many headaches as solutions. One major problem has been the bifurcation of media. Early on, it was DVD-R and DVD-RW, supported by the Recordable DVD […]