Tag Archives: hard disk

This monolith-inspired hard disk is an attractive desk prop, even when not in use

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A monolith-shaped hard disk that breaks the general convention of computer peripheral design and doubles as an attractive desk prop.

The mysterious monolith that first appeared in Utah, was spotted in several other random locations worldwide with no clue what it actually was. It could have been a hoax, some artwork, a leftover prop from Westworld’s shooting, or maybe even the work of sn extraterritorial. Whatever the theories for this strange-looking appearance, the truth is still unknown.

Designer: Juan Lee

These long vertical slabs of metal measuring 10-12 feet appeared with no warning and disappeared just as abruptly. Inspired by the reflective surface and geometric shape of these monoliths, a designer let loose his imagination to create a very different-looking hard disk. A triangular pillar-like HDD christened Unidentifed takes a bold leap from the flat horizontal design of hard disks that we’ve seen thus far. This never-before-seen design kind of grew on me every time I glanced it over to pen down this write-up.

According to the designer he ventured on this project to portray the story of the monolith, “containing this mysterious knowledge on an external hard disk.” The C-to-C cables for the blazing-fast data transfer are stored right inside the hard disk when not in use. Rather than storing it inside your desk cabinet, the Unidentified HDD is worthy enough to make any workspace feel more Sci-Fi. The mirror-like gloss finish reflects the objects and colors around it. Thus, perfectly matching the ambiance of the surroundings. Just image it shine with the multi-hued colors of the screen’s bias light or the mood lamp.

The Unidentifed hard disk is imagined in two fantastic color options – Silver Grey and Metallic Copper. Right now, this design is just a concept and has the potential to catch eyeballs if turned into a real product.

The post This monolith-inspired hard disk is an attractive desk prop, even when not in use first appeared on Yanko Design.

Lenovo’s cloud-based hard-drive gives you unlimited, expandable storage in your palm

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So Google really screwed me over the other day. I’ve owned my Pixel 2 for over two years and by far its most compelling feature has been the fact that Google promised unlimited storage for my photos, but of late, Google’s been reneging on that promise. My Google Photos account is tied to my Google Drive account, and here lies my problem. I was promised unlimited storage for my photos, but my Google Drive has limited storage, which it distributes to my photos, as well as to my Gmail… and Google isn’t distinguishing between the two services anymore. It’s like saying you get unlimited sugar with your coffee, but your coffee already has sugar in it, and there’s no sugar available separately. I’d normally consider shelling out money for expanding my Google Drive’s storage, but the fact that it’s a monthly subscription and not a one-time fee is a bit of a dealbreaker.

If anyone is, like me, against the idea of paying monthly for cloud-storage, Lenovo may have stumbled across an interesting idea. The Lenovo Awan is a conceptual hard-drive that basically lets you carry your dedicated cloud server along with you. Rather than being an external hard-disk or SSD, the Lenovo Awan is basically a plug-and-use device that connects you to a cloud-drive. Buy the Awan and you get access to cloud storage with a one-time payment. When you connect the Awan to a machine like a laptop or computer, you’re actually connecting it to the cloud. Lenovo’s Awan, in theory, brings cloud storage into something that’s a piece of hardware that you can carry around with you and plug into devices. The advantage? Not having to pay pesky subscription fees that can often end up costing you thousands of dollars over the years. Besides, in theory, since the Awan provides cloud storage, and isn’t a storage drive itself, you can easily upgrade the amount of storage by paying a top-up fee. The Awan’s screen tells you how much storage you have, and an in-display fingerprint sensor lets you secure your data. Pretty convenient, eh? Rather than buying a drive, you buy access to cloud storage! And yes, there’s probably an app for it, but hear me out. Do you really want to install an app on every device you use to access your files? The Lenovo Awan gives you the convenience of plug-and-use storage… and no annoying app-update notifications!

The Lenovo Awan Storage is a winner of the iF Design Award for the year 2020.

Designer: Lenovo

Stackable Storage for your data!

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Modular, colorful, and with a UI that’s seriously to die for, the UP Memory Tower by Anton Repponen is like the Towers Of Hanoi game meets storage. With a connecting base at the bottom and a cooling fan at the very top, Repponen’s stackable storage allows you to, intuitively build your own hard drive using vertically stacked, color-coded individual disks of storage.

The disks range from 1 to 8 terabytes of storage (there’s even a speckled 2Tb hard disk for LeManoosh lovers!) and the color coding helps to let you segregate the drives based on content. The drives stack on top of each other, and connect via the base to a laptop or desktop, where an incredibly intuitive and beautiful UI makes it easy to configure and control your data. Designed clearly for creatives, the UP Memory Tower is absolutely perfect for photographers, video editors, designers and others who frequently work with large file sizes. In fact I’m writing a letter to Anton right now to start building prototypes for mass manufacture!

Designer: Anton Repponen

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A Hardcore Hard Drive

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All rejoice! The Porsche Design Hard Drive is officially the coolest in the world! Designed for professionals, the aesthetic of the hard drive does tend to match the tech you connect it to. Encased in anodized aluminum with a black plate on the top etched with the branding, this hard drive pairs perfectly with your Macbook. It happens to be one of the first hard drives to honor the USB Type C connection for more secure and faster file transfers. Speaking of file transfers, the Porsche Design Hard Drive has possibly the most needed features integrated into its design. The first innovative feature is the green LED strip on the edge. The strip lights up from start to end indicating file transfer progress. It’s just more convenient to know what percent of your files have transfered by just looking at the progress bar lit up on the drive rather than maximize and minimize unnecessary tabs. It even comes with a Force Eject button that allows you to remove the hard drive in a hurry. You can see the inconspicuous button right beside the Type C USB port. Its aim is to be your emergency resort, rather than a habitual function. Lastly, the hard drive comes with a gloss black dock that allows it to stand tall on your desk… because just like evolution made the humans stand tall, the hard disk must follow the same suit!

Designer: Paul Branson

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How to Turn a Hard Drive Into a Cotton Candy Machine

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Cotton Candy Hard Drive

The things that you can do with an old hard drive is virtually limitless. If it’s beyond repair, then you can have it taken apart and salvaged for parts. You could sell the components, or use it to create hard drive works of art, like the Shadow of the Colossus hard drive. If you’re not very artsy, then you could mod it so you can use it as a paper weight, door stopper, or a book end.

However, if you’re particularly handy with tools and have a sweet tooth, then you might want to embark on a little DIY project and turn it into a cotton candy machine instead.

Cotton Candy Hard Drive1

It sounds pretty far out, but we wouldn’t be talking about it if it weren’t possible. A Chinese engineer who runs a hard drive repair and recovery center was able to do it, and it looks like he made quite a few batches of candy with his DIY gizmo. He posted instructions on how he transformed his old hard disk into a candy floss machine online, where he used 6 bicycle spokes, a plastic basin, an aluminum can, and a round flat metal tin aside from the drive during the entire process.

Tell us about your attempts if you decide to go for it!

VIA [ MIC Gadget ]

Apple extends 1TB Seagate HDD replacement program to cover additional iMacs

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Apple extends 1TB Seagate HDD replacement program to cover additional iMacs

Last year, faulty 1TB Seagate drives living in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs purchased between May and July of 2011 were at the heart of Apple's HDD replacement program. Now, Cupertino has extended the initiative to encompass rigs sold between October 2009 and July 2011. Customers with an affected iMac are eligible to receive a free drive until April 12, 2013 or for three years after their desktop's original purchase date. Curious if your machine contains an afflicted hard drive? Simply visit the source link below and plug in your computer's serial number to find out. If you do need a replacement, an Apple Store or authorized service center will be happy to help -- just remember to back up your drive before parting with it.

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Apple extends 1TB Seagate HDD replacement program to cover additional iMacs originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Oct 2012 20:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Western Digital bumps My Book Thunderbolt Duo to 8TB, consoles regular My Book buyers with 4TB

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Western Digital MyBook Thunderbolt Duo at Macworld 2012

Many of us may have liked the prospect of Western Digital's My Book Thunderbolt Duo, but there's no doubt some of us who discovered that even 6TB just wouldn't cut it. If that digital pack rat mentality describes you, the solution is here: the company has taken advantage of larger 4TB hard disks to stuff a total 8TB of storage into the Duo's enclosure. The extra capacity hikes the price to $850, although the company notes that it's including the often expensive Thunderbolt cable to avoid any surprise trips to the store. Those without the ports or budget for the Duo can still reap some of the benefits through an updated, 4TB version of the regular My Book that hums along on USB 3.0 at a more reasonable $250 price. Either of the new drives should be lurking in stores if you're hurting for space as we write this.

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Western Digital bumps My Book Thunderbolt Duo to 8TB, consoles regular My Book buyers with 4TB originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HGST develops helium-filled, high-capacity hard drives: no, they won’t float away

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HGST CinemaStar Z7K500

With certain exceptions, talk of advanced hard drive technology regularly has a tough time escaping research labs. Western Digital's HGST is promising a much more tangible project that could boost data capacities by a wide margin. By filling the gaps between drive platters with less buffeting-prone helium instead of air, HGST can safely fit as many as seven platters in a typical, 3.5-inch desktop hard drive instead of the current five. Going with the lower density gas creates a raft of side benefits, such as fitting more data on a single platter along with reducing the drag that both slows down and heats up the disk. We'll have to wait until 2013 to see shipping helium-filled drives in our PCs; given the slightly exotic nature of the technique, though, we wouldn't count on HGST or Western Digital handing out drives for free like balloons at a birthday party.

Continue reading HGST develops helium-filled, high-capacity hard drives: no, they won't float away

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HGST develops helium-filled, high-capacity hard drives: no, they won't float away originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Western Digital brings wafer thin 5mm hard drives to IDF, we go hands-on (video)

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Western Digital brings wafer thin 5mm hard drives to IDF, we go hands-on video

We're a jaded bunch here at Engadget sometimes, and with most of us using SSD-based systems these days it's hard to get too excited about good old spinny disks. Still we're also suckers for impressive technology, so our interest was piqued when Western Digital announced its 5mm thin 2.5-inch hard drives the other day. Luckily, the company saw fit to bring samples of its skinny new WD Black hybrid drive and WD Blue HDD to IDF 2012 and let us handle both briefly. The verdict? These are impossibly thin -- perfect for all those nice Ultrabooks we're expecting to see hit the market in the next few months. Details on performance, availability and pricing are scarce since these drives are intended for OEMs. Take a look at our gallery below, which includes thickness comparisons with WD's upcoming 1TB 7mm thin HDD and a standard-sized loyalty card -- then peek past the break for our hands-on video.

Gallery: Western Digital 5mm thin hard drive hands-on

Update: yes, the loyalty card was demagnetized in the making of this video, and you now owe us all coffee.

Continue reading Western Digital brings wafer thin 5mm hard drives to IDF, we go hands-on (video)

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Western Digital brings wafer thin 5mm hard drives to IDF, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Western Digital builds 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, Ultrabook makers sign on early

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Western Digital builds 5mmthick hybrid hard drive, Ultrabook makers sign on early

Those 7mm-thick hard drives you've seen in some Ultrabooks are already looking a tad on the chunky side. Western Digital has started producing sample versions of a hybrid hard drive (you're not yet looking at it here) that measures just 5mm (0.2in) tall, even as it crams in both flash and a 500GB main disk. If you think the slimmer drive is just the ticket for a best-of-all-worlds laptop that's both fast and capacious, you're not alone: Acer and ASUS have mentioned their collaboration in the same breath, which may be a strong clue as to where future Aspires and Zenbooks are going. The remaining question is when they arrive. Sampling isn't the same as mass production, which could leave us with months to go before the 5mm drive lands in future extra-skinny PCs.

Continue reading Western Digital builds 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, Ultrabook makers sign on early

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Western Digital builds 5mm-thick hybrid hard drive, Ultrabook makers sign on early originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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