Seagate's Perpendicular Hard Drive

Product Name: InfoSafe Mobile 2.5" Hard Drive Enclosure Price: $39.99 Distributors/Integrators: D&H, Ingram Micro, Tech Data Company Name: StarTech.com 800-265-1844 URL: www.startech.com

Product Name: Momentus 5400.3 Hard Drive Price: $325 Distributors/Integrators: Ingram Micro, Tech Data, Synnex, Bell Microproducts, ASI Corporation, CTI, Condre Storage Inc, D&H, eSys Distribution Inc. Company Name: Seagate Technology (877) 271-3285 URL: www.seagate.com

In the Whitebox section of the March 6, 2006 issue of CRN, a 2.5-inch portable hard drive enclosure made by Startech.com was covered. Startech.com’s InfoSafe drive enclosures turn ordinary hard drives into portable, hot-swappable units that are used externally. The solid aluminum enclosures support IDE drives and have a USB 2.0 interface.

The InfoSafe drive enclosure was tested using a brand new 160 Gbyte 2.5-inch hard drive made by Seagate. What’s interesting about the hard drive is that Seagate used perpendicular recording technology to squeeze 160 Gbytes onto such a small drive. The Momentus 5400.3 is a 5,400-rpm drive that packs 132 Gbits per square inch by standing data bits on end rather than flat to the surface as traditionally done with longitudinal recording. Except for the availability of larger hard drives, this is an engineering breakthrough is transparent to users. Look for a more detailed report on Seagate’s Momentus 5400.3 hard drive in an upcoming whitebox section in CRN.