Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Storage

    WD Designs RAID Drive

    By
    Mark Hachman
    -
    August 3, 2004
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Western Digital Corp. has designed a disk drive specifically targeted for RAID and other heavy-duty cycle applications.

      WD, based in Irvine, Calif., said Tuesday that it has begun shipping the WD Caviar RAID Edition (RE) drives, a family of three 3.5-inch, 7,200-RPM drives ranging in capacity from 120GB to 260GB.

      The drives are specifically designed to challenge competitors like the Maxtor Corp. MaxLine drives, which are rated for non-I/O-intensive low-duty cycles. By contrast, the WD Caviar RE drives are rated at 1 million hours mean time before failure (MTBF), running nonstop.

      Interestingly, WD designed the Caviar RE in response to a batch of 250GB desktop and server drives the company launched about a year ago, said Hubbert Smith, director of enterprise marketing for Western Digital. Customers quickly tried plugging the drives into RAID arrays, where they suffered mechanical failures.

      “Desktop drives dont stand up in those kind of environments,” Smith said.

      The redesigned RE drives now undergo the same burn-in cycle as the companys high-end Raptor drives, Smith said. Customers began testing the drives this past March, giving them a thumbs-up for production.

      Meanwhile, drive makers and storage vendors both are encouraging the use of RAID arrays, which use redundant disks to mirror information as well as “stripe” a file to maximize read performance. In a RAID 50 array, a “hot swap” drive also exists to replace a failed drive. When the failed drive is removed, the existing information propagates across the other drives.

      During this period of “healing,” the array is also vulnerable; if a second drive goes down, data can be irretrievably lost. WD set out to minimize this recovery time with a technique called time-limited error recovery, which takes into account the ability of modern drives to do self-diagnostics and repair or exclude damaged sectors.

      Using the WD technology, a drive will typically drop off the RAID array for about 30 seconds to adjust its sectors, Smith said; the maximum time is about five minutes.

      The three-platter design will offer lower power metrics than its five-platter competitors, Smith said. The drive consumes 8.2 watts reading and writing, 11.5 watts seeking data, and 16.2 watts spinning up. Acoustic power will range between 28 and 33 dB, depending on the function, WD said.

      Check out eWEEK.coms Storage Center at http://storage.eweek.com for the latest news, reviews and analysis on enterprise and business storage hardware and software.

      Be sure to add our eWEEK.com developer and Web services news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page

      Mark Hachman
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×