SSD (Solid State Drive)

Toshiba announced the launch of its new 128GB SSD (Solid State Drive) in Japan, and it is expected to be in the market by the Q1 (first quarter) of the 2008. While on the other hand Super Talent has already launched its 3.5 inch 256GB SSD in USA. But if you are going to see CES 2008 then you can easily have a look at these. Toshiba will be offering both SATA-2 SSD as well as SATA-2 drives in 1.8" and 2.5" form factors in 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB storage capacities. The maximum read speed of the SSD products is rated at 100 MB/s, the maximum write speed is 40MB/s with a SATA-2 interface. The operating life of the drive could be near about estimated at 1,000,000 hours.

Toshiba said that SSDs are able to remove NAND flash produced in 56 nm technology and can be integrate an original MLC controller that can support fast speeds, parallel data transfers and wear leveling, and can achieve performance levels that can be comparable to those of single level NAND flash SSDs. The multi level cells was key to achieve a density of 128 GB, the firm noted.

Canon Portable HD DVD burner

It’s no secret that although DVD camcorders are popular for their convenience, they aren’t necessarily better than miniDV. But not everyone who has a miniDV camcorder wants to edit video. They just want to burn to DVD and watch it on their big screen. Canon’s new DW-100 DVD recorder bypasses the need for a PC and burns video via a direct connection.

Able to burn both SD and HD DVDs, the DW-100 can encode in both MPEG2 and AVCHD. Additionally, although the basic concept is to bypass a PC for burning directly, users can also connect it to a PC or MAC via USB. This means that it can probably also be used as an external DVD burner. Now, the concept is nothing new, but the fact that the DW-100 can be used to encode and burn both standard and high definition video makes it particularly of note. And Blu-ray is the standard in the HD side so even those who watch DVDs on their overpriced PS3 will be able enjoy your vacation videos in stunning 1080p.

No word on specs or price points (look for that at CES), but the DW-100 is expected to hit the market in the Spring of 2008.

Boiled hard drive

Now this idea is definitely more wacky than that of wrapping your Xbox 360 with a towel so that the motherboard will warp back to its original position after overheating. One dude from Mandible Games claims that heating up his drive expanded the misaligned heads within, and hence he was able to access his precious data within after running around like a headless chicken for a week. Ok, so I added the last bit in but you get the idea - this guy is wacky enough to perform a double boil procedure on his spoiled hard drive. At the end of the day, I’d say it would be better to purchase a backup solution instead.

Maxtor and Sentry Group Fire Rsistant Cabinets for hard drives

As much as I would like to say that I am one of those persons who takes out their hard drives everyday and makes certain that it is safe from all harm, I’m not. I would imagine that there are some people who will even remove their hard drives and put it in a safe every night.

Fortunately, Maxtor has teamed up with Sentry Group to create a new level of security that is simply incredible. All these drives can withstand a day under water and 1550 degrees. So if your beach house is set on fire and then falls into the ocean, you have a day to fish your hard drive out.

The FIRE-SAFE Waterproof Hard Drives are designed to protect from fire and water damage. Available in both 80GB and 160GB, just to plug it in.

The FIRE-SAFE Waterproof Data Storage Chest is for those who want to store their devices such as MP3 Players, digital cameras, even CDs and DVDs.

The FIRE-SAFE Water-Resistant Safes are built for USB connectivity and stores your hard drive. There is also space for about 72 CD’s and DVDs.

If you want some extra space for your disks, you might want to use the FIRE-SAFE Waterproof CD/DVD file can organize 100 disks.

If you want to find a place to buy them, check out their site. You might end up paying quite a bit, though.