Seagate Introduces BarraCuda 2.5” HDDs with Up to 5 TB Capacity

AnandTech has some insight into Seagate’s new 2.5″ drive lineup, with sizes up to 5 TB.

The BarraCuda 2.5”/15 mm drives for external storage solutions will be used inside Seagate’s own DAS devices such as the Backup Plus Portable Drive and the Expansion Portable Hard Drive products. The Seagate Backup Plus Plus Portable Drive 5 TB (STDR5000100) is due in early November and will cost around $150 – $160.

Source: AnandTech: Seagate Introduces BarraCuda 2.5” HDDs with Up to 5 TB Capacity

Seagate’s New ‘Guardian Series’ Portfolio Brings 10TB Helium HDDs to Consumers

Seagate announced a new line of consumer NAS hard drives named IronWolf. They come in capacities up to 10 TB, are 7200 RPM, and include vibration sensors.

The IronWolf series is focused on hard drives for the NAS segment, currently served by vendors such as Synology and QNAP.

Source: AnandTech: Seagate’s New ‘Guardian Series’ Portfolio Brings 10TB Helium HDDs to Consumers

WD Red Pro 6 TB Review – High Performance NAS HDD Gets a Capacity Bump

AnandTech reviews the 6 TB, 7200RPM Western Digital Red Pro NAS hard drive.

Western Digital was the first to introduce a 6 TB drive in the SOHO NAS drive space, but Seagate came back a few months later with a souped-up 6 TB Enterprise NAS HDD targeting the SMB / SME NAS units. Last month, Western Digital finally released the 6 TB version of the WD Red Pro for the SMB / SME NAS units.

Source: WD Red Pro 6 TB Review – High Performance NAS HDD Gets a Capacity Bump

Ubuntu Server 13.10 Released with Two Stable SSD Caching Options

Ubuntu Server 13.10 is out, and with it comes the 3.11 kernel with production-ready Bcache and dm-cache SSD caching options. SSD caching can help speed up NAS devices significantly by allowing reads and writes to hit SSDs before slower rotational media.

Ubuntu 13.1o is considered a stable release, although it’s only supported for 9 months. The next release will be 14.04 LTS with 5 years of support.

Information about other server package updates in Ubuntu 13.10 can be found in the release notes.

Western Digital Red NAS Hard Drive Review

Western Digital released a hard drive aimed directly at home NAS users. It should also work great for home file servers, and any server where a 5400 RPM SATA drive is appropriate.

WD has several features that they’re touting as critical for the NAS user including; NASware specialized firmware, Intellipower low power spindle, robust NAS compatibility list, three year warranty and a dedicated WD Red 24×7 customer support line (1-855-55-WDRED if you need them).

via  StorageReview.com

FreeNAS 8.0 now available

According to iXsystems developer James T. Nixon III, FreeNAS 8.0 includes major architectural optimisations and is more modular than previous versions. It features a redesigned GUI, built using Python and the Django web framework, that is aimed at making the OS easier to use. ZFS and UFS2 file systems are both supported – ZFS is used as the primary file system.

via The H Open Source

Has Microsoft just ruined Windows Home Server?

Ars Technica covers the implications of Microsoft removing the Drive Extender feature from Windows Home Server.

Indeed, Drive Extender was fundamental to the home server concept. A home server as originally envisaged by the Windows Home Server team should have, in essence, infinite storage, and storage that should be transparently extensible.

Seagate’s New Home NAS

Gizmodo has a summary of of Seagate’s new home NAS, the GoFlex Desk.

The NAS—they don’t want to call it a NAS—works just like most up-to-date NASes do: Time Machine support, streaming content to media players (Xbox 360, PS3) around your network, USB printer support, third-party real-time backup, remote access with your iPhone/iPad and smartphone as well as Facebook and Flickr integration.

via Gizmodo