Solid State Hard Drives - Around 40GB

[Aubs010]

Hi,

Does anyone know of any solid state external hard drives, mainly to be used as a backup drive?

Thanks,



Aubs

 

[micker377]

Are you referring to a "Flash" card? Or maybe a USB "thumb" drive? I've never heard of a "solid state hard drive". I use a 256meg Compact Flash card for storage, and thumb drives to transfer files to other computers. If you want to get "geeky", there is also a wristwatch with 256meg USB storage.

 

[edfair]

Used to be a SCSI memory drive, but haven't seen anything about it recently. Wasn't that size, anyway.

You might want to ask the question in the "Quantum solid state storage solution" forum.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[jurgen36]

Yes they do exist, however the prices are astronomical high and put them out of reach of normal mortals. We have an 80 Gbyte solid state drive at our uni. It is the size of a packet of cigarettes, extremely fast access and very very low power. The price however? Well let us put it this way, you could buy a Rolls Royce for less money. They are only manufactured for very special applications like space research, terrain following cruise missiles (they keep photos of the terrain in their memory} and other assorted jobs were size/weight and low power is of a primary concern; costs really do not matter in this applications. Regards

Jurgen

 

[micker377]

the prices are astronomical high"

No wonder I never heard of them!

 

[Aubs010]

Well, I have a 1GB PenDrive/ThumbDrive/USBdrive what ever you want to call them! that cost me £100 and they are down to £70ish now I think but anything of the *same* but with a larger capacity would be ideal (not 2GB!!)...

Thanks for all the comments guys, much appreciated

Aubs

 

[cdogg]

Aubs,
Flash memory used in USB "thumb" drives is much, much slower and usually tops out around 5MB/s (for USB 2.0 versions). Faster "flash" solutions (often referred to as solid state), can get as fast as 100MB/sec in high-end solutions.

Unlike thumb drives, solid state hard drives can be really expensive as Jurgen pointed out. It wasn't too long ago that I saw a 2GB version selling for $2000. Imagine what an 80GB would be going for.


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Aubs010]

cdogg,

Yeah, I know what you mean!! - I think I just got my wires crossed with the terminology!

so it is Flash Memory that I am after, but something in the range of 80GB... I assume it is going to be expensive (if it exists!) the speed is not really an issue, simply because it will be backing up all my files, and that's it. Laptops get damaged very frequently at work and on building sites and I don't want to loose my prise photos!!!

Thanks again for all your answers



Aubs

 

[mradmin]

These drives do exist, but as has been said before, they're out of reach for most of us. Check out

http://www.superSSD.com

for some specifications that will knock you down (especially the speed of these puppies). You'll note that they have no pricing information on-line, that should tell you something. Oh, and for comparison, I found a review of a product called an Excellerator 800 Ultra which was a 4GB solid-state drive. In 2001, when the article was written, it sold for

...get ready...

$73,920 !!!
I guess you really had to need one!

---Will

 

[Aubs010]

Cheers MrAdmin,

So, if Solid State is not an option, what about Flash memory? is it about the same price?

because 1GB USB pen drive is ~£70 so 70GB would be £4,900

I'm sure there must be something, even it is a box with a lot of pen drives linked inside, similar, for less than £5k

Aubs

 

[JimInKS]

If you are just wanting to do backups it sounds to me like an external hard drive is what you need. These are just standard hard drives in an enclosure with a USB or Firewire interface.

Take your pick:

http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=414&DEPA=1

 

[cdogg]

Aubs,
Well, USB "thumb" drives (or "pen" drives, whatever you want to call 'em) are mainly for portability. If you plan on moving files back forth between two PC's at different locations, for example, they come in handy.

However, you'll be hard pressed to find them in sizes greater than 2GB at the moment. Plus, they are not a reliable source for backup. Data stored can become corrupt for no apparent reason, but other factors like vibration, collisions, etc, can make that even more possible. I'm not sure if anyone has attempted to engineer a drive full of 1 or 2 GB drives, but I doubt it would be fast enough to be worth it.

If backup is your number one goal and you need a lot of space, I suggest you grab yourself a USB 2.0 hard drive. If your laptop doesn't have USB 2.0, you can buy an add-in PCMCIA card for pretty cheap. This solution would give you the most space and speed for less than $200.


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Aubs010]

Thanks everyone for your invaluable input, it has been appreciated.

I kept refering to "me" and "I", but it is actually for a work colleague of mine, who asked my opinion... I said I'd ask on here as I know the users are very helpful! - I wasn't proved wrong, yet again!!!

I'll pass the info over to my mate in the morning. Home time now!!

Thanks again



Aubs