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Having A Backup Plan Is No Joke

Monday, April 1st, 2013 | Author: OWC Jarrod

There’s a good chance you were spending the holiday yesterday in the company of your irreplaceable family members and friends. There’s also a good chance you were too busy to spend any time with something else that’s irreplaceable – your data.

March 31 was World Backup Day – a yearly tradition that serves as a friendly reminder for you to double-check your backups or establish a backup plan for your important data if you haven’t already done so. And despite the spirit of today’s tradition, having reliable backup options is no joke. Article Continues…

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Category: Industry News
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A Look At The ‘HDD Graveyard’

Friday, March 29th, 2013 | Author: OWC Jarrod

When a company sells 2 billion of anything, there’s bound to be a good amount of competition that arises along the way. Unfortunately, with that much competition comes a fair number of casualties.

A few weeks ago we posted on the OWC Blog that hard drive manufacturer Seagate Technology recently shipped its 2 billionth hard disk drive. And now the folks at StorageNewsletter have posted a little historical snapshot of those who have challenged Seagate and the two other current HDD manufacturers – Toshiba and Western Digital – along the way.

Grimly dubbed the “HDD Graveyard”, StorageNewsletter lists all of those companies that have failed or discontinued production on HDDs since the technology’s introduction by IBM in 1956. Of the 220 companies that have entered production since that year, only the three mentioned above have survived. That leaves 217 that have failed or discontinued production. This list is worth checking out not only because it unearths some very notable names, but it also brings to light some interesting trivia from the history of the HDD.

Of course, the advent of Solid State Drives has played a big part in eliminating some of the need for HDDs, but it’s interesting to see the journey of their platter-based brethren. So take a stroll back in time and check out just how far the HDD has come.

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Category: Industry News
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OS X 10.8.3 Now Offers Fusion Drive Possibilities For Non-Fusion Drive Equipped Macs

Monday, March 25th, 2013 | Author: OWC Michael, OWC Chris S., and OWC Ron

We’ve been waiting and waiting for Apple to release the next version of OS X Mountain Lion in hopes that the next full version would have all the necessary components to setup a Fusion drive on any Mac capable of installing a hard drive and SSD together. A little over a week ago, Apple released OS X version 10.8.3 and, with one small caveat, our hopes were fulfilled.

The Profusion Of Fusion Confusion

But before we get to showing you exactly how to setup your own DIY Fusion drive, I’d like to dispel some mis-information that has been floating around the web. Up until now, most of the reports you’ve read about creating your own DIY Fusion drive on a machine have been incomplete. There have been many tutorials on how to create a Core Storage volume that have been labeled as “how to create a Fusion drive”. They are two similar, yet different drive configurations. I’ve addressed a lot of this information in comments on the OWC Blog, but figure it would be a good idea to review and further explain what a Fusion drive actually is as opposed to a Core Storage volume. Article Continues…

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Category: Tech Tips
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Seagate Hits 2 Billion In Hard Disk Drives Sold

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Since they first were used commercially in 1956, Hard Disk Drives have seen exponential growth in capacity, with some models capable of storing multiple terabytes of data. The number of HDD units sold have seen a similar arc as demand has risen with the more widespread usage of personal computers, social media, mobile applications and cloud computing.

This rise in demand is nowhere more evident than with Seagate Technology, which announced today that it has become the first hard disk drive manufacturer to ship two billion HDDs. While that number is staggering in its own right, what makes it even more impressive is the fact that it took 29 years to sell the first billion and just 4 years for the second billion.

And that growth isn’t expected to tail off anytime soon.

“By 2015 households which today routinely consume 1TB of data a month are expected to generate 20 times the amount of data than they currently save,” said Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group in a press release from Seagate. “Consumer’s continued appetites for securely saving and organizing high-definition multimedia requires higher performance and the most trusted and dependable drives.”

Seagate HDDs, which are used in many OWC solutions and DIY kits, have been sold since 1980, with the one billionth HDD shipping in 2008.

Source

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Category: Industry News
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iMac Hard Drive Upgradeability Expanded!

Thursday, February 21st, 2013 | Author: OWC Michael

As you may recall, Apple changed the hard drive upgrading game with the  2011 iMac.

Up until 2009, changing a drive was easy once you could get to it. A few screws here, a connector there and voila – you were good to go. And OWC had you covered for all your iMac DIY hard drive upgrades.

With the late 2009 iMacs, Apple introduced a different connector for each brand drive, but as long as you stayed within the same hard drive brand, then it was the same, once you got to it – it was easy-peasy to make the old switch-a-roo. And OWC had you covered for your iMac DIY hard drive upgrades.

Then came the 2010 iMacs and the ‘same for same’ caveat still applied, but the 27″ iMac model introduced an additional SATA drive connection on the motherboard and the OWC Turnkey Upgrade program was born. Send us your 27″ iMac and we’d add up to 3 SSDs or even an eSATA port. It was a little more difficult, so we started with a do-it-for-you service, then made it available as a DIY kit. And OWC had you covered for all your iMac  DIY hard drive upgrades.

Lo and behold, the 2011 iMac changed the game again, no longer could you swap out the drive without failing the Apple Hardware Test (AHT) and sending the fans into a tizzy. Soon after, we expanded the iMac Turnkey Program with our Do-it-for-you service on these machines as well. And, now, we’re happy to announce that we’ve crafted that solution into an elegant little DIY Kit. So, once again, OWC has you covered for all your iMac DIY hard drive upgrades. Article Continues…

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Category: Product Spotlight, Tech Tips
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