Sunday, September 24, 2006

I just returned from Fry's and saw the new Pioneer Blu-Ray burner on sale on their store shelf. It's around $800. Blank BDs are also available from $20. This amounts to almost $1 per Gigabyte.

It's pretty amazing to have the capability to back up data at 25 GB per disc. You can basically back up your hard drive with these BDs. But, the Blu Ray burner itself is pretty expensive. Maybe during this holiday season the price will be lower as more companies produce the drive and compete on price.

Basically I see the BluRay 25 Gigs disk as a hard drive platter. Having worked in the data storage industry for many years, this approaches the capacity of hard drives. But the transfer speed is pretty slow, just 2x for Blu-Ray. Therefore, although capacity can match magnetic media, the transfer speed is still slow.

Right now, Blu-Ray is the newest technology optical media. I have also seen some online coverage of Flash HDDs, or SSDs (Solid-State-Disks) At his is also pretty expensive when compared to the regular hard drive or optical media.

"In July, Sony Corp. launched the Vaio UX90 micronotebook, which includes a 16GB SSD, for sale in Japan and China. Compared with units with hard drives, SSD-outfitted notebooks boot up and run faster, are quieter and use less power. Samsung claims that its units will boot up 50% faster. But they aren't cheap. Sony's UX90, which sells for $1,805, costs $343 more than a unit with a 30GB hard disk. The Samsung notebooks start at $2,430. At current prices, 32GB of flash might add $700 or more to the price of a notebook, says IDC analyst John Rydning. "

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Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The future of Optical Media(CDs, DVDs, BDs)

The question: What is the BEST WAY to store important data?

With the internet explosion, and growing IT (information technology) age, there is a great need to be able to store all personal as well as important information. We're in a digital world that is rapidly progressing. We see photography growing into digital pictures. Music is going into mp3s and wavs. Video going into mpegs, avis, and rmvbs. Do you see the digital technology trend? It's exploding, and shows no signs of stopping!

Basically, there are 3 main types of data storage devices that I will comment about:

1)Flash storage

2)Hard Drives (HDDs)

3)Optical Media (CDs, DVDs, BDs)


1)Flash storage-Removable USB memory 'jump drives' and flash cards and drives. Up to 4 Gigabyte flash drives are now available from $100 to $300. Popular flash drives have 256MB, 512MB, and 1 Gig, starting at around $20. Looking at the price per Gigabyte, we see this method is the most expensive, about $10 per Gigabyte for the smaller drives, and up to $75 for the bigger 4 Gigabyte drives. People use them because they have fast transfer rate, and they are small and portable, a great way to transfer small files between computers. However, these are not failsafe...anyone who has used them knows that it's a delicate device, and you must properly 'eject' the device from your computer, or else it could get damaged and your data will be forever gone. I have had a co worker who lost his data because his flash drive got 'zapped'. Be careful! Most people may wear it around their neck with the enclosed neckband, but imagine this: What if you wore a wool sweater, and you walk alot on a carpeted floor? You'd get static electricity shock, which would ruin your flash drive. Because it contains delicate memory chips inside, one would have to exercise caution and not expose it to any electrical or magnetic fields or harsh vibrations or shock. In summary, flash storage is good for transferring small amounts of data between computers and digital cameras and other devices, but not a very secure way to store important data. The 2 Gigabyte capacity is small compared to the other storage devices.

2)Hard Drives-Forever dropping in price, but still expensive. The maximum capacities are around 250 Gigabytes right now, for about $129. This amounts to around $0.52 per Gigabyte cost. There are external USB/firewire drives that you can buy, which are a little more than $1 per Gigabyte. Well, we all know that Hard Drives have the biggest storage capacities. I used to be an engineer at hard drive companies, so I know how delicate the parts are inside a hard drive. You have disks(platters) spinning at thousands of RPMs and magnetic heads reading and recording your data onto the disks. Mechanically, it is a very complicated device and it is not uncommon for your hard drive to "crash" and lose all your information! I did some part time IT support and alot of problems were related to hard drives crashing (especially the higher capacity ones tend to crash more frequently). In summary, while hard drives provide the most capacity, they are actually fragile and not a reliable way to store important information. Their bulky size makes it inconvenient to transfer data between computers, the USB or firewire external drives enable you to swap it between computers without removing the case and fiddling with the IDE cable and power cable. Extra care must be taken with portable hard drives. I would carry them in insulated, static-dissipative bags and make sure it won't be exposed to shocks or vibrations.

3)Optical Media-Since the 1990s, recordable CDs (the CD-R) and DVDs (DVD-R,+R) and RWs have hit the market. CD-Rs store 700MB, and DVDRs can store from 4.7GB to 8.5GB (the new Dual Layer DVD+R). We see when the CD and DVD burners first hit the market, they were like $300 for a drive...but now, the prices have really dropped, and you can buy a 16x DVD dual layer burner for about $40. This makes sense, because the burner can be used over and over to back up important information onto discs, and the cost of the burner itself will be negligible over its repeated usage. So we can look to the price of discs...CD-Rs are pretty much dirt cheap, sometimes you can get free spindles with rebates. I've seen them as low as $0.10 per disc, which is about $0.14 per Gigabyte cost. I just recently bought a 50 pack spindle of 16x DVD-Rs for $15. That amounts to $0.30 per disc, and only $0.06 per Gigabyte! The lowest cost! Optical media is the way of the future. In consumer electronics trends, we see DVD recorders replacing VHS VCRs. Even camcorders have mini-DVD discs to record onto instead of magnetic tapes. Remember when VHS beat out Beta format? Well, optical media will eventually beat out VHS! We're seeing the beginning of the digital revolution.

4.7 Gigabyte DVDs should be enough for most data applications, video files are the biggest, and later this year, the Blu-Ray disc (BD) will be finally released. This will give optical media much more advancement, because for some data storage applications, 4.7 Gigabytes are not enough! BDs will store about 25GB per single layer disc, and 50GB per dual layer disc. The price per disc will most likely be a few times more than the 8.5GB DVD-DL discs that are out there (sale prices of $2 each). The DL disc amounts to around $0.23 per Gigabyte. I predict these prices will drop even more, once the Blu-Ray disc hits the stores. As far as prices, I don't know how much recordable BDs will cost, but if you calculate the price per Gigabyte, I betcha they will still be alot cheaper than flash memory or hard drives. BD burners may be expensive at the beginning, but theoretically they use the same components as a CD or DVD burner, the main difference is that the laser is much narrower to permit a higher trackpitch. The price of these new BD burners will eventually drop, but I say DVD burners will probably be enough for the average consumer.

Another obvious advantage of using optical discs to store information is the versatility: nearly every computer system sold now has a standard CD/DVD burner drive. You can easily transport CDs and DVDs, due to their small and lightweight size, they can go through X-ray machines, dropped, even static shocks won't damage a disc. The durability is outstanding, even NetFlix ships out DVDs in flimsy paper envelopes to their subscribers and uses the same envelope as a prepaid return envelope, because discs are so durable and cheap. Therefore, you will never have a disc getting "Zapped" or "crashing" and lose all your information, as you can with flash memory and hard drives. With unlimited amounts of discs you can burn, basically you can create many backups or archive all your digital pictures, movies, and important information onto the discs, make copies, and share them with friends or clients. Unlike magnetic media, the data encoded onto a CD is permanent, and will never deteriorate as long as you don't expose it to harsh UV rays from the sun for a prolonged period of time. The durability is an advantage, but many consumers still have a subconscious mindset that it is dangerous to burn important information onto a CD or DVD. It's like writing in ink, and can't be erased...they don't want personal data falling into the wrong hands. This is understandable and is a common reaction to new technologies. There are RW type discs that you can re-record (magneto-optical technology), but these are many times more expensive and have slower reading/writing speeds, and don't retain data as well as the regular CD-R and DVDR.

I have invented and developed the revolutionary Disc Eraser (TM), the smallest, safest, most affordable way to destroy an unwanted disc. People have sanded, snapped, melted, microwaved, shredded, shot, and broken their old discs. These methods are inconvenient, could cause injury, and create alot of messy waste material/toxic. I have burned hundreds of CDs and DVDs, and have dealt with this issue of disposal...and have creatively come up with the Disc Eraser, check it out at www.DiscEraser.com. The DiscEraser ($19.99) is much more affordable than a CD shredder ($149-$5000) and perfect for consumers and small business owners. Environmentally friendly, quick (2 seconds per disc), safe and easy to use, and NO WASTE is created. You can use the erased disc as a coaster or dispose it (Recycle it - CDs are 100% recyclable) without anyone being able to read your data.

Many CD-R users have a stack of old CD-Rs that they don't use anymore, but still keep them because they contain personal/confidential information. Worldwide, an estimated 500,000 lbs of CDs and DVDs become unused or obsolete EVERY YEAR! This is comparable to about 1 disc per US household! My solution is to simply use the Disc Eraser, then dispose of them into a plastics recycling bin so that the useful polycarbonate and metal alloys can be re-used. The recycling industry has just begun to recycled used discs, but the consumers must do their part. Did you know that recycling companies prefer recycling whole CDs and DVDs, not shredded up, or cut up, fragmented little pieces? Why shred when you should recycle instead? My vision is that the Disc Eraser becomes a common office/computer item. It is the first data destruction device that PROMOTES RECYCLING. Every CD-R and DVDR user should own one for personal data security. Have the best of both worlds! Store your data on CDs and DVDs, and use the Disc Eraser when you no longer need them. And remember to recycle your old discs!

Feel free to comment or contact me.
www.disceraser.com