PCWorld: "Notebook Storage Hits 100GB"

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115791,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115791,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"Toshiba has developed a hard drive for notebook computers that can hold 100GB of data. The company expects to begin selling it later this year, it says. The new hard drive offers a quarter more storage space than the company's current highest capacity notebook drive and is the first 2.5-inch drive from any manufacturer to store 100GB, according to Toshiba.<br /><br />The company employed a new thin-film technology on both the head and platter to make the drive. That film increased the head's sensitivity and allowed engineers to increase the areal density to 80 gigabits per square inch, from the 65 gigabits per square inch on Toshiba's current 80GB notebook drives, says Midori Suzuki, a spokesperson for Toshiba in Tokyo."<br /><br />Toshiba's new drive will have the ATA-6 interface and spin at 4200rpm. The speed of the drive is the low point IMO because I like to have a laptop with a minimum of 5400rpm (I currently have one with 7200rpm) even though it reduces the battery life of the laptop. With this drive, they have also improved the amount of shock it can absorb. The drive will be available next month, but will have a whopping price tag of $1096 upon release.

[dacs29]

What kind of laptop do you have that has a 7200 rpm HD?

David

[Bob12]

HP already has a 100GB drive available in at least the ZD7000 series Pavilion notebook. It's also a 4200rpm drive.

[Crocuta]

When I bought (well, when my college bought for me) my current Dell laptop there was only one model of hard drive available that was even 5400 rpm, and it feels painfully slow next to my desktop at home. Size is fine, but I'd rather see more 7200 rpm options. I understand the power implications, but I think think lots of people would make that tradeoff for performance.

[Suhit Gupta]

What kind of laptop do you have that has a 7200 rpm HD?
I have the Toshiba Portege M200. One has the option of upgrading the default 40GB 4200 drive to a 40GB 5400rpm or the 60GB 7200rpm drive :).

Suhit

[Stillwater]

Wouldn't increasing the areal density to 80 gigabits per square inch, from the 65 gigabits per square inch mean the head does not have to travel as far to read the same quantity of data?

Thereby increasing the effective rpms. I think it is how fast the drive can access your information that matters not how fast the platter rotates. I would rather have a drive that spins slower if it can still access the drive data more quickly than a drive that spins faster.

--my 2sense

[Kacey Green]

Wouldn't increasing the areal density to 80 gigabits per square inch, from the 65 gigabits per square inch mean the head does not have to travel as far to read the same quantity of data?

Thereby increasing the effective rpms. I think it is how fast the drive can access your information that matters not how fast the platter rotates. I would rather have a drive that spins slower if it can still access the drive data more quickly than a drive that spins faster.

--my 2sense

hear, hear!, or is it here, here!? (if anyone knows which is right let me know, but you get the point)

[Crocuta]

Wouldn't increasing the areal density to 80 gigabits per square inch, from the 65 gigabits per square inch mean the head does not have to travel as far to read the same quantity of data?

Thereby increasing the effective rpms. I think it is how fast the drive can access your information that matters not how fast the platter rotates. I would rather have a drive that spins slower if it can still access the drive data more quickly than a drive that spins faster.

--my 2sense

Increasing the density may well speed up the drive, but for any given density, a drive spinning faster will access data quicker than a drive spinning slower. Greater density? Great, I'll take that speed increase too, but I still want an option for a 7200 rpm drive in my laptop!

[Jason Dunn]

Increasing the density may well speed up the drive, but for any given density, a drive spinning faster will access data quicker than a drive spinning slower. Greater density? Great, I'll take that speed increase too, but I still want an option for a 7200 rpm drive in my laptop!

True, but the faster the drive spins, the greater the power consumption. ;-) So, as in all things, it's about balance. FWIW, I do full video capture and editing on my P5010D, and it has a 4200 RPM drive. Would it be faster with a 7200 RPM drive? In some ways, yes. But would I have worse battery life with a 7200 RPM? Yup. Trade offs. ;-)

[Suhit Gupta]

True, but the faster the drive spins, the greater the power consumption. ;-) So, as in all things, it's about balance. FWIW, I do full video capture and editing on my P5010D, and it has a 4200 RPM drive. Would it be faster with a 7200 RPM drive? In some ways, yes. But would I have worse battery life with a 7200 RPM? Yup. Trade offs. ;-)
So this is why they have 5400rpm drives, a nice compromise between the 4200rpm (higher battery life) and the 7200rpm (higher performance). Although personally, I will take performance over battery life. This is why I currently have the 7200.

Suhit

[Crocuta]

I still want an option for a 7200 rpm drive in my laptop!

True, but the faster the drive spins, the greater the power consumption. ;-) So, as in all things, it's about balance. FWIW, I do full video capture and editing on my P5010D, and it has a 4200 RPM drive. Would it be faster with a 7200 RPM drive? In some ways, yes. But would I have worse battery life with a 7200 RPM? Yup. Trade offs. ;-)

Yeah, that's what I was saying in my earlier post in this thread. I understand the power implications and would be willing to make that tradeoff. I use my laptop 90% of the time in its docking station and the other 10% while giving lectures in classes. I keep two batteries in it all the time and rarely use more than about 1/3 of the battery capacity. So I'd bear virtually no cost in battery life since I don't push those limits now. On the other hand, I live with this painfully slow HDD every day. If I had an option to change it, I would. Of course, I'm not saying that everyone would want to make that tradeoff, just bemoaning the fact that I didn't even have the option.

[Jason Dunn]

If I had an option to change it, I would. Of course, I'm not saying that everyone would want to make that tradeoff, just bemoaning the fact that I didn't even have the option.

Sure, I hear you. But why can't you change it? School policy? I've upgraded hard drives on notebooks before, and it's pretty quick and easy.

[Suhit Gupta]

If I had an option to change it, I would. Of course, I'm not saying that everyone would want to make that tradeoff, just bemoaning the fact that I didn't even have the option.
Sure, I hear you. But why can't you change it? School policy? I've upgraded hard drives on notebooks before, and it's pretty quick and easy.
Yep, just pop out the old one and put in the new. The only pain I find with laptops is restoring the OS. Typically, most laptops come with all kinds of extra cool utilities, but they don't necessarily come with the recovery disks. In fact I recently started to upgrade my boss' Thinkpad and IBM was willing to sell me the hard drive. However the drive did not come with a recovery disk and the laptop did not come with either. Of course, the sales person completely neglected to tell me that I needed the OS, luckily I asked. To make matters worse, the division that sells the hard drive does not sell the recovery disks and so I had to call a completely different dept. Argh! :evil: Think about it, at least I remembered to ask them about the software; I can totally see people forgetting and then having to wait to order the software separately.

Suhit

[Jason Dunn]

The only pain I find with laptops is restoring the OS. Typically, most laptops come with all kinds of extra cool utilities, but they don't necessarily come with the recovery disks.

If you need to reinstall the whole OS, yeah, that would definitely suck.

But if the goal is to put in a bigger hard drive and have things back the way they were before with the OS, then you'd need to close the hard drive - I use Acronis TrueImage (www.acronis.com) to close the image of the drive across the LAN or to a CD-R, install the new drive, then clone the image back, reboot, and voila - everything is back to the way it was before, only with a bigger hard drive. :way to go: