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'Hybrid' HDD Technology To Allow Data Access Without Booting
jfruhlinger writes "You've got a file on your laptop that you need to access — but you don't want to wait for your laptop to boot up to get at it. New technology from the company Silicon Storage Technology will make the contents of a hard drive accessible via a computer's USB port even when the computer is powered down. 'FlashMate combines hardware, firmware and software in a system application subsystem that manages a notebook computer's hard drive. It is based on SST's expertise in NAND flash controllers and memory subsystem design with Insyde Software's expertise in PC BIOS, system software and power management. FlashMate can work in conjunction with features such as Windows Vista ReadyDrive and serve as nonvolatile cache for the hard disk drive, thus enabling a standard hard disk drive to function as a hybrid drive.'"
Too bad that Apple has supported HD access without booting for years. Firewire target mode, and SCSI target mode before that.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Now I don't even have to boot to steal sensitive information. This will save so much time!
That's odd, all the Macs I've owned in the last 7+ years have done that though FireWire Disk Mode. Boot, hold a key down, in 5 seconds or so you have a oversized, way overpowered, external FireWire disk. It's about time the rest of the computer world started getting this ability.
Of course, since I just put my computers to sleep I don't have to worry about boot time.
It's a useful ability though. I've used it a few times on my Macs. Plus, it makes getting a new Mac and transferring things over (using the installer's transfer wizard) trivial.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Sharp MM20 and MP30 laptops can be used in USB disk mode. Besides,Aapple did if for ages, old macs can be used in SCSI disk mode and new macs in Firewire disk mode, no need to boot.
I hear these hybrids cause a log of smug!
The next step in making bits of a notebook usable without booting would be a bidirectional DVI-port, making the notebook's screen usable as a monitor. And why stop there? Keyboard and mouse should follow.
I'm not an Apple fanboi, but you can hold the T key down when booting ANY Mac and it boots into a "firewire drive" mode instead of a full kernel and gui. This has been true for years.
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I don't really even care about the article, but I have to say, "flashyourcache" is the best tag I've ever seen.
I cannot imagine a reason why I would want this feature. Sure it's cool, but.. what's the use?
Now, something that I did find myself wishing a couple of times is a laptop with a video in connector. But then again, I'm one of those freaks who has a server without any monitor attached.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Who boots a laptop? I just close the lid on my Mac, and it goes to sleep. I open it up and there's my stuff, in less time than it takes to plug in a cable. It'll sleep happily for weeks without running out of juice. The only time I ever reboot it is when it needs a software update.
TFA is an elaborate solution to the wrong problem. The right problem is, "how can we make laptops that don't need to be booted every time they're used?"
Does data become just a bit too accessible? Just asking, what are the built in safe guards. None were noted in the article, but I may have missed its being mentioned.
The post is about USB, and Apple did not do it for USB, but for SCSI and then for Firewire. You cannot use a mac in USB disk mode, only in Firewire (or SCSI) disk mode. Today every computer has a USB port, which is not true for firewire os SCSI. For consumer PCs SCSI is on its way out and firewire is usually found only on expensive computers.
Ok, they jammed a USB frontend on the drive system. Good thinking, but not exactly revolutionary thinking - every cheapo device in the toy section seem to have a USB drive interface anymore (I'm only waiting for the first Happy Meal toy with a USB plug - "Experience vast adventures on your computer with the latest bid from Disney/Nick"). Should have always been that way, but good that it's getting that way now at least.
TFA doesn't say a thing about authentication, authorization, or accounting. How does this know who's checking the data? How does it decide to allow them? Where and how does it store the facts about who accessed what and when? The AAA process is a cornerstone of security -- computer or otherwise.
;-) But other systems require the drive to be taken out or the machine to be booted at least. It's a lot easier to make sure no one can boot your machine (startup password, bootloader password, no booting from CD etc.) than to make sure they can't hook up a USB cable to it. It's also a lot harder to catch someone hooking up a cable for a couple of minutes than tearing down your laptop and taking the drive (or sliding the drive out if it's easily removable like some are -- taking it to another system and hooking it up are still time-consuming and conspicuous).
Yes, I know physical security is paramount. A building needs more than one cornerstone, obviously.
BTW, the other cornerstones are secure design (again, in software/hardware or outside computers altogether) and data hiding (encryption, shredding paper, window shades, closed doors, setting proper permissions so that AAA actually matters, etc).
You know this is going to be exploited in so many bad ways. Did the NSA think up this one?
How is this useful when you can bring a laptop out of standby (or hibernate ot a lesser extent) in mere seconds?
This devices are used by the Police and other entities to create complete copies of confiscated computers and work on them without touching the original PC/Mac/Amiga/whatever. It can of course also be used for backup.
I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
This seems like an excellent way of avoiding attention to the real problem - why a modern OS takes so long to boot.
Jolyon
Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
In general Fujitsu and Acer provide easy drive access for their laptops, you are usually only two screws away from the drive. You have to carry with you a screwdriver and an IDE (or SATA) to USB adapter cable ($15-20) and you are all set.
I have a fujitsu laptop and swap drives almnost every day, not for getting files but for restoring operating systems for other laptops (with ghost in DOS or partimage in linux)
Recently Apople had a change in policy and provided easy drive access for theit macbooks (unfortunately not for Macbooks Pro)
I mean... it's too much trouble not to boot up your computer...
Sorry... I wouldn't buy it for more than 1 $.
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The article is quite short on details. So you don't access your files by booting your computer. Then how do you access them? Does it act as external storage, so you can transfer files from your computer to another computer that is already booted? Does it provide some sort of minimal access to your files without needing a second computer?
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
...that depends on whether or not we can get hard drives in the first place
And again the f'ing "New Technology" buzzword when the "tech" isn't new or barely even "tech" for that matter. What's with these americats and their re-inventive, buzzwording minds?
Give us more details, please. Who is Lazy? Is he good in bed?
I've used the feature both on pcs (Sharp MP30) and macs (PPC and Intel). In both cases there are limitations. I've experienced serious problems with a macbook on which I installed winxp and wanted to make a ghost image of the installation. I tried to connect the laptop in firewire disk mode to four different PCs running winxp and failed, winxp would not recognize the drive (apparently only MacOSX and linux can recognize it). Eventually I took the drive out and connected it to a pc with a USB adaptrer it worked without problems.
With Sharp MP30 I experienced a similar problem, under linux the USB connection would work intermittently and the USB bus would reset every 10 minutes or so.
Conclusion: it is better to offer easy drive access, take the drive out of the laptop and connect it directly to a computer (USB, SATA, firewire, whatever). This way there would not be any compatibility problems.
Am I wrong in thinking, with laptops that can play DVD's without booting, and now, with hard drives that are accessible without booting, that we are just a short fusion of technology away from having a machine where booting into an operating system is optional for most trivial tasks? I mean, how many functions do we have to breed into a PC before the OS (being a layer for hardware / software communication) becomes obsolete?
Personally, I'd love to see the full range of interesting ideas that can come out of the hardware industry along these lines that promote use of hardware in ways that don't depend on an operating system.
Windows has more viruses because linux has more virus coders.
thats great! MS finally realized that their OS boots up at about the same speed as a lethargic pig in treacle and decided to do something about it!
though they have scaled new and interesting heights of lateral thinking with this one...!
If your computer isn't booted, then how do you access the data off of this not-booted hard drive? Another computer? Your MP3 player? Is it a NAS device, which would require a lot of not-booted services like Wi-Fi access to the network.
Imagine a computer without booting. That would make computers that much more desirable. http://www.webyaa.com/search/node/software
It turns your computer into a giant USB key/external hard drive.
Oh wait, I booted up my macbook about 3 months ago. I hate waiting the 20 or 30 seconds it takes to boot. So, I never "turn" it off and rarely reboot. When I am done, I simply close the lid. When I need it again, I open it up and start working. For the PC guys, no I dont have to wait for the screen to light up and some bar to cruise across my screen. The mac sleeps and awakens as quickly as as I close or open the screen.
I can see a lot of uses for something like this. If the system won't boot, you can plug it into a working computer to diagnose it. If you need to mirror the system files to a new drive, you can do so without any annoying "file in use" errors. If a system is so chock full of viruses and spyware that you can't even get anti-virus/anti-spyware software to run, you can just mount it as an external hard drive and run the scan from a working system.
Ignorance is bliss. I remember the days when people said color monitors and sound cards were toys.
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I've had a laptop that provides access to the hard drive without Windows since 1997.
And booting to UNIX single user mode so I can copy a file to a floppy or flash stick takes no time at all.
Ah, the advantages of being literate and not needing to look at pictures to do things on my computer...
How is this new ? Macs have been doing something very similar to this for years. The average 15-year-old Linux weenie could hack this up over a weekend.
More importantly: what does this mean for data security ? File security is implemented at the OS level, so if this brainless "pre-boot" feature bypasses the OS, the only thing a would-be attacker needs to do is power-cycle the machine and they get full access to your rig. It frees them from the incriminating chore of actually stealing the hard drive out of the box.
I'd be happy if OS makers could provide a quick and easy "recovery console" kind of environment, without having to resort to a boot dis(c/k). Just something to let me un-screw Windows or recompile a broken Linux kernel. I'm really liking the new Asus boards with a small solid-state Linux distro built-in, but it seems like this would be an easy thing to build right into the OS.
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