Seagate ups the ante with BIG new hard disks

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 14 July 2008 19:24

Opinion and Analysis

They also have “G-Force Protection, a free-fall sensor technology that helps prevent drive damage and data loss upon impact if a laptop PC is dropped.”

This is further explained: “The sensor works by detecting any changes in acceleration equal to the force of gravity and parks the heads off the disc to prevent contact with the platter in a free fall of as little as 8 inches and within 3/10ths of a second,” although these kinds of technologies are now expected in all modern notebook drives. 

Seagate is also pushing the power conservation angle, saying its drives are “lean on power consumption” for longer battery life while using “SoftSonic fluid-dynamic bearing motors and QuietStep ramp load technology” to be “virtually inaudible”.

It was only earlier this year that Seagate shipped its billionth hard drive, a feat that took 30 years, and predicts it will ship its second billionth over the next 5 years.

Michael Wingert, the Seagate executive veep and GM of Seagate “Personal Compute Business” division said: “Organizations and consumers of all kinds worldwide continue to create, share and consume digital content at levels never before seen, giving rise to new markets, new applications and demand for desktop and notebook computers with unprecedented storage capacity, performance and reliability.”

Wingert continued: “Seagate is committed to powering the next generation of computing today with the planet’s fastest, highest-capacity and most reliable storage solutions.”

Both the Momentus and Barracuda range come with a 5 year warranty, with the Barracuda due in August 2008 and the Momentus due in Q4 this year.