Mac Users Get New Storage Options
Maxtor Corp.'s newly unveiled OneTouch II drive has a FireWire 800 interface that delivers up to 800 megabits per second of data transfer. Users can can connect the drive to their systems using the FireWire 800, FireWire 400 or USB 2.0 interface to quickly transfer and store high-resolution graphics, digital audio and video and dense multimedia files.
FireWire 800 provides twice the bandwidth of FireWire 400 and is 66 times faster than USB 1.1, Maxtor said in a statement. Coupling the interface with the new drive's 300-gigabyte capacity and 16-megabyte buffer offers users impressive acceleration. Each drives also comes with EMC Dantz Retrospect Express HD software for backup and restores.
Pricing for a 200-Gbyte drive is $365; the 300-Gbyte drive is $455 and both will ship sometime this month. A 500-Gbyte version is supposed to ship later this year, Maxtor said.
Separately, Asigra introduced this week the Mac OS X version of its Televaulting backup and recovery software for multi-site businesses.
Televaulting for Mac OS X offers the first agentless backup/recovery environment geared toward Macintosh desktops, laptops, servers and mixed Mac/Windows environments, Asigra claimed. The agent-less aspect allows users to protect every system on the network without the hassle of agent-based license fees, agent installation, agent-induced performance loss and annual upgrades.
The new software allows a Macintosh server to back up Mac OS X systems, Windows servers, PCs or laptops. Televaulting for Mac OS X also supports backups for Novell NetWare, Linux, or Unix. Televaulting for Mac OS X also offers guaranteed backup with autonomic healing functionality and security features to protect backup data in transit and at rest, Asigra said.
The new Televaulting software will be available in the fourth quarter; pricing starts at $11,250.