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| Western Digital Caviar SE16 750GB Hard Drive |
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| Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov | |
| Monday, 30 July 2007 | |
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The past decade has seen exponential growth in everything. Our cars are bigger, our fries are bigger, and our storage needs are definitely bigger. Games that once took up a third of a CD now suck up entire DVDs, high definition video is all but common, and with the nonstop rise of the Information Age it's easier than ever to acquire lots and lots of "stuff". In the 90s, 4GB was considered a large hard drive. Nowadays anything short of 100 is problematic and anyone who uses a PC on a regular basis for more than just word processing will quickly run out of room. Western Digital has answered the call with their largest drive to date: the 750GB, 16MB cache Caviar SE16. Only Hitachi has a larger hard drive, debuting at 1TB (yes, we're finally there). So let's see what WD cooked up this time.
Although other SE16 drives are available, the 750GB is unique in some of the features it employs. First off is Perpendicular Magnetic Recording - technology used to allow for such high densities. IntelliSeek is also new. Since data is typically scattered all over a disk, the drive actuator (the arm that moves to different areas of a disk) has to move around to retrieve it. In normal drives, after it retrieves a specific chunk of data it'll quickly move to the necessary position to retrieve the next piece. It will then wait for the disk to spin around to that piece of data. This causes unnecessary vibrations and power consumption, not to mention wear and tear. IntelliSeek controls the movement of the actuator and slows/speeds it up so that it reaches the position it needs to right in time to retrieve the data piece. This creates a "smoother" motion and reduces power consumption and vibrations. You can view a flash demo by going here, scrolling down and clicking the link. A few other features are also present. The first is SecurePark. This parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up and spin down and when the drive is turned off. What this means is that the recording head never touches the disk surface, resulting in improved longevity and better non-operational shock tolerance. StableTrac is the second. Here the motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations. We also have Data Lifeguard, which is simply detailed as an exclusive set of data protection features from shock, the environment, and real-time error detection and repair. Finally, ShockGuard protects the drive from bumps and vibrations while it's active. For most people, this means little to nothing. In fact, "750GB + fast + reliable" is all that really matters. Still, new features that increase lifespan and durability are always a plus.
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 August 2007 ) |
