SEAGATE REINVENTS BACKUP FOR YOUR DIGITAL LIFE New Consumer Storage First to Offer Saving and Sharing of Facebook and Flickr Photo/Video Albums

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) today introduced Backup Plus storage devices – its reinvented consumer storage product family that delivers the easiest setup, one-click backup and the ability to save and share your content on Facebook and Flickr.

Seagate^® Backup Plus hard drives are newly designed external storage that work interchangeably with both Windows^® and Apple^® computers and deliver new features to protect, share and save nearly every aspect of one’s digital life. These products come loaded with the new hassle-free Seagate Dashboard software for one-click local backup making it easier than ever to eliminate excuses or apprehensions about backing up one’s most valuable digital content. Seagate Backup Plus products are the world’s first external hard drives to provide backup for content on social networks, such as Facebook and Flickr. Storing a local duplicate copy of photos from social networks is now as easy as backing up files on your computer. Seagate Backup Plus will provide the peace of mind that every aspect of one’s digital life is safe from loss.

Backing up data is an absolute necessity that many people put off until after it’s too late. According to a 2011 study by Parks Associates less than one-quarter of the households in the survey have a weekly backup plan for their systems and only 4% are diligent enough to manually perform a backup on a daily basis.[i]

“The idea of providing a backup of photos and videos from Facebook is an interesting one, which I believe may help people come to realize the importance of maintaining multiple copies of any digital asset regardless of where it is stored,” said Brett Sappington, director of research for Parks Associates. “Social media has become a massive repository for personal digital content, and most consumers have not likely considered the possibility of losing access to those shared memories.”  

Seagate Backup Plus hard drives featuring the new Seagate Dashboard backup software remove the barriers to performing backup and content preservation by making it as easy as possible. With just a click of an icon, computer.

files are replicated onto a Backup Plus drive. The Seagate Dashboard included on Backup Plus also provides a single click path toSave (download) and Share (upload) personal photos and videos on Facebook and Flickr.

According to a recent survey commissioned by Seagate and conducted online by Harris Interactive from May 22-24, 2012, more than half (54%) of U.S. adults personally have and/or know someone who has lost files. Over one-quarter (27%) of U.S. adults personally have lost files and found that it was upsetting for them. While almost all (97%) of those surveyed were identified as computer owners; only 11% have a continuous backup plan and only 10% have a daily backup plan.[ii]

“Backing up needs to be an essential part of everyone’s digital life. Nearly everything that is dear to us is now in a digital format; from tax documents, to emails, to family photos and video, many of these files can not be recreated in the event of an accidental loss or system failure,” said BanSeng Teh, senior vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific and Japan. “Seagate is in the business of keeping digital content and files protected in every aspect, whether it is in the cloud, stored on PC or with our external consumer products. Backup Plus is a product that eliminates the barriers to protecting these digital assets. The new Dashboard delivers a simple and complete backup experience with the added benefit of saving photos and video stored on Facebook and other social networks.”

A Versatile Storage Device

In 2010, Seagate adopted the Universal Storage Module (USM^®) standard, which enables consumers to easily add the newest Mac^® and PC connection capabilities to their Seagate storage product even if these technologies are introduced later. To add yet another level of versatility, Seagate has introduced a way to have the company’s external storage products work cross-platform with both Mac^® and Windows^® operating systems without reformatting. 

Seagate Backup Plus Storage

Available immediately through select retailers and resellers in India, Seagate Backup Plus drives will initially be available in capacities of 500GB and 1TB capacities for portable drives and 2TB and 3TB for Backup Plus Desk drives.

This new family of external storage will be available in red, blue, silver and black for the portable 2.5-inch form factor with a manufacturer’s suggested retail prices at launch are: 500GB, Rs. 5,600; and 1TB, Rs. 7,700. The Backup Plus Desk 3.5-inch drive: 2TB, Rs. 8,500; and 3TB, Rs. 12,000 MSRP.

Silicon Power USB 3.0 series of portable hard drives now available in 1TB version

Keeping in mind the demand for high performance drives and huge storage capacities, Silicon Power unveils the latest addition to its USB 3.0 series of portable hard drives with a 1TB model.
The claimed ‘ultra-high capacity’ version is said to meet the requirements of even the most demanding computer gamer. Along with the 320GB, 500GB, 640GB and 750GB models, the 1TB edition is said to complete the company’s series of USB 3.0 portable drives.
Fitted with an LED indicator, users can identify whether the drives are running or transferring data. The company offers enhanced storage in three series namely SP Armor, SP Stream and Diamond. Equipped with shock-resistance and high read-write speeds, the Armor series is also claimed to achieve U.S. military drop and waterproof standards.
Designed with a race car form factor, the SP streams series comprises the S10 and S20 models and is said to allow users to access photos in a matter of seconds. Its elegant protective case creates a stylish look for the device. Whereas, the Diamond range features the classic checkerhead design. With its sleek and compact look, the product is stated to be a stylish option. Equipped with an exclusive SP Widget toolkit, the drives are promoted as perfect consumer-friendly data transmission and storage devices.
To make the series eco-friendly, a power saver mode is also available. Along with Norton Antivirus 2011, the SP Widget also features several back-up and security tools which are available as free download.
The price and availability for the Silicon Power USB 3.0 1TB series of portable hard drives is not mentioned by the company.

SILICON POWER S10-STREAM-750GB 3.0 USB PORTABLE HARD DRIVE (GREEN)

We have been reviewing portable hard drives since long and have seen them evolve. They used to be plain boring before; then they became trendy and fashionable. The one which we have for review today is one of the best looking portable hard drives we have ever reviewed. The Silicon Power Stream S10 is sleek and styled like a racing car with a beautiful exterior with pixie dust finish. With a healthy 750GB of portable storage capacity, this drive comes with the ultra-fast USB 3.0 interface, which actually does justice to this high capacity so you don t have to wait for hours for files to transfer. With elegant looks, this drive suits just about anyone. Silicon Power is a fast-rising name in the field of storage and we have previously tested USB Flash drives manufactured by them. We therefore have high hopes from this drive and this review will try to find out whether or not those hopes are fulfilled.
Silicon Power Stream S10 750 GB
* USB 3.0 cable
* Carry pouch
* Quick Start Guide
* Utility disc

Providing a carry pouch makes sense as it protects this beautiful drive's surface from scratches, especially when you carry it.

Design and Features

The Silicon Power Stream S10 is flat at the bottom and slightly convex at the top. Modeled on an expensive Italian sports car, the front of the drive has design representing front grilles and the activity LED at the center. As mentioned before, the casing has a matte finish which does not gather fingerprints and it has a pixie-dust touch of style. At just cm, this drive is very slim and it weighs just 145 g, so it is fairly easy to carry it in your coat pocket.

The USB 3.0 port is present at the side of the front end. This port looks like a USB port on the computer, unlike the mini/micro-USB ports usually present on portable hard drives. A power LED is present underneath the translucent window at the front to indicate power and data transfer.

The drive boasts of a 750 GB capacity, which is more than enough for most purposes. There is a 2.5-inch Toshiba MK7559GSXP 750 GB 5400 RPM laptop hard drive with 8 MB cache, inside the enclosure.

Software
The included software are SP Widget for Windows 7/Vista and Norton Antivirus trial version. You can also download a Windows 7 widget for the drive with functions such as backup and data encryption for specific folders. This is widget also lets you update the software and to avail of the special offers with this drive.

Seagate Launches Slimmest Ever External HDD

Storage capacity and the physical size of storage media have always shared an inverse relation. As the drives gradually shrunk over time, storage capacity has increased nonetheless. Seagate has given its GoFlex range of portable external drives the same treatment with the new GoFlex Slim drive. The Slim GoFlex variant packs in 320GB storage capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor that's slimmed down to 9mm, which is 38% thinner than the previous GoFlex range.

You essentially get the same form factor, but in a thinner package that's easier to slip into your pockets. The secret behind GoFlex Slim's anorexia is Seagate's Momentus Thin drive, which spins at a speedy 7200RPM and features the USB 3.0 interface. The drive may be slim, but the price sure isn't. It retails at an MRP of Rs. 4,500, but a trip to your local hardware haven is recommended for the current street price.

Hitachi Intros Touro Pro Desktop and Mobile External Hard Drives

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) is expanding its family of external storage and backup solutions with its new line of Hitachi Touro Pro desktop and mobile external hard drives. Delivering two levels of protection--local backup and cloud storage, the Touro Pro line is an all-in-one solution to help protect, transport and store your photos, music, videos and documents for easy access from anywhere.

In addition to providing simple local backup, the Touro Pro familys online storage option ensures your data is always protected and accessible in the cloud. With Hitachis intelligent storage solutions, you can access and share files from any web browser, tablet or Smartphone even from an iPhone and iPad using our apps. When using the cloud service, all content is stored in its natural format (no proprietary formatting), so files are easy to view, download and share from any web browser, anywhere. You can even share your online content with others by sending a web link.

Every customer receives 3GB of online storage for free and for more storage there is an option to upgrade to a quarter of a terabyte (250GB) for only US$49 per year, which includes multiple computer protection.Upgrade to a paid account and receive the Apple iPhone or iPad mobile digital device apps for free.

The Hitachi Touro Pro local backup software was developed in-house by our team of engineers. With a few clicks, the drives default setting will backup your photos, favorite music, videos, and documents from your computer directly to the drive. Once installed, backups run quietly and automatically every 30 minutes. And, its flexible enough to schedule custom backups on a time or day thats convenient for you.

Unbound by convention, Hitachi GST was the first to blend personal storage with cloud backup. Were liberating our customers from the limitations of todays technology and giving them free reign about where they store and how they access their digital content, said James Ho, vice president, Asia Pacific, Hitachi GST.

Featured in a sleek piano black design, Hitachi Touro Pro drives are easy-to-use with desktop and mobile solutions that cover virtually every Mac or PC users storage and backup needs. For simple add-on storage expansion only, Hitachi is offering a family of Hitachi Touro mobile and desktop solutions. The Hitachi Touro Mobile Pro and Touro Mobile drives are now available. The Hitachi Touro Desk Pro and Touro Desk versions will ship in June.

Samsung Announces New External Hard Drives with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Interface

Samsung announced today its new family of hard disk drives, including two portable drives and a desktop storage station. Supporting the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, the new external hard drives can provide data transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second, delivering a maximum 10-fold higher data transfer rate over the USB 2.0, allowing users to transfer a 25-gigabyte full HD movie in just four minutes.
The C2 Portable 3.0 features an iF award-winning design with a transparent high-gloss cover and an in-depth crystallized pattern. This premium series also comes with convenient back-up solution, Samsung Drive Manager, for an advanced user experience. It is available in densities of up to 1 terabytes, a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface and two color choices: Mystic Gray and Ruby Red.
The M3 Station, for desktop applications, shares the aesthetic of the M2 Portable series. Rounded corners give it a slimmer form factor for less desktop space, an LED light on the face of the drive indicates the operation status and both USB 2.0/3.0 interfaces are supported. The M3 Station comes in 1, 1.5 and 2 terabytes densities, and two colors: Brown Black or Noble Beige.

New Seagate 3TB Hard Disk For Rs 20,300

Computer storage disk major Seagate launched a new series of hard disk drive (HDD) for business houses, including a 3 terabyte (3000 gigabyte) HDD for Rs 20,300.

The hard disk is available in four categories of HDD namely Pulsar, Savvio 15K.3, Savvy 10K.5 and Constellation ES.
The storage capacity of Constellation ES series which has storage capacity of 3TB or 3000GB has been launched in the price range of Rs 20,300 to Rs 22,300.
Seagate has launched two models of Savvio 15K.3 with storage capacity of 146 and 300 GB, four models of Savvy 10K.5 with storage capacity of 300, 450, 600 and 900 GB, respectively. The price range of Savvio series is between Rs 23,650 to Rs 36,500.
The company has not yet fixed the price for Pulsar series of HDD. The storage capacity of this series ranges from 100 GB to 800 GB. This series will be shipped to the Indian market after two months.
“The price of this Pulsar series has not yet been determined. It will be decided at the time its shipment starts in to market which is two months from now,” said Rajesh Khurana, country manager for India and SAARC, Seagate Technology.

Toshiba releases self-erasing drives

Toshiba Wednesday unveiled its first family of self-encrypting hard disk drives (HDDs) that can also erase data when connected to an unknown host.
The new Toshiba Self-Encrypting Drives (SED) (models MKxx61GSYG) enable system manufacturers to configure different data invalidation options that align with various end-user scenarios.
The new 2.5-in, 7,200 rpm drives are targeted for use in PCs, copiers and multi-function printers, along with point-of-sale systems used in government, financial, medical, or similar environments that need to protect sensitive information.
The drives come in capacities ranging from 160GB to 640GB, and have 16MB of buffer memory, and use the SATA (serial ATA) 2.0 specification, which affords up to 3Gbit/sec throughput.
When initially powered up, Toshiba's new SED HDDs and their host perform an authentication process. If the authentication fails, the drive can be configured to simply deny access or perform cryptographic erase on specified blocks of data. Cryptographic erase is the process by which keys that allow a system to decrypt data are deleted, leaving the data permanently encrypted and unreadable.
The new HDDs use the AES 256-bit encryption algorithm to protect data at rest, and a proprietary data wipe technology that's enabled by the Opal Storage Specification from the Trusted Computing Group. The Opal Storage Specification allows the creation of authentication policy so that devices can determine trusted platform hosts.
"Digital systems vendors recognize the need to help their customers protect sensitive data from leakage or theft. Toshiba's security technologies provide designers of copiers, printers, PCs, and other systems with new capabilities to help address these important security concerns," said Scott Wright, a product manager in Toshiba's Storage Device Division, in a statement.
Toshiba's data invalidation attributes can be set for multiple data ranges, enabling targeted data in the drive to be rendered indecipherable by command, on power cycle, or on host authentication error, what Toshiba described as "an industry first."
"This flexibility provides systems designers with a powerful set of data security options that can be easily incorporated into existing system architecture," the company stated.
Customer sampling and volume production of the new SEDs will begin in the second quarter focused on designated system manufacturers and independent software vendors so they can integrate the latest data wipe technology features.

Strontium Launches SSD Matrix Series

Strontium Technology has launched the world’s fastest Solid State Drives as their new Matrix series in 128GB capacity at a Press Conference in New Delhi.
Based on industry-leading 25nm NAND flash memory, the Strontium SSD Matrix Series delivers more performance and reliability features.It is targeted for corporate IT or PC enthusiasts who would like a substantial performance boost over conventional mechanical hard disk drives. The technical data on the Strontium SSD Matrix Series are as follows:

• 2.5-inch form factor
• Marvell 88SS9174-BLD2 controller
• MLC NAND Flash chips in leading-edge 25nm design
• Random read / write performance up to 40,000/50,000IOPS
• 128GB model reading speed / write speed with 415/175MB per second using SATA-3

Strontium alsolaunched mainstream SSD Gamma series in 60 and 120GB. The 2.5-inch Gamma SSD uses25nmMLC NAND and Sandforce SF-1222 controller. It is available in two capacities: 60GB and 120GB with read and write speeds of 200MBps and 100MBps respectively. It enjoys reduced cost over its predecessors and is meant for mainstream consumers.

Strontium unveiled an advertising campaign to promote their SSD in Indian market. Mr Vivian Singh, Director and Co-Founder of Strontium Technology, said, “The key message of the campaign called ‘Boot up Faster’ is to use Strontium SSD for faster boot up and accelerated application performance.“
At the Conference, Strontium also announced the winners of Strontium SMS Star Contest. The contest ran for 7 monthson purchase of Strontium’s USB drives, which saw participation from nearly 120,000 customers. Lucky participants took home their prizes including Chevrolet Beat car, Hero Honda CBZ, Sony LCD TV, Ray Ban glasses, IPhones, MacBooks, Digital Cameras, IPods, mobile phones, Sony PS2 and Wrist Watches. The results of the Draw can be viewed on Strontium’s website at www.strontium.biz.

Since opening its new branch office in New Delhi, Strontium has significantly increased its work force in India and continues to recruit. Mr Vivian Singh said, “Our continued expansion in India will allow us to work closely with System Integrators and Channel customers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, to provideleading edge, top quality products with unparalleled service. Most of our partners and customers understand the benefits of Major Brand Chipsets.Now we can be closer to them and respond more quickly to their requirements."

Imation Unveils Defender H200 Biometric Drive

While data integrity forms the most basic requirement for data storage. The more portable forms of storage also require better security in the form of data encryption. Imation has launched the Defender H200 Biometric external hard drive that provides stringent security for businesses and professionals seeking uncompromising approach at data encryption.

The Defender H200 has a two stage authentication system that requires anyone accessing the hard drive to input a password as well as pass fingerprint verification using the inbuilt biometric scanner on the drive. The USB 2.0 portable hard drive delivers FIPS 140-2, level 3 hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption through a dedicated cryptographic processor, which supports up to 10 secure user accounts.

In simple English, that means it will take a very powerful number cruncher and a long, long time to crack the authentication system with a brute force attack. Hackers trying to employ the hardware route are claimed to be thwarted by the tamper proof metal chassis that houses the drive. The 500GB hard drive is priced at Rs. 19,500.

Apacer AC230 USB 3.0 External Hard Disk Drive

Still waiting around for those tons of digital data to finish backing up or transferring? Everyone knows that time is money, and because we hold the same value, Apacer is proud to announce the launch of the new AC230 USB 3.0 external HDD (hard disk drive).
With read and write speed up to 92MB and 85 MB per second, the newly unveiled AC230 is three times faster than USB 2.0 equivalent models, giving you a boost in performance while backing up all quantities of data and media files, without the hassle of waiting.

Better yet, alongside these Super Speed transmission rates, the graphite black Apacer AC230 USB 3.0 external HDD is available in 500 GB, 640 GB and 750 GB capacities, at a price that beats most other competing offers for USB 3.0 hard drives. And sporting a lightweight, slim construction makes carrying it everywhere you go effortless.

No More Long Waits for Transferring Vast Amounts of Data
AC230’s Magic: 3X Faster
With the increasing popularity of high-resolution videos and digital photography, storage requirements for backing up, storing and sharing data can amount to hundreds of GBs. The same can be said about the outrageous expected wait times for handling such important tasks. The Apacer AC230 External HDD, however, exhibits a top data transfer rate of up to 92 MB/s for reading and 85 MB/s for writing, taking only 4 minutes to transfer a 20 GB high-resolution video. In contrast to the 12 minutes it usually takes with a USB 2.0 hard drive, the AC230 HDD remarkably outperforms conventional USB 2.0 drives by shortening transmission time by three times! This impressive capability makes Apacer proud to say that “while USB 3.0 interface improves data transfer rates and saves consumers time, it is still priced high. Only the Apacer AC230 External HDD addresses the need for both the best transfer speed and an affordable price, making it the best choice on the market.”

Smart Power Management
With its built-in smart power management that works hand in hand with a computer’s operating system, the Apacer AC230 External HDD automatically runs in energy-saving mode. When the drive is idle for 10 minutes, the Apacer AC230 goes into power-saving mode to effectively reduce power consumption, resulting in a prolonged life for the hard drive. What’s more, embracing USB 3.0 standards and being fully backward-compatible with USB 2.0 interface, the Apacer AC230 sports a dual-color LED that indicates whether the current transfer interface is USB 2.0 or 3.0 by flashing red or blue, respectively, thus keeping the user informed in real time about the status of the hard drive.

Intelligent Backup: Protecting Your Digital Life
The Apacer AC230 features a one-touch backup function that enables users to back up critical data, personal information, and one’s precious life memories captured in media files with just a single click. This key feature not only makes backing up ultimately simple, but also allows for instantaneous duplication of files, both of which can be stored safely in the user’s specified file locations. In addition, even more protection of your digital life is provided by PCClone EX Lite, a graphical user-interface backup utility that allows you to configure your personal backup preferences easily, making data recovery after an unexpected system crash fast and effective.

Seagate ships Window XP-friendly 3TB hard drive

Seagate shipped the first 3TB hard drive, the Barracuda XT, which was only available in external storage options, such as an external hard drive or the BlackArmor NAS servers. Today the company announced the first standalone version of the same drive that consumers can buy and use with their desktop computers.
Seagate has a good reason for the delay, however. The company says it wanted take time and find an easy way to make the hard drive support Windows XP, which is still popular, including using the drive as the system's main hard drive. Prior to this, both Western Digital and Hitachi announced 3TB hard drives with different approaches to supporting legacy operating systems. Neither allows for booting, however.
The reason for this incompatibility is that 32-bit Windows operating systems generally use only the legacy master boot record (MBR), which has a cap partition size of 2.19TB, to manage the hard drive. This means that the system won't see more than 2.19TB of storage, regardless of how much larger the hard drive's actual capacity is.
On top of that, Windows computers that use BIOS (basic input/output system)-based motherboards, which are the majority of computers on the market, can't boot from a volume that's larger than 2.19TB, either, because of the limitation of BIOS protocols. While this problem can be solved in the near future by replacing MBR with GUID Partition Table and BIOS with the new Extensible Firmware Interface, there are still many existing computers, especially those that run Windows XP, that would miss out on the top storage capacity. Unless they use the new Barracuda XT, that is.
Seagate claims that its new DiscWizard software allows you to use the new 3TB drive's entire capacity, even when the hard drive is used as a bootable main drive. Once the OS has been installed on the new hard drive on a partition that the OS can recognize, which is smaller than 3TB, you can install DiscWizard, which includes special drivers that allow the OS to recognize the rest of the hard drive's capacity and turn that into a second partition.
In other words, you will be able to use the 3TB Barracuda XT with Windows XP, as a main hard drive, in two separate partitions that total 3TB, but not as a single 3TB volume. While this is not a perfect solution, it's a good one, considering that Western Digital's 3TB hard drive requires an add-in card and still can only work as a secondary hard drive in a computer. When used with EFI and Windows Vista/7 64-bit version, the 3TB Barracuda XT will function like a normal 3TB hard drive.
Other than this, the Barracuda XT hard drive sports a 64MB cache, uses the top-tier Serial ATA 6Gbps interface, and spins at 7,200rpm. It's designed for high-end desktop gaming and storage-intensive computers. The hard drive is available now, and comes with a five-year warranty. It's slated to cost $279.

Western Digital 3TB Caviar Green HD: Pushing the capacity envelope

 

Western Digital's new 3TB internal hard drive offers the most storage space currently available

The big buzz in hard drives right now is Western Digital's 3TB WD Caviar Green (Model WD30EZRS) internal drive. Along with its cavernous capacity, the drive, which is available for about $230, boasts a 64MB cache and is SATA 3Gbit/sec.-compatible. But what makes it special -- it's the largest capacity internal hard drive currently available -- is also what makes it awkward.