SATA Hard Drives

By Andreas Lee

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial ATA) is also known as SATA Hard Drives, which dominate hard drives market these days. Comes with better performance than the Parallel ATA (PATA) Drives and far away in front of its ancestor Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE Drives) in terms of specification.

SATA Drives first model (SATA1) has a better performance than PATA series, whether from its RPM or its transfer speed, smaller cable size than IDE cable, and a small cable slot that allows simplified installation.

IDE and SATA cable comparison

sata and ide cables

Western Digital Caviar Black SATA Hard Drives

sata hard drives

SATA1 successor is SATA2 which its specification certainly better than the previous, two times faster transfer speed, and some have pretty large buffer cache. One of them is Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB, can be found with relatively cheap price. SATA Hard Drives provide the best hard drives performance as you want, it is convenient in playing high resolution games, photo editing, video watching, or using multimedia software.

Specs

• Capacity : 500 GB
• Buffer cache size : 32 MB
• Disk rotation speed : 7200 rpm
• Interface: SATA 3 Gb/s
• Model : WD5001AALS
• Warranty : 5 years warranty

How To Handle Damaged SATA Hard Drives

Based on computer users observation, damage on SATA Hard Drives can be due to a fast transfer speed, indicated by a buzz noise. Recommended to backup your data as soon as possible, make it fast. This is important: do not use any software, downloading, or doing anything, just save your data (make the priority for important data), and after that check where the damaged location is. You can try to re-install Operating System, checking the bad sector by using the Error-Checking on the hard drive properties, or Scandisk Utility will automatically be used when the computer suddenly restarted.

Note: Try to use Data Recovery Software to restore lost data after the problem solved due to the crash occurred on your SATA Hard Drives.

In this case, don’t bother to check SATA Hard Drives cable because the problem is not on the cable even if the BIOS do not recognize the hard drive. Using the hard drive expert service is a best decision if you find a dead-end.

Also, take a look on my other helpful articles in: firewire hard disk and external micro drive

Seagate External Hard Drive – Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1 TB

By Andreas Lee

seagate usb external hard drive

Here’s another inexpensive storage with latest back up technology that is manufactured by Seagate, namely Seagate FreeAgent Desk.

The smooth design and silver metallic brushed metal of this 3.5 inch Seagate external hard drive makes it match to stand in any place. FreeAgent Desk not only gives simple storage solution with its 1 TB capacity, but it also help safeguard all of your documents, videos, MP3, and another files with easy-to-use software which back up your files automatically and encrypt your private files and folders. The software is also able to schedule your back up anytime.

Pros

If you are not using this Seagate external hard drive for 15 minutes, environmentally smart utilities of this device will switch itself into sleep mode to save energy.

It is able to stand vertically or lie horizontally to maximize workspace flexibility for you. In the other side, the top of Seagate external hard drive FreeAgent desk can be used as a space to place your stuff or another external drive, this means that you have nothing to lose with your workspace.

Now, let’s take a look on its specification. It can be said that FreeAgent Desk almost has all the best specifications of another Seagate external hard drive. The maximum of most external hard drives spindle speed 7200 rpm enables to access your data faster, the best 480 Mbps transfer rate and high speed connection USB 2.0 for data back up purpose, and one Terabyte storage provides more space for your present and your future needs.

Seagate FreeAgent Desk

Its best specification is that it works very quiet, and simply attach to power supply and plug USB connector or firewire to the computer to run it.

Cons

One thing which I dislike from this Seagate external hard drive is no comfy to take handy and requires more space if you put it inside a briefcase or a bag.

Specs

• Capacity : 1 TB (1000 GB)
• Rotational speed : 7200 RPM
• Transfer rate : up to 480 Mbps
• Connector type : USB 2.0
• Software/system requirements : drivers (included in the package), Windows XP/ Vista
• Box included : FreeAgent Desk hard drive, Base stand, attachable feet, USB cable, power supply, quickstart guide, and FreeAgent software pre-loaded on drive (Windows only)
• Warranty : 5 years warranty

You can get this 1 TB storage for just around $115, means that 8 Gigabyte just cost around $1, very low-priced for your external drive investment. I give 5 stars for this Seagate external hard drive for its price and everything that it has.

I suggest you to check out my other guides on: hard drive recovery, ATA hard drive, and Western Digital internal drive.

Firewire hard drive

By Andreas Lee

firewire hard drive

Transferring data technology between computers, notebooks, and computer to external media like external hard drive is called firewire.

Apple developed firewire technology in the beginning of 1990’s. It is well known as IEEE 1394. The transfer rate of firewire hard drive has become faster than common hard drive at that time. The transfer rate is around 100 – 400 Mbps on a 14 feet cable.

Power Macintosh G3 (PowerMac G3) which is also known as beige G3s or platinum G3s is the first personal computer that uses firewire technology. Not long after PowerMac G3, firewire has spread too many computers and products. In the entertainment business, firewire hard drive is being popular and it won Emmy Engineering Award in 2001 for its contribution.

Firewire hard drive receives good responses from computer users due to its efficiency and its performance. Its main competitor was USB hard drive which is able to give just 12 Mbps transfer rates. The difference between USB hard drive and firewire hard drive is that USB hard drive can be used on any personal computers, not just Apple, while firewire hard drive is just made for Apple.

External hard drive which uses firewire technology can give you a better speed. Besides, the cord can maximize the portability because of its small size. External firewire hard drive is needed in this era, because sharing digital information is an activity that is done at most.

An easy expansion to your personal computer is also offered by a firewire hard drive. It requires power supply to run it, not like USB drive, and you must bring the cord along if you want to use it on a remote computer.

Fast transfer rate is a firewire technology mainstay which has a couple of updates since it is released. Finally, for you to know that IEEE 1384b is the newest and it delivers up to 800 Mbps transfer speed.

I also wrote another guide you may be interested in: 120GB drive, camcorder with hard drive, and hard disk drive recovery.