drive

Fabrik announced today a new family of sleek desktop hard drives that incorporates 2GB of free online storage through the company's MyFabrik Web service: SimpleDrive. The new drives (designed by Pininfarina, longtime designer of the Ferrari) come in several capacities, which are color-coded: 160GB (red); 250GB (white); 320GB (blue); 500GB (black); 750GB (charcoal); and 1TB (charcoal). All feature a single, 3.5-inch hard drive from Hitachi, including the 1TB version. This is the first single-disk, 1TB external hard drive on the market.

Initially, all versions will ship with USB 2.0 interfaces, but in May, Fabrik plans to ship … Read more

Wondering why you haven't junked that old PC collecting dust in the corner of your room? Because you knew one day you would harvest it for parts, right? With a $25 kit from NewerTech you can give its hard drive a second life as an external drive, or grab any data you may have left on it without the trouble of connecting it to your current PC's motherboard. Without so much as a turn of a thumbscrew, NewerTech's USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter lets you access your old drive--via USB 2.0. The adapter works with … Read more

As USB drives have been reduced to greeting-card status, it's been clear that they've been destined for marketing swagdom. And now, sites such as Custom USB have made it official. But while others just slap a logo on a lowest-common-denominator model, this outfit offers more than 50 styles ranging from "Capless" to "Swivel" (pictured) with scads of colors including translucent, according to Gadgetizer. Storage sizes are available from 128MB to 2GB, priced accordingly. Personally, we think it's a better use than sending a Valentine.

Some manufacturers are clearly hell-bent on making USB keys look like fine jewelry. And unlike most of these attempts (Swarovski), some of them actually seem to be done in relative good taste.

But we have to ask: When one of these products clearly looks like it belongs in a jewelry case, like the "i-Disk Vogue" from Pretec, why bother to include a USB drive at all? BornRich says this "pendant drive" is available in storage sizes up to 8GB and can work with the latest Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, but we seriously doubt that … Read more

TiVo may be a life-changer, but there's a dark side for couch potatoes who are also pack rats: the dreaded full hard drive. If you're too cheap to get a new version (that would be us), you're stuck with a disc that seems perennially full: As we all know, the maximum storage capacity is always based on low-resolution recordings, which make Lost reruns look like moving impressionist paintings.

But if you do have a newer Series 3 box--or any other DVR with an eSATA port--there may be help for those who can't just can't bring … Read more

They've been run over, submerged in water, subjected to extreme temperatures and even built to withstand nuclear explosions. For some reason, people insist on treating USB flash drives like contestants on Fear Factor. And yet, more often than not, they seem to survive with flying colors.

The "Corsair Flash Survivor" is the latest to enter this Thunderdome culture, an aluminum encased device with a black O-ring to prevent water seepage that comes in 4GB and 8GB storage sizes, according to Everything USB. What we can't figure out, however, is why it looks like a flashlight.

It may be called "Media Keg," but don't mistake this for another St. Paddy's Day accessory. (We already have that covered elsewhere.)

In fact, the name is all the more curious because this Kenwood media player is anything but keg-like, weighing only 2.8 ounces--making it "the world's smallest HDD-based MP3 player," according to the company. Despite its diminutive frame, Shiny Shiny says, the device houses a 10GB hard drive, sports a 1.5-inch screen and claims a battery life of up to 24 hours.

If all that is true, even at $399 … Read more

There was a time when people would collect America Online CDs for various art projects, but that got old. There was only so much you could do when working with materials of that size. Hard disks are an entirely different matter, however, as TechEBlog proves with this post on a "Hard Drive Platter Motorcycle" from some guy who obviously has far too much time on his hands. If you think this was a silly waste of time, consider this: It's more productive than setting up hard drive dominoes.

Today's pop quiz: What's the difference between a portable hard drive and a USB flash device? Not much, if Buffalo has anything to say about it.

The Japanese company is developing a USB key that stores a ridiculous 16GB of data, according to Akihabara News, using silicon hard-drive technology without the actual disk. But there's no information on availability even in Japan, so don't go skimping on that storage option in your next computer purchase just yet.

Now, for extra credit: Why is this company named Buffalo? (We have no idea.)