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Maxtor's "Sturdy" Hard Drive

Posted by Hemos on from the interesting-approach-to-things dept.

robkill writes "PCWorld has this article on a new drive by Maxtor, using 1 platter, 1 head and 70% fewer moving parts. Using one side of a 30GB platter, the drive holds 15GB and has a smaller height as well." Well, it's not huge, but it's sufficent size - and with more durability, putting it into mobile devices becomes easier to do.

2 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Innovator's Dilemma by landley · · Score: 5
    The first third of the book "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen was all about the progress of hard drives from 14 inch washing machines to 2.5 inch laptop models.

    Each switch to a smaller form factor (8 inch, 5 1/4 inch, 3.5 inch, etc) actually LOWERED the price/performance ratio and didn't seem to make sense, but it allowed the drive to be used in new situations (minicomputers for 8 inch, desktops for 5 1/4, early laptops for 3.5, modern laptops for 2.5.)

    Who cares if the drive only has 5 gigs if it'll fit in your palm pilot?

    Rob

  2. using just one side by MillMan · · Score: 5

    I work in the hard drive industry (scary) and there are a few monetary benefits to the company, hopefully passed on to the consumer...

    Basically platter yield goes up. HD companies lose a certain % of platters when the two sides aren't parallel to each other within spec. With a one sided setup this doesn't matter and won't cut into yield. Also, since Si defects will always be there, you can gain some yield back when the defects are only on one side, and simply use the other side.