CES 2008: Storage

There’s security and then there’s near-impenetrable security. The sleek and sexy Maxtor BlackArmor takes the prize as the Fort Knox of the storage world, as the first external hard drive to back up and secure your data using Seagate’s DriveTrust hardware encryption.

If you’re wondering about the thoroughness of the government-grade AES protection, how’s this for a kicker? If you somehow lose or forget your password, you’ll have to perform a “secure erase” to wipe the drive clean in order to gain access. That’s hardcore security for only $149.

Storage solutions have proven to be a big category so far at CES 2008, so it was only a matter of time before SanDisk, one of the major players in that arena, made a few announcements. The company unveiled its new 1.8-inch SATA 72GB solid-state drive (pictured right), which is designed to be a drop in replacement for traditional hard drives.

In the demonstrations that we saw, resource-hogging applications such as PDFs opened lightning fast. Booting into Vista wasn’t quite as speedy as the OS isn’t optimized to recognize the full benefits of SSDs, but SanDisk is working with Microsoft to fix this in future Windows releases.

When you have to take large volumes of data on the road, a dinky ‘lil flash drive won’t do. For moments such as those, you need a mobile drive like the 1.4-pound LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra, the smallest, fastest eSATA-capable storage device.

Available in two capacities (400GB and 500GB), the Lacie Little Big Quadra comes equipped with one eSATA, one USB 2.0, and two FireWire 800 ports. The RAID 0 capabilities enable the drive to achieve up to 100 Mbps data transfer rates when using eSATA, or 80 Mbps using FireWire. If your notebook doesn’t have a FireWire 800 port, LaCie kindly includes a cable that will allow you to use the drive with FireWire 400. It can even be daisy-chained with like devices.

The LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra is available now starting at $475.

Many consumers are playing the “we’ll wait for the clear victor” role in regards to the high-definition format war, but Buffalo has delivered a gem of a device that may help those on the fence make the jump–the MediaStation Blu-ray HD-DVD, the market’s first external Blu-ray/HD-DVD player.

Simply hook this puppy up to a Windows-powered notebook via USB and you can enjoy your flicks of choice in pristine high-definition, regardless of format. Even better, the MediaStation lets you burn content to Blu-ray discs (unfortunately, the same can’t be said for HD-DVD side of things).

The MediaStation Blu-ray HD-DVD will be available in Q1 for an estimated street price of $649.

Black Cherry. Blueberry. Bubblegum. Cool Mint. Espresso. Kiwi. Marshmallow. These are the deliciously savory colors of Fabrik’s new Signature Mini USB 2.0 Portable Drives, which are designed to give the relatively unexciting world of portable storage some sex appeal. But there lies some brains behind the beauty: each Signature Mini provides a double-dose of protection as they are the world’s first portable hard drives to provide local and online backup in one solution. Whoa.

Simply connect a Signature Mini to your Mac or PC and Fabrik’s Ultimate Backup software will take care of the dirty work. It will save your data to the drive itself, of course, but will also backup 2GB of content online at no additional cost. If you’d like unlimited online backup, Fabrik makes it happen for just $4.95 per month. While in transit, the data is safeguarded by 128-bit SSL encryption; when it arrives at Fabrik’s servers (housed offsite by a Fortune 500 company), it’s protected by 448-bit Blowfish encryption. In addition to being integrated into Fabrik’s other portable hard drive, Ultimate Backup is available as a stand-alone service.

The Fabrik Signature Mini USB 2.0 Portable Drives are set to hit retail in February, with prices ranging from $119 (for a 120GB capacity) to $229 (320GB).

Hardcore tech-heads are all a-giddy over the prospect of 2008 being the year of the solid-state drive, and from what we’ve seen so far, hardware manufacturers such as Advanced Media are ready to make that big push. The Ridata 2.5-inch SATA SSD, available in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities, offers a quieter computing experience, less power consumption, and data transfer rates of up to 170MBps (with burst speeds of 300MBps).

Advanced Media hasn’t released pricing or availability, but we do know that the drives will be available at select retailers and the company’s site (www.ritekusa.com), so keep those eyes open.

Maxtor, one of the major players in the external storage biz, has unveiled its last hard drive designed to keep your sensitive data away from prying eyes: the Maxtor BlackArmor. 

With a name that sounds like the gear that a medieval warrior would don before a night of pillaging, the Maxtor BlackArmor uses Seagate’s DriveTrust technology which keeps data on the 160GB hard drive secure should it be lost or stolen.

Toss in the ability to sync data between multiple computers, and the Maxtor BlackArmor looks to be a fine device for road warriors who want corporate-level security in an attractive, easy to carry device. Look for it to hit retail sometime in March.