Monday, June 15, 2009

Ever Lost Everything Due to a Hard Disk Crash?

The Advantages of Flash Memory Drives Over Traditional Hard Disk Drives

Have you ever had a hard drive crash resulting in the loss of all of your pictures, music, financial statements, etc.? Try using the new mini-laptops utilizing flash memory combined with an external hard drive for media storage. If you are still nervous, use a second external hard drive for monthly back-up. Why?

Solid state flash memory has been around since first invented in 1980 by scientists at Toshiba. Its use has continually expanded as its price has diminished. In the late 1990s, flash memory became the storage media of choice for the exploding digital camera market. Apple's iPod turned flash memory into a commodity.

Gigabyte for Gigabyte, flash memory remains infinitely more expensive than traditional disk drive media, but we are rapidly approaching a threshold where functional advantages surpass capacity differences. You need look no further than the introduction of the world's first flash-based personal computer designed for mass markets as proof.

So, what is the main advantage of flash memory versus traditional hard disk drives? It is quite simple: no moving parts. Traditional HDDs contain a platter than spins at very high speeds as it reads and writes data utilizing a specific process of magnetization. As any automotive mechanic will tell you, moving parts ultmately lead to failure. It may take two years or twenty minutes, but failure is inevitable. Flash memory contains no moving parts as data is read and written utilizing exclusively an electrical process. Almost without exception, the electronics around the flash memory will fail before the memory will.

Over the last five years, I realized the full potential of flash market as developer of digital signage appliances for use in North American retailers. Companies like Fisher Price, DirecTV and Sony found it challenging to maintain video-based displays throughout retailers like Wal-Mart because they typically utilized DVD players. DVDs, like HDDs, spin continuously as data is read. Since the technology typically ran 18 hours a day, if not continuously, the typical DVD player failed almost every six weeks. Replacing the DVD player with a video player with data stored on flash memory led to over 200,000 displays that could run continuously for years rather than weeks. At the time, the process was more expensive on the front-end, but did not require weekly monitoring and substantial downtime or equipment maintenance.

So what does this have to do with the title's question? Until recently, every home computer in the world utilized a hard disk drive. Familys store digital pictures, music, tax files...the entirety of their digital existence on the home PC. My family is no exception. At least twice in the last ten years we have lost everything due to a hard disk crash. The typical techie will cry foul because of the notion that we should all back-up everything. This sounds great in a computer magazine, but in practicality the average person backs up their data about as often as they see their dentist. The process can be time consuming and intimidating for the typical novice. Fact is, a hard disk crash is inevitable and never happens the minute after a back-up.

A personal computer with a flash-based drive will never suffer a hard disk crash. But, since the current PCs feature only 16GB drives, you will eventually run out of space as your music collection grows. To solve this problem, utilize an external hard drive. Yes, it has a traditional hard disk drives, but since the operating system does not run on the external drive it is only used when reading or writing your data and its life is immeasurably extended. Still worried about an external hard disk crash? Get a second for back-up. A hard disk drive accessed only during your annual back-ups will last longer than it takes to fill a terabyte with i-Tunes.

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