I have a lot of friends that are becoming more and more aware of what is going on in the computing world.  As this development matures, I am confronted with more and more questions about the state of technology.  Sometimes, I can very easily explain the idea behind things, but the actual workings of it are somewhat foreign.  Recently, a friend of mine started building his own home server (WHS) and purchased a bunch of hard drives.  This normally wouldn't be cause for concern, but the website he was purchasing from delineated these drives as 4K Sector drives.  So... what does that mean? Read 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. Read More...

My digital life is one that can be categorized as anything but stagnant.  In my world, hardware changes as often as my underwear (well, not really... but close) and when products come along that may make things easier; I get excited.  iStarUSA thinks they might have the answer to one of my problems. Enter the T-5 SS, a screw-less and trayless design for fast HDD mounting. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read More...