Seagate 3TB Drive Raises Storage to New Heights

Melissa J. Perenson, PC World

Jun 29, 2010 3:01 pm

Iit feels like we've been stuck at 2TB forever. Not anymore: Seagate announced it's shipping the industry's first 3TB hard drive, the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Drive.

This news is significant because Seagate has figured out a workaround to the long-standing constraint that has kept hard drive capacity maxed out at 2TB. (The first 2TB hard drive debutedother drives in the GoFlex line, you can swap out the USB 2.0 base for optional USB 3.0 or FireWire 800 modules, which will provide better performance. from Western Digital debuted a year-and-a-half ago.) Moreover, not only is the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk the first to break past that limitation, it does so at a reasonable cost per gigabyte: The drive, with a USB 2.0 connector, will sell for $250, which works out to $0.08 per gigabyte. By comparison, Seagate sells its 2TB GoFlex Desk External Drive (also with a USB 2.0 base) for $190, or $0.09 per gigabyte. As with

That's a lot of storage for a single drive. While the company doesn't specify its file parameters, it does say its 3TB drive can store up to 120 high-definition movies, 1,500 video games, thousands of photos, or "countless" hours of digital music. Already, I'm thinking about how many 18-megapixel RAW images I can store on a single drive.

Why the Limit?

So what's kept capacity back all this time? According to Seagate engineers, the 2TB limitation was neither an issue with the file structure (Window's NTFS) nor with the Windows operating system itself. Rather, the issue lay with the master boot record (MBR) partition table, contained in the first sector of a hard disk drive. The partition table used with Windows XP and earlier Microsoft operating systems was limited to just 2.2TB--which, a decade-plus ago, seemed an unthinkably high number. The table works by using numbers to represent the starting sector and number of sectors of a partition, and it maxes out at 2.2TB (using 512-byte sector sizes).

Windows Vista and Windows 7 introduced a new partition table scheme, dubbed GPT (for GUID Partition Table). The GPT blasted past the previous limitations by supporting up to 8 Zettabytes.(2^64 sectors, which, when using 512 bytes per sector, equates to 8 Zettabytes). For perspective, consider that 1024 Terabytes=one Petabyte; 1024 Petabytes=one Exabyte; and 1024 Exabytes =one Zettabyte. Windows Vista and Windows 7 maintain backward compatibility by also reading and writing MBR partitions.

Seagate's work-around for the 3TB drive is to make the MBR report a 4K sector size to the operating system, in order to accommodate a larger drive inside. As such, the drive can then work with Windows XP-still a major factor in the marketplace-Windows Vista, and Windows 7, as well as with Mac OS and Linux (neither of which ever had to deal with this partition table constraint to begin with).

With this SmartAlign Technology, as Seagate calls it, the 3TB drive achieves its capacity boost without increasing areal density. The 3TB drive has five platters, each with 600GB. That's one platter more than current 2TB drives have. The increased capacity comes from the 4K sector size; as such, it has fewer sector "headers" required on the drive itself. This in turn allows for more space to be allocated to data.

What's Next

As enticing as 3TB sounds, though, this won't be the end of the line for increasing 3.5-inch hard drive storage this year. Storage analyst Tom Coughlin, of Coughlin Associates, notes "I expect we will see up to 750GB to 800GB per platter on 3.5-inch drives before the end of this year. That would give us 3TB or more with a four-platter drive, or approaching 4TB with a five-platter drive." Expect more advances in areal density for 2.5-inch drives, too; there, Coughlin expects us to see a two-platter, 1TB drive that will fit in a standard z-height notebook computer later this year.

 

Amazon Juices E-books with Audio and Video

Ian Paul, PC World

Jun 28, 2010 3:28 pm

Amazon has added multimedia content exclusively for e-books viewed on Apple iOS devices including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Starting Monday, some Kindle e-books include full video playback functionality as well as embedded audio.

Audio/Video Titles include travel books with embedded walking tours by Rick Steves--author of the backpacker's classic Europe Through the Backdoor--for European cities like Paris, London, and Venice. There's a Beatles songbook for guitar with musical examples, and a cake baking guide by Rose Levy Beranbaum with video instruction.

At launch, Kindle is offering one fiction and 12 nonfiction titles capable of using the new functionality, and every title is priced at $10. All audio/video titles must be downloaded to your Apple device via Wi-Fi and not over your carrier's network due to the larger file size.

Amazon has not added the new audio/video features to Kindle software for the PC or Mac or to the bookseller's own Kindle devices such as the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX.

What's Inside

While inventive authors may try to take advantage of Amazon's new functionality in the future to augment a novel, the first uses of Amazon's audio/video embeds are decidedly straightforward.

Audio/Video features for William Styron's 1951 debut novel Lie Down in Darkness, for example, are similar to special features you'd find on a DVD. The Kindle edition features an inteview with Styron's widow, Rose Styron; a look at Styron's creative process with his biographer Jim West; and a video of Styron's youngest daughter reading a selection of the author's letters.

Historian Terry Golway's Together We Cannot Fail: FDR and the American Presidency in Years of Crisis features audio of 30 speeches by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. You can find all available Kindle Editions with Audio/Video at www.amazon.com/kindleaudiovideo.

Amazon Gets Serious About Kindle

Amazon's new addition to Kindle books is just the latest move for the online bookseller to improve the Kindle software over its competitors. Earlier this month, Amazon cut the price of the Kindle from $259 xto $189 after Barnes & Noble announced a similar price drop for its Nook e-readers.

The addition of audio/video to Kindle for iDevices also gives Amazon a slight edge over Apple's iBooks application for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad since Apple's e-reading software does not include multimedia capabilities. It's not clear, however, if that advantage will last long. Amazon did not mention whether it has an exclusivity arrangement with publishers for the new audio/video features. If Amazon doesn't have a lock on the new multimedia functionality, it's likely only a matter of time until Apple equalizes the field with its own audio/video embeds.

 

Laptop Buying Guide: Selecting the Right Laptop for You

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Laptop Buying Guide 2010

Here's everything you need to know to select the ideal portable PC.

• Laptop Buying Guide: Making Sense of the Specifications »
• Laptop Buying Guide: Shopping Tips »

Perhaps no common computer product has as many variations, with as wide a performance range, as the modern laptop PC. From tiny netbooks to big and powerful desktop-replacement systems, the differences in pricing, features, and performance are staggering. Follow our comprehensive guide to make sure you get the laptop that's right for you.
Buying a new notebook can be tough because you have so many options to consider, and no shortage of reasons for purchasing one. Maybe you're about to head off to college and you need to take notes in class. Perhaps your current laptop labors when running today's applications, and it's time for an upgrade. Or maybe you're happy with your desktop PC, and you want a companion device for surfing the Web from your couch. Even if you know what you want to do, with so many laptop models available it can be hard to decide among them. The potential for confusion is enough to make you choose something that just looks cool or happens to be available on your warehouse store's shelf--but that approach can end in heartache.
It's best to start by deciding which category of laptop you're most interested in. Laptops fall into four main categories: netbooks, ultraportables, all-purpose laptops, and desktop replacements. The laptop category that is right for you depends on the kind of user you are.
Once you have decided on a category of laptop, it's time to start considering the specs. To learn how to wade through all the product names and acronyms, check out "Laptop Buying Guide: Making Sense of the Specifications." And before you ask the store to run your credit card, read our advice in "Laptop Buying Guide: Shopping Tips."

 

My Netbook is Running Too Slow - Ways to Speed it Up Again

My Netbook is Running Too Slow - Ways to Speed it Up Again 

Most people don't buy a netbook for speed by any means. There are purposely designed with lower power parts that don't draw much power to get longer battery life and to also cost less than a laptop. At times though, your netbook is running slower than it should be. There are things that you can do that will help you get your netbook to be a bit faster.
One big problem that many people do on a netbook is that when installing software, it's set up to start up when booting your machine. You need to make sure programs like your instant messaging clients are not starting up when you boot up else your netbook will feel slow.
Be sure that you are running your spyware and virus scanners are working, updated, and have fully scanned your system. These malicious pieces of software can slow down a fast system. They will wreck the speed on your netbook if you aren't careful.
One upgrade that you can do to your system that is cheap and easy to do on your own is to add RAM. It's best to maximize your netbook's RAM for best performance.
Learn to use your netbook a bit differently. Don't have open programs that you aren't using minimized. If you aren't going to use a program, shut it off. The goal is to only have a few programs open at once.
Use cloud based applications. These are software that you can use that are being processed on a server versus your machine. This is a better way to multitask on your netbook.
Consider adding Linux or buying a Linux netbook versus a Windows netbook. Typically the Linux netbooks do run much faster as they are designed to take up less resources making your netbook run much faster.

Meera Puri is an avid writer for laserthermometerhq.com Visit her site to learn more about Laser Thermometer and reviews on Fluke Laser Thermometer. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meera_Puri

Get Rid of Ghost Antivirus From Your Computer and Make it Free From Spyware

 Get Rid of Ghost Antivirus From Your Computer and Make it Free From Spyware 

When you think of security programs on your computer, you think of things like anti-malware and anti-spyware or antivirus programs. For most of us these are ways for us to protect our computers and the personal information we have stored on them. But this is unfortunately not always the case. Some of these programs are designed to do just the opposite and trick you into installing fake antivirus software. One such program is called ghost antivirus.
Ghost antivirus is actually the evolution of a previously released malware named antivirus Pro. Promoted and spread in much of the same way that the earlier version was. Ghost antivirus Pretends to be a legitimate antivirus scanner and tells you that your computer is currently vulnerable to attack or under attack when it is not.
It tells you that in order to protect yourself you need to download this program. Once on your computer it starts to change vital files and information and actually downloads other malware automatically and installs them without you knowing and you need to know how to get rid of ghost antivirus from your computer.
In order to protect its self from being located and removed ghost antivirus does a few things to throw you off its trail. First it will disable your task manager which would allow you to actually see the program running in the background and terminate it if you knew what you were looking for.
Next the additional malware it installs on your computer will be in random locations and given random names so that tracking them down is much harder to do if not impossible with detailed knowledge and help.
To make matters worse it will constantly try and terminate a program by the name of explorer.exe and this program is vital to run your computer. Without it you are pretty much left with a blank screen. The only way to avoid this is to reboot your computer in safe mode. from there you have two choices to deal with the issue, either go and find the files yourself and delete the infection or use a automated system that will do it quickly and easily for you.
If you have decided to go the manual route remember to first start your computer in safe mode before you start this process otherwise chances are you will simply get a blank screen. Once in safe mode you need to follow these steps.
#1 Start task manager in safe mode and disable any files associated with ghost antivirus in task manager, including these.
GhostAV.exe
unins000.exe
services.exe
#2 Find and delete the following files.
register.ico
working.log
uill.ini
unins000.exe
Ghost Antivirus.lnk
iGSh.png
onin.exe
#3 Next we have to deal with the registry entries and remove them with the registry editor.
"3P_UDEC"
"URIAPRO[1.1.3.9]"
"Debugger" = "?"
"RealDebugger" = "?"
"RealLogonType" = "1"
Once you have those files deleted you should be able to reboot your system in normal mode and everything should be back to normal and you should have found a way to get rid of ghost antivirus from your computer.
Because the files are randomly named it may still fail and if this happens if the manual way sounds a bit too technical for you or you go through you can get rid of ghost antivirus from your computer automatically.
You can download and run an integrated system and registry scanner. This will scan your hard drive for all malicious files then do the same for the registry and will only take a few minutes. Once you have done this you can get rid of ghost antivirus from your computer and any other malware it has installed on your computer. You can also delete any registry entries and associated with it and repair the registry errors caused by this malware. Doing this will not only get rid of ghost antivirus from your PC but will speed it up and make your computer a malware free zone.

Here is the #1 solution To Get Rid Of Ghost Antivirus this is guaranteed to make your malware free, just click here.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_S_Marshall

How Do I Know If My PC Is Infected With Spyware or Adware

How Do I Know If My PC Is Infected With Spyware or Adware

Many people that are new to the Internet world are nervous about the potential of viruses, Spyware or Adware that can harm their computer, affect performance or make their very private information public to others.

Spyware programs can do a number of damaging things to your personal computer. Spyware infects your pc and hides in the background and can do many nasty things to the performance of your system. It can also do harmful things to you such as send out your personal information, your every keystroke and photo that resides on your hard drive, watch your surfing habits and shopping habits and annoy you with annoying pop-ups filled with advertisements and even pornography.

If you are experiencing any unusual changes in your computer's performance or have any unusual new pop-ups, changes to your toolbars or new icons on your desktop, you should run a system scan to find out if you have Spyware. Products exist on the market to help you combat this problem. Be sure to install software that you know is credible. Downloading freeware can often result in further Spyware existing on your computer. Spyware, Adware and Malware companies frequently fool users into sending pop-ups telling them that there's a problem with their computer and this in fact is further spyware. These errors can open your system up to future further problems by fooling people into thinking they're downloading fixes when really further spyware is being downloaded.

Watch your system's performance and at the sign of any unusual activity, realize that you are probably infected. Do something as soon as possible to protect your privacy. These programs don't discriminate and can launch themselves when you or your family members sit in front of the computer. Pornographic pop-ups can turn up whether it's an adult or a child using the computer. Protect your pc.

Antivirus alone isn't enough to combat this problem. Spyware sneaks into your system via executable files that you don't need to do anything to launch. They can sneak in as attachments that you download or by many other means. They're harmful and annoying but you can protect your computer and your privacy with the right software. This software needs to have an auto update for spyware definitions as new spyware definitions are being added daily. So a spyware removal program is a great compliment to your existing anti-virus software.

Total Innovations, Inc. specializes in developing award winning software programs designed to solve computer users needs. The spyware removal software, http://www.emailspy.com & http://www.folderhider.com are a few of the most recent. See full details at: http://www.spyblaster.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Buzz_Scott