Drives…

I’ve still not had the time to build a little home NAS server yet.

It’s on my “to do” list but time is a rare commodity around the Valca home of late.

I’d also like to find a solution that uses full-disk encryption on the data stores…but while I’ve done some limited research on that option, I’ve not yet found a solution in either a standalone hardware rig or a home-built system running a *Nix NAS solution that really gets me excited yet about spending the cash or doing the work converting my old SFF shoebox pc into a NAS unit.

However, I’m still keeping one eye open and collect and carefully read home NAS solutions and reviews.

The Hacker Factor Blog has a great recent article posted on the Synology DiskStation.

This is secondly important as my 500 GB laptop HDD is more full than I would like. The jump to a Canon EOS 5D Mark II DLSR coupled with my Canon PowerShot S95 means a lot more very, very large file-sized digital images are hanging around. Coupled with the great video quality on my iPhone5, I’m keeping more digital movies in my iTunes library as well.

So I’m having to manage storage space on my laptop a lot more carefully.

Prices on 1TB internal SATA HDD’s on NewEgg are very decent so I will probably have to pull the trigger on one of them pretty soon. I could likely get by with a 750 GB sized drive but the price difference really doesn’t justify going with the lower capacity. The 5400 RPM speed models are a steal while the 7200 RPM modes are almost double the cost.  I’d love to drop in a full SSD drive but the cost is still prohibitive for the capacity I need. As super-awesome it would be to use a SSD for performance, I just can go with a lower-or-same capacity in my laptop.

But according to Ars, there is some hope on the horizon…

Waiting for a 1TB SSD below $1 per GB? Crucial says wait no more - Ars Technica

I also considered a hybrid SSD, but while they are tempting, I’m still not convinced it I a good solution.  Born’s IT and WIndows Blog has a (GTranslated) article about some of the trials and tribulations that come with hybrid HDD technology: Angetestet Seagate SSHD hybrid hard drive.

Finally, TinyApps blog must be reading the musings of my mind and had posted a caveat emptor regarding SSD drives and security. Securely wiping an SSD. Lots of great cross-links (as usual) in the tiny post and unless you get a really modern and correctly configured device, physical destruction of the SSD device may still be the only truly secure solution…and it will hurt badly if you consider the prices you pay for these things.

Cheers.

Claus Valca