Sometimes the simplest products are actually great products.  If you remember the good old days when people played tapes instead of CD's, you would remember the Cassette boxes they came in.  The idea was simple, use the box if you didn't want to damage your cassette.  These boxes weren't the “be all, end all” for protection, but they did an adequate job of protecting your tapes from accidental splashes and dust.  In addition to that, they made organizing your collection easy because they were uniformly shaped even though our cassettes were oddly shaped.  Hard drives are no different.  They should get the same kind of love and attention that our beloved cassette tapes did in the 80's, but instead they are stacked on our shelves naked and lonely waiting for dust and coffee to find them.  Fear not solution seekers, there is an answer!  ineo (yes, that is a lowercase "i") has produced a simple hard drive protection box, but does it cut the mustard... or the cheese?

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The tools in my toolbox are just as important as the IT skills I have learned over the years.  After all, what good is the knowledge to accomplish something without the means to do so?  That is why my arsenal of tools in my office is as important to me and my customers as is paint and a canvas to a painter.  When companies like StarTech start offering tools that can accomplish more than one task and do them all well, it not only saves me time, it reduces the amount of "crap" I have all over the place.  StarTech has already impressed me with their S354UFER, let's see if they can keep me tuned in with their SATDOCK22RE.

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My data is extremely important to me; the irreplaceable memories, music, and movies that I keep on my home server are duplicated across multiple drives in a Windows Home Server.  WHS provides me with some peace of mind by implementing a feature like folder duplication, however implementing only that type of protection is not enough.  There are many solutions by many different companies out there to tackle my server backup that claim to be easy and are not, seem to be inexpensive but have hidden costs, or just don't offer enough storage space.  Well, where the other solutions fail, StarTech shines.  Enter the S354UFER. (more...)

iStarUSA is a company that I have become a big fan of over the years.  They manufacture products that are higher than standard quality and pay attention to the people buying and using their products.  iStartUSA has released a 4-Bay trayless RAID box and at first glance, it is sexy.  The need for affordable and easy storage solutions is a quest that many of us have been on; let's see if the v7AGE420-ES can compete. (more...)

As someone that is expected to fix everyone's computer in my family, there is nothing more than "WOOT!" that can  be said about a product that makes my family obligations easier.  My family isn't exactly the most "in touch" when it comes to computing (you will read an article / rant soon about that) and they make a bunch of dumb mistakes... most of which ends up with them contracting a I.T.D. (Internet Transmitted Disease, a.k.a. VIRUS!). That's when the frenzy starts, the claims that the world is collapsing, the seas are rising, they can't send email!  I must work quickly and efficiently to alleviate their ailments.  With that said, products like the USI-2535 makes my job easier. (more...)

I have been around for a while, and when Western Digital decided to send me their 500 GB hard drive; I drooled. Then Seagate came out with their 750 GB drive; I got goose bumps. Now, Hitachi decided to realign my particles with their 1TB SATA II hard disk drive (HDS721010KLA330); man this thing smells good. Yeah, if you didn't catch that, I said 1TB... that's 1000 GB! Well... technically it's only 931.51GB, but they measure in decimal not binary. (more...)

There is nothing more exciting than seeing a brandy new shiny HDD sitting on my front steps waiting for me. There is only one company that could have done this… wait… you guess yet? Hitachi! Yeah, I said Hitachi. If you folks have ever voted on our polls here at C.O.D. you would see that only 2.13% of our readers rate Hitachi as their favorite hard drive brand. That either means you think they put out crap, or you don't know who they are. Let's see if we can put either of those to rest here. Enter the Hitachi Deskstar 7K500, also known in charts as HDS725050KLA360. (more...)

I can't get away from it; I am just a sucker for storage. I try to keep myself away from the HDD scene because I know I will just buy everything I can afford to buy. Hard drives and Chassis are my weakness, and today Western Digital is going to smack me up with some big fat storage. WD impressed me with their WD2500KS drives and now they are back to try to win me over with their high capacity solution. Enter the WD5000KS. (more...)

It seems as though Hard Drive manufacturers will never rest until they absolutely drive me insane. A few weeks ago, I was able to review a hard drive by a company named Western Digital that sported 250 gigs of space and a speedy interface. Recently, they decided to tease my with a new drive that slams 400 gigs of space in your face and a tad bit slower interface. Rhyming unintentional. Enter the WD4000KD, a SATA drive with a whopping 400 gigs of space and a 16 MB cache at a not so whopping price of $234.99 (WD's website price - Bare Drive); that's only .59 cents per gig. (more...)

Those of us who are always looking for the bigger, better and faster storage solutions have the end in sight. Lately, more and more SATA enhanced 3.0Gb/s drives are hitting the market. Western Digital one company offering solutions to those of us who aren't satisfied with second rate speeds, those of us with large home movies, and those of us who store everything we can find on a computer that sits in the corner with dust bunnies the size of basketballs. Enter the Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS hard drive. (more...)